In Washington…On November 6, the Senate completed work on the FY 2002 Labor-HHS appropriations bill and approved a $3.4 billion increase in NIH funding for the fiscal year that began October 1st. That level would keep NIH on track for doubling its budget by FY 2003. The House bill includes only $2.6 billion in increased NIH funding.
Senators Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) and Bill Frist (R-TN) introduced their bioterrorism preparedness bill. It is a five-year plan with specific funding levels established only for the first year. In FY 2002 spending would total $3.2 billion, half of which would be devoted to state and local preparedness. $400 million could be used to help hospitals plan and increase capacity.
Physician leaders at BWH, MGH and PCHI wrote all of the members of the Senate Finance Committee to protest a planned reduction in Medicare payments to physicians. Under current law, the formula that is used to determine inflation adjustments for physician payments will decline by 5.4 percent starting January 1, 2002, unless Congress intervenes. Partners is supporting legislation introduced by Sen. James Jeffords (I-VT) and Sen. John Breaux (D-LA) that would remove GDP from the calculation and hold payment levels almost at this year’s level. A similar effort is beginning in the House. The Partners letter was signed by the MGPO’s Peter Slavin, the BWPO’s Troy Brennan and Ellen Zane and Tom Lee from PCHI.
And on Beacon Hill… After more than four months, House and Senate leaders on Nov. 15 announced a general budget agreement that calls for the use of $700 million of reserves and $650 million in budget cuts to close a $1.35 billion state budget gap. It calls for the use of 50 percent of this year’s tobacco settlement money, reduced payments into the state’s pension fund, cuts in local aid and road and highway monies to cities and towns, and no new taxes. The House and Senate will return on December 5 to consider any veto overrides. Massachusetts is the only state in the nation without a budget for FY 2002.
Governor Swift and Administration and Finance Secretary Steve Crosby this week signaled that they may cut as much as $66 million from a current Department of Public Health (DPH) state budget of $522 million, although no official details have been provided. Targeted for the cuts is funding for AIDS, community health centers, substance abuse, family health, domestic violence, teen pregnancy prevention, breast cancer screening, and smoking cessation. Health care advocates protested public health funding cuts at a State House rally on Nov. 15.