Today, after much last-minute maneuvering, Congress passed two important pieces of legislation, the Medicare bill and an omnibus Appropriations bill, before leaving for the year.   

The Medicare bill would avert the scheduled 10.1% cut by replacing it with a 0.5% increase in Medicare payments for first six months of 2008.  This means the Congress would need to act before July 2008, or the cut will go into effect that that time.   The bill, S. 2499:

• Replaces the scheduled 10.1% cut with a 0.5% increase to Medicare payments for physician services through June 30, 2008.
  
  
• Implements recommendations from a report released by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General in 2006 to require the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to adjust its Average Sales Price (ASP) calculation to use volume-weighted ASPs, based on actual sales volume.  The impact of this provision is difficult to determine but it may result in decreases in payments for some Part B drugs.
  
  
• Extends the physician quality reporting system. 
  
  
• Extends funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) through March 2009.

The Appropriations package is a $555 billion FY2008 omnibus spending bill that combined the 11 unfinished spending bills, including the FY2008 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill.  The Labor-HHS-Education provision contains $28.942 billion in funding for the National Institutes of Health, an increase of $133 million (+0.46%), and $4.805 billion in funding for the National Cancer Institute, an increase of $12.4 million (+0.27%).  In addition, Congress included, in the report accompanying the bill, language that directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to maintain current Medicare clinical trials coverage.  It directs the Secretary of HHS not to implement the CMS proposal that would have rescinded automatic Medicare coverage that began in 2000 for clinical trials funded by the federal government or conducted under FDA review. The proposal would have required that sponsors or principal investigators self-certify that the clinical trial meets 13 scientific and technical standards set forth by CMS before the agency would approve coverage.

The President is expected to sign both bills into law.

ASCO will be sending out a more detailed analysis of both bills in the coming days.  Please contact ASCO’s Cancer Policy and Clinical Affairs Department with any questions at publicpolicy@asco.org.