Advocacy - Lab Advocate
The President and Congress recently avoided a government shutdown by agreeing on tax and spending legislation that will make a number of bipartisan changes to the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) and fund federal operations through fiscal year 2016. Among the healthcare law changes were two of interest to AACC and its members.
Foremost, the two branches agreed to a two-year hiatus in the medical device excise tax. AACC has supported efforts to repeal the 2.3 percent excise tax on the sale of medical devices that, according to the Association, stifles innovation and jeopardizes advancements in patient care. The two-year moratorium will save the medical device industry approximately $4 billion, while providing time to find a funding offset to make the temporary tax moratorium permanent.
Another key ACA provision of interest to AACC involves the defunding of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). This panel was authorized under the healthcare law to cut Medicare spending without congressional authorization if certain spending limits were exceeded. AACC has long advocated for the repeal of the provision, stating that any efforts to cut Medicare payments should be transparent and open to stakeholder participation—neither of which is apparent in the IPAB model. In the current measure, Congress eliminated any funding for the panel in 2016.
The omnibus spending bill also provides funding for precision medicine, an area of healthcare in which laboratory medicine is integral. The measure allocates $200 million for the Administration’s efforts to advance the field, including a National Institutes of Health study to gather genetic, health, and behavioral data from more than one million volunteers. This information will be used to identify new disease-related biomarkers and to explore new treatment interventions. AACC published a position statement on precision medicine in 2015 and wrote House and Senate leaders urging them to fund this initiative.
The funding measure also preserves the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)—a point of contention between the House and Senate. The Lower Chamber wanted to eliminate the evidence-based agency, while the Senate sought a 35 percent funding cut. AACC opposed both measures. Over the past decade, AACC has worked with AHRQ on more than a dozen systematic reviews including studies involving troponin, BNP and diabetes. Working with the Friends of AHRQ, AACC and the healthcare community were able to preserve the agency and limit spending cuts to less than four percent.
AACC will continue to report on these and other issues of importance to the Association in the coming year.