House Subcommittee Approves Labor-HHS Bill - July 24, 2012

A House panel last week voted 8–6 to approve a bill that would cut U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) funding by $1.3 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2013. The bill would terminate the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and rescind funding for Affordable Care Act (ACA) provisions such as the Prevention and Public Health Fund. In a July 18 statement, NAPH denounced the plan to terminate AHRQ, even before the House Committee on Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education and Related Agencies considered the bill. In addition to ending AHRQ funding Oct. 1, the bill includes a ban on federal funding of patient-centered outcomes research and additional provisions targeted at repealing the ACA. The bill does include $275 million for children’s hospital graduate medical education, which is an increase of $10 million from FY 2012. It is unclear when the full House Committee on Appropriations will mark up the bill, as it has yet to be placed on the committee’s docket.