Week in Washington is brought to you by Michael Cohen, PhD. Tune in each week to read the latest on healthcare policy and get a glimpse of what’s on the horizon.
Week in Washington
9/30/2021
Congress
Congress definitely has been the center of activity the last few weeks and this week is no exception.
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Shutdown – The Congress passed a continuing resolution (CR) today to fund the government until December 3rd. If Congress had not passed the bill today, the result would have been a Federal government shutdown.
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Debt Ceiling – The next issue looming before Congress is lifting the Debt Ceiling. Currently the US government is expected to hit the Debt Ceiling, October 16th. The US has never failed to lift the debt ceiling previously so the exact effects are unclear but many economists worry that the result could be a recession.
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Reconciliation Bill- Disagreements amongst Democrats has resulted in a stalling of the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill. Several House and Senate moderates have pushed for a smaller bill. This has led to disagreements as to if Medicare provisions or Medicaid provisions should be pared back. Negotiations on the reconciliation bill are ongoing.
COVID
- Cases and hospitalizations are declining in the vast majority of states. In fact with the exception of Alaska, the COVID outbreak seems to improving across the US.
Regulation Watch
Currently the only CMS regulation at OMB (i.e., regulation release is soon) is the Prescription Drug and Health Care Spending rule. This rule is expected to center on implementing provisions of the No Surprises Act that related to prescription drugs.
Previous editions:
09/23/2021: Week in Washington
09/09/2021: Week in Washington
9/02/2021: Week in Washington
8/26/2021: Week in Washington
8/19/2021: Week in Washington
8/12/2021: Week in Washington
8/06/2021: Week in Washington
7/15/2021: Week in Washington