PCIP Ends April 30; AHRQ 2014 Hospital User Comparative Database Report

Legislative Activity

This Week’s Hearings:

• Tuesday, April 29: The House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has scheduled a hearing titled “Examining the Growing Problems of Prescription Drug and Heroin Abuse.” The Senate Committee on Appropriations will hold a hearing on “Driving Innovation through Federal Investments” with Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health.
• Wednesday, April 30: The House Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health has scheduled a hearing titled “Ideas to Improve Medicare Oversight to Reduce Waste, Fraud and Abuse.” The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs will hold a hearing titled “Overmedication: Problems and Solutions.”
• Thursday, May 1: The House Committee Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health has scheduled a hearing titled “Telehealth to Digital Medicine: How 21^st Century Technology Can Benefit Patients.”

Regulatory Activity

PCIP Ends April 30

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) will not be extended in May, and will end on April 30, 2014. CMS will, however, provide for a sixty-day special enrollment period for current PCIP enrollees to sign up for a qualified health plan through the Federally-facilitated Marketplace. PCIP enrollees who sign up for coverage by June 30, 2014 will have their coverage applied retroactively to May 1, 2014.

AHRQ 2014 Hospital User Comparative Database Report

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released the 2014 User Comparative Database Report that provides initial results from 653 hospitals to compare patient safety culture. The report also includes trending data that shows change over time for 359 hospitals submitting multiple data sets from 2007 to 2012.