CQ's Carey looks at Bush Administration SCHIP directive, privacy protections in health IT bill, request for increased FDA funding

Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, discusses testimony by Government Accountability Office officials about SCHIP expansion guidelines, compromise on a Senate health information technology bill and a request for increased funding from FDA's top official in this week's "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and CQ."

According to Carey, officials from GAO and the Congressional Research Service told the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee that a policy directive issued by the Bush administration last August that restricts states' abilities to expand SCHIPs was a regulation and, as such, should have been issued as any other administrative rule, meaning that there should have been a period of public comment. Administration officials have said the guidance was designed to ensure that SCHIP covered the lowest-income children before a state could extend coverage to children of families with higher incomes. Carey says some Democrats are supporting legislation that would nullify the directive. However, Republicans continue to support the directive as a way to ensure that people do not drop private health coverage to enroll in government-sponsored health programs.

In response to privacy concerns in a Senate health IT bill, Carey says sponsors of the measure reached an agreement that would ban companies from using electronic patient information to sell products to patients and would require that patients be notified if the privacy of their records is breached. Carey says that resolving the privacy issue could help the bill move more quickly through the Senate but that some members and privacy groups may still consider the provisions inadequate.

Lastly, Carey discusses a letter sent to Congress by FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach asking for an additional $275 million in fiscal year 2008 to help the agency improve the safety of drugs, devices and biologics, and to modernize its work force and improve its science base. Carey says some lawmakers are pushing for increased FDA funding, but it remains unclear whether the agency will receive it.

The complete audio version of "Health on the Hill," transcript and resources for further research are available online at kaisernetwork.org.