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Category: Health/Medical

New NIH Office of Emergency Care Research

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To help improve health outcomes of patients who require emergency care, the National Institutes of Health has created a new Office of Emergency Care Research (OECR). The office is a focal point for basic, clinical and translational emergency care research and training across NIH. Although OECR will not fund grants, it will foster innovation and improvement in emergency care and in the training of future researchers in this field by:

  • Coordinating funding opportunities that involve multiple NIH institutes and centers.
  • Working closely with the NIH Emergency Care Research Working Group, which includes representatives from most NIH institutes and centers.
  • Organizing scientific meetings to identify new research and training opportunities in the emergency setting.
  • Catalyzing the development of new funding opportunities.
  • Informing investigators about funding opportunities in their areas of interest.
  • Fostering career development for trainees in emergency care research.
  • Representing NIH in government-wide efforts to improve the nation’s emergency care system.

The creation of OECR is the culmination of more than five years of discussions between NIH and the emergency medicine community. OECR also responds to reports about the nation’s emergency medical system issued in 2006 by the Institute of Medicine.

Read more here.

Senate Committee Approves Bill Banning Invasive Research on Apes

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Late last week, the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee approved by voice vote the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (S 810) that would ban “invasive” research on chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans, or gibbons. The bill prohibits any research that “may cause death, injury, pain, distress, fear, or trauma” to the animal, including drug testing, restraining, tranquilizing, anesthetizing, isolation, social deprivation, and other activities. A substitute amendment by Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sen Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), was approved that would allow research after the ban goes into effect if the Health and Human Services Secretary finds that research on great apes necessary to combat unforeseen diseases and a task force reviews and authorizes such research. The House companion bill, HR 1513, awaits consideration by the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee.

“Doc Fix” Uncertain

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Congress continues to discuss how best to overhaul the system that Medicare uses to determine physician reimbursements, known as the sustainable growth rate (SGR).  The current rates are set to expire at the end of the year but little legislative progress has been made. Most lawmakers agree that they want to replace the current formula but there are still questions about the government’s role in determining doctors’ payments. These questions, along with disagreement on how to pay the nearly $300 billion cost of repealing the current formula, are obstacles to any comprehensive solution.

The current reimbursement formula was put in place to try to limit spending growth in Medicare. For ten years, the formula has called for cuts in physician payment rates, and Congress has enacted a series of payment patches to avoid those reductions. Physicians face a nearly 28 percent rate cut when the latest patch expires at the end of this year. UW physicians would be negatively affected if Congress allows the current SGR extension to expire.

Labor-HHS-Ed Bill Status

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The House Appropriations Committee has not yet announced a full committee markup for its FY 2013 Labor-HHS-Education spending bill, and now many are raising doubts that it will ever do so. On Monday, Congressman Norm Dicks (D-WA), ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, expressed his belief that his GOP colleagues have “indefinitely postponed” further work on the Labor-HHS-Education bill. The current draft of the bill seeks to de-fund implementation of the 2010 health care overhaul (Affordable Care Act), and also contains policy riders and cuts to education programs. In the Senate, appropriators still say they will mark up two spending bills before the August recess. The committee may unveil its Defense and Legislative Branch measures next week, although expectations are dim for a markup of the Interior-Environment bill.

The Labor-HHS-Education bill is the last one remaining to be finished by the House Appropriations Committee, which already has approved its 11 other bills. The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved nine of their 12 bills.