Plan For Spending Comparative Effectiveness Money Due July 30
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Questions swirling around the $1.1 billion in comparative effectiveness research funding should be answered by July 30, the due date for a report to Congress with details of how the money provided in the economic stimulus package for the research will be spent
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Questions swirling around the $1.1 billion in comparative effectiveness research funding should be answered by July 30, the due date for a report to Congress with details of how the money provided in the economic stimulus package for the research will be spent. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act directs the Department of Health and Human Services, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Institutes of Health before August this year to provide appropriators in the House and Senate "a fiscal year 2009 operating plan for the funds appropriated ... prior to making any federal obligation of such funds in fiscal year 2009" (1 (Also see "Comparative Effectiveness Language Clarified In Compromise Stimulus Bill" - Pink Sheet, 16 Feb, 2009.), p. 12). The CE research spending plan for fiscal 2010 is due Nov. 1, and federal funds for the year will not be obligated until the plan is received. The plan will detail the type of research being conducted or supported, including the priority conditions addressed, as well as the allocation of resources within HHS related to the research. HHS, AHRQ and NIH also are required to file ongoing status reports. The department and the agencies must file a status report by Nov. 1 and subsequently every six months alerting the House and Senate appropriations committees of actual obligations, expenditures and unobligated balances for each activity funded under the provisions of the stimulus package. While there is no indication whether the reports will be made public, President Obama is pledging transparency related to spending of economic stimulus funds. To that end, as promised the White House launched a Web site - www.recovery.gov - to allow the public to track spending. According to information on the site, it "will include information about federal grant awards and contracts as well as formula grant allocations. Federal agencies will provide data on how they are using the money, and eventually, prime recipients of federal funding will provide information on how they are using federal funds." Seating CE Council Has Tight Deadline While the due date for the spending plan is nearly six months away, a more immediate deadline approaches rapidly: forming the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. According to the stimulus act, the council must be convened within 30 days of the law being signed, making that deadline March 19. The task could prove challenging given that the chairmanship of this panel will go to the HHS secretary, a position for which Obama has yet to name a new nominee since Tom Daschle's withdrawal from consideration on Feb. 3 (2 (Also see "Lambrew’s Departure Would Leave Clean Slate For Incoming Health Czar" - Pink Sheet, 23 Feb, 2009.), p. 12). The council is to have no more than 15 senior federal employees. It is to consist of senior officials from AHRQ, CMS, NIH, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, FDA, the Veterans Health Administration and the office within the Department of Defense responsible for management of the department's Defense Military Health Care System. At least half of the members of the council must be physicians or other experts with clinical expertise. As chair, the HHS secretary will be the one to select the vice chair of the group. The council's first order of business will be to submit a report by June 30 describing current federal comparative effectiveness research activities as well as recommendations for such research. Part of the recommendations will be based on suggestions from NIH, with which HHS is directed to contract. The all-government council stands in contrast to a recommendation for the creation of an independent entity built on a public/private partnership that was offered by the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee and was expected to be a part of future health care reform legislation by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont. (3 (Also see "Daschle’s Exit Cedes Control Of Health Care Reform To Baucus, Waxman" - Pink Sheet, 9 Feb, 2009.), p. 16). - Gregory Twachtman ([email protected]) |