BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD ASSOCIATION for BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD ASSOCIATION

Pharmacy PHA

No pharmacy lobbying activity reported during the 4th quarter.

Contacted: Office of Personnel Management (OPM); Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); White House Office; SENATE; Office of Management & Budget (OMB); HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; Treasury, Dept of; Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS)

Taxation/Internal Revenue Code TAX

IRC section 833(b) tax provisions; Health Spending Accounts; Medical Loss Ratio definition to qualify for 833(b) tax deduction; Health Insurance Tax: Health Insurance Excise Tax, HR 763, HR 3367

Contacted: SENATE; HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); White House Office; Office of Personnel Management (OPM); Office of Management & Budget (OMB); Treasury, Dept of; Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS)

Bills named: H.R. 763 (113th), H.R. 3367 (113th)

Health Issues HCR

See attached addendum for General Lobbying Issue Area: HCR - HealthcareSuccessful Insurance Industry Implementation of Health Reforms: Reasonable regulatory implementation timeline for compliance with PL 111-148 Affordable Private Health Care: Effect of the Health Insurance Tax, defined Essential Health Benefits, and Age Rating on premiums; Healthcare Delivery System Reforms State-based regulation: State Oversight of Rates; Properly designed state based health insurance exchanges to improve competition and maximize choice; federal exchanges; Multi-State Health Plans; Centralized All-Payer Database Medical Loss Ratios: Level Playing Field for MLRs; Consistent reporting requirements for all insurers; MLR Broker Fees: Health Care Quality: Delivery System Incentives to Promote Better Care; Payment Reforms; Patient-centered Primary Care/Medical Home; Evidence Based Care; Wellness; Chronic Care Management Insurance Market Reform; Individual Market Reform; Small Group Market Reform; Guaranteed Issue; Community Rating; Age Rating; Health Savings Accounts Federal Employee Health Benefit Program (FEHBP) regarding proposals to allow additional types of carriers including regional PPOs to be included in the coverage options offered by OPM HR 2667 Introduced by Griffin (R-AR) on July 11, 2013 Authority for Mandate Delay Act HR 2668 Introduced by Young (R-IN) on July 17, 2013 Fairness for Families Act S. 1488 Introduced in Senate September 9, 2013 Fairness for American Families Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code, as amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), to delay until 2015 the requirement that individuals maintain minimal essential health care coverage. Authority for Mandate Delay Act - Amends PPACA to delay until 2015 enforcement of requirements that large employers offer their full-time employees the opportunity to enroll in minimum essential coverage. Delays the effective date of related reporting requirements for such employers and for providers of minimum essential coverage. HR 3350 Passed House without amendment November 15, 2013 Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013 - Permits a health insurance issuer that has in effect health insurance coverage in the individual market as of January 1, 2013, to continue offering such coverage for sale during 2014 outside of a health care exchange established under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Treats such coverage as a grandfathered health plan for purposes of an individual meeting the requirement to maintain minimum essential health coverage. HR 2328 Introduced in House June 12, 2013 Rep. Rogers, Mike J. (R-MI) Access to Professional Health Insurance Advisors Act of 2013 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to exclude remuneration paid for licensed independent insurance producers from administrative cost calculations for purposes of calculating the medical-loss ratio of a health insurance plan.S. 1486 Introduced August 1, 2013 by Sen. Carper, Thomas R. (D-DE) Postal Reform Act of 2013 - Amends provisions of federal law relating to the funding of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) retirement and health care systems, operations, revenue, and governance. HR 3362 Introduced October 29,2013 by Rep. Terry, Lee (R-NE) Exchange Information Disclosure Act - Amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to expand reporting requirements related to health care exchanges. Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to publish reports weekly through March 31, 2015, on: (1) consumer interactions with healthcare.gov or subsequent sites and any efforts undertaken to remedy problems that impact taxpayers and consumers, (2) calls to the federal customer service call center, including the number of calls received by the call center, problems identified by users, and referrals of those calls; (3) all navigators and certified application counselors that have been trained and certified by health care exchanges; and (4) all agents and brokers who have been trained and certified by the federal health care exchange. HR 762 Introduced in House February 15, 2013 by Rep. Blackburn, Marsha (R-TN) Health Care Choice Act of 2013 - Repeals the health insurance and health coverage expansion requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and related requirements of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010. Restores provisions of law amended or repealed by such provisions. H.J. Res. 59 making continuing appropriations for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes; providing for consideration of motions to suspend the rules; providing for proceedings during the period from December 14, 2013, through January 6, 2014. HR 460 Introduced in House February 4, 2013 Rep. McKinley, David B. (R-WV) Patients' Access to Treatments Act of 2013 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to establish cost-sharing limits for health plans that cover prescription drugs and use a formulary or other tiered cost-sharing structure. Prohibits such a health plan from imposing cost-sharing requirements, including co-payment and co-insurance, applicable to prescription drugs in a specialty drug tier that exceed the dollar amount of cost-sharing requirements applicable to prescription drugs in a non-preferred brand drug tier. Applies the non-preferred brand drug tier for which beneficiary cost-sharing is lowest, if a formulary used by the health plan contains more than one non-preferred brand drug tier. Grandfathering and Delay of Individual Mandate ACA Implementation Multi-state Plan Program Implementation Risk Corridors

Contacted: White House Office; HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; Treasury, Dept of; Office of Management & Budget (OMB); SENATE; Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); Office of Personnel Management (OPM); Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS)

Bills named: H.R. 762 (113th), H.J.Res. 59 (113th), H.R. 460 (113th), S. 1486 (113th), H.R. 2328 (113th), H.R. 3350 (113th), H.R. 3362 (113th), H.R. 2668 (113th), S. 1488 (113th), H.R. 2667 (113th)

Medicare/Medicaid MMM

Medicare Reforms: Medicare A & B; Delivery System Reforms, Benefit Restructuring ; Medigap first-dollar coverage; Quality Initiatives/SGR Reform HR 2810 Introduced by Burgess (R-TX) on July 31, 2013 Medicare Patient Access and Quality Improvement Act of 2013

Contacted: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; Office of Management & Budget (OMB); White House Office; Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); SENATE; Office of Personnel Management (OPM); Treasury, Dept of; Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS)

Bills named: H.R. 2810 (113th)