AMERICA'S HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS, INC. (AHIP) for AMERICA'S HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS INC (AHIP)

Medicare/Medicaid MMM

MMM (Legislative Issues): H.R. 4: Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (Dingell); H.R. 1535: Children's Health First Act (Dingell); H.R. 1663: Medicare Mental Health Modernization Act (Stark) (continued) H.R. 1990: Medicare Cost Contract Extension and Refinement Act (Pomeroy); H.R. 2147: Healthy Kids Act (Emanuel); H.R. 2206: Supplemental Appropriations Act (Obey); H.R. 2945: Medicare Advantage Truth in Advertising Act (Stark); H.Con.Res. 99: Budget Resolution (Spratt); S. 3: Medicare Prescription Drug Price Negotiation Act (Reid); S. 130: Medicare Cost Contract Extension and Refinement Act (Allard); S. 401: Keep Children Covered Act (Rockefeller); S. 706: Medicare Advantage Stabilization Fund (Feingold); S. 799: Community Choice Act (Harkin); S. 895: Children's Health First Act (Clinton); S. 1102: Part D Equity for Low-Income Seniors Act (Bingaman); S. 1103: Helping Fill the Medicare Rx Gap Act (Bingaman); S. 1107: Home and Community Services Copayment Equity Act (Smith); S. 1108: Medicare Part D Outreach and Enrollment Enhancement Act (Smith); S. 1224: Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (Rockefeller); S. 1507: Access to Medicare Data Act (Grassley); S. 1544: Medicare Quality Enhancement Act (Gregg); S. 1701: TMA/Medicare Advantage (Baucus); S.Con.Res. 21: Budget Resolution (Conrad) MMM (Regulatory Issues) Ongoing implementation issues for the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D prescription drug programs, including risk adjustment methodology and data issues, bidding and payment (including Part D reinsurance and low income subsidies), benefit design rules, SSA and CMS premium withhold processing issues, systems issues affecting enrollment and disenrollment processing, enrollment rules, marketing materials review and approval, marketing activities, including conduct of brokers and agents and plan sponsor marketing staff and issues raised by CMS about Private Fee-for-Service (PFFS) plan marketing, measurement and oversight of plan performance, grievance and appeals processes, Medicare/Medicaid integration issues for Special Needs Plans (SNPs), Part D prescription drug event data reporting, Part D formulary rules, Part D pharmacy access standards, and other operational issues; Medicare creditable drug coverage reporting requirements; implementation issues for the Medicare Retiree Drug Subsidy program; functionality of the Medicare Personal Plan Finder and Drug Plan Finder; National Medicare Education program; ongoing implementation issues for the Medicare cost plan program including enrollment, marketing materials review and approval, systems issues affecting enrollment and disenrollment processing, payment and other operational issues; Medicare demonstration program on performance-based payments for physician groups; Medicare coverage policy and national coverage decisions; Medicare clinical trials; Medicaid managed care regulations and policies, including the Medicaid managed care actuarial soundness standard, quality oversight, grievance and appeals processes, beneficiary information requirements, treatment of Medicaid health plan member hospital days in the upper payment limit calculation; policies affecting State Medicaid funding, including intergovernmental transfers (IGTs) and federal matching funds for graduate medical education; coordination of benefits with state Medicaid programs; Medicaid prescription drug cost/rebate issues affecting Medicaid health plans; health plan-related State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) issues, including eligibility and outreach issues; implementation of Medicaid changes made in Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, including documentation of citizenship requirements, state benefit flexibility options, and Medicaid managed care organization provider tax issues; standards for electronic prescribing; and CMS RFI concerning health information technology.

Contacted: UNDETERMINED; Office of Personnel Management (OPM); Labor, Dept of (DOL); Internal Revenue Service (IRS); SENATE; Social Security Administration (SSA); HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); Federal Trade Commission (FTC); Treasury, Dept of; Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS); Executive Office of the President (EOP); Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ)

Bills named: H.R. 1990 (110th), S. 1544 (110th), H.R. 1535 (110th), S. 1107 (110th), S. 1103 (110th), H.R. 2206 (110th), S. 895 (110th), S. 706 (110th), S. 1507 (110th), S. 1224 (110th), S. 1108 (110th), S. 1102 (110th), S. 1701 (110th), S. 401 (110th), H.R. 4 (110th), S.Con.Res. 21 (110th), H.R. 1663 (110th), H.R. 2945 (110th), S. 130 (110th), H.Con.Res. 99 (110th), S. 799 (110th), H.R. 2147 (110th), S. 3 (110th)

Taxation/Internal Revenue Code TAX

TAX (Tax) (Legislative): H.R. 914: Tax Equity and Affordability Act (Ryan); H.R. 2302: Health Insurance Affordability Act (King); H.R. 2582: Qualified Long-term Care Fairness Act (Brown-Waite) (continued) (TAX (Tax) Legislative continued) H.R. 2639: Promoting Health for Future Generations Act (Boustany); S. 397: Tax Equity and Affordability Act (Martinez); S. 504: Long-Term Care Trust Account Act (Smith); S. 555: SIMPLE Cafeteria Plan Act (Snowe); S. 897: Alzheimer's Family Assistance Act (Mikulski) TAX (Tax) Regulatory: Implementation of the health savings account provisions of the Medicare Act.

Contacted: Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS); HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; Executive Office of the President (EOP); Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ); Social Security Administration (SSA); SENATE; Office of Personnel Management (OPM); UNDETERMINED; Treasury, Dept of; Labor, Dept of (DOL); Internal Revenue Service (IRS); Federal Trade Commission (FTC); Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

Bills named: H.R. 2582 (110th), S. 397 (110th), H.R. 2302 (110th), S. 897 (110th), H.R. 914 (110th), S. 504 (110th), S. 555 (110th), H.R. 2639 (110th)

Health Issues HCR

HCR (LEGISLATIVE ISSUES): H.R. 506: Health Partnership Through Creative Federalism Act (Baldwin) (continued) H.R. 1368: Personalized Health Information Act (Kennedy); H.R. 2184: Enhanced Health Care Value for All Act (Allen); H.R. 2497: Fair and Reliable Medical Justice Act (Cooper); H.R. 2580: Help Efficient, Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare Act (Gingrey); S. 243: Medical Care Access Protection Act (Ensign); S. 244: Healthy Mothers and Healthy Babies Access to Care Act (Gregg); S. 325: Health Partnership Act (Bingaman); S. 334: Healthy Americans Act (Wyden); S. 1198: Catastrophic Health Coverage Promotion Act (Smith); S. 1481: Fair and Reliable Medical Justice Act (Baucus); S. 1490: Federal Employees Electronic Personal Health Records Act (Carper); S. 1693: Wired for Health Care Quality Act (Kennedy); S. 1710: Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act (Harkin) HCR (Regulatory Issues): HIPAA administrative simplification issues, including privacy, security, and electronic transactions and code sets; FEHBP enrollment data clearinghouse initiative; FEHBP community rating policies, including similarly sized subscriber group (SSSG) requirements; implementation of the health savings account provisions of the Medicare Act; issues related to implementation of the National Health Information Infrastructure; issues relating to market consolidation; issues relating to quality improvement; issues related to potential priority research topics for the effective health care program; issues relating to the national health data stewardship; and issues relating to hospital outpatient measurement and reporting.

Contacted: Labor, Dept of (DOL); Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS); SENATE; UNDETERMINED; Social Security Administration (SSA); Executive Office of the President (EOP); Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ); Treasury, Dept of; HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); Office of Personnel Management (OPM); Internal Revenue Service (IRS); Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Bills named: S. 1490 (110th), S. 1198 (110th), H.R. 2580 (110th), S. 1693 (110th), S. 244 (110th), H.R. 2497 (110th), H.R. 1368 (110th), S. 243 (110th), S. 1710 (110th), H.R. 2184 (110th), S. 325 (110th), H.R. 506 (110th), S. 1481 (110th), S. 334 (110th)

Insurance INS

INS (Legislative):H.R. 241: Association Health Plans (Johnson); H.R. 493: Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (Slaughter); H.R. 758: Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act (DeLauro) (continued) INS (Legislative) (cont.) H.R. 836: Cyber-Security Enhancement and Consumer Data Protection Act (Smith); H.R. 948: Social Security Number Protection Act (Markey); H.R. 958: Data Accountability and Trust Act (Rush); H.R. 979: Bipartisan Consensus Managed Care Improvement Act (Norwood); H.R. 1081: Insurance Industry Competition Act (DeFazio); H.R. 1282: Medigap Access Improvement Act (English); H.R. 1424: Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act (Kennedy); H.R. 2412: Equity in Prescription Insurance and Contraceptive Coverage Act (Lowey); H.R. 2676: Access to Cancer Clinical Trials Act (Pryce); H.R. 2851: Michelle's Law (Hodes); H.R. 2948: Increased Access to Health Insurance Act (Walberg); S. 40: National Insurance Act (Sununu); S. 46: Affordability in the Individual Market Act (Ensign); S. 239: Notification of Risk to Personal Data Act (Feinstein); S. 358: Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (Snowe); S. 400: Michelle's Law (Sununu); S. 459: Breast Cancer Patient Protection Act (Snowe); S. 495: Personal Data Privacy and Security Act (Leahy); S. 558: Mental Health Parity Act (Domenici); S. 616: HIPAA Recreational Injury Technical Correction Act (Collins); S. 618: Insurance Industry Competition Act (Leahy); S. 1076: HIPAA Recreational Injury Technical Correction Act (Burgess); S. 1178: Identity Theft Protection Act (Inouye); S. 1260: Data Security Act (Carper); S. 1298: Healthy Businesses, Healthy Workers Reinsurance Act (Kerry); S. 1588: Children's Access to Reconstructive Evaluation and Surgery Act (Landrieu) INS (Regulatory) Insurance regulatory reform; issues related to the coordination of private and public disability income benefits; disability risk management.

Contacted: Treasury, Dept of; HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; Federal Trade Commission (FTC); Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); Social Security Administration (SSA); Executive Office of the President (EOP); UNDETERMINED; SENATE; Office of Personnel Management (OPM); Internal Revenue Service (IRS); Labor, Dept of (DOL); Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS); Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ)

Bills named: S. 1178 (110th), S. 40 (110th), S. 1298 (110th), H.R. 2676 (110th), H.R. 493 (110th), S. 558 (110th), S. 400 (110th), S. 239 (110th), H.R. 1282 (110th), S. 618 (110th), H.R. 948 (110th), S. 1076 (110th), S. 358 (110th), H.R. 758 (110th), H.R. 241 (110th), H.R. 2948 (110th), H.R. 1424 (110th), S. 459 (110th), H.R. 979 (110th), H.R. 2851 (110th), H.R. 958 (110th), S. 495 (110th), S. 46 (110th), H.R. 1081 (110th), S. 1588 (110th), H.R. 2412 (110th), S. 616 (110th), H.R. 836 (110th), S. 1260 (110th)

Pharmacy PHA

PHA (Pharmacy) (Legislative): H.R. 971: Community Pharmacy Fairness Act (Weiner); H.R. 1038: Access to Life-Saving Medicine Act (Waxman); H.R. 2900: FDA Amendments Act (Dingell) (continued) PHA (Legislative) (continued): S. 316: Preserve Access to Affordable Generics Act (Kohl); S. 623: Access to Life-Saving Medicine Act (Schumer); S. 885: Community Pharmacy Fairness Act (Isakson); S. 1082: FDA Revitalization Act (Kennedy); S. 1505: Affordable Biologics for Consumers Act (Gregg); S. 1695: Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act (Kennedy) PHA (Regulatory): Issues relating to long term safety and effectiveness of medical devices and drugs, including registries; issues relating to post-market surveillance of drugs and medical devices; and issues relating to access for investigational drugs.

Contacted: HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES; Centers For Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS); Office of Personnel Management (OPM); Internal Revenue Service (IRS); SENATE; UNDETERMINED; Labor, Dept of (DOL); Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ); Executive Office of the President (EOP); Federal Trade Commission (FTC); Treasury, Dept of; Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS); Social Security Administration (SSA)

Bills named: S. 623 (110th), S. 1695 (110th), H.R. 1038 (110th), H.R. 971 (110th), S. 316 (110th), S. 885 (110th), H.R. 2900 (110th), S. 1082 (110th), S. 1505 (110th)