April 30: The Medicare for All train keeps picking up steam. The House Rules Committee will hold the first-ever hearing on the topic. The House bill, penned by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) has more than 100 co-sponsors. Committee Chairman James McGovern (D-Mass.) called the bill a “serious proposal that deserves serious consideration … as we work toward universal coverage.” As Shelby Livingston reports, powerful wings of the healthcare industry are lining up against #M4A.
April 30: The House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee continues Congress’ drug oversight mania in a hearing on prescription drug coverage in Medicare Parts B and D.
April 30: As senior reporter Harris Meyer reports, there are significant concerns surrounding the Veterans Affairs Department’s readiness to roll out the Community Care program. Slated to start in June—and mandated by the VA Mission Act—Community Care consolidates seven existing programs that pay for veterans’ care outside the VA system. The VA is also one year into a $16 billion contract with Cerner Corp. to overhaul its electronic health record system. Both are likely to come up during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the department’s fiscal 2020 budget request.
May 1: One day after the House Rules Committee hearing on Medicare for All, the Congressional Budget Office is expected to release a report on a single-payer system. It will not be a scoring of the M4A bill. House Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) asked for the analysis to help lawmakers understand what they’d confront in creating a single-payer system.
May 5: On any given day, 1 in 31 hospital patients will get a healthcare-associated infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Poor hand hygiene among healthcare workers is a key culprit. The World Health Organization’s annual World Hand Hygiene Day aims to raise awareness of the importance of proper handwashing. This year’s slogan: “Clean care for all—it’s in your hands.”
