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ASRM BULLETIN
Volume 9, Number 26
December 20, 2007
2008 Budget and Medicare Bills Pass Congress, Averting Physician Cuts and Providing Small Increases for Healthcare and Research; President is Expected to Sign
Just as millions of Americans wait until the last minute to do their holiday shopping, their government also excels at procrastination. Rushing to finish their business before the Christmas recess, Congress took care of several items this week.
First they passed a Medicare bill that replaced a 10% cut in physician payment scheduled for January 1, 2008 with a 0.5% increase. While this is good news, without further action the respite will be brief, the cut is now scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2008. This bill also extended the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, without an increase, through March of 2009.
Congress and the President also managed to cut a deal on federal spending for the 2008 Fiscal Year, which actually started in October.
NIH got an appropriation of $29.229 billion, an increase of $329 million or 1.1% over FY 2007. CDC got an increase of $110 million for a total of $6.38 billion.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) would get $335 million, an increase of $16 million. This includes $30 million on clinical effectiveness research, double the 2007 figure.
Federal family planning through the Title X program received a $22 million increase. The current abstinence-only education program is extended through June 30, 2008 and is funded at the FY 2007 level of $113 million.
The ASRM Bulletin is published by ASRM's Office of Public Affairs to inform Society members of important recent developments. Republication or any other use of the contents of the Bulletin without permission is prohibited. To request permission to quote or excerpt material from the Bulletin, contact Sean Tipton at
stipton@asrm-dc.org.
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