Time running out for Congress: With nine appropriations bill still outstanding, Congress faces another deadline on December 16th for deciding how to establish funding for the remainder of FY12. The current continuing resolution authorizing Federal agency funding will end on the 16th if Congress does not act soon. If they want to pass the remaining nine bills in a package referred to as an omnibus they will have to put that package together this week. Other options include continuing funding until a date early next year after the second session of the 112th Congress begins or even continuing funding through the remainder of FY12 which is the end of September 2012. As always the appropriations bill funding the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education (LHHSE) is controversial. Although there are some significant funding level differences between the House and Senate versions the controversy this year is not so much the proposed agency funding levels for FY12. You can view some of these variations in the AACP appropriations web page. Policy riders or provisions that would dictate how the agencies spend their funding are the major sticking points. Most controversial are the policy riders that would eliminate funding for programs authorized within the Affordable Care Act. Conferees for the omnibus package have been chosen and an initial meeting was held Thursday with no action taken other than the opening statements of the conference committee chairs. It is not clear whether the LHHSE bill remain in the omnibus package or be eliminated and considered separately or with any future continuing resolution. Plenty to do, but is there the desire: Several politically charged issues remain on the table for resolution before Congress adjourns its first session. Continuing unemployment benefits and the payroll tax reduction remain on the table. Another high priority issue is what is referred to as the “doc fix” which would keep a nearly 25% decrease in physician payments for care of Medicare beneficiaries. The cost of delaying the payment reduction by one year is over $18 billion and close to $36 billion if delayed for two years. House and Senate Republicans favor offsetting the cost of the “doc fix” with money set aside for the Prevention and Public Health Fund authorized in Section 4002 of the Affordable Care Act. The Fund is supported by $15 billion to paid out from 2010 through 2015 with $2 billion available in 2015 and in future fiscal years. Balancing research funding: In the effort to control federal spending reduce the deficit there is not a single program that is immune from consideration as option to decrease federal outlays. The legislation authorizing the continuation of the Small Business Innovation Research and the Small Business Technology Transfer programs is up for reauthorization. Legislation, Senate Bill 493, that would reauthorize the programs and increase the federal funding available to support them has been introduced by Senator Mary Landrieu (D‐LA) and passed by the Senate. The companion legislation in the House, HR 1425, introduced by Representative Renee Elmers (R‐NC) has been reported out of committees but not brought to the floor for consideration. Both the Senate and House legislation would increase the individual small business award levels in both programs from current Phase I $100,000 to $150,000 and Phase II from $750,000 to $1 million. Currently both the House and Senate are working to resolve differences in their respective legislation. The Senate bill includes a provision that increases by 0.1% annually from 2013 through 2023 the set aside that each participating federal agency transfers to these programs. This would bring the current set aside of 2.5% to 3.5% over the decade. This addition to the “set aside” is not supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the research community at large because of its potential to reduce funding available to individual researchers supported by NIH and National Science Foundation (NSF). AACP along with many other organizations acting through the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology (FASEB) signed a letter asking Congress to remove the Senate legislation from the defense reauthorization legislation so that the House and Senate conference can continue toward resolution. CDC “app challenge”: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will host a webinar on December 16th to present information about how health professionals (yes that includes pharmacy faculty…!) can partner with app developers to address national health issues using Health People 2020 Leading Health Indicators data. The winning team will receive a $10,000 honorarium. Health People 2020 objectives include several with specific reference to medications including: •
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AHS‐6 Reduce the proportion of individuals who are unable to obtain or delay in obtaining necessary medical care, dental care, or prescription medicines. DH‐7 Use of inappropriate medications HDS‐11 Hypertension medication compliance MPS‐5 Emergency room visits for adverse events from medications Many of the larger topics include objectives that can be impacted by integrating the pharmacist into the care team. NIH health disparities webinar: Dr. David E. Hayes‐Bautista, Professor of Medicine at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine will be the featured speaker for “Nature, Nurture, History or Politics! What Do Our Race/Ethnic Categories Really Measure,” a webinar sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Thursday December 15th at 2:00 pm EST. This webinar will provide insight into an increasingly important research question regarding the data collected to describe health disparities, health status and other issues related to public health. State health rankings released: Utilizing data from across a number of federal agencies the 2011 edition of “America’s Health Rankings” was released on Tuesday. Supported by the United Health Foundation in partnership with the American Public Health Association and the Partnership for Prevention the annual rankings provide a wealth of national and state statistics reflecting population health and the factors that affect it. The rankings provide a perfect platform from which to engage policy makers and public officials about the opportunities to improve population health by connecting with faculty at colleges and schools of pharmacy. The call to action associated with the rankings release requires each of you to utilize the data within the rankings to build community awareness of the education outcomes of the Doctor of Pharmacy associated with clinical prevention and population health and the need to use these competencies in team‐based care models; the resource within pharmacy faculty to evaluate wellness and prevention programs for their use of evidence‐based practices and establish test new approaches to care; and engage with community‐based partners to provide those evidence‐based prevention and wellness programs to improve the health of your community. America is falling behind in many public health measures. It is incumbent on each of you to work with your academic partners, community organizations, businesses and policy makers to help America become healthier. Using the National Prevention Strategy as an additional resource the case for academic and professional pharmacy to be recognized as essential partners in improving our nation’s is now stronger than ever. The “Guide to Community Prevention Services” ,a compendium of evidence‐
based preventive service practices, provides you with a significant resource from which to build community‐based programs. These resources provide you with the information to approach potential partners in prevention to create real opportunities for yourself, your students, your colleagues and members of your community to turn around our nations deteriorating health status. Fellowship opportunity in California: The California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) is pleased to announce that applications are now being accepted for the 2012‐2013 California Science and Technology Policy Fellowships based in Sacramento. The S&T Policy Fellowship, a unique one‐year professional development opportunity, provides the selected fellows with hands‐on experience working with the California Legislature to incorporate science and technology into public policy. Eligible applicants will be Ph.D.‐level (or equivalent) scientists and engineers who have a sincere interest in California current events, the state legislative process, and a strong desire to learn how policy decisions are made. Please forward this announcement to any individuals or group listservs that may be interested in this exciting opportunity. Deadline for submission of applications is February 29, 2012 at 5:00 p.m. PST. More information is available at http://fellows.ccst.us. Thanks for the input and keep it coming: Last week I sent an email request to our members regarding your uptake of any number of funding opportunities authorized by the Affordable Care Act have been made available to the public. It is nearly impossible for the funding agencies to tell us if faculty from a college or school of pharmacy has applied for these grants. There are staff in these agencies that are interested in knowing your uptake of these grant opportunities. Please let me ([email protected]) know if you or any members of your faculty have submitted, are preparing to submit a proposal or partnered with another organization on a submission in regard to any of the following: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Community transformation grants Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Health Care Innovation Challenge Community Based Care Transitions Program Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative Innovations Advisors Program If you or your colleagues have submitted proposals for other CMS grants not listed above we would be interested in knowing about those as well. In your response please provide us with: Primary investigator or leader of proposal submission team Community partner(s) involved with the proposal Expected outcomes of activity included in the proposal Evaluation requirements for proposals that you have been awarded.