April 23, 2008

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 349-62 on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 in favor of suspending seven Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) regulations through March 2009 (Source: “House slaps down White House over slashes to Medicaid,” AP/Houston Chronicle, April 24, 2008).  CMS proposed these regulations in July 2007 as a way to reduce federal spending and shift more costs to the states.  Policymakers and health care providers have spoken out against the regulations fearing an adverse impact on the delivery of care. 

Some of the regulations would affect hospitals, physicians, and patients in the following ways:
• restricting payment to schools providing services to children with special health care needs
• eliminating funding of graduate education for medical students at teaching hospitals
• and limiting reimbursement for children’s hospitals that serve a large number of poor children on Medicaid 

Support for the bill came from all voting Democrats and two-thirds of voting Republicans.  The legislation will now be considered by the Senate Finance Committee before being voted on by the Senate next month.  This margin of victory, greater than the two-thirds needed, would be able to withstand a presidential veto.