House adds health measures to war spending bill

[Ron Burgundy]

AP - Schools, hospitals and nursing homes would get a reprieve from cuts in their Medicaid payments under a House bill to pay for the war in Iraq.

That same bill gives the Food and Drug Administration an extra $150 million to hire more staff and conduct more inspections of producers in foreign countries.

The bipartisan bill providing $162 billion in funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was being debated Thursday in the House. The White House has endorsed it.

Outside experts have said the FDA has taken on too many tasks with too few resources. As a result, it's harder for the agency to catch safety problems, such as the recent salmonella outbreak with tomatoes that has sickened 383 people so far.

The Bush administration over the past two years proposed seven Medicaid regulations that it projected would save $13 billion over five years. While the White House threatened to veto any legislation that delayed the regulations, lawmakers made clear there was overwhelming support for a delay. The moratorium would last through March 31.

States and health care providers said the administration's proposals would have shifted costs to the states and created new hardships for the needy. The administration said the rules would reduce waste and fraud.

One rule would have prohibited schools from charging the federal government for administrative expenses associated with enrolling students in Medicaid and for transporting those students to school and back home.

Another rule would have prohibited Medicaid funding to provide medical education at teaching hospitals.

Of the seven changes proposed, only one stays in effect. That regulation limits which services Medicaid will pay for in hospital outpatient settings, prohibiting payment for such services as dental care or preventive care. The savings from that provision are mild — $300 million over five years.

The administration said it was pleased the bill did not include any tax increases and that Congress did not enact a moratorium on all seven regulations.

"However, the administration calls on Congress to do more to address the very serious issue of waste, fraud and abuse in this important health care program," said a policy statement issued by the White House.

Delaying the six regulations will cost about $1.6 billion. The legislation would make up that revenue loss, in part, through improved verification of the financial assets of Medicaid participants.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080619/ap_on_go_co/war_supplemental_health [link]