House Health Week Delayed

The House of Representatives had been planning to hold its own Health Week this week. The apparent centerpieces of Health Week were the HIT bill ( H.R. 4157 ) and a bill implementing the President’s HSA improvement initiatives (H.R. 5262) – bills that would directly impact the FEHB Program. According to the Kaiser Health Report, the House also will be considering several other health care system related bills that don’t directly impact the FEHB Program.

As previously blogged, two House committees cleared different versions of HR 4157 and to make matters worse for proponents of HR 4157, the Congressional Budget Office has concluded that the bill, and in particular the ICD-10 mandate, would cost the Government money. Moreover, Rep. Eric Cantor (R VA) who sponsored the HSA improvement bill has now withdrawn it for retooling. Because it will take some work to resolve the issues with H.R. 4157, the House leadership has postponed its Health Week until next week.