Federal News Network reports on today’s Senate appropriations committee markup of the FY 2020 financial services and general government appropriations bill.
The Senate subcommittee did include a proposal to give the Office of Personnel Management an additional $43 million in 2020 over the previous year’s levels — the same recommendation that cleared the House back in June.
The Senate subcommittee was silent on a federal employee pay raise for 2020 which signal support for the President’s 2.6% proposal. The House of Representatives supported a 3.1% increase in June.
Here’s a link to the Senate subcommittee’s press release. The full committee will take up this bill on Thursday.
Finger-pointing —
- Healthcare Dive discusses dueling reports — an American Medical Association report blaming health care costs on insurer consolidation and a Health Care Cost Institute report placing the blame on hospital consolidation.
- Health Payer Intelligence discusses dueling statements to Congress from provider and insurer groups over prior authorization practices.
Finally here’s a Politico article suggesting that the Trump Administration is taking an “if you build it they will come” approach to their effort to digitize medical records for patient access.