SAMHSA's Weekly Financing News Pulse - May 4, 2009

Table of Contents

National Health Financing News

• Congress Approves $3.5 Trillion Budget Including Health Care Reconciliation; Congressional Republicans Opposed
• Congress Takes Steps Towards Health Reform, Finance Committee Senators Releases Report
• Senate Confirms Governor Sebelius as HHS Secretary
• President Obama Requests Funding to Combat Swine Flu, Sebelius and Sharfstein Brief Congress
• Obama Administration Seeks to Increase Physician Supply
• VA EHR System Offers Low Cost Option for Non-VA Hospitals
• Study Shows Hospitals Cutting Staff and Services
• Obama Calls for Increased Spending on Scientific Research
• Study Shows Physician Medicaid Rates Rising, Not Keeping up with Inflation
• Kerry and Kennedy Propose Drug Courts for Veterans
• IOM Urges Doctors to Reject Financial Agreements with Pharmaceutical Companies
• Legislation Would Expand Medicare Telemedicine to Non-Rural Areas
• Congressman Proposes Legislation Tying Medicare Reimbursements to Quality of Care
• Circuit Court Rules State Medicaid Plans Have Role in Determining Medical Necessity
• Many Health-Related Companies See First Quarter Profit Increases
• Update: Chrysler’s Files for Bankruptcy and Strikes Deal on VEBA Payments
• Kaiser Family Foundation Launches New Global Health Report

Around the Hill: Hearings on Health Financing

• Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee: State Experiences with Health Care Revision
  2:30 p.m. April 28, 430 Dirksen
• Senate Finance Committee: Treasury and HHS Nominations
  10:00 a.m. April 30, 215 Dirksen
• Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee: Revising Access to Health Care
  10:00 a.m. April 30, 430 Dirksen
• House Veterans’ Affairs Committee: Mental Health Needs of Veterans
  10:00 a.m. April, 30 334 Cannon
• Senate Finance Committee: Health Care Overhaul
  TBA, May 5, TBA
  TBA, May 14, TBA
• House Veterans’ Affairs Committee: Innovative Technologies and Treatments for Veterans
  10:00 a.m. May 13, 334 Cannon

Around the States: State and Local Behavioral Health Financing News

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