DC Legislation Roundup: Research Funding News, Sports Licensure

Most of the benefits for orthopedics survived a House-Senate conference when President Donald Trump signed that Defense-Labor-HHS “minibus” appropriations bill on September 28 (“Major Increase in Ortho Research Funding on the Way,” Orthopedics This Week, September 13, 2018).

“We are pleased to see a $2 billion increase in funding for NIH [National Institutes of Health]—a sustainable level to help fund its much-needed basic and clinical research,” a spokesperson for the American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) said. The extra $2 billion might include an increase in funding for the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases.

The 21st Century Cures Act received the Senate’s proposed $711 million, which provides funding for both new-device research, including orthopedic devices, and new pain management alternatives to opioids.

AAOS said two House recommendations to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) survived the House-Senate conference:

• One supports the quality of physician-owned hospitals (and impliedly hints that the Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services should lighten up on Stark-based rules suppressing Medicare reimbursements for them).
• The other urges CMS to pay for Qualified Clinical Data Registries (QCDRs), including the American Joint Replacement Registry (AJRR), now called the AAOS Orthopaedic Quality Resource Center. QCDRs help physicians receive merit payments and avoid penalties under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) component of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA).

The Defense Department’s Peer Reviewed Orthopaedic Research Program (PRORP), run by the U.S. Army Medical Research Materiel Command, is getting $30 million in funding in the bill for fiscal year 2019, the same amount as FY 2018, a U.S. Army spokesperson said. PRORP offers grants for orthopedic research. The types of research funded by PRORP in FY 2018 can be seen by scrolling down this page:

This link goes to the Peer Reviewed page

Sports Medicine Licensure Bill Heads to President’s Desk

As expected, the final version of H.R. 302, the “Sports Medicine Licensure Clarity Act of 2017″ (“Sports Medicine Bill Huge Victory for Orthopedists” Orthopedics This Week, September 13, 2018), passed the U.S. Senate October 3. House and Senate sponsors had been negotiating final details of the bill since a prior Senate version passed September 6. (https://ryortho.com/breaking/sports-medicine-bill-huge-victory-for-orthopedists/)

“For too long, team physicians have had to choose between treating patients at great professional risk or handing over care,” said AAOS President David A. Halsey, MD. “Its passage represents years of hard work trying to get it across the finish line and it is a significant win—not only for practicing sports medicine professionals, but also for the large percentage of orthopaedists involved in the treatment and care of sports-related injuries.”

AAOS and the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) have been pushing Congress for the legislation since 2015. If signed by the President as expected, it would allow sports medicine professionals who travel with teams to treat athletes in other states and be covered by their medical liability insurance as if they’d done their work in their home states.