January 29, 2009
Stimulus Providing Funds for Field Passes House; Senate Committees
Complimentary stimulus packages coming out of the House and Senate contain significant funding for comparative effectiveness research and data. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in both the House and Senate would provide over two years $1.1 billion to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) for comparative effectiveness research (CER). Specifically, the proposals include:
- $300 million provided to AHRQ to support CER conducted through they agency's Effective Health Care Program. Currently, $30 million of AHRQ's total budget is provided to this program;
- $400 million, which would be transferred from AHRQ to the National Institutes of Health to support its CER; and
- $400 million, which would be transferred to the Secretary of Health and Human Services to, among other things, establish a Coordinating Council for CER to advise the Congress and president on CER priorities and infrastructure. Of this funding, the Secretary would have the authority to provide up to $1.5 million for the Institute of Medicine to conduct a study not later than June 2009 on "recommendations on the national priorities for CER to be conducted or supported with the funds provided," which considers input from stakeholders.
The House and Senate also both include $40 million for the National Center for Health Statistics. The Senate report language more specifically directs NCHS to "convert vital statistics data collection from a paper system to an electronic system" with the funds provided.
In addition, the Senate version of the bill and its report language provide $60 million for "research, data collection, and evaluation that must be done on prevention activities...including expansion of the Prevention Research Centers, best practices development, development of models for health impact assessment, peer-reviewed investigator initiatied prevention research grants, and enhancement of current data collection efforts including the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey."
The House passed its version of the stimulus package January 28 (244-188). The Senate Finance and Appropriations Committees passed their version of the bill on January 27, with the bill likely moving to the Senate floor Monday, February 1. Congress intends to conclude its work on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by February 13.
The stimulus package bills and reports are now online:
Questions, please contact us at coalition@chsr.org . |
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