February 5, 2007

President Unveils FY 2008 Budget Request

As required by law, the President released his proposed FY 2008 budget on February 5. If Congress adopts the proposal as written most of the principal agencies that support health services research will be flat funded.

Among the highlights from the Department of Health and Human Services budget, the president requests $330 million for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; an increase of $10.872 million over the FY 2007 continuing resolution level. AHRQ's FY 2008 budget includes:

• $49 million for patient safety, an increase of $15 million above the House's FY 2007 continuing resolution level to be dedicated to a new Personalized Health Care Initiative. In sum, this new initiative will: (1) provide incentives and infrastructure to support and promote collaboration of research networks and data sources to; (2) improve utility of administrative data sources for population-based research; (3) take advantage of existing partnerships and administrative data sources to practically expand research capacity; and (4) build new and link existing practical, practice-based research networks.
• $55.3 million for MEPS.
• $44.8 million for research related to health information technology (a decrease of $5 million from the House's FY 2007 continuing resolution level).
• $15 million for comparative effectiveness research.

The president's budget also requests:

$110 million for CDC's National Center for Health Statistics; an increase of nearly $1 million over the level in the House's FY 2007 continuing resolution.

$31 million for CDC's public health research program (flat funded).

$28.8 billion for the National Institutes of Health, of which we approximate $950 million would be dedicated to health services and translational research (based on historic funding levels). This is an increase over the President's FY 2007 request, but less than the amount appropriated by the House in its FY 2007 continuing resolution.

$34 million for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' research, evaluation, and demonstration projects, which includes $10 million for the Real Choice System Change Grant. In FY 2007, CMS is expected to receive $58 million for these research activities, including $15 million for Real Choice System Change Grant. Under the president's proposal, CMS will see a significant cut in its R&D budget in FY 2008.

$411 million for the Veterans Health Administration's Medical and Prosthetic Research program, of which we approximate $64 million would be dedicated to health services research (based on historic funding levels). This is a cut of nearly $1 million compared to levels in the House's FY 2007 continuing resolution.

Last week, the House approved its year-long continuing resolution to fund most domestic programs through FY 2007. The Senate is expected to act on the bill later this week, before the current continuing resolution expires February 15. For more information on the status of FY 2007 appropriations, click here.