In Review: After a slow last week of session, things moved quickly in the last few hours, with a very chaotic ending. Last Wednesday, PCMA submitted a letter to the conferees of the Health and Human Services (HHS) omnibus bill (SF 4699) outlining the issues in the bill as it pertained to prior authorization and suggesting they move forward with the Senate version, which applied the enacted 2020 prior authorization language to the public programs. It was not until Saturday that we heard that a deal had been made on the HHS omnibus bill. It was our understanding that the bill included the problematic provisions of the prior authorization language. Unfortunately, bill language was not made available until Sunday afternoon, which confirmed that the onerous prior authorization provisions were still included along with the chronic health condition continuity of care provision. Early Sunday evening, the HHS Conference Committee held a meeting and approved the HHS omnibus bill. With less than 50 minutes left until midnight (as the rules do not allow any bills to be passed on the last day of session), the House suspended the rules on debate and passed a mega-omnibus bill (HF 5247) that was over 1,400 pages, which rolled nine separate spending and policy bills into one package, including the HHS omnibus bill language. The bill then quickly went over to the Senate, and the bill was passed there as well. This prompted an “unprecedented display of discord, [as] shouting rang through both chambers for much of the last hour.”

Up Next: While the Senate adjourned sine die early this morning, the House will meet for their ceremonial last day of thank you and retirement speeches.

If you have any questions, please contact Michelle Mack at mmack@pcmanet.org.