Key HIMSS Priorities Included in House Appropriations Committee FY23 Labor-HHS Bill

Several policy priorities for the health IT community were included within the FY 2023 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor HHS) appropriations bill, which was brought before the full House Appropriations Committee for a mark-up on June 30.

While total funding levels have not yet been determined, the Labor HHS appropriations bill currently totals $242.1 billion, an increase of $28.5 billion (13 percent above 2022) including $124.2 billion for Health and Human Services (HHS), an increase of $15.6 billion above FY 2022.

Top line funding levels for key agencies include:

• $47.5 billion for National Institutes of Health (NIH), an increase of $2.5 billion above the FY 2022 enacted level
• $9.6 billion for Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an increase of $683 million above the FY 2022 enacted level
• $4.3 billion for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) administrative expenses, an increase of $322 million above the FY 2022 enacted level
• $10.5 billion for the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an increase of $2 billion above the FY 2022
• $2.75 billion for Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an increase of $1.75 billion
• $86.6 million for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), an increase of $22.4 million above the FY 2022 enacted level

The health IT community should take note of several industry-wide policy priorities included in the package.

Data Modernization Initiative (DMI) and Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA)

• $250 million for DMI, an increase of $150 million above the FY 2022 enacted level, to modernize public health data surveillance and analytics at CDC and State and local health departments.
  • Report Language: The Committee acknowledges the need for sustained funding for this public health infrastructure to continue to move from siloed and brittle public health data systems to connected, resilient, adaptable, and sustainable systems to achieve real change. Essential to this significant effort are core data standards and support to recruit and retain the data science workforce. This is a massive undertaking by CDC, and it will only be successful with the commitment to improvement by the entire agency, and active engagement with partners. The Committee reiterates that the NCHS is to be fully integrated in the DMI.
• $50 million in funding for CFA to facilitate the use of data, modeling and analytics to improve preparedness and response and training to build workforce capacity in this emerging field.

Public Health Infrastructure

• $750 million, an increase of $550 million above the FY 2022 enacted level, to provide consistent and reliable funding for State, local, territorial, Federal public health agencies.

Workforce Development Funding

• $106 million to CDC for Public Health Workforce and Career Development to invest and aid in the rebuilding of the essential public health workforce who protect our communities

• $324 million to HRSA, an increase of $44 million above the FY 2022 enacted level, for nursing workforce development programs
• $25 million to HRSA to develop and disseminate best practices for Preventing Burnout in the Health Workforce
• $25 million to HRSA to establish the Public Health Loan Repayment program

Patient Identity

Section 510, the long-standing ban on funding for a Unique Patient Identifier, was once again removed from the House Labor-HHS appropriations bill. Ultimately the section could still be inserted into the Senate Labor-HHS appropriations bill, which happened for FY2022 appropriations. Patient ID Now, a coalition of more than 40 leading healthcare organizations including HIMSS as a founding member, will continue to urge Congress to complete the progress it made toward protecting patient safety and privacy and finally repeal Section 510 from its Labor-HHS appropriations bill within the FY23 federal budget.

To support work around patient matching, Congress appropriated $5 million to ONC to work with industry to develop matching standards that prioritize interoperability, patient safety and patient privacy.

Maternal Health

While the FY23 Labor-HHS bill didn’t contain any Momnibus provisions, it did include significant funding increases to support maternal health outcomes, including:

• An overall increase of $171 million for HRSA to improve access to, and the quality of, maternal and child healthservices, including $873 million for the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant. This funding includes
  • $10 million for addressing emerging issues and social determinants of maternal health, such as expanding access to maternal mental health and SUD services, developing digital tools to enhance maternal health care and technology-enabled collaborative learning and capacity building models for pregnant and postpartum women
  • $5 million to establish a research network to support minority-serving institutions to study health disparities in maternal health outcomes
  • $39 million for State Maternal Health Innovation Grants to establish demonstrations to implement evidence-based interventions to address critical gaps in maternity care service delivery and reduce maternal mortality

• $143 million, an increase $60 million above the FY 2022 enacted level, for safe motherhood/infant health to help eliminate race-based disparities and drive down the rate of maternal mortality
• Directs AHRQ to improve the provision of timely and accurate data about maternal health and the health care system to policymakers, health care providers, and the public
• Directs AHRQ to develop person-reported experience of care quality maternal health measures that are designed to capture and reduce inequities and measure care across the continuum of maternity care providers and care settings, as well at the health plan level
• To support the interoperability of maternity care records, Congress directs HHS to publish guidelines that outline best practices for creating and maintaining accessible, longitudinal peri- and post-natal health records for patients

Telehealth Initiatives

• HRSA’s Office for the Advancement of Telehealth (OAT) received $37 million, an increase of $2,000,000 above the FY 2022 enacted level, to promote the effective use of technologies to improve access to health services for people who are isolated from healthcare and to provide distance education for health professionals. Funding under OAT supports:
  • Provider Bridge program, a national tool connecting health care professionals with State agencies and health care entities to quickly verify credentials and professional background information. To date, over 400 entities and 85,000 healthcare professionals have leveraged this program.
  • Telehealth Centers of Excellence, to continue to validate technologies and reimbursement mechanisms, establish training protocols and develop comprehensive templates for States to integrate telehealth into their state health provider networks.
  • Rural Telehealth Initiative, an MOU between HHS, the FCC and the Department of Agriculture to improve collaboration amongst entities tasked with addressing rural telehealth access. The initiative prioritizes opportunities to continue the expansion of telehealth services, close the digital divide, and not leave rural communities behind.
• Under CMS, a report in the FY 2024 Congressional Budget Justification on the impact of telehealth on health care access, utilization, cost and outcomes, broken down by race, ethnicity, sex, age, disability status and zip code under the Medicaid program and CHIP.
• Under HHS, acknowledging that disparities in telehealth exist between and within racial and ethnic groups, rural and urban locations and geographic regions, the Secretary shall categorize telehealth usage data, including for audio-only services, by Health Professional Shortage Areas. Additionally, the Secretary should work across agencies to ensure that improvements to broadband availability are prioritized in those areas with lowest telehealth usage, highest audio-only usage, and a known health professional shortage.
• Additionally, there are four Community Project Funding opportunities (formerly “earmarks”) that leverage telehealth.

Read the full text of the bill and the report bill language.

HIMSS will continue to provide updates on the FY23 appropriations process as the House closes on their draft of the legislation and the upper chamber begins their review. For any questions, please contact policy@himss.org.