“In a pleasant snowy day in Washington, Congressional leaders reached a deal to keep the government running for the rest of the year with a trillion-dollar-plus spending package. The bill (H.R. 1625 (115)) keeps the Office of the National Coordinator’s and Office for Civil Rights’ funding for the remainder of 2018 flat relative to 2017. Other health IT priorities enjoyed raises. The Department of Veterans affairs also got $782 million for its Cerner installation, though it requires the secretary to submit quarterly reports on the programs progress. Shulkin has asked for $1.2 billion in Cerner funding for fiscal year 2019.”
“To get down to the nitty-gritty: NIH overall receives a $3 billion boost, with $290 million going to the Institutes’ precision medicine work. (That’s a $60 million increase from 2017.) Meanwhile, telemedicine won much more funding, with broadband expansion subsidized to the tune of $600 million, and as much as $82 million going to three grant programs for the modality…”
“Whether this constitutes a win or a loss for the health IT sector is up for debate. Flat budgets for ONC and OCR…” Read the full newsletter here.
Source: Omnibus: We have a deal – By Darius Tahir, March 22, 2018. POLITICO Morning eHealth.
