ICYMI: The Senate passed President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package on Saturday, on a party-line vote of 50-49. As the Senate-amended bill heads to the House this week, here’s what you need to know.
The changes: The Senate considered nearly 40 amendments to the House-passed bill, but approved fewer than 10. The New York Times takes a look at key changes.
What’s in the bill?
On the health side, provisions include:
- A delay of Medicaid rebate provisions. Currently, rebates drug manufacturers pay to Medicaid programs are capped at the Average Manufacturer Price (AMP) of the drug. The House-passed bill lifted the cap; the Senate bill deferred the effective date for a year.
- Medicare Wage Index changes. The CMS Medicare Wage Index adjusts payments to reflect wage levels in a particular geographic area. CMS recently made a change that would boost payments to rural facilities; because changes must be made in a budget-neutral fashion, the change impacted payments to urban facilities. The Senate created a new floor for the index in “all-urban states,” including New Jersey and Rhode Island. The legislation also specifies that the change is not budget neutral—meaning CMS will not have to make any reductions to offset the payment increases.
- COBRA subsidies. The Senate-passed bill would cover 100% of an individual’s COBRA costs through September.
Also worth noting: funding for rural providers. In a change from the House-passed bill, the Senate added $8.5 billion in relief for providers, which will presumably flow through the Provider Relief Fund (though it’s not specified). This funding will be available only to rural providers on an application basis.
On the agriculture side, the bill includes $4 billion in assistance to the food supply chain,as Agri-Pulse explains. This includes $3.6 billion “purchasing commodities and for helping processors, distributors and producers address pandemic-related needs, including personal protective equipment for workers,” as well as $300 million for “COVID-19 surveillance in animals."
It also includes assistance for minority farmers. With language from the Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act, introduced by Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), the package would provide direct relief to America’s Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous farmers as well as additional funding research, education, and extension at HBCUs and other institutions of higher education that historically serve communities of color.
(BIO sent a letter supporting Sen. Warnock’s bill, which would help tackle some of the vulnerabilities and inequities in COVID-19’s impact on communities of color, in line with the goals of the BIOEquality Agenda.)
Want to know more about the last-minute changes to unemployment benefits?Vox explains.
The next steps: Senate passage was the biggest hurdle for this bill—but it passed. The Senate-amended version is expected to pass the House this week.
Resources:
Health Care News:
The New York Times: Why people are eager for Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine
“Some people are eager to get it because they want the convenience of a single shot. And public health officials are enthusiastic about how much faster they could get a single shot distributed, particularly in vulnerable communities that might not otherwise have access to a vaccine.”
Agriculture and Environment News:
The Washington Post: Butterflies are vanishing out West. Scientists say climate change is to blame.
“The rate of decline is ‘calamitous,’ one scientist said, and has implications for crops and the environment.”
