Congressional Research Service Reports - 556 Matching Results
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- Managed Health Care: Federal and State Regulation
- No Description Available.
- Medicare: Private Contracts
- This report discusses private contracting for medicare,which is the term used to describe situations where a physician and a patient agree not to submit a claim for a service which would otherwise be covered and paid for by Medicare.
- Medicare: Payments to Physicians
- This report discusses payments for physicians services under Medicare that are made on the basis of a fee schedule.
- Medicaid: 105th Congress
- No Description Available.
- Medical Savings Accounts: Legislation in the 105th Congress
- No Description Available.
- The State Children's Health Insurance Program: Guidance on Frequently Asked Questions
- No Description Available.
- Medicare Expansion: President Clinton's Proposals to Allow Coverage Before Age 65
- This report discusses medicare expansion; President Clinton's proposal to allow people ages 62 through 64 to buy into Medicare if they do not have access to employer-sponsored or federal health insurance.
- Medicare: Financing the Part A Hospital Insurance Program
- This report discusses Medicare, which consists of two distinct parts — Part A (Hospital Insurance (HI)) and Part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI)). Part A is financed primarily through payroll taxes levied on current workers and their employers. Income from these taxes is credited to the HI trust fund. Part B is financed through a combination of monthly premiums paid by current enrollees and general revenues. Income from these sources is credited to the SMI trust fund.
- Medicare: Changes to Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA 97, P.L. 105-33) Provisions
- This report summarizes the major provisions of the agreement between the by House and Senate negotiators on the Medicare provisions.
- Medicare Beneficiary Access to Care: The Effects of New Prospective Payment Systems on Outpatient Hospital Care, Home Health Care, and Skilled Nursing Facility Care
- This report discusses the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA 97), which required that prospective payment systems replace retrospective cost-based reimbursement systems for Medicare beneficiaries receiving care in hospital outpatient departments, from home health care agencies, and in skilled nursing facilities.
- Trends in Medicare Spending: Fact Sheet
- No Description Available.
- Olmstead v. L.C.: Implications and Subsequent Judicial, Administrative, and Legislative Actions
- This report will discuss the Supreme Court's decision, subsequent lower court decisions, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) letter, and selected legislation.
- Medicare: Prescription Drug Proposals
- This report provides an overview of the President’s plan and the legislation introduced to date in the 106th Congress. It
- The State Children's Health Insurance Program: Eligibility, Enrollment, and Program Funding
- No Description Available.
- Long-Term Care: The President's FY2001 Budget Proposals and Related Legislation
- No Description Available.
- Pharmacy Benefit Managers
- No Description Available.
- Military Medical Care Services: Questions and Answers
- No Description Available.
- Medicaid, SCHIP, and Other Health Provisions in H.R. 5661: Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000
- This report discusses Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The report also discusses other major health provisions provisions of H.R. 5661 are incorporated, by reference into H.R. 4577, the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2001.
- Reaching Low-Income, Uninsured Children: Are Medicaid and SCHIP Doing the Job?
- No Description Available.
- Tax Benefits for Health Insurance: Current Legislation
- No Description Available.
- Patient Protection and Managed Care: Legislation in the 106th Congress
- No Description Available.
- The Cost of Prescription Drugs for the Uninsured Elderly and Legislative Approaches
- The purpose of this report is to explain why many of those who are least able to afford high drug costs are those who are most frequently charged the most. This report describes the basic economic theory underlying price differentiation and, in the context of the pharmaceutical market, analyzes the role and behavior of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), pharmaceutical manufacturers, and retail pharmacies, respectively. It also looks at a number of the criticisms that have been made of the practice of differential pricing. Finally, this report discusses various policy approaches aimed at assisting the elderly to purchase prescription drugs.
- Long-Term Care: What Direction for Public Policy?
- No Description Available.
- Tax Subsidies for Health Insurance for the Uninsured: An Economic Analysis of Selected Policy Issues for Congress
- No Description Available.
- Patient Protection and Mandatory External Review: Amending ERISA's Claims Procedure
- No Description Available.
- The Financial Outlook for Social Security and Medicare
- The 2001 annual reports of the board of trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds were released on March 19, 2001. Both programs have benefitted from an improved economic outlook in the near term, but both continue to have projected long-range problems. Insolvency for the Disability Insurance (DI) part of Social Security is projected to occur in 2026, and for the retirement and survivors part, in 2040.
- Social Security and Medicare "Lock Boxes"
- With the onset of burgeoning federal budget surpluses, Social Security and Medicare's treatment in the budget has become a major policy issue. Congressional views about what to do with the surpluses are diverse -- ranging from "buying down" the federal government's outstanding debt to cutting taxes to increasing spending.
- The State Children's Health Insurance Program: Eligibility, Enrollment, and Program Funding
- No Description Available.
- Medicare's Skilled Nursing Facility Benefit
- No Description Available.
- Medicare Provisions in the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 (BIPA, P.L. 106-554)
- No Description Available.
- Military Health Care: The Issue of "Promised" Benefits
- No Description Available.
- Medicare Structure Reform: Background and Options
- No Description Available.
- Medicare: Selected Prescription Drug Proposals in the 107th Congress
- Medicare, the nationwide health insurance program for the aged and disabled, does not cover most outpatient prescription drugs. On several occasions, the Congress has considered providing coverage for at least a portion of beneficiaries’ drug costs. The issue received renewed attention in the 106th Congress. However, there was no consensus on how the coverage should be structured. This report provides a side-by-side comparison of bills introduced in the 107th Congress that have received the most attention.
- ERISA Regulation of Health Plans: Fact Sheet
- The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA, P.L. 93-406) places the regulation of employee benefit plans (including health plans) primarily under federal jurisdiction for about 124 million people. ERISA’s treatment of health plans is both complicated and confusing. ERISA has been interpreted as dividing health plans into two groups regulated differently under the law: about 54 million people are covered by self-insured plans for which the employer, rather than an insurer, assumes the risk for paying for covered services and about 70 million people are covered by purchased insurance (according to 2000 information from the Census Bureau and the Department of Labor).
- Social Security and Medicare "Lock Boxes"
- No Description Available.
- Military Medical Care Services: Questions and Answers
- No Description Available.
- Summary of the Medicare Regulatory and Contracting Reform Act of 2001 (H.R. 3391)
- No Description Available.
- Bioterrorism: Summary of a CRS/National Health Policy Forum Seminar on Federal, State, and Local Public Health Preparedness
- The September 11th attack and subsequent intentional release of anthrax spores via the U.S. postal system have focused policymakers’ attention on the preparedness and response capability of the nation’s public health system. The anthrax attacks put a tremendous strain on the U. S. public health infrastructure, an infrastructure that many experts argue has been weakened by years of neglect and under-funding. To better understand the preparedness gaps that exist, as well as the disparate functions and agencies that define public health in this country, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), in conjunction with George Washington University’s National Health Policy Forum (NHPF), convened a seminar on October 26, 2001, entitled, The U.S. Health Care System: Are State and Local Officials Prepared for Bioterrorism? How Should the Federal Government Assist?
- Health Insurance Continuation Coverage under COBRA
- This report provides information about Health Insurance Continuation Coverage under COBRA. This report also provides background information on COBRA, on the COBRA population, and on legislation offering COBRA. Some believe that COBRA went too far in requiring employees to provide coverage.
- Health Insurance: Uninsured by State, 2000
- An estimated 14% of the U.S. populations lacked health insurance coverage in 2000, down from 14.3% in 1999. When examined by state, estimates of the percent uninsured ranged from a low of 5.9% in Rhode Island to a high of 23.8% in New Mexico. Generally, states in the Midwest and New England have lower rates of uninsured, while states in the Southwestern portion of the nation have higher shares of their populations without coverage.
- Bioterrorism: Legislation to Improve Public Health Preparedness and Response Capacity
- This report shows that while lawmakers work towards final passage of new authorizing legislation, Congress has appropriated more than $3 billion to the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) to increase bioterrorism preparedness at the federal, state, and local levels. HHS anti-bioterrorism funding was included in the FY2002 Labor-HHSEducation appropriations bill and in the $20 billion emergency spending package that was attached to the FY2002 Defense appropriations bill. Until the new authorizing legislation is enacted, HHS is dispersing the funds according to existing authorities and the broad parameters set out in the appropriations bills.
- Environmental Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors: What Are the Human Health Risks?
- This report discusses the human health risks, specifically from endocrine disruptors that are chemical compounds in drugs, food, consumer products, or the ambient environment that can interfere with internal biological processes of animals that normally are regulated by their hormones.
- Social Security and Medicare Taxes and Premiums: Fact Sheet
- No Description Available.
- Health Insurance: Federal Data Sources for Analyses of the Uninsured
- Given the various reasons individuals lack health insurance coverage, analysis of the effectiveness of a proposal to reduce the number of uninsured (such as those discussed above) requires examining characteristics of individuals with and without health insurance coverage. Numerous sources of data have emerged over time that support estimates of the uninsured. However, each data source differs in how it collects information from individuals, as well as the amount of information it collects related to health insurance status. This report outlines the major advantages and limitations of four federally administered surveys — in providing estimates of the uninsured population.
- Health Insurance Coverage: Characteristics of the Insured and Uninsured Populations in 2000
- Nearly one out of seven Americans were without health insurance for all of 2000. This was the second consecutive annual decrease in the percentage of uninsured people. The largest gain in health insurance coverage was in the employment-based coverage. This report examines the characteristics of both the insured and the uninsured populations in the United States.
- Bioterrorism: Legislation to Improve Public Health Preparedness and Response Capacity
- This report shows that while lawmakers work towards final passage of new authorizing legislation, Congress has appropriated more than $3 billion to the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) to increase bioterrorism preparedness at the federal, state, and local levels. HHS anti-bioterrorism funding was included in the FY2002 Labor-HHSEducation appropriations bill and in the $20 billion emergency spending package that was attached to the FY2002 Defense appropriations bill. Until the new authorizing legislation is enacted, HHS is dispersing the funds according to existing authorities and the broad parameters set out in the appropriations bills.
- Bioterrorism: Summary of a CRS/National Health Policy Forum Seminar on Federal, State, and Local Public Health Preparedness
- The September 11th attack and subsequent intentional release of anthrax spores via the U.S. postal system have focused policymakers’ attention on the preparedness and response capability of the nation’s public health system. The anthrax attacks put a tremendous strain on the U. S. public health infrastructure, an infrastructure that many experts argue has been weakened by years of neglect and under-funding. To better understand the preparedness gaps that exist, as well as the disparate functions and agencies that define public health in this country, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), in conjunction with George Washington University’s National Health Policy Forum (NHPF), convened a seminar on October 26, 2001, entitled, The U.S. Health Care System: Are State and Local Officials Prepared for Bioterrorism? How Should the Federal Government Assist?
- Medicaid Upper Payment Limits and Intergovernmental Transfers: Current Issues and Recent Regulatory and Legistlative Action
- No Description Available.
- Ergonomics in the Workplace: Is It Time for an OSHA Standard?
- This report debates implementing an OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) standard for ergonomics. This standard would be motivated by the fact that one third of state employer's costs are related to improper ergonomic design causing illness. The report details that standards suggested in the past have been rejected by Congress.
- Bioterrorism: Legislation to Improve Public Health Preparedness and Response Capacity
- While lawmakers work towards final passage of new authorizing legislation, Congress has appropriated $3 billion to the Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) for FY2002 to increase bio-terrorism preparedness at the federal, state, and local levels. HHS anti bio-terrorism funding was included in theFY2002Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill (P.L. 107-116, H.R. 3061) and in the $20 billion emergency spending package (P.L. 107- 117, H.R. 3338). HHS is dispersing the funds according to existing authorities and the broad spending parameters set out in the appropriations bills.