Rural and Underserved Small Hospital Protection Act of 2021 or the RUSH Protection Act of 2021 This bill applies certain modified payment limits to rural health clinics that temporarily enrolled in Medicare during the public health emergency relating to COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) or that applied to enroll by December 31, 2020. The bill applies retroactively.
Advancing Education on Biosimilars Act of 2021 This bill requires the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to advance education and awareness among health care providers about biological products as appropriate, including by developing or improving continuing education programs that address the prescribing of biological products and biosimilars. (A biosimilar is a biological product that is highly similar to an FDA-approved reference biological product and has no clinically meaningful differences from that reference product.) The FDA may also maintain and operate a website to provide educational materials about biological products.
This bill eliminates the exemption of short-term, limited-duration health insurance plans from the federal requirements for individual health insurance coverage beginning on January 1, 2023. Currently, short-term, limited-duration plans may offer coverage for a limited amount of time and are exempt from the market requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (e.g., coverage of individuals with preexisting conditions).
State Health Care Premium Reduction Act of 2021 This bill establishes and provides funding for the Improve Health Insurance Affordability Fund. States must use allocated funds to (1) issue reinsurance payments to health insurers (i.e., reimbursements to protect insurers against exceedingly high claims) for individual health insurance coverage, or (2) provide other assistance to reduce out-of-pocket costs (e.g., copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles) for qualified health plans offered in the individual market through an exchange. Reinsurance payments using such funds may not be applied to (1) grandfathered health plans in place on March 23, 2010, (2) non-grandfathered transitional plans meeting specified requirements identified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), or (3) student health insurance plans provided by institutions of higher education. The bill appropriates $10 billion per year for the fund, which the CMS must distribute to states in accordance with a specified methodology based on the estimated amount of reinsurance payments for individuals in a state during the given year, subject to specified deductions. Additionally, states must submit applications explaining how they will use such funds. In the event that a state does not submit an application, the bill directs the CMS to allocate the calculated funding amount to reinsurance programs in that state.
Environmental Justice for Coronavirus Affected Communities Act This bill reauthorizes through FY2022 (1) the Environmental Justice Small Grants Program; (2) the Environmental Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Cooperative Agreement Program, which provides financial assistance to address local environmental or public health issues; and (3) the Community Action for a Renewed Environment grant program, which assists communities address multiple sources of toxic pollutants.
Marketing and Outreach Restoration to Empower Health Education Act of 2021 or the MORE Health Education Act This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to conduct outreach and reporting related to federally facilitated exchanges (i.e., health insurance exchanges established and operated within states by HHS). The activities must inform potential enrollees of the availability of coverage and related financial assistance under the exchanges and must be provided in culturally and linguistically appropriate formats. The bill provides funding for the activities. Beginning for plan year 2022, HHS also must publish biweekly reports that include specified metrics about the performance of such exchanges during each annual open enrollment period. Further, after each open enrollment period, HHS must report on how many consumers enrolled in coverage with assistance from patient navigators, the advertising and outreach expenses related to raising awareness about open enrollment, and the amount of monthly user fees collected during the plan year.
Health Care Enrollment Innovation Act This bill funds and requires the Department of Health and Human Services to award grants to states for promoting greater enrollment in health insurance coverage. Grants may be used by the state's primary health and human services agency for activities such as automatically enrolling uninsured individuals who are eligible for premium assistance tax credits in plans through the individual or small group market and establishing a state-level requirement for individuals to enroll in coverage.
Children’s Health Insurance Program Permanency Act or the CHIPP Act This bill permanently extends the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and related measures, programs, and authorities. Specifically, the bill permanently funds CHIP and related programs that support the development of child health quality measures and outreach and enrollment efforts. The bill also permanently authorizes the Medicaid and CHIP express lane eligibility option, which allows states to use information from designated programs (e.g., the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) to streamline eligibility determinations for children. Additionally, under the bill, states may expand eligibility to children whose family income exceeds the otherwise applicable limits.
Medicaid Report on Expansion of Access to Coverage for Health Act or the Medicaid REACH Act This bill reduces federal payment for Medicaid administrative expenses incurred by states that have not elected to participate in Medicaid expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (i.e., nonexpansion states) if the state does not comply with specified reporting requirements. The bill requires nonexpansion states to report, among other information, the number of uninsured individuals under the age of 65 and the estimated percentage of such individuals who would be eligible to receive coverage if the state expanded Medicaid.
Fair Indexing for Health Care Affordability Act This bill revises the method for determining the annual per capita change in health insurance premiums for the purpose of determining the premium adjustment percentage that is used to establish the annual limits on cost sharing for health insurance plans.
Preference for Local Veteran Contractors Act This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to give preference to local contractors for purposes of awarding contracts for the construction or maintenance of a VA facility or for services provided to a particular VA facility or campus. Local contractors are those who submit a bid or proposal and have principal offices or locations within a 60-mile radius of the VA facility covered by the contract. Per the bill, the VA must publish a public notice explaining why a local contractor was not awarded a contract if another contractor is selected. The bill also updates the order of priority for awarding contracts to small business concerns to include priority for local contractors.
VA Medical Center Facility Transparency Act This bill requires the directors of medical facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to submit to the VA and Congress an annual fact sheet containing specified information about their facility of jurisdiction (e.g., the number of veterans treated at the facility) and a quarterly fact sheet containing the average wait time for veterans to receive treatment at the facility. The required fact sheets must be made publicly available in physical form at each medical facility and in an electronic form on the facility's website.
