Rate Review, Biofuels Credit Added To H.R. 3962

The Section 104 provision would let the HHS secretary give states up to $1 billion in rate review program grants during a 5-year period that would start in 2010.

Here are some of the other provisions in the manager’s amendment:

- Section 555, which starts on page 14, would create a “second generation biofuel producer credit.” The credit would actually raise about $24 billion over 10 years, because the value of the credit would be more narrowly pegged to the value of the biofuel being produced than the existing biofuel producer credit is, according to Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who has put the proposal in a stand-alone bill, H.R. 3985.

- A section that starts on page 9 appears to incorporate the text of a measure proposed by Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., that would limit the effects of a health care antitrust provision. The provision would block health insurers and medical malpractice insurers from using the insurance industry antitrust exemption in the McCarran-Ferguson Act. The Lungren measure would ensure that insurerers could continue to work together to collect historical loss data and determine loss development factors based on historical loss data. Actuaries could perform actuarial services if doing so did not involve restraint of trade.

- Section 2538, which starts on page 31, calls for the HHS secretary to establish a program that would provide mental health screening, treatment and referral services for individuals in primary care settings. The HHS could create and run the program by awarding grants to, or entering into contracts or cooperative agreements with, a “public or private nonprofit entity” that “provides primary health services” and “seeks to integrate mental health and substance abuse services into its service system.”

- Section 1707A, which starts on page 35, would have the government create offices of minority health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the Food and Drug Administration.

- Section 2594, which starts on page 39, would start a diabetes screening collaboration and outreach program that could involve trade groups and professional societies.