Sen. Mike Johanns says the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is violating a transparency amendment he got into last year's appropriations package.
Johanns, R-Neb., talked about the provision today during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the fiscal year 2015 HHS budget request.
Fiscal year 2015 will start Oct. 1.
Outgoing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was not at the hearing. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the HHS secretary nominee, also skipped the meeting.
Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the HHS agency in charge of implementing Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) health insurance market provisions, was unable to attend the hearing because her mother died Tuesday evening.
Johanns said the amendment he got into the 2014 appropriations legislation requires HHS to describe in this year's budget request the sources of money it used to pay for the PPACA exchange program and how it used the money.
