With Congress in recess, it was a relatively quiet week on Capitol Hill, although updates from House Republicans continued to trickle in as leadership announced committee assignments for the new Congress.
House Republicans Make Additional Committee Assignments. The House Republican Steering Committee met this week despite the congressional recess. The Steering Committee announced new members of various committees, along with new ratios of Republicans to Democrats on the so-called “A” committees.
For the Energy and Commerce Committee, Republicans will have 29 seats and Democrats will have 23 seats (a reduction of three seats from each side). For the Ways and Means Committee, Republicans will have 25 seats and Democrats will have 18 seats (the same size as last Congress). For the Appropriations Committee, Republicans will have 34 seats and Democrats will have 27 seats (one less seat on each side).
The House Appropriations Committee also named its subcommittee chairs. The Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education Subcommittee will be chaired by Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL), who was previously the ranking member on the Commerce, Justice and Science Subcommittee. Chairing the Labor-HHS subcommittee, which controls most health-related appropriations, is a new role for him.
House Democrats will need to remove a small number of members on key committees now that they are in the minority, and those announcements are expected to be made in the coming weeks, along with completion of the remaining committee rosters on both sides of the aisle.
Once committee rosters are set, subcommittee determinations are made, and staff is put in place, committee leaders will begin to lay out their agendas and announce initial hearings for the 118th Congress.
CMS Announces Accountable Care Updates. On January 17, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the growth of three accountable care initiatives in 2023, aimed at providing higher quality care to more than 13.2 million Medicare beneficiaries.
More than 700,000 healthcare providers and organizations will participate in at least one of the three accountable care initiatives, which comprise groups of doctors, hospitals and other healthcare providers that collaborate to provide coordinated, high-quality care to Medicare patients. CMS noted that this growth will advance its goal of having all traditional Medicare beneficiaries in an accountable care relationship with their healthcare provider by 2030.
The announcement from CMS included the following programs:
The House and Senate are both in session next week, and additional announcements of committee assignments are expected.
For more information, contact Debra Curtis, Kristen O’Brien or Erica Stocker.
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