House passes health care bills, including several to reform MA program

The House of Representatives this week passed a number of health care bills, including a set of bills that would reform the Medicare Advantage program. Included in the package of MA bills were the AHA-supported Medicare Advantage Coverage Transparency Act (H.R. 2505), which would require annual reporting of enrollment data in MA plans, and the AHA-supported Increasing Regulatory Fairness Act (H.R. 2507), which would expand the annual notice and comment period for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ MA rate notice to at least 60 days from the current 45 days. In addition, the House this week passed a bill that would repeal the 2.3% tax on many medical devices that took effect in 2013.