House GOP funding bill would “terminate” AHRQ and ban federal funding of patient-centered outcomes research

Representative Denny Rehberg (R-Montana), chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, released his version of the subcommittee’s fiscal year 2013 appropriations bill funding the departments of Labor, Education, HHS, and related agencies. Key provisions include:

• Terminating the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), effective October 1, 2013.
• Includes a provision that none of the discretionary funds appropriated by this Act may be used to support any patient-centered outcomes research.
• Rescinds funding for the ACA-created Prevention Fund and contains numerous other provisions intended to repeal health care reform efforts.
• Flat funds the National Institutes of Health and cuts the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by 10 percent.

The bill’s long-term prospects will be contested given that certain provisions are strongly opposed by a majority in the Senate, as well as by President Obama.