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On Wednesday, the House passed a landmark medical innovation package – 21st Century Cures – to accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of new cures and treatments. It also provides new funding for the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration. The legislative package includes comprehensive reforms to our nation’s mental health treatment system as well as funding to combat the opioid abuse epidemic.
Eighth District Congressman Larry Bucshon’s bill to reduce fraud in the Medicaid program (H.R. 3716) is included to help fully fund the $6.3 billion package without adding to the deficit.
“As a physician who has cared for patients and relied on medical innovation, I can say without a doubt that 21st Century Cures will save lives and give families hope for the future,” said Bucshon. “Nearly 10,000 diseases, like ALS and Alzheimer’s, are still without a cure. This legislative package will incentivize the development and discovery of new treatments and improve the delivery of care to patients who so badly need it. It also implements our previous legislative work to reform how mental health is treated and expands on our efforts to address the opioid abuse epidemic. I’m proud to have been a part of this historic process and pleased the savings in my legislation to rid Medicaid of fraudulent providers is helping to fund this much-needed investment in the discovery, development, and delivery of life-saving cures and treatments.”
BACKGROUND:
Cutting-Edge Cures: from Discovery to Treatment:
The 21st Century Cures Act, an innovation game-changer that includes significant investments, $5.3 billion in total, to accelerate the discovery, development, and delivery of cutting-edge, life-saving cures and treatments.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH):
21st Century Cures catalyzes cutting-edge research at NIH and helps ensure our health system can keep pace with new advances in science and technology by advancing precision medicine, supporting young and emerging scientists, facilitating collaborative research, promoting pediatric research, and other innovative solutions. It also invests:
- $1.4 billion for the Precision Medicine Initiative to drive research into the genetic, lifestyle and environmental variations of disease.
- $1.8 billion for the "Cancer Moonshot” to speed up the research and development of cancer cures.
- $1.6 billion for the BRAIN initiative to improve our understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases like Alzheimer's.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA):
21st Century Cures makes significant reforms to the FDA that will modernize clinical trials and evidence development, bring the FDA into the 21st century, improve the medical device review process, reduce unnecessary regulation, and empower patients to participate in research and development to help expedite the development and review of new life-saving treatments. It also directs $500 million in additional funding to the FDA to accomplish these goals.
Landmark Mental Health Reforms:
The 21st Century Cures package includes landmark reforms to the nation’s mental health treatment system that passed the House in July. The reforms, introduced in H.R. 2646, the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, help ensure mental and substance use disorder prevention, treatment, and recovery programs keep pace with science and technology so that patients with mental illness have access to the treatment they need when they need it.
Combating Opioid Abuse Disorder:
Earlier this year, Congress passed and the President signed into law comprehensive legislation to address the opioid abuse epidemic impacting communities across the country. 21st Century Cures builds on that success by including $1 billion in state grants to fight opioid abuse.
Fully funded:
The investments made by 21st Century Cures are fully funded in part due to savings incurred by legislation introduced by Congressman Bucshon. Bucshon’s bill, H.R. 3716 the Ensuring Access to Quality Medicaid Providers Act, strengthens the Medicaid program and saves taxpayer dollars by ridding the program of bad actors. Specifically, the bill ensures that providers terminated from Medicare or a state Medicaid program for reasons of fraud, integrity, or quality, are terminated from all other state Medicaid programs.
Congressman Larry Bucshon, M.D. is a physician and Republican member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee serving his third term representing Indiana's 8th Congressional district. The 8th District of Indiana includes all or parts of Clay, Crawford, Daviess, Dubois, Gibson, Greene, Knox, Martin, Owen, Parke, Perry, Pike, Posey, Spencer, Sullivan, Vanderburgh, Vermillion, Vigo, and Warrick counties.
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