| June
30, 2006
This Week in Washington
1. Washington DC Announces Plans to Test Every District Resident
2. Consumer Coalition for Health Privacy Meeting
CARE Act in Brief
1. CARE Act Delayed Through July 4th Recess
2. Representative Towns Submits CARE Act Resolution
Announcements
1. Ronald Johnson and AIDS Action in the News
2. Weekly Update to Break for July 4th
This Week in Washington
1. Washington DC Announces Plans to Test Every District Resident
On Tuesday, June 27, 2006, the Washington D.C. Department of Health’s
Administration for HIV Policy and Programs (an AIDS Action board
member) marked the 12th annual National HIV Testing Day by starting
a campaign to ensure that all District residents, ages 14 to 84,
are screened for HIV and know their HIV status. The kickoff, which
took place in Freedom Plaza between the District’s City Hall and
the White House, attracted hundreds of people even in the midst
of near unprecedented rain in the District.
More than 180 people were tested during the campaign kickoff,
including DC City Council Chairwoman Linda Cropp. People who test
positive during the campaign will be referred to counseling, medical
care, and treatment. Marsha Martin, DSW, Administrator of the
HIV Policy and Progams Administration (and former Executive Director
of AIDS Action) told the Weekly Update, “The launch exceeded all
expectations and shows that people do care about their health.
Screening for HIV has to become routine for all if addressing
this epidemic in the community is to be taken seriously.” The
campaign will ultimately target 400,000 men, women and teenagers
to encourage them to learn their HIV status. “This is the best
thing we could be doing 25 years into this epidemic,” added Dr.
Martin.
Kevin De Cock, M.D. the Director of the Department of HIV/AIDS
of the World Health Organization(WHO) spoke at the kickoff event,
calling the campaign “impressive” and perhaps more importantly,
“doable.” Attendees received HIV screening test in community mobile
vans, and received information about routine HIV testing, the
rapid HIV tests, maternal and family nutrition, STD screening,
and emergency health and medical services. The District decided
to engage in this campaign after a critical report from the Appleseed
Foundation last year. That report can be found at: http://www.dcappleseed.org/projects/publications/HIV.pdf
The campaign is designed to reach out to the
estimated 10,000 people living the District’s population who have
HIV, many of whom are unaware of their infection. The District
estimates that it has 179.2 AIDS cases per 100,000 people, the
highest rate of AIDS cases among cities with populations over
500,000. Of these, it is believed that 25% do not know they are
infected. Research shows that those who know their HIV status
and are connected to care live longer and modify their behavior
to reduce the risk of HIV transmission to others. For additional
information about the HIV Testing campaign, call 202-671-4900
or go to http://doh.dc.gov/doh
and click on HIV/AIDS.
In addition to D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams,
seventeen mayors from across the country invited residents to
get tested on June 27th, including, Houston Mayor Bill White,
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and New Orleans Mayor C. Ray
Nagin. Many communities across the country also held local events
to organize testing and counseling efforts, many for free. National
HIV Testing Day was begun in 1995 by the National Association
of People with AIDS and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More information can be found about the national events at: http://www.napwa.org/
2. Consumer Coalition for
Health Privacy meeting
On Thursday, June 29, 2006, the Consumer Coalition for Health
Privacy (of which AIDS Action is a member) held a briefing to
discuss concerns surrounding privacy issues in health care. AIDS
Action’s Government Affairs Director, Donna Crews attended. The
topics included discussion of: 1) the theft of the computer from
the Veterans Administration with active and retired military personnel’s
data, 2) a new emergency ruling from the Food and Drug Administration
waiving informed consent for experimental lab tests to be conducted
in the event of a public health emergency on an individual who
is alert and able to provide consent if asked, and 3) the new
Department of Health and Human Services voluntary personal health
information database that could avoid a Katrina like catastrophe
with people unable to access their medical records.
The meeting was attended by over 30 advocate
organizations all concerned about the collection of personal information,
the storage of personal information, and the knowledge of individuals
of what personal information is being held by what agencies. The
discussion continued with a representative from the National Conference
of State Legislatures, that has just formed a task force on health
privacy at their organization. One of the issues they will be
reviewing is the differences between state law and the Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).
AIDS Action has learned that Rep. Edward Markey
(D-MA) plans to offer an amendment on privacy issues when the
Health Information Technology bill is debated on the House floor
after the 4th of July recess. The House has not yet determined
which of two bills – Energy and Commerce Committee or Ways and
Means Committee Health IT will be brought to the floor. In November
2005, the Senate passed S.1418 Wired for Health Care Quality Act
which will be conferenced with the version that passes the House.
Rep. Markey has been monitoring and improving privacy issues surrounding
health privacy in the Ryan White CARE Act reauthorization process.
Staff will continue to monitor this important topic, as well as
legislation involving client level data collection. The briefing
materials for the meeting can be accessed at:
http://www.healthprivacy.org/info-url2309/info-url_show.htm?doc_id=379287
CARE Act in Brief
1. CARE Act Delayed Through July 4th Recess
Although House and Senate staffers working on the Ryan White CARE
Act had hoped to hold a “markup” of the bill in the House Energy
and Commerce committee at the beginning of June, it has now been
delayed through at least Congress’ July 4th recess. A markup is
a committee meeting which reviews the text of a bill before reporting
it out of the committee. The delay has occurred while the staffers
who have been negotiating the outcome of the bill wait for results
from requests for data that they have put in to the Government
Accountability Office (GAO) and the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS). The markup would be the next step in the bipartisan,
bicameral negotiating process prior to allowing the bill to be
voted on the floor of the House.
Although AIDS Action does not know exactly what
data has been requested, it is likely that the data being compiled
involves trying to map out a way to move from actual living AIDS
case counts to HIV case counts in the Titles I and II formula
allocation process. It is also likely that negotiators will try
to find a plan to handle formula allocations which will allow
large states with EMAs and currently low HIV counts to retain
funding but also to provide more funding in non-EMA regions of
the country such as the south.
Staffers have said that they believe it is possible to pass a
CARE Act reauthorization bill before the August recess. However,
there are only about 37 actual legislative days left prior to
Congress’s announced goal of recessing for the year in late September.
Nevertheless, once the bill has passed the House committee (it
has already passed the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions
committee) the staff negotiators hope that identical bills will
be passed on the House and Senate floor very quickly either by
unanimous consent in the Senate or on the suspension calendar
in the House. The suspension calendar means that the full house
would consider the bill under a “suspension of the rules” and
that no amendments will be in order and the House must pass the
bill by a two-thirds vote. Neither process would require a great
deal of floor time in either the Senate or the House and could
be accomplished in July or in September after Congress’s August
recess.
2. Representative Towns
Submits CARE Act Resolution
Along with 15 Democratic co-sponsors, Representative Edolphus
Towns (D-NY) introduced House Resolution (HRes 893) on June 26th
expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that any
reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990 should not
impose catastrophic losses in funding for states with the highest
prevalence of HIV/AIDS. The resolution was referred to the House
Energy and Commerce Committee which is responsible for the reauthorization
of the CARE Act.
The text of the bill reads:
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that any
reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990 should not
impose catastrophic losses in funding for States with the highest
prevalence of HIV/AIDS, and for other purposes.
Whereas full Federal funding should be authorized
and appropriated to meet the needs of all persons living with
AIDS and those persons living with HIV to ensure full access to
a continuum of care;
Whereas good Federal fiscal principles and policies
should not create disincentives for States to contribute their
own resources to maintain the health, safety, and welfare of their
populations; and
Whereas States with the highest prevalence of
HIV/AIDS should not incur serious losses in funding in any reauthorization
of the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved,
That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that--
(1) full Federal funding should be authorized and appropriated
for all States to continue the battle against the HIV/AIDS epidemic;
and
(2) any reauthorization of the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990 should
not impose catastrophic losses in funding for States with the
highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS.
The text along with additional information can
also be found at:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.RES.893:
Announcements
1. Ronald Johnson in the News
On June 22, the Advocate.com covered the breaking news about Ronald
Johnson being named as AIDS Action’s Deputy Director. He will
begin his new responsibilities in early September. The Advocates
coverage can be found here. http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid32848.asp
2. Weekly Update to Break For July
4th
Due to the July 4th Holiday and the associated Congressional recess
that will take place next week (the week of July 3rd), the Weekly
Update will not be published on July 7th. The Weekly Update
will resume publication on its regular schedule of July 14th.
The AIDS Action Weekly Update
The Weekly Update is written
with a mind toward the interests of our members. If you are interested
in membership with AIDS Action, we invite you to contact members@aidsaction.org.
AIDS Action works
to end the HIV epidemic by advancing public policies that
prevent new infections, provide care for people living with
HIV, and support the search for a cure. AIDS Action serves
as the national voice for people living with HIV and represents
AIDS service organizations, health departments, and a diverse
network of community-based organizations across the country. |
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