FYI from the NHLBI Index

On March 23, 2010 the President signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148). The new law, which makes major changes to the U.S. health care system, contains a number of provisions relevant to the NIH and the NHLBI. For example:

• The law authorizes the NHLBI Director to expand, intensify, and coordinate congenital heart disease research and requires the NHLBI Director to consider the application of congenital heart disease research to minority and medically underserved communities.
• The law prohibits health insurers from denying an individual access to an approved clinical trial and requires that routine patient costs be covered. Approved clinical trials are those approved or funded by certain government agencies, including the NIH.
• A non-profit institute called the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) will be established to set research priorities and a research agenda. PCORI will conduct or support comparative effectiveness research and set all the related research parameters. NIH will be a member of the Board of Governors and Methodology Committee.