UPDATE: The Senate voted 85-13 on Monday to begin to debate the legislation, Politico Pulse reported, adding that Senate passage could come by Wednesday.
Dive Brief:
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The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to pass the 21st Century Cares Act last week in a 392 to 26 vote, according to Boston Business Journal. The bill includes a total of $6.3 billion in funding for precision medicine initiatives, the “Cancer Moonshot” and substance abuse treatment.
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The bill is heading to the Senate floor today with a vote expected for 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
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The legislation faces opposition from Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who say the bill is too accommodating to the pharmaceutical industry.
Dive Insight:
The 21st Century Cures Act seems poised to pass the Senate before it heads to President Obama and is signed into law. Barring any holdups, the bill will be the most significant healthcare-focused legislation since the Affordable Care Act, according to Healthcare IT News.
The bill, if passed, would deliver $4.8 billion to the National Institutes of Health to help advance Obama's Precision Medicine Initiative, the "Cancer Moonshot" initiative, and the BRAIN initiative, which is meant to improve understanding of diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia. It would also combine with Office for the National Coordinator of Health IT’s Policy and Standards Committees. This would give authority to HHS to investigate charges of information blocking.
Patient advocate groups have supported the Cures Act, but some Senators oppose the bill. “When American voters say Congress is owned by big companies, this bill is exactly what they are talking about,” Warren was quoted in the Boston Business Journal.