Senate Finance Bill Zeroes in on Entities CMS Pays That Also Do Exomes & Genomes in China, Russia

In mid August, the Senate passed a 340 page bill related to Department of Defense, NIH, and CMS funding.   If you read to page 277, there is a section regarding CMS payments to entities that do exome and genome funding in China.

Full Bill
https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr6157/BILLS-115hr6157eas.pdf

Page 277-278

 SEC. 251. Not later than 90 days after the enactment
24 of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human Services
25 shall submit a report to the Committee on Appropriations
and the Committee on Finance of the Senate and the Com-

2 mittee on Appropriations and the Committee on Ways and
3 Means of the House of Representatives, detailing the cir-
4 cumstances in which the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid 
5 Services may be providing Medicare or Medicaid payments 
6 to, or otherwise funding, entities that process genome or 
7 exome data in the People’s Republic of China or the Rus-
8 sian Federation. The report shall outline the extent to which
9 payments or other funding have been provided to such enti-
10 ties over the past 5 years, including amounts paid to each
11 entity, the implications of such payments, including
12 vulnerabilities, and specific recommendations on steps to
13 ensure that payments are lawful and appropriate in the
14 future. In developing the report, the Secretary shall also co-
15 ordinate with other relevant agencies, as determined by the
16 Secretary, to examine the potential effect of allowing bene-
17 ficiaries’ genome or exome data to be processed in the Peo-
18 ple’s Republic of China or the Russian Federation on
19 United States national security, United States intellectual
20 property protections, HIPAA privacy protections, future
21 biomedical development capabilities and competitiveness,
22 and global competitiveness for United States laboratories.