2016 budget increases NIH funding, eliminates AHRQ

The draft fiscal year 2016 Labor, Health and Human Services funding bill would increase funding for the National Institutes of Health by 3.6 percent, it would eliminate the Health & Human Services’ Agency for Health Research on Quality (AHRQ).

The draft bill would keep funding for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT the same as last year at $60.4 million despite the Obama administration's request for an increase to $91.8 million. The bill would cut funding for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services $344 million below 2015 funding levels and $919 million below the administration’s budget request.

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) called aspects of the draft bill troubling, noting that termination of the $465 million AHRQ would severely impact the development of evidence-based care. Health IT research is one of AHRQ’s areas of focus and its 2016 budget request called for a total of $20 million in research grant support.

The AAMC noted that the draft bill rescinds approximately $7 billion from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) and $100 million from the Patient Center Research Outcomes Institutes (PCORI), undercutting “efforts to transform patient care.” They added that “the subcommittee’s allocation is insufficient to meet the nation’s health needs.”