Because of the tight spending climate this year, with regards to programs authorized through the TBI Act, BIAA and other TBI stakeholders have opted to advocate for a five year plan in achieving the full funding of $37 million to provide grants to all states including the District of Columbia, the American Indian Consortium and territories.

Increasing the program by $1 million this year will provide funding necessary to sustain the grants for the 15 states currently receiving funding along with the three additional states added this year and to ensure funding for four additional states. Steady increases over five years for this program will provide for each state including the District of Columbia and the American Indian Consortium and territories to sustain and expand state service delivery; and to expand the use of the grant funds to pay for such services as Information & Referral (I&R), service coordination and other necessary services and supports identified by the state.

BIAA has implemented the same strategy throughout its appropriations platform by asking for incremental increases towards a long-term funding goal, specifically for TBI Act programs:

• $10 million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention TBI Registries and Surveillance, Brain Injury Acute Care Guidelines, Prevention and National Public Education/Awareness (an increase of $4 million)
• $8 million for the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Federal TBI State Grant Program (an increase of $1 million)
• $4 million for the HRSA Federal TBI Protection & Advocacy (P&A) Systems Grant Program (an increase of $1 million)

With respect to the TBI Model Systems, BIAA is advocating for an additional $1.5 for a total of $11 million in FY 2011, in order to add one new Collaborative Research Project. This moderate increase would go towards the five year goal of $19 million as well as “line-item” status within the broader NIDRR budget.

On January 29, 2010, BIAA and other stakeholders presented appropriations requests to the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force, who adopted the plan and is currently garnering support through its membership. BIAA also has met with both House and Senate Appropriations Committee Staff to advocate for these program funding increases.

Look for grassroots action alerts in the coming weeks as the appropriations process moves forward.

One of the major consequences of spinal cord injury is death of neurons after the injury and the inability of surviving neurons to regenerate and repair their connections. This secondary injury can continue for even years after the incident and much research has been focused on promoting regeneration.

A recent animal study evaluated the benefit of cord blood stem cells injected into the injured spinal area. Using genetic markers, the researchers discovered that these stem cells could slow the secondary death of neurons. Cord blood stem cells seem to act as a neuroprotective agent (by slowing neuron death) so that there might be greater chance at regenerating surviving neurons.

Animal studies usually only help to define future human studies. Therefore the use of stem cells for spinal cord injury still needs a good deal of research before becoming a therapeutic treatment for patients. However, studies such this one show potential neuroprotective and neuroregenerative results, and help define the future of spinal cord therapy.

Dasan VR, Veeravalli KK, Tsung AJ, et al. Neuronal apoptosis is inhibited by cord blood stem cells after spinal cord injury. Journal of Neurotrauma. (November 2009).

BIAA and our friends at the Wounded Warrior Project are currently working towards enactment of legislation establishing a national program to provide training and critically-needed supports to family caregivers of veterans living with traumatic brain injuries and other severe wounds.

Reported in the Senate, S. 801, the Caregiver and Veterans Health Services Act of 2009, would provide comprehensive supports for caregivers of veterans who sustained severe injuries after September 11, 2001. The bill has been approved by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and is awaiting floor action.

To take action and support this bill, click on the link below to be directed to our legislative action center!

http://capwiz.com/bia/home

This week the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has been continuing to consider its version of the health care overhaul, while the Finance Committee has yet to begin formal markups, but continues to discuss policy behind closed doors.

In the House, The chairmen of the Energy and Commerce, Education and Labor, and Ways and Means Committees are working on a final draft of a bill that could be released at any time. The House committees plan to mark up the legislation next week.

On July 2, 2009, BIAA circulated comments to the House Committees of Jurisdiction applauding their “efforts to design health care reform that will improve the accessibility, quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of patient care.”

More specifically, the comments expressed BIAA’s support of the protections and standards for qualified health plans included in the draft, such as no imposition of pre-existing condition exclusions, guaranteed access to essential benefits (including rehabilitation services), guaranteed issue and renewal, adequacy of provider networks, limits on cost sharing, no annual or lifetime limits on coverage, and consumer protections.

To see a full copy of the comments, click on the following link:

http://www.biausa.org/elements/policy/2009/biaa_house_tri_committee_health_reform_comments.pdf

BIAA will continue to follow the health care reform considerations carefully and advocate on behalf of the brain injury community.

As part of the Coalition for Regenerative Stem Cell Medicine, BIAA enthusiastically endorses two important pieces of legislation aimed at advancing the therapeutic potential of newborn stem cells, the unique stem cells that can be collected immediately following birth from umbilical cord blood and the cord itself, as well as helping to advance the use of one’s own newborn stem cells in regenerative medicine.

HR 1718 – The “Family Cord Blood Banking Act” amends Section 213(d) of the IRS Code to add cord blood banking services as a qualified medical expense. This change will allow individuals and couples to use tax advantaged dollars to pay for umbilical cord blood banking services through flexible spending accounts (FSAs), health savings accounts (HSAs) health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs) or the medical expenses tax deduction.

The “Family Cord Blood Banking Act” will make cord blood banking more affordable for American families and provides incentives to ensure that this valuable health resource is never thrown away.

HR. 2107 – The “Cord Blood Education and Awareness Act of 2009″ will provide expectant mothers with straightforward, accurate and easy to understand information about the value of their child’s umbilical cord blood stem cells. It will offer a government stamp of approval on all available cord blood banking options and will give expectant parents confidence in the information they are reviewing.

This week BIAA learned of two important victories centered around cognitive rehabilitation services. Anthem Insurance Companies (Anthem BC/BS, Anthem Health Plans) revised its cognitive rehabilitation coverage policy in December 2008 and cited BIAA’s position paper among the authoritative sources consulted. Last month, United Health Care followed suit by publishing a coverage change in its May 2009 Network Bulletin .

Also this week, BIAA sent a letter to President Obama urging TRICARE coverage for service members. This is a follow up to the summit hosted by the Defense Centers of Excellence in April 2009, which was prompted by Congressional inquiries BIAA initiated last summer.

http://www.biausa.org/

Insurance coverage of cognitive rehabilitation has been a centerpiece of BIAA’s policy efforts for the past three years. The Anthem and United Health Care coverage policies are important victories for people with brain injury as they provide fuel for our TRICARE advocacy and health care reform fight.

BIAA will continue to fight for TRICARE to cover cognitive rehabilitation services to ensure that our returning service members have access to the best health care available.

On Tuesday, a Senate panel approved the nomination of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be Health and Human Services secretary, clearing the way for her expected confirmation, although the timing of a vote is unclear.

BIAA will watch this process closely as Healthcare Reform continues to take shape.

On Wednesday, President Obama signed a major expansion of health insurance for children after the House cleared the bill (H.R. 2) earlier in the day.

The SCHIP bill, which BIAA supports, will provide $32.8 billion extra over the next four and a half years for the program, an amount estimated to allow coverage of an additional 4.1 million children. (Congressional Quarterly)

This week former U.S. Senator Tom Daschle withdrew from consideration to become the next Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. Some consider Daschle’s withdrawal to be a blow to efforts to enact timely reform of the nation’s health care system, as he was viewed as someone uniquely qualified to take this project on, due to his knowledge of health policy and many close relationships in the Senate.

In addition to nominating him to become Secretary of Health and Human Services, President Obama had also planned for Daschle to serve as head of a newly created White House Office of Health Reform.

Daschle’s abrupt withdrawal came after he was questioned about his failure to pay all the taxes that he owed after leaving the Senate in 2005. BIAA anticipates that there will be a new nominee announced within the next few weeks and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.

The month of January in Sacramento has sadly been like the most previous recent months in Sacramento when it comes to the Legislature and Governor successfully dealing with California’s Budget crisis. That is: no resolution to date.

The $41 billion Budget deficit has now over shadowed any and all legislative actions and plans.

We are currently among every other represented group in Sacramento trying to get legislators and the Governor’s attention to our issues, and unfortunately, with little success. To date, less then 300 bills have been introduced, wherein during a typical Session over 900 would have been introduced. Not a single committee hearing has taken place on ANY legislation other than proposals related to developing a Budget solution.

Until the Budget crisis is resolved, no other legislative issues will be addressed. We continue our efforts with leaders in the Senate to promote our Brain Injury Initiative proposals. Once the Budget is addressed, we will be on our way.