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HHS Regulatory Reform Committee Holds First Meeting

January 11, 2002 - The Department of Health and Human Services Secretary's Advisory Committee on Regulatory Reform held its first meeting on Jan. 7-8. The Committee is part of a new Department-wide initiative to streamline regulatory procedures, particularly in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is charged with assisting Secretary Tommy Thompson to "streamline burdensome, inefficient regulations that interfere with the quality of health care for Americans." Its underlying objectives are to concentrate on issues where practical changes can be made to improve the quality of care for large numbers of patients, and solicit comments from the public to gather insight from all stakeholders. Douglas Wood, M.D., a cardiologist from the Mayo Clinic, chairs the Committee.

The Committee will focus on four general areas: health care delivery, health systems operations, biomedical and health research, and the development of pharmaceuticals and other products. Due to the breadth of topics and sheer size of the committee, subcommittees have been developed to explore issues more comprehensively and effectively, and will report their recommendations to the full committee.

Over the next year, the committee is scheduled to meet three times unless the Secretary determines that additional meetings are necessary. In addition, committee members will conduct field hearings across the country. The input and advice compiled at these hearing will help guide the committee to develop suggestions for reform. Approximately 30 days following each meeting, the committee will present its findings in the form of a written report, and a final report is expected to be issued in the fall.

Additional information, including membership and scheduling is available on the Department's Regulatory Reform Web site. The Department also issued a notice in the Jan. 4 Federal Register [67 FR 599] soliciting formal public comments to the Committee. Comments are due by March 5 and are limited to 5 single-spaced pages. They should be sent to Christy Schmidt, Executive Coordinator, Regulatory Reform Initiative, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, 200 Independence Ave., SW, Washington, DC 20201, or submitted electronically via the Web site listed above.

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