A Federal Agency that seems to be the enemy of Corporations
Earlier this summer, when the House Subcommittee on Appropriations Bill for Fiscal Year 2013 was considered, Republicans included a provision (section 227) to get rid of the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
The AHRQ conducts systematic reviews of medical evidence to better inform providers and patients about which treatments seem to work. It does so by evaluating how new treatments stack up to other existing therapies, and by evaluating whether there is good supporting evidence to recommend them. This research, then, helps people make smarter decisions about medical care by analyzing what is known and by making available information about the comparative effectiveness of different treatments.