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The Center for Science in the Public Interest, National Consumers League and FDA agreed Friday (Sept. 15) to ask the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to stay the advocacy groups' menu labeling lawsuit, citing FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb's promise to issue new guidance on menu labeling by the end of the year and not alter the underlying rule as instrumental to reaching the agreement.

Hospitals are urging lawmakers to support a bipartisan congressional push spearheaded by Reps. Eliot Engel (D-NY), John Culberson (R-TX) and Steven Palazzo (R-MS) to delay the Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital payment cuts -- which are set to kick in Oct. 1 -- by another two years.

As the Cassidy-Graham health care bill gains steam, some Republican senators are dismayed that the bipartisan market stabilization effort led by health committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Democrat Patty Murray (WA) is being sidelined by the White House and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) throwing their support behind the Cassidy-Graham ACA repeal effort over the Alexander-Murray bipartisan work.

Senate Finance Chair Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has called a committee hearing on the health care bill by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) next Monday.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) aims to have a preliminary assessment of whether the Graham-Cassidy health reform legislation meets reconciliation instructions by early next week.

FDA will release guidance within two months green lighting certain office-use compounding, so long as those 503A pharmacies register as 503B outsourcing facilities, and in exchange these compounders will be subject to “more tailored” manufacturing standards, an agency spokesperson tells Inside Health Policy.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said that Congress should legislatively lay out the government's role in overseeing diagnostic tests, and that the broader diagnostic testing community should work together to understand how to commercialize tests so they better benefit patients.

Congressional Medicaid advisers said Friday (Sept. 15) that they'll probably steer clear of recommendations on Medicaid drug rebates.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) asked HHS Secretary Tom Price whether Congress could do something to help the department prevent cases of nursing home abuse and neglect, and also asked him to provide more details on the HHS Inspector General’s recent “Early Alert” concerning nursing home abuse and neglect.