Congress

The House Energy & Commerce health subcommittee will hold a hearing Tuesday (April 30) on the cost of drugs in Medicare Part B and Part D as members prepare to take up bills to lower drug costs for seniors.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Monday (April 22) again detailed plans to find “workable solutions” to improve nursing home oversight after Government Accountability Office and HHS Office of Inspector General reports are out this summer.

House Energy & Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Florida Rep. Donna Shalala (D) on Tuesday (April 16) introduced a bill that would allow FDA to collect user fees for e-cigarettes, raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco to 21, prohibit online sales of tobacco products, ban all characterizing tobacco product flavors, require FDA to finalize rulemaking to implement graphic health warnings for cigarette packages, and hold all deemed tobacco products to the same advertising and sales requirements applied to combustible cigarettes.

Three bipartisan Senate bills to speed approvals of generics and insulin biosimilars were introduced Thursday, and Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, who faces a tough re-election race in Colorado, jumped on the drug-pricing bandwagon by sponsoring a bill to stop brands from abusing citizen petitions.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) warned federal lawmakers that any forthcoming surprise billing legislation should consider state laws on the subject as well as the potential for litigation over any set payment rates.

House and Senate Republicans recently unveiled legislation that would codify the Trump administration’s final rule expanding association health plans (AHPs) in the wake of a recent court ruling that invalidated key provisions in the rule.

HHS should issue guidance to help states understand what therapeutic foster care services can be covered under Medicaid and improve the coordination of those services, federal Medicaid advisers said Thursday (April 11).

New findings from duodenoscope sampling studies show the number of high-concern organisms found on reprocessed duodenoscopes is nearly 2.5% more than what FDA originally reported back in 2018, the agency’s device center director announced Friday (April 12).

Federal Medicaid advisers voted Thursday (April 11) to recommend that Congress change the definition of the so-called Medicaid shortfall in order to re-impose stricter limits on the amount of supplemental payments that disproportionate-share hospitals can receive.