Congress

Despite Senate health committee Chair Lamar Alexander’s (R-TN) ongoing concerns with the 340B drug discount program, 340B reforms were not included in the latest version of the committee’s cost-cutting legislation introduced by Alexander and ranking Democrat Patty Murray (WA) Wednesday (June 19).

Senate health committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and ranking Democrat Patty Murray (WA) ultimately decided not to include drug-pricing provisions that would tie patient coinsurance to net prices instead of list prices and require drug makers to justify price hikes in the committee’s final package on lowering health care costs.

The Senate health committee's final health care cost-cutting legislation attempts to curb surprise medical bills by setting a benchmark payment rate at the median rate for a geographic area for out-of-network care, a decision likely to anger providers who have blasted the policy as government price-setting and likened it to ‘Medicare for All.”

Senators and stakeholders on Tuesday (June 18) said parts of the Senate health committee’s bipartisan package to lower health costs would particularly help rural areas, including provisions on maternal health and telemedicine, but some said more could be done.

Senate health committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) told Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) and the rest of the health committee he is committed to finding a path forward for over-the-counter drug monograph reform legislation that has stalled in the Senate.

The Energy & Commerce health subcommittee's hearing on solutions to end surprise billing, held last Wednesday (June 12), underscored that while policymakers and stakeholders agree patients should be shielded from unexpected medical bills, there are still wide gaps in opinion regarding who should be responsible for the costs.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is working on a bill to tighten privacy protections for health data integrated into third-party applications, including fertility or weight loss mobile apps, according to his office.

Drug pricing is the top priority for House liberals for the next two to four weeks as they try to pull policies to the left before Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) brings legislation to the floor, Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) said Wednesday (June 12).

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) once again took a jab at FDA for “sitting on the sidelines” as the United States grapples with an epidemic of youth use of e-cigarettes, and he laid out the three steps he believes FDA can take right now to stem youth use of the products.