Congress

The top Democrats on the Senate and House committees that oversee Medicaid told HHS Secretary Alex Azar Wednesday (Aug. 22) not to re-approve Kentucky’s proposed Medicaid work requirements, saying the requirements “contravene longstanding Congressional intent.”

Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act has created an incentive for states to game the system in order to access more federal money, CMS Administrator Seema Verma told members of the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee in her first time testifying on Capitol Hill as the agency’s head.

HHS is touting the fact that drug companies took fewer price increases following the launch of the administration's drug pricing plan, but at the same time says progress on controlling prices should not be pegged on industry’s voluntary actions.

The House Ways & Means Committee plans to send four letters to CMS highlighting ways to relieve administrative burden for hospitals, post-acute care providers, physicians and rural providers as part of its Medicare red tape relief project, but a new report from the committee includes no concrete plans for legislation despite Chair Peter Roskam's (R-IL) call earlier this year for legislative action this summer.

The Association of American Medical Colleges is adding its voice to those raising concerns that CMS' proposed simplification of -- and subsequent cuts to -- evaluation and management coding could hurt providers, and the group says Congress may need to step in to stop the erosion of physician reimbursement.

Representatives of the device industry praised FDA for expanding on concepts included in a diagnostic test oversight bill floating on Capitol Hill, such as creating efficient, predictable pathways to market for diagnostic tests; accrediting third-party organizations to help with the review process; and recognizing the effect of special controls, which exempt certain in vitro clinical tests from premarket review.

A spokesman for the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) said his organization is reaching out to Colorado voters through local radio, television, print and online networks in a bid to pressure Sen. Michael Bennett (CO) to become the medical device tax-repeal bill’s tenth Democratic cosponsor in the Senate.

Dozens of House and Senate lawmakers from both parties are pressing HHS Secretary Alex Azar to revive an earlier proposal, absent from administration's drug-pricing blueprint, to scrap retroactive direct and indirect remuneration fees that Part D plans charge pharmacies.

HHS wrote its controversial short-term plan rule anticipating the agency would be sued. The department added a unique severability clause stating that, if a court invalidated the extended 36-month duration of the short-term plans, the rest of the rule would still be enforced.