Congress

The House Ways & Means Committee on Wednesday (June 26) advanced five Medicare-related bills, including legislation to expand coverage of telehealth services for mental health treatment, eliminate beneficiary cost-sharing for chronic care management services, and add 1,000 new residency slots under the Graduate Medical Education program.

Lawmakers in the House and Senate are pushing for Congress to pass legislation that would reform FDA’s over-the-counter drug regulatory system, as they say it not only will ensure the safety of OTC drug products and allow for more innovation in the space, it also will increase consumer access and help lower health care costs.

Senate health committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said Wednesday (June 26) that he sees no reason why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) would not move forward with a Senate vote on a bipartisan package on lowering health costs that the committee passed Wednesday 20-3.

The House passed a minibus funding package on Tuesday (June 25) that aims to give FDA a $184 million funding boost over fiscal 2019 levels and redirect $100,000 from the agency’s general purpose funding towards its efforts to establish a safe, lawful level of cannabidiol (CBD) to be allowed in food and dietary supplements.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) bipartisan tobacco-to-21 bill has made its way into the Senate health committee’s health care costs legislation that will be marked up Wednesday (June 26).

Ahead of the Senate health committee's mark-up of surprise billing legislation a former GOP solicitor general is questioning the constitutionality of the bill’s benchmark-payment rate policy, and stakeholder groups are urging the committee to change its methodology to a baseball-style arbitration process.

The House passed legislation Tuesday (June 18) to stop authorized generics from lowering the rebates that drug companies must pay in Medicaid. The rebate measure was also included in the president’s budget request.

The House late on Tuesday (June 18) passed legislation that would fund the Money Follows the Person demonstration through 2024, preserve asset protections for the spouses of Medicaid beneficiaries who receive long term care benefits and extend the Community Mental Health Services Demonstration.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley opposes indexing prices of Medicare Part B drugs to those in foreign countries, but the Iowa Republican thinks that third-party vendors should negotiate prices for Part B specialty drugs that are in short supply.