Congress Continues Focus On Health Policy; More Hearings On The Congressional Agenda

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has scheduled three hearings this week on health topics:

• A July 24 hearing on advertising and marketing practices within the substance use treatment industry;
• A July 25 hearing on FDA and NIH implementation of the 21^st Century Cures Act; and
• A July 26 hearing on the Medicare Merit-based Incentive Payment System for physicians.

These hearings follow several other recent health policy committee hearings and markups, including the following:

• Energy & Commerce subcommittee hearings examined state efforts to improve transparency of health costs, mental health provisions of the 21^stCentury Cures Act, and the 340B drug pricing program.
• The Energy & Commerce Committee approved the following public health bills:  HR 6378, the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act; HR 959, the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act; HR 1676, the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act; HR 3728, the Educating Medical Professionals and Optimizing Workforce Efficiency Readiness Act; and HR 5385, the Children's Hospital GME Support Reauthorization Act.
• The House Ways and Means Committee held hearings on combating Medicare fraud and modernizing the Stark Law to address value-based care.  The Committee also approved several bills to promote health savings accounts and make other health-related tax code changes.
• The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held a hearing on "Reducing Health Care Costs:  Eliminating Excess Health Care Spending and Improving Quality and Value for Patients."

This article is presented for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice.