Legislation that would renew the U.S. FDA’s user fee programs is stuck in process on Capitol Hill, a predicament that seems to resist resolution to date. FDA commissioner Robert Califf said on a July 12 webinar that the FDA “is a decision-making machine” that is reliant on both user fees and congressional appropriations, and that a failure on the part of Congress to act on user fee legislation may force the agency to halt new hires and possibly lay off some FDA staff.
Several telehealth bills are in circulation on Capitol Hill, but U.S. federal government agencies have expressed concerns about the potential for fraud and abuse, and the impact on Medicare spending. Despite those concerns, two key members of the House Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee, Reps. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), said during a March 2 hearing that they have misgivings about those cautionary views of telehealth, suggesting that any related legislation will aggressively expand Medicare coverage of telehealth.
The latest version of legislation for regulatory reform has arrived, and the conventional wisdom may be that the Verifying Accurate, Leading-Edge IVCT Development (VALID) Act will not be passed until the next user fee agreement is codified into law. Nonetheless, Susan Van Meter, executive director of AdvamedDx, told BioWorld that the associated reforms are urgently needed by patients and test developers alike, and there is consequently no need to wait for user fee legislation to pass the VALID Act.
Whether it's mere political posturing or a genuine prescription to control U.S. drug prices, a Democratic plan taking shape in the House provides an idea of what direct government negotiation might look like.
Faced with a tradeoff between low Medicare premiums that benefit all beneficiaries and lower out-of-pocket costs that benefit the sickest beneficiaries, the Trump administration chose lower premiums, sinking a proposed rule that would have pulled drug rebates from the safe antikickback harbor.
The striking of a Health and Human Services (HHS) rule requiring TV ads for prescription drugs to include list prices may turn up the temperature on the political roasting of biopharma companies – and stoke the pressure for Congress to do something about those prices.
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