The agency is expected to expand the number of 340B health facilities that will be affected by payment cuts for all physician-administered drugs, multiple industry sources tell POLITICO’s Sarah Karlin-Smith.
The proposed rule would slash by nearly 30 percent Medicare Part B drug payments to 340B hospital outpatient facilities offsite similar to cuts that took effect in January but were limited to locations physically connected to participating hospitals. The change is likely to come in the physician fee schedule rule, but could also be made in the hospital outpatient prospective payment system rule. More for Pros.
The move would likely be cast as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to decrease the cost of medicines, Sarah notes.
President Donald Trump in May pledged that drug companies would soon announce massive price cuts, but dozens of firms instead raised them. Pfizer’s decision this week to delay price hikes and only for six months or less was the first result that the administration has been able to tout.
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SPEAKING OF TRUMP’S PROMISES: THE INCREDIBLY SLIDING SHORT-TERM HEALTH PLAN RULE It’s been more than three weeks since the president implied that the final rule on the plans, which would be exempt from many Obamacare requirements and likely siphon customers out of the ACA market, was just two weeks away.
“We’re going to be announcing health care another form of health care in about two weeks, and it’s going to be very exceptional,” Trump said at an event on June 20, after unveiling the association health plan rule.
But the timeframe got longer as the original deadline got closer. “Secretary [Alex] Azar is coming out in three weeks with a massive plan,” Trump said on June 28, speaking at a Foxconn facility. “You won’t believe it.”
WHAT YOU MISSED AT THE APPROPRIATIONS MARKUP The House Appropriations Committee’s marathon session stretched into last night, and POLITICO’s Adam Cancryn filed several updates on key health care measures.
GOP blocks Democratic bids to reinstate funding for Title X, Planned Parenthood. The committee voted along party lines, 29-22, against funding the Title X program dedicated to family planning and preventive health services. They also rejected an amendment, by the same margin, that would have stripped out language to defund Planned Parenthood.
That sets up a showdown with Senate appropriators, who have already agreed on a bipartisan basis to maintain funding for both Title X and Planned Parenthood in their own fiscal 2019 spending bill. More on the Title X vote for Pros here.
GOP blocks funding for gun violence research. The party-line 32-20 vote marked Democrats’ latest failed bid to spur studies into preventing firearm-related injuries and deaths and comes despite a bipartisan agreement earlier this year that the CDC is permitted to conduct such research. More for Pros here.
Adam’s late-night appropriations wrap-up – spoiler: they approved the $177.1 billion Labor-HHS-Education spending bill for fiscal 2019 for Pros here.
THIS IS THURSDAY PULSE Where our newsletter markup never ends. Thanks to Brianna Ehley for covering yesterday, your regular author is here to take you through the weekend.
A message from CVS Health: At CVS Health, we see every day the impact rising drug prices have on our patients. That’s why we have developed and supported innovative solutions to lower patients’ out-of-pocket costs and make medicines more accessible. Learn how we’re supporting market-based solutions and protecting patients from rising drug prices.
THE MIGRANT CRISIS: Bipartisan angst mounts over Trump administration’s border policy. One key flashpoint Wednesday was at the House Appropriations Committee’s markup, with Republicans joining Democrats to warn HHS that they’re not satisfied with the slow pace of family reunifications and demanded more information.
Appropriators unanimously backed a Democratic proposal that threatens to cut $100,000 per day from Secretary Azar’s office budget if he fails to explain to Congress by August how HHS is reunifying children and parents separated under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” border policy. More for Pros.
The panel also endorsed language prohibiting officials from separating migrant siblings, and banning the forced medication of kids housed by the health agency and its contractors.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats citing POLITICO’s reporting say Azar’s comments and actions suggest that he was “uncertain about the statements [he] made to the Finance Committee” last month about the reunification process, raising questions about whether his testimony was truthful. Read the letter.
The lawmakers also called for Azar to fire Scott Lloyd, the embattled refugee office chief who has kept a low public profile.
“We have no confidence in the leadership of Mr. Lloyd, who has little to no background in refugee resettlement, has not made a single public statement regarding this crisis under his leadership, and is instead known as an anti-abortion crusader,” the Democrats wrote.
Rachel Maddow, after reading POLITICO’s story on Azar’s reluctant stewardship of the crisis: “Sometimes I read the news, and I think I might be dead, and I’ve gone to Hell and this is what the news is like in Hell.” Video.
Today: Trump administration must provide more reunification details. U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman this morning will hear how the administration plans to reunify three Central American migrants with their children border, POLITICO’s Renuka Rayasam reports.
The migrants are asking for immediate reunifications, and their lawyers plan to press the government for logistical details after “torturous” weeks-long separations.
“The Government offers vague promises that it is working to reunite these families, without committing to a timeline,” the migrants’ lawyers wrote in a filing Monday. “Due Process requires more.”
Friedman has said the government must explain today how the three families will be reunified and why the separations occurred in the first place. He previously rejected the government’s argument that the families shouldn’t get those details because they’re likely part of the ACLU’s separate class-action lawsuit.
Date: July 12, 2018
