On December 17, 2019, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) reintroduced legislation to address the backlog of Medicare appeals cases awaiting review before an...more
1/13/2020
/ Administrative Appeal Office ,
Administrative Appeals ,
Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ,
Health Care Providers ,
Medicare ,
Ombudsman ,
OMHA ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) ,
Senate Finance Committee
On September 19, 2019, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) released H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act, to make a series of changes to Medicare to lower the price of prescription drugs. The bill must move through three...more
On May 23, 2019, Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) released the Lower Health Care Costs Act of 2019 – bipartisan draft legislation to reduce...more
5/30/2019
/ Congressional Committees ,
Congressional Investigations & Hearings ,
Drug Pricing ,
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) ,
Health Technology ,
Healthcare ,
Healthcare Costs ,
Prescription Drugs ,
Proposed Legislation ,
Public Health ,
Surprise Medical Bills ,
Transparency
Last week, three House Committees held hearings about protecting the Affordable Care Act (ACA), receiving testimony from patient advocates, researchers, and ACA supporters. Members of both parties supported preserving...more
United States District Court Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas issued a ruling on Friday, December 14, 2018, declaring the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) unconstitutional in its entirety....more
In a November 9, 2018 comment submitted to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (“NTIA”), the staff of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) called for a balanced...more
On October 29, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) Eric Hargan announced the official opening of the Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center (“HC3”). Deputy Secretary Hargan...more
After passing the U.S. House of Representatives on September 28, 2018 by a vote of 393-8 and passing the U.S. Senate on October 3 by a vote of 98-1, H.R. 6, the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery...more
On October 1, 2018, in response to concerns about the risks of cyberattacks on patient medical devices, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D. announced the release of a cybersecurity...more
On September 13, 2018, the House Financial Services Committee approved H.R. 6743, the Consumer Information Notification Requirement Act, by a vote of 32-20. Introduced earlier this month by Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer...more
On September 12, 2018, the U.S. House of Representatives approved by voice vote four bipartisan bills to amend various provisions of the Medicare program. A summary of each bill is below....more
On July 31, the U.S. Department of the Treasury (“Treasury”) released a report outlining recommendations to streamline and modernize the regulatory environment to “better support nonbank financial institutions, embrace...more
On July 5, 2018, the Bank of England (“BoE”) and the regulators the Prudential Regulation Authority (“PRA”) and the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) published a joint discussion paper “to share the supervisory authorities’...more
This November, voters in California are expected to decide whether to adopt new online privacy requirements. Californians for Consumer Privacy, formed by Alastair Mactaggart, a California real estate developer who has donated...more
Several House and Senate committees are examining various legislative solutions as part of a comprehensive effort to address the opioid crisis. In one such instance, the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee last week...more
On May 2, House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-NJ) released a discussion draft of the Medicare Long-Term Care Services and Supports (LTSS) Act of 2018, to establish a new LTSS benefit within the...more
On March 21, by a vote of 97 to 2, the Senate approved H.R. 1865, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (“FOSTA”). This bipartisan legislation, which makes targeted amendments to Section 230 of the...more
At the end of last week, Congress approved, and the President signed into law, a $1.3 trillion spending package, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 or H.R. 1625, finalizing discretionary spending for the 12 annual...more
On February 9, 2018, after passing the House and Senate, the President signed into law the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA). The BBA amends the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA) to increase the spending caps on both defense...more
The House and Senate negotiators emerged on Friday, December 15, 2017, with a compromise tax reform proposal that would overhaul the Internal Revenue Code for the first time since 1986. Nonprofit hospitals and other...more
In the early hours of Saturday, December 2, 2017, the Senate approved its version of tax reform legislation, S. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, by a vote of 51-49. All Republican Senators except Senator Bob Corker (R-TN)...more
On October 24, 2017, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing to examine HHS public health preparedness for and response to the 2017 hurricane season. The hearing addressed...more
Last week, Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-WA) announced they had reached an agreement on a short-term, bipartisan health insurance...more
On October 12, 2017, the White House press office announced that the Trump Administration would no longer make cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments to insurers, which it referred to as a “bailout of insurance companies...more
Last week, Senate Republicans scrapped plans to vote on the ACA repeal and replace bill authored by Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA). Senate Republicans had planned to use the budget reconciliation...more