The @SenateHELP ‘‘Lower Health Care Costs Act’’ just dropped
I—ENDING SURPRISE MEDICAL BILLS
II—REDUCING THE PRICES OF PRESCRIPTION DRUGS
III—IMPROVING TRANSPARENCY IN HEALTH CARE
IV—IMPROVING PUBLIC HEALTH
V—IMPROVING THE EXCHANGE OF HEALTH
INFORMATION
help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…
Full text here: help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/…
Congress hates to get involved in private contracts. The fact that we are here is testament to just how abusive & immoral the behaviors of certain providers has been. Every one of these provisions has 1000 constituent letters behind it
Good!
the patient’s costs for out-of-network care, and referrals for alternative options
for in-network care. If not given adequate notice, patient protected from surprise bills or out-of-network costs
a) In-Network Guarantee
b) Independent Dispute Resolution
c) Benchmark for Payment
fair enough (I like option a, in case you're curious)
Again, every measure listed here is written because of specific abuses, many of which @ScottGottliebMD warned against and did his best through guidance and clarification to head off, but needed legislation to clean up
Read all about it from @ScottGottliebMD here: fda.gov/news-events/pr…
commonwealthfund.org/publications/f…
Pharma costs are a lot less than hospital costs, and a big driver of hospital costs has been lack of competition/ anticompetitive behavior
modernhealthcare.com/government/sen… @SusannahLuthi
This goes to the heart of monopoly rents. Pay me cause I said so, not cause I'm worth it. washingtonpost.com/national/healt…
Yes. I hope @HealthCostInst is eligible!
"Authorizes grants to states to maintain or create similar transparency initiatives."
(I am somewhat skeptical - there's a huge lift here, and execution risk IMO)
I'm not sure if 30 days is the right number, but the concept makes sense to me. I imagine there was more than one constituent who got a bill more than a year later for something they can't even remember.
I'm all for that! (and it should help get some Dem support in the house too)
Glad to see not only support for vaccines and maternal mortality but also fundamental strengthening of the state/local public heath infrastructure
@deBeaumontFndtn
Yes! Great support of the @ONC_HealthIT @CMSGov @SeemaCMS #BlueButton #MyHealtheData agenda- applied to commercial payers
APIS for health insurance claims data; in-network practitioners; expected out-of-pocket costs.
Sec. 503. GAO study on the privacy and security risks of electronic transmission
of individually identifiable health information to and from entities not covered by
the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
@HealthPrivacy @SavageLucia
Committees of jurisdiction can add in other measures like site-neutral payments (a pay-for!) +support for rural hospitals-but it's a great start