STAT+: FTC plans to reverse years of policy statements supporting pharmacy benefit managers
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is reversing years of prior advocacy in support of pharmacy…
Category: Congress
Opinion: I introduced the ADA 35 years ago. Now Congress needs to act to ban a practice that devalues disabled lives
Thirty-five years ago, I was proud to introduce the Americans with Disabilities Act in the…
Opinion: A program to bring internet access to low-income people is running out of money. Health care will suffer
This past winter, one of us, Alister, was speaking with the daughter of an elderly…
Key lawmaker blasts Congress’ efforts on addiction: ‘Shame on us’
A Democratic congressman on Wednesday blasted a bipartisan set of proposals focused on addiction, arguing…
Opinion: Policymakers who want to regulate AI need to start talking to health care industry representatives
Recently, the fervor over artificial intelligence has given way to expressions of fears of the…
STAT+: Bernie Sanders adds three drug shortage policies to pandemic preparedness bill
WASHINGTON — Senate health committee Chair Bernie Sanders added three drug shortage measures to a…
STAT+: Conservative group opposing PBM reform spends record number on lobbying
WASHINGTON — A conservative group advocating against changing how pharmacy middlemen operate spent more than…
STAT+: Medicare has a new plan to address drug shortages — but it could backfire
WASHINGTON — Medicare has a new proposal to pay hospitals more to stockpile essential drugs…
STAT+: Key House panel plots a new health care package — complicating the chamber’s agenda
WASHINGTON — It’s two weeks until Congress leaves town in August, and a prominent House panel…
Democrats press government to extend free Covid-19 tests indefinitely
WASHINGTON — A group of Democratic senators is pressing a national panel to make a…
STAT+: House panel passes public health bills following contentious debate
WASHINGTON — The House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee on Thursday voted along party lines…
STAT+: How a key Senate committee is planning to regulate pharmacy benefit managers
WASHINGTON — A key Senate health care panel has developed a plan to tackle reforms…
.jpg)
Superbugs, antibiotic resistance get renewed scrutiny in Congress
Melanie Lawrence doesn’t think she’ll live long enough to see her son graduate college. Lawrence,…
Opinion: A bipartisan opportunity to strengthen America’s pandemic security
In 2006, when many Americans had barely heard the word “coronavirus,” Congress passed the Pandemic…
STAT+: NIH fellows, weighing a union, want a pay raise. Will that mean less money for grants?
Several thousand research fellows at the National Institutes of Health want to unionize, in large…
Biden’s NIH nominee is languishing in Congress — alarming public health advocates
WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders’ rare move to delay President Biden’s health care nominees has…
STAT+: House panel expected to mark up pandemic-preparedness bill next week
WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee will next week mark up a package of public health…
STAT+: From ‘Jeopardy!’ to Politico, the PBM ad wars are taking over D.C.
WASHINGTON – If you live in this city, you’re probably awash in pharmacy benefit manager…
Opinion: Biden promised a ‘war on cancer’ — but declared war on the cure instead
When then-Vice President Biden launched the Cancer Moonshot in 2016, there was reason to be…
Opinion: Sen. Bill Cassidy: Smart, practical ways to lower drug prices
In the 1952 Oscar-winning movie “High Noon,” Gary Cooper’s face was tense and pained as…
STAT+: Medicare details the structure of its new drug price negotiation program
WASHINGTON — Medicare on Friday released new details about how its new drug price negotiation…
Walensky prepares to leave CDC — and Congress — after a bruising 29 months
Rochelle Walensky, the outgoing director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will miss…
STAT+: Congress explores changes to the way Medicare pays doctors
Congress is taking early steps towards changing the way Medicare pays physicians. At a hearing…
STAT+: Doctors’ lobby doubles down on the fight against expanding open access to research
Doctors’ lobbyists in Washington tend to focus their energies on ensuring Medicare pays well, and…
STAT+: Drug middlemen catch flak at another congressional hearing
Drug middlemen once again were on the hot seat at a congressional hearing on Wednesday….
Sen. Grassley calls on GOP leaders to rally support for PBM reforms
WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley wants to see his party’s leadership turn up the…
STAT+: Top federal lobbyist at PhRMA leaves
WASHINGTON — The top federal lobbyist for the brand drug lobby PhRMA is leaving, two…
STAT+: How drug pricing reforms are affecting Bayer’s investments
WASHINGTON — Pharma companies have long been warning Democrats’ drug pricing reforms could discourage investment in…
.jpg)
STAT+: Key House Republican escalates rhetoric against PBMs
WASHINGTON — A key House Republican ramped up his criticism of pharmacy benefit managers Tuesday,…
STAT+: Top Senate Republican signals interest in site-neutral reform for hospitals
WASHINGTON — A top Senate Republican signaled his interest in pursuing hospital payment reform to…
STAT+: If AI invents a new medicine, who gets the patent?
Pharmaceutical and biotech companies are increasingly using artificial intelligence to discover and make drugs and…
STAT+: Democrats blast Biden administration over Alzheimer’s drug plans
WASHINGTON — Ahead of a major Food and Drug Administration meeting on a new Alzheimer’s…
CDC comes under fire for inadequate information about its Covid response
WASHINGTON – Republicans aren’t impressed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s reorganization plan,…
STAT+: With digital therapeutics businesses flailing, the industry descends on D.C. to make the case for coverage
This week, the leading advocacy group for digital therapeutics companies is gathering the industry’s leaders…
‘Tantamount to extortion:’ Merck sues U.S. government over Medicare negotiation program
WASHINGTON — Merck on Tuesday sued to stop the federal government from implementing a new…
STAT+: Medicare taps acting official to head up its new drug price negotiations
WASHINGTON — Medicare has chosen a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation official to temporarily…
STAT+: Ted Love, BIO’s first Black board chair, aims to rehab biotech’s image in Washington
WASHINGTON — Ted Love has pretty much done everything there is to do in biotech. He’s…
STAT+: Debt ceiling deal could mean cancer, disease research cuts, advocates warn
WASHINGTON — Researchers and health care advocates are warning that the debt ceiling deal would…
STAT+: Republicans want to crack down on pricey health regulations, but there are major loopholes
WASHINGTON — At first glance, the debt ceiling deal that Republicans struck with the White…
STAT+: CVS warns PBM reforms ‘could lead to higher costs’
As Congress considers wide-ranging reforms to pharmacy benefit managers, a top executive at CVS Health,…
House Republicans demand career scientist explain pathogen research
WASHINGTON — House Republicans are ratcheting up pressure on federal agencies’ pandemic response with an…
Sen. Elizabeth Warren probes abortion access amid states’ patchwork plans
WASHINGTON – Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is launching a fresh round of questioning on states’…
STAT+: Pharmalittle: Pfizer touts study data for hemophilia drug; former Novartis execs cleared of bribery in Greece
Good morning, everyone, and how are you today? We are doing find, thank you, especially…
STAT+: With Fat Joe concerts and Super Bowl ads, a cadre of billionaires is mounting an unorthodox campaign against hospitals
WASHINGTON — At a waterfront concert in one of this city’s swankiest neighborhoods, rappers Busta…
STAT+: Matt Eyles, CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, to depart
Matt Eyles, CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, is leaving by this October, the lobbying…
STAT+: Congress took on high drug prices in Medicare. Now Biden wants to take it to Medicaid
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration wants to help states control Medicaid prescription drug costs by…
STAT+: Congress highlighted a chemo drug’s price to blast PBMs — but it’s not a PBM issue
WASHINGTON — Congress blasted drug middlemen at a hearing Tuesday, with multiple lawmakers pointing to…
FDA budget battles, prisons’ sobering Covid response & BIO’s CEO search is on
You’re reading the web edition of D.C. Diagnosis. Sign up here to receive this newsletter…
Opinion: Fix the rural physician shortage by expanding support for resident training
As the deans of the two public medical schools in Nevada, we are watching with…
Senators probing largest Medicare Advantage plans over how algorithms factor in care denials
Senators warned the country’s largest Medicare Advantage insurers at a hearing on Wednesday that they…