Congressional Hearing on 340B Program Rescheduled for March 24, 2015 – The U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Health has rescheduled the hearing on the 340B program for Tuesday, March 24th at 10:00 a.m.  The hearing, entitled “Examining the 340B Drug Pricing Program,” will review the functionality of the 340B Drug Pricing Program to understand how it impacts patients, providers, manufacturers, and other stakeholders.  Information about the hearing, including a link to the Subcommittee’s background memo, is available by clicking here.

Bipartisan Coalition Introduces SGR Repeal Bill – On March 19, 2015, a bipartisan coalition from the House and Senate introduced the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act of 2015(H.R. 1470), which would repeal Medicare’s sustainable growth rate (SGR).  Among other things, the bill provides incentives for providers who meet certain performance thresholds for quality of care and gives Medicare doctors a 0.5 percent payment increase through 2019.  The House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means Committees released a Working Framework of the proposed legislation that includes a summary of offsets, available here.  A press release discussing the bill is available here.

House Passes Three Healthcare Bills, Including Bill on Observation Status – On March 16, 2015, the House passed three healthcare bills, which now go to the Senate for approval.  The first bill is the Notice of Observation Treatment and Implication for Care Eligibility (NOTICE) Act (H.R. 876), which would require hospitals to notify patients when they are in observation status.  Second, the Improving Regulatory Transparency for New Medical Therapies Act (H.R. 639) would amend the Drug Enforcement Administration’s scheduling process for new FDA-approved drugs under the Controlled Substances Act.  Third, the Medicare DMEPOS Competitive Bidding Improvement Act of 2015 (H.R. 284) would require bidders in the DMEPOS competitive bidding program to meet state licensure requirements for items in the submitted bid for a product category and to obtain a bid surety bond.   Click on the links below for the congressional summaries of H.R. 876, H.R. 639, and H.R. 284.