In This Issue:

- Senate HELP Begins Innovation for Healthier Americans Hearings

- 340B Hearing Postponed; Written Testimonies Shed Light on Agenda

- Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

- Other Federal Regulatory Initiatives

- Congressional Initiatives

- Other Health Care News

- Upcoming Congressional Hearings

- Excerpt from Senate HELP Begins Innovation for Healthier Americans Hearings:

On Tuesday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will begin the first in what is expected to be a series of hearings on Innovation for Healthier Americans, an initiative that would advance steps to better align public policy to support medical innovation and patient access. The hearing will feature testimony from FDA Commissioner Hamburg and NIH Director Francis Collins and follows a report released in late January which examined the challenges to getting safe treatments, devices and cures to patients more quickly and effectively at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Senate HELP initiative is intended to be a companion to the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s 21st Century Cures Initiative which is an attempt, led by Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) to modernize the discovery, development, and delivery of clinical innovations.