Last week concluded the Senate’s time in Washington prior to the lame duck session. With both the House and the Senate back home and focused on campaigning, we turn our attention to action from the Administration. As of October 15, 2018 there are 21 pending Health and Human Services regulations pending approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). We are watching as regulation move onto and off of the OMB radar and how each regulation can affect the health care system. The regulation to watch this week focuses on drug pricing transparency.

Drug Pricing Transparency Regulation -

On August 21, 2018 the proposed rule “Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Regulation to Require Drug Pricing Transparency” was published to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs’ website. (As we have previously discussed, the OIRA website lists all regulations pending OMB review.) Although the actual text of the regulation is not published, it is expected that this regulation will require pharmaceutical manufacturers to include prescription drug list prices in direct-to-consumer advertisements. Does that mean the list price will be included in the fine print or auctioneer like talking at the end of prescription drugs advertisements? Details should be out soon.