Congress keeps focus on healthcare program fraud and affordability
This week, congressional attention will be mainly on funding for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for fiscal year (FY) 2026, which is set to expire this Friday. With no confirmed agreement between Republicans and Democrats on DHS funding, we expect a partial government shutdown impacting only DHS to take place at the end of this week. With the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) funded through FY 2026 and several key healthcare programs extended, health policy conversations in Congress this week will be at the committee level, and the topics of fraud, waste, and abuse and affordability will be center stage.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs will hold a hearing on fraud in federal and state programs, while a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing will focus on fraud in Minnesota specifically. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s Delivering on Government Efficiency Subcommittee will convene a hearing analyzing duplication and overlap across federal programs. Over the past month, both the House and the Senate have held multiple hearings on identifying and combatting fraud, waste, and abuse in federal and state programs. It remains to be seen what actions regulatory agencies, Congress, or the White House may take to formally address these issues.
The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee will hold its second hearing in a series on healthcare affordability, with this hearing focused on the impact of the prescription drug supply chain and the root drivers of prescription drug costs. The Senate Aging Committee will hold a hearing examining how federal regulations are driving physicians out of the field of medicine. On the regulatory side, we watch for announcements impacting health IT coming out of the HHS Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy’s annual meeting, and whether the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will release the proposed rule for the 2027 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters.
[View source.]
