The Health Care Reform Corner – From the editors of "The Pink Sheet"
What are policymakers and stakeholders in Washington saying and doing about health care reform? In this periodic BioPharma Today feature, the editors of "The Pink Sheet" and "The Pink Sheet" DAILY highlight some of the major developments chronicled in those publications.
Read today's features...
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee's health reform bill establishes a public insurance option administered by HHS, which would negotiate rates directly with providers, including drug firms, according to senior committee staff.
The bill states that "the [HHS] Secretary shall negotiate rates for the reimbursement of health care providers for benefits covered under a community health insurance option."
In directing HHS to bargain for drug prices under the new public plan, the HELP bill is aligned with draft legislation unveiled recently by three House committees. The HELP bill is endorsed by all 13 Democrats on the committee and was welcomed by President Obama in a July 2 statement.
The description of the public plan is one of two key coverage provisions – the other is an employer mandate – that were left blank in an earlier draft circulated in June and filled in on July 2. Read the story here…
Both the Institute of Medicine and the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research are placing a high priority on building an infrastructure around comparative effectiveness to facilitate the research as well as the dissemination of findings.
In separate reports that were statutorily required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to offer recommendations on how to spend the $1.1 billion allocated in the stimulus package, both highlighted the current disjointed comparative effectiveness research efforts and recommended actions to bring the research – both public and private – together. Read the story here…
Among the pharmaceutical-related topics in Institute of Medicine's list of research priorities released June 30 are comparisons of treatments, including drugs, for: atrial fibrillation, inflammatory diseases, dementia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Read the story here…
- Scott Steinke
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