WASHINGTON — It’s two weeks until Congress leaves town in August, and a prominent House panel is throwing a wrench in what seemed like a smooth path forward for legislation to require more transparency in health care prices, and to change Medicare drug payments.
The House Energy & Commerce Committee already introduced, held multiple hearings on, and unanimously passed out of committee a package of legislation including transparency requirements for hospitals and pharmacy benefit managers and a so-called “site-neutral” pay policy for drugs administered in doctors’ offices.
But leaders of the House Ways & Means Committee are planning to release their own health care legislation this month, complicating the chamber’s path to passing something soon, four lobbyists told STAT.