hospitals
House GOP takes aim at hospitals
House Republicans unveiled draft bills yesterday that would be incredibly bad news for hospitals' bottom lines, my colleague Bob Herman reports.
The laundry list of hospital pricing proposals includes some far-reaching policies that would authorize Medicare to pay hospitals the identical amount for the same service, regardless of where the service was performed.
Hospitals are still analyzing the bill text, but one industry lobbyist told STAT it would be "an enormous, catastrophic reduction in payment for hospitals." Read Bob's full analysis.
regulations
You mad bro?
The brand drug industry's biggest lobbying group on Wednesday railed against the substance of Medicare's plan to negotiate drug prices and the government's process for designing it. But others say the PhRMA is crying wolf, my colleague John Wilkerson reports.
Executives for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America worry that Medicare officials will pay only the cost of manufacturing drugs, plus a small profit margin, even though the program guidance rejects using the unit cost of production as the starting point in price negotiations. They also warned that the program will discourage the development of drugs for cardiovascular disease, mental health and cancer, and argued that the new law discourages companies from improving upon existing drugs.
"This is really an exercise in punishing drug manufacturers," said Lauren Neves, deputy vice president for policy and research at PhRMA. The group's full comments are here, and John's story is here.
influence
Lobbying cutbacks for generics
The deadline to file lobbying reports for the first quarter of the new Congress is today, but we already have some insights from early bird filers.
The generics lobby AAM slashed its lobbying budget in half last quarter compared with last year. The group, which recently fired top executives, spent $480,000 this quarter compared with $830,000 over the same period of 2022. Disclosures show AAM also terminated its contract with Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid.
For background, check out my colleague John Wilkerson's reporting on how generics opposed the Inflation Reduction Act, even though it may end up benefiting them in the end.
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