Subcommittee on Health to Hold Hearing on Reforming the 340B Drug Pricing Program

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health announced they will hold a hearing on Wednesday, July 11, 2018, at 10:00 a.m., to review legislative proposals aimed at reforming the 340B Drug Pricing Program. The Subcommittee is expected to review 15 pending bills and discussion drafts on topics that range from changing the definition of a 340B patient and broadening the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) authority to more politically charged bills that focus on narrow concerns within the 340B program. Subcommittee Chairman Michael Burgess also said that the panel will review a recent report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that highlighted gaps in oversight of contract pharmacies within the 340B program.

This hearing is expected to expand on a number of developments impacting the 340B program coming out of Congress, the Trump Administration, and federal oversight entities in recent months. In addition to the GAO’s June 2018 report, the Administration previously announced a plan to delay a regulation to implement the ceiling price and penalty guidelines for the program and released its drug pricing blueprint that carries implications for the 340B program.

The Administration’s 2019 budget proposal also sought several legislative changes to 340B similar to legislation that House Energy & Commerce Republicans have introduced. On the other side of the Capitol, the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee recently concluded its own series of hearings on the 340B program. HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander offered no indication that the Committee plans to advance legislation to reform the 340B program this year.

The current slate of bills for next Wednesday’s Subcommittee hearing include:

 

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