The House Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing on June 21 entitled “Competition and Transparency: The Pathway Forward for a Stronger Health Care Market.” The hearing was convened to discuss rising health care costs and what can be done to increase competition and transparency.
Witnesses for the hearing included representatives from an employers’ group, think tanks, a trade association, and a private company. Subcommittee members raised questions about pharmacy benefit managers, provider compliance with transparency regulations, and whether horizontal and vertical mergers contribute to market consolidation. In a key exchange, Gloria Sachdev, PharmD, president and CEO of the Employers' Forum of Indiana, highlighted a law passed in Indiana that bars hospitals from billing additional hospital facility fees for off-campus services. Members of the subcommittee discussed so-called site neutral payment policies throughout the hearing.
- Washington Highlights