House overwhelmingly OKs bill on opioid crisis

Measure undergoes tweaks for financial fixes, drug access.

WASHINGTON passed lation, 393-8, consensus — on The Fr House legis- iday intended the opioid to crisis. help The combat legislative finalized now compromise earlier heads to this the week, Sen- was ate The for two a final chambers vote. came to the an week, agreement but made earlier addi- in tional after the changes Congressional to the Bud- bill get that Office the bill initially would estimated increase the deficit by $44 million over the next 10 years.

The revised agreement adds two additional offsets to help pay for the bill.

The first offset would tweak pending policy changes made by a bill that the House recently cleared for President Donald Trump’s signature.

That bill, which is meant to promote drug price trans- parency at the pharmacy counter, also included a provision that would require the makers of expensive biotech drugs and their poten- tial generic competitors to inform the Federal Trade Commission if they have a financial deal that would delay the introduction of a copycat drug.

The revised opioid bill would change the previously cleared drug bill in ways meant to ensure that there drugmakers are no to loopholes avoid the dis- for closures to the FTC.

The policy could result in savings if it results in bio- logic drugs facing competi- tion from cheaper biosimi lars The more second quickly. offset would expand tion under the religious the 2010 exemp- health care requirement law related that to most the Americans The offset would get coverage. broaden the als who exemption forgo medical to individu- treatment due to religious reasons. An individual who has not received medical ser- vices in the prior year and relies only on a religious method of healing would be eligible. CBO estimates that this offset would save $32 million over 10 years. In addition, the revised agreement $31 million available would make from the Medicaid Improvement Fund, which was established to improve the management of the Medicaid program by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to help oversee contracts and evaluate demonstration projects. The bicameral opioid agreement is backed by a number of advocacy and stakeholder groups includ- ing the American Society of Addiction Medicine, Advo- cates for Opioid Recovery, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The U.S. Chamber, in a let- ter sent Friday, applauded Congress’ decision to elimi- nate an offset included in the original House bill passed in June. That offset would have billed patient’s private insurance first before Medicare for patients with end-stage renal disease for 33 months. Currently, this is done for 30 months. “That policy would have burdened employers already struggling to provide robust health benefits with hundreds of millions of dollars in additional health care costs,” said the U.S. Chamber in the letter. The U.S. Chamber, however, said it was disappointed that language related to privacy protections for drug and alcohol patient records was not in the regulation A final provision bill. known related as “Part to a 2” regulatory found for the keeps part code a patient’s of the where federal sub- it is stance arate from abuse the records rest of sep- the medical House history. lawmakers, led by Markwayne Oklahoma Mullin Republican and Oregon nauer, Democrat pushed to Earl have Blume- these records Health Insurance aligned with Portabil- the ity or HIPAA. and Accountability Act, “I believe HR 6 could have been stronger,” said Energy a nd Commerce Health Subcommittee Chairman Michael Burgess of Texas. Burgess also voiced concerns about another provision in the bill by Democratic Rep. Paul Tonko of New York that would expand the types of health providers who can prescribe medication-assisted treatment. “I am concerned about expanding prescriptive authority for non-physicians, and I hope we will be able to examine that again in the future,” he added. ported Democrats the bill, similarly but voiced supsome minor concerns. “There is one provision that is concerning, that I do want to mention _ it did not go through regular order and was not properly vetted,” said Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, referring to a proposal from Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida that was added at the last minute.