House subcommittee hearing discusses impacts of drug pricing on health care costs

The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health Feb. 11 hosted a hearing titled "Lowering Health Care Costs for All Americans: An Examination of the Prescription Drug Supply Chain." The AHA provided a statement for the hearing that shared concerns on issues such as efforts to weaken the 340B Drug Pricing Program, drug shortages and other drug supply chain disruptions, and private-payer policies undermining access and patient safety. The AHA made a series of recommendations to Congress, including opposing efforts to move 340B pricing to a rebate model, enacting policies to improve medication and device access, and prohibiting private-payer policies that require hospitals to obtain clinician-administered drugs through insurer-selected specialty pharmacies rather than through their own hospital pharmacy systems.