A July 9 executive order released by the Biden administration addresses promoting competition in the American economy. The order spans several agencies and departments, including the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Notable to essential hospitals, the executive order includes health care items related to prescription drugs, price transparency, hospital consolidation, and health insurance. Specifically, the order calls on HHS and other agencies to:
- lower prescription drug prices by supporting state and local programs that will import safer and cheaper drugs from Canada;
- increase support for the development and use of generic and biosimilar drugs, including through the adoption of payment models;
- issue a comprehensive plan within 45 days to combat high drug prices and price gouging;
- use rulemaking to ban agreements that delay the entry of generic drugs into the market;
- consider proposing rules within 120 days to allow hearing aids to be bought over the counter;
- review and revise merger guidelines to address consolidation across sectors of the economy, including health care;
- support existing hospital transparency rules and finish implementing legislation on surprise billing; and
- standardize a plan option in the national health insurance marketplace so people can comparison shop more easily.
Contact Senior Director of Policy Erin O’Malley at eomalley@essentialhospitals.org or 202.585.0127 with questions.