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GOP LAWMAKERS QUESTION AZAR, VERMA OVER PART B PROPOSAL

Former physicians now serving as Republican lawmakers questioned Trump administration health officials last week over a proposal to link Medicare reimbursements for drugs administered in doctors’ offices with an international pricing index based on countries whose governments set drug costs.

Reps. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., and Larry Bucshon, R-Ind., were among the GOP lawmakers who questioned HHS Secretary Alex Azar and CMS Administrator Seema Verma. Roe and Bucshon are members of the GOP Doctors Caucus, which is comprised of lawmakers who previously worked as physicians.

Bucshon, a former heart surgeon, has been critical of the administration’s plan, which he called government price controls. Roe, a former obstetrician-gynecologist and the current co-chairman of the caucus, has made similar comments. Last week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., also expressed varying degrees of concern with the plan. Senate HELP Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., have publicly backed the Part B proposal. The Trump pilot program, which the administration hopes to finalize through regulations next year, earned lukewarm praise from congressional Democrats, most of whom said it didn’t go far enough to reduce prescription drug prices. Some Republican lawmakers are also beginning to question the administration over its plan to roll back the federal requirement that Medicare Part D insurance plans cover all drugs in the so-called six protected therapeutic classes, including drugs used in mental health treatment and cancer. That plan, which the administration says would reduce Part D premiums, is likely to trigger a firestorm of opposition on the Hill next year among patient advocacy groups.