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E&C plans health cost legislative hearing

Peter Sullivan
Energy and Commerce Committee chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers at a hearing

Energy and Commerce chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers at a March hearing. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The House Energy and Commerce Committee plans to have a legislative hearing next Wednesday on health care cost legislation, aides and lobbyists tell Axios.

Why it matters: The hearing is intended as followup to the one last month on transparency and competition in health care, but this time there will be actual bills being considered, a notable step forward.

  • It's not clear exactly what legislation will be considered at the hearing, but the sources say potential topics around transparency and competition include site-neutral payments, strengthening the Trump-era hospital price transparency regulation, and PBM reform, all topics that were discussed at the hearing last month.
  • The efforts are intended to be bipartisan, as the hearing last month was, though details have not yet been nailed down on the legislation.
  • Rep. Buddy Carter told Axios on Tuesday that his PBM bill to ban spread pricing in Medicaid could be included. "From what I understand, I talked to staff today, they said it was [included]," he said.

The big picture: It's notable that E&C is moving forward with bipartisan health care cost legislation, at the same time that a much more partisan fight over the debt ceiling plays out on a separate track.

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