What we're watching for health policy in July

This will be a big month for appropriations watchers, and those of you who are watching telehealth and a proposed 340B overhaul could be busy too.

Why it matters: Tired of doomscrolling about the presidential race? Then relax with some nice, normal health care policy fights.

Appropriations

The appropriations process is set to be in full swing the rest of this month, starting with the full House Appropriations Committee markup of the Labor-HHS bill Wednesday.

• Expect that bill to keep the same poison pills that Democrats oppose, including a ban on federal funds being used for gender-affirming care and an elimination of funding for Title X family planning clinics.
• The GOP-crafted bill also includes changes aimed at streamlining centers at the NIH and implementing more congressional oversight over the agency.
• The Senate is also kickstarting its appropriations process this week (which is expected to be bipartisan), with the Appropriations Committee revealing its 302(b) allocations and marking up the Agriculture-FDA bill Thursday.
• But watch for what funding levels the Senate sets for HHS and NIH. Analysts are expecting that the agencies will see relatively flat levels of funding, particularly since House Republicans kept NIH funding at about the same level as FY24 in their appropriations bill.
• House GOP leadership has said it wants to pass all the appropriations bills on the House floor before the August recess.

E&C telehealth bill

E&C was going to mark up telehealth legislation last month, but it got derailed because of an unrelated controversy over a data privacy bill.

• The full committee markup will likely be rescheduled for sometime this month, though it's to be determined whether the data privacy issues get resolved or whether that bill will be left out.
• The telehealth bill itself has wide support, and the payfors are particularly interesting, as we wrote about last week. Be on guard, PBMs and hospitals!
• House Ways and Means already approved its version of telehealth in May, which is similar to E&C's.

Senate hospital cost debate

There is not likely to be much formal action in the Senate in the coming month on site-neutral policies or hospital transparency, but we'll be watching for pressure to build up.

• Families USA already led a letter to Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden calling for action, and there could be more efforts from outside groups like that.

• The Senate Aging Committee will also hold a hearing Thursday on health care transparency.

340B legislation

The timeline for the Senate 340B working group to release its final version of the overhaul legislation keeps getting pushed back, but it possibly could come out this month.

• Sen. John Thune has previously told Axios that "good work was being done on it" and that he was hoping to have it published before the August recess.
• The big issue to watch is whether the bill addresses the definition of a "covered patient," which is crucial for both drugmakers and hospitals.
• The pharmaceutical industry has argued that the current definition for a 340B patient is too expansive, while providers say they're just following current law.

Treat and Reduce Obesity Act

Before the recess, Ways and Means overwhelmingly approved the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act out of the committee, with just a few Democrats opposed.

• Although the bill is a priority of retiring lawmaker Rep. Brad Wenstrup, the legislation would still need to be marked up by Energy and Commerce before it could reach the House floor.