October Congressional hearings have focused on the following health policy topics:
- A House Ways and Means Committee hearing addressed “Investing in the U.S. Health System by Lowering Drug Prices, Reducing Out-of-Pocket Costs, and Improving Medicare Benefits.”
- A House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, “Sabotage: The Trump Administration’s Attack on Health Care,” featured testimony from CMS Administrator Seema Verma.
- The Senate Aging Committee examined national, state, and local fall prevention efforts.
- The Senate Finance Committee held a hearing on substance abuse disorder treatment programs.
In addition, the following hearings and markups are scheduled for later this week:
- The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing October 30 entitled “Safeguarding Pharmaceutical Supply Chains in a Global Economy.”
- Also on October 30, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on compliance with Medicaid eligibility requirements (October 30).
- On October 31, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will markup the following bills: S 1657, to expand activities to combat Lyme disease and other tick and vector-borne diseases; S 2619, to reauthorize the Healthy Start program, S 1399, to revise and extend nursing workforce development programs, S 995, to reauthorize the Lifespan Respite Care program; S 1130, to fund programs and improve guidelines related to sudden death in early life; S 1608, to require HHS to publish physical activity recommendations; S 2629, to establish a Ready Reserve Corps within the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps; and an original bill titled “Over-the-Counter Drug Safety, Innovation, and Reform Act of 2019.”