ICYMI: Senator Hassan Discusses Bipartisan Health Care Legislation with STAT News
WASHINGTON – In case you missed it, Senator Maggie Hassan recently joined STAT News for a conversation on her priorities for a potential year-end health care package in Congress. In the interview, Senator Hassan highlighted her ongoing push to update and reauthorize the bipartisan SUPPORT Act, a landmark investment in addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery; her bipartisan legislation to end unfair hospital “facility fees”; and her bipartisan efforts to lower prescription drug costs including by expanding access to generic medications.
Key excerpts from the interview are below:
Senator Hassan on the SUPPORT Act
On reauthorizing the SUPPORT Act: “The SUPPORT Act remains really important because it invests in a whole network of prevention, treatment, and recovery resources. We did get one aspect of the SUPPORT Act already passed into law, which was to make permanent the requirement that Medicaid cover opioid treatment.”
On the need for improved access to addiction treatment: “We ultimately need to integrate addiction treatment into regular primary care.”
Senator Hassan on Ending Unfair Hospital Facility Fees
On her approach to healthcare legislation: “My perspective…is the patients. And that's always where I try to put myself in these discussions.”
On the impact of facility fees and the need for legislation like the SITE Act: “I met with constituents in New Hampshire recently who had gotten bills as large as a thousand dollars for a doctor’s visit – when they had no idea it was coming – because of the facility fee… It's not a rational system.”
On billing transparency and supporting rural hospitals: “And, the House has already passed the piece…which would just say…all medical bills have to show where the care was provided so we can begin to track what’s happening to these costs. If we have transparency, then we can also really begin to understand what kind of payments our rural hospitals need in order to make sure that they can provide the care that's so essential to their communities.”
Senator Hassan on Lowering Prescription Drug Costs
On her efforts to speed up generic drug approvals: “Both of those bills are intended to just stop the gamesmanship around patents and around exclusivity, and get generics to market more quickly because we know that lowers the cost.”
On her patent reform bill: “What my patent bill does is says… that when a pharmaceutical company provides information to the FDA about the composition of the drug that they're applying to have approved, and [they’re] applying for a patent for it, the information that is material to patentability has to be the same to the FDA and the patent [office]...”
Read more from STAT News here or below:
STAT News: Hassan indicates she’s open to tweaks on site-neutral payment reforms
By John Wilkerson and Rachel Cohrs Zhang
Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) is pushing to reform Medicare payments to ensure the program pays the same amount for the same services, no matter where patients get care — and she might be willing to cut a deal with Republicans to do it.
Hassan is the lead Democrat in the Senate pushing to equalize payments between hospitals and outpatient facilities. During a STAT event on Thursday, she indicated that there might be room for negotiating a deal with her GOP colleagues on site-neutral legislation.
[…]“He and I are actually engaged with stakeholders right now around the site neutrality act,” Hassan said of Cassidy.
One of the hospital lobby’s talking points that has gained traction is that a move to equalize payments could hurt rural hospitals.
[…]
Hassan told STAT that she’s heard similar complaints from rural hospitals in New Hampshire. She said she’s been talking to Cassidy about his concerns, and indicated she may be willing to address the policy’s impact on rural hospitals.
“There are ways I think that we can get at the needs of rural hospitals,” Hassan said.
Overall, Hassan said that it doesn’t make sense for Medicare to pay more for the same services in different places. If she and other supporters can win over enough support one way or another, there could be an opportunity to pass site-neutral payment reforms next year.
[…]
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