PASSED THE HOUSE: Key Provisions of Senator Hassan and Braun’s Site-Neutral Bill to Lower Health Care Costs & Save Taxpayer Dollars

WASHINGTON – The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday passed the bipartisan Lower Costs, More Transparency Act, which includes key measures from Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH) and Mike Braun (R-IN)’s Site-based Invoicing and Transparency Enhancement (SITE) Act. Their bill would help to prevent hospital systems from charging hospital facility fees for care received at outpatient facilities located away from the hospital – like a primary care office. It could also save taxpayers close to $40 billion over the next decade and would reinvest those savings to strengthen the health care workforce.

“Patients shouldn’t be on the hook for unfair hospital fees, just because a hospital bought their regular doctor’s practice,” said Senators Hassan and Braun. “We continue to work together to end unfair hospital facility fees, which in turn will bring down costs for Americans and save taxpayer dollars. We are pleased that the House of Representatives passed key parts of our bill – and we will keep working across the aisle and with our colleagues in the Senate and House to get this done.”

The House-passed bill includes the following provisions from Senator Hassan and Braun’s legislation:

• Require that health systems establish and bill using a unique National Provider Identifier number for each and every off-campus outpatient department, which increases transparency and oversight of hospital facility fees
• Establishes site-neutral payments for drug administration services under Medicare when provided in a place other than a hospital, for instance if someone goes to a cancer clinic for chemotherapy or to a doctor’s office for an injection

In addition to the SITE Act, the House of Representatives’ bill also includes Senator Hassan’s bipartisan bill that previously passed the HELP Committee to get generics to market more quickly, which will help lower prescription drug prices and saves taxpayers nearly a billion dollars over 10 years. Currently, the FDA requires certain generic drug manufacturers to demonstrate that they have the same active and inactive ingredients in the same concentration as the reference brand name drug. However, when a generic drug contains the wrong amount of inactive ingredient, the FDA cannot disclose the exact error, forcing manufacturers to engage in an often lengthy guessing game to reach the right balance. This legislation would require the FDA to more clearly identify the specific differences between the generic and brand name drug, thereby streamlining the approval process, helping more generics reach the market faster, and lowering prescription drug prices overall. Representative Kuster is leading the effort to pass this bipartisan bill in the House.

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