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U.S. business groups sued to block parts of a federal rule requiring insurers and employers to disclose prices they pay for healthcare services and drugs, the latest legal challenge to efforts to make public rates that have long been kept secret. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, which represents pharmacy-benefit managers, filed lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and other federal agencies last week in federal courts in Tyler, Texas, and the District of Columbia. They claim certain provisions of the rule go beyond federal authority and could raise healthcare costs. (Mathews, 8/20)

State and national supporters of lowering the costs of expensive prescription drugs and expanding health insurance are urging West Virginians to get on the bus. Protect Our Care, a healthcare advocacy organization, brought its nationwide bus tour to the State Capitol Building in Charleston on Monday afternoon. Charleston was the last of two stops in West Virginia for the bus tour, and one of 36 events in 19 states. The group stopped in Morgantown last week. The group is traveling around the country to promote health care expansion through President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that Congress passed in March. Protect Our Care is also promoting efforts to make prescription drugs more affordable, such as H.R. 3, the Lower Drug Costs Now Act. (Adams, 8/24)

The White House is aggressively touting the political benefits of President Joe Biden’s plan to lower the cost of prescription drug prices, setting up the issue as a likely focal point of Congress’ budget debate when the House returns this week. In private conversations with lawmakers, administration officials have emphasized the popularity of the proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. Recent polling shows strong support among voting blocs that Democrats need to win to have any hope of surviving the 2022 midterm elections with their majorities intact. (Barron-Lopez, 8/22)

A push to rein in the cost of prescription drugs for Medicare beneficiaries could emerge on Capitol Hill in the coming months. President Joe Biden called on Congress last week to reduce those costs through several means: letting Medicare negotiate with drug manufacturers, generally limiting price increases to the inflation rate and capping beneficiaries’ annual out-of-pocket spending on prescriptions to about $3,000. (O'Brien, 8/19)