trending Market Intelligence /marketintelligence/en/news-insights/trending/gq4vuetmfx74x096lx4-pq2 content esgSubNav
In This List

US House working to ease regulations on hospitals, panel chairman says

Blog

A Pharmaceutical Company Capitalizes on M&A Activity with Brokerage Research

Blog

2021 Year in Review: Highlighting Key Investment Banking Trends

Blog

Insight Weekly: US stock performance; banks' M&A risk; COVID-19 vaccine makers' earnings

Blog

Global M&A By the Numbers: Q3 2021


US House working to ease regulations on hospitals, panel chairman says

Lawmakers in the House are working to remove any unnecessary regulation on hospitals and other providers "that aren't making us healthier," Rep. Peter Roskam, chairman of the House Ways and Means health subcommittee, said March 5.

Speaking at the Federation of American Hospitals policy conference in Washington, Roskam said the subcommittee is continuing an initiative by its former chairman, Rep. Pat Tiberi, R-Ohio, to go through regulations that providers have asked to be repealed. Panel members are seeking a bipartisan consensus on which regulations to cut, the Illinois Republican said.

Roskam spoke after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told the gathering of for-profit hospital executives that he plans to push for more strongly linking healthcare payments to value and patient outcomes.

On regulatory reform, Roskam told the gathering of executives from HCA Healthcare Inc. and other hospital chains, "There's a serious effort underway to build a consensus around the changes."

He pointed to a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service rule that forced a hospital in his district to spend $1 million to move an air-conditioning shaft.

"It was absurd and it was gratuitous and it made no sense," he said.

Roskam said he wants the subcommittee to hold hearings and for Congress to send a deregulation bill to President Donald Trump.

Trump would be open to easing healthcare regulations, Andrew Bremberg, assistant to the president and director of the Domestic Policy Council, said at the conference. "In the healthcare space, government regulation has been way too strong and sapped opportunities for innovation," he said.

But Roskam acknowledged that Congress effectively has only five months to pass legislation this year before House members leave in August to campaign for re-election.

And, Roskam said, "One person’s patient protection is another person's regulatory relief."