WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a senior member and former chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, laid out his health care priorities during a hearing to consider Dr. Mehmet Oz’s nomination to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Oz committed to supporting Grassley’s efforts to lower prescription drug costs, strengthen rural health care, help kids with exceptional medical needs, preserve transitional health plans and improve the agency’s responsiveness to Congress.

Video and excerpts from Grassley follow.

PBMs:

“I’ve been working to hold pharmacy benefit managers accountable to lower prescription drug costs. I expect you to work with us to hold these powerful drug middlemen accountable and support rural pharmacies.”

Rural Health Care:

“I expect you to protect and support access to rural health care. To help achieve this, I believe CMS could take the following actions right away:

  1. Fill the open spots in the Rural Community Hospital demonstration program,
  2. Distribute the new physician residency slots to rural hospitals as the law requires, and
  3. Ensure the Rural Emergency Hospital Program is working for rural communities.”

Kids with Exceptional Needs:

“I expect you to take action to improve care and reduce red tape for kids with complex medical needs. This includes working with states so they can establish health homes for these kids, as my bipartisan ACE Kids law enabled.”

Transitional Health Plans:

“Since 2013, CMS under Presidents Obama, Trump and Biden have issued non-enforcement memos to allow transitional health plans to be maintained. About 35,000 Iowa farmers and small business owners have maintained health insurance coverage with these plans for over a decade. This is health insurance that was purchased after Obamacare became law, but before it was implemented. I expect you to keep access to these health plans.”

Waste, Fraud and Abuse:

“Improper payments in our major health care programs have averaged $122 billion annually over the past five years. I’m the author of major and more recent updates to the federal government’s most powerful tool in fighting fraud, the False Claims Act.

“Since the enactment of these reforms, the federal government has recovered more than $78 billion lost to fraud. It has saved billions more by deterring would-be fraudsters. CMS with the Justice Department must aggressively go after waste, fraud, and abuse and empower whistleblowers.”

Congressional Oversight:

“Oversight allows us to hold bureaucrats accountable to the rule of law, and it helps keep faith with taxpayers. I expect CMS to provide timely and complete responses to congressional oversight.”

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