Ex-HHS head Price delayed rule fining Big Pharma for price gouging before resigning: report [View all]
Source: raw story
30 Sep 2017 at 08:32 ET
Less than a day before Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned from his cabinet position amid a week of controversy about his expensive travel habits, his department quietly moved to delay an Obamacare rule that would punish drug companies for knowingly price-gouging.
According to Mic, the rule was supposed to go into effect on Sunday, but on Thursday, the HHS department logged a delay into the federal register the fourth time theyve done so this year.
The Affordable Care Act established in 2010 a rule that aids the decades-old 340B program, which helps protect hospitals serving low-income patients from being overcharged for medications that should be discounted. Under the ACA rule, drug manufacturers found to have knowingly and intentionally price gouged could receive fines of up to $5,000 per instance of overcharging.
As Mic notes, bringing down the cost of prescriptions was one of President Donald Trumps campaign promises, and since hes taken office, hes criticized RIPOFF DRUG PRICES on Twitter. In January, before his inauguration, Trump claimed the pharmaceutical industry was getting away with murder in a speech criticizing them and their lobby.....................
Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/ex-hhs-head-price-delayed-rule-fining-big-pharma-for-price-gouging-before-resigning-report/
Please call your reps and senators about this.