house speaker

Round and round the revolving door

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s new policy director Dan Ziegler is coming straight from a gig as a pharma lobbyist for Amgen, Eli Lilly, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, PhRMA, and Sanofi. In theory, that should be a good thing for the pharmaceutical industry.

It remains to be seen, however, whether Ziegler’s approach will substantively be different from that of former speaker Kevin McCarthy’s office. McCarthy’s former head of health policy, Ryan Long, lobbied at BGR on behalf of pharma clients including Alkermes, Alnylam, Amgen, Celgene, Eisai, Eli Lilly, Genentech, Gilead, Merck, Pfizer, PhRMA, and Sanofi from 2013 to 2017 before he returned to Capitol Hill. And now, Long is back at BGR. 

It’s worth noting that it’s still possible someone else will be specifically handling the health portfolio that could also influence Johnson’s direction, so stay tuned for updates there.

It’s perfectly legal for Ziegler to return to the Hill after a lobbying gig, but Public Citizen called the hire another example of a revolving door that prevents drug pricing reforms. 

“This may be the greatest gift to Big Pharma since Rep. Billy Tauzin barred Medicare from negotiating drug prices — and then went on to head the industry trade association,” said the group’s president, Robert Weissman. 

influence

Health care industry gets buddy buddy with Buddy

Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), who is a pharmacist on the House Energy & Commerce Committee, has long been known to go on rants about the PBM industry during hearings.

But as Congress debates PBM policy and the upper echelons of House GOP leadership turn over, the pharmaceutical industry decided to help fund Carter’s re-election campaign last quarter, according to new federal disclosures. Carter received nearly $16,000 from Lundbeck, Viatris, Pfizer, Genentech, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks, and PhRMA executives Lori Reilly, Scott LaGanga, and Jim Stansel. 

And providers gearing up for a year-end lobbying fight chipped in too, including orthopedic surgeons, pathologists, surgeons, cardiologists, face surgeons, anesthesiologists, physical therapists, eye surgeons, and ENT specialists. 

regulations

Ready, set, refresh your browsers

Medicare could release an avalanche of regulations in the next week, including payment and policy rules for physicians, outpatient services, and Medicare Advantage insurers.

One I’m paying attention to in particular is how Medicare decides to fix a 340B drug payment policy that was struck down by the Supreme Court. The regulation cleared White House budget review on Tuesday. Hospitals have been pressuring the administration not to claw back or reduce future payments to make up for the billions in underpayments to 340B providers. If they don’t get their way, as my colleague Bob Herman reported last week, they could sue.