By Linda Rouse O’Neill
At the end of 2022, HIDA achieved multiple legislative wins to strengthen the medical supply chain. These provisions are a victory for patients and providers, and are the result of several years of advocacy by our association and our member companies.
In April 2020, Representatives Debbie Dingell (D-MI) and Jackie Walorski (R-IN) introduced the Medical Supplies for Pandemics Act. This bipartisan legislation would create incentives to geographically diversify production of medical supplies and maintain domestic reserves of critical medical supplies like personal protective equipment and diagnostic tests. Over the next two years, the Medical Supplies for Pandemics Act was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on five separate occasions. Despite having bipartisan companion legislation – led by Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Michael Bennet (D-CO), it was never considered by the Senate.
However, HIDA and its members stayed engaged with Senate staff regarding the legislation and we were able to get these provisions included in broader preparedness legislation. HIDA worked with the Senate Health Education Labor & Pensions (HELP) Committee and successfully included the Medical Supplies for Pandemics Act into the text of the PREVENT Pandemics Act. This text was approved by a HELP Committee markup of the legislation in March 2022.
Meanwhile, HIDA’s members in the laboratory services space were facing reimbursement cuts of up to 15% for many common laboratory diagnostic services, cuts which threatened to reduce patient access to diagnostics. Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced the Saving Access to Laboratory Services Act (SALSA), which would restructure the data collection process and limit cuts to a reasonable and sustainable range.
HIDA launched a comprehensive advocacy campaign to enact the legislative priorities above into law.
- In June 2022, leaders from across the healthcare distribution industry convened in Washington for HIDA’s first in-person Washington Summit in three years. In more than 115 meetings on Capitol Hill, healthcare distributors urged passage of the PREVENT Pandemics Act.
- HIDA’s annual Streamlining Healthcare Expo & Business Exchange held in Chicago in September featured an online letter-writing campaign to Congress supporting passage of the PREVENT Pandemics Act.
- HIDA educated Members of Congress on the benefits of laboratory services. Millions of Americans benefit from over 7 billion lab tests annually, and 70% of medical decisions are informed by the results.
- In December, HIDA wrote to Congressional leadership and urged the inclusion of PREVENT Pandemics and SALSA in the year-end omnibus spending bill.
In late December 2022, Congress passed an omnibus spending bill to keep the federal government funded for another year. Foremost among HIDA’s priorities in the omnibus bill was the inclusion of the PREVENT Pandemics Act. The omnibus also included a revised phase-in of Medicare clinical laboratory test payment changes, which would postpone by one year cuts of up to 15% that are scheduled to go into effect for many common laboratory diagnostic services.
HIDA is pleased to promote supply chain priorities on Capitol Hill by proactively educating Members of Congress and their staff on the key issues impacting our industry and overall patient care.
Linda Rouse O’Neill, Vice President, Supply Chain Policy and Executive Branch Relations, Health Industry Distributors Association