Lower Costs, More Transparency Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, the American healthcare system is a complex, expensive maze fueled by heavyhanded regulation, consolidation, and lack of transparency. Growth in health spending is rising at unsustainable rates, forcing insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs higher and remaining too expensive for working families.

The bill before us is a bipartisan solution to help lower costs by pulling the curtain back on healthcare and revealing anticompetitive industry practices that are stifling the free market.

Included in this bill is the Hidden Fee Disclosure Act, authored by Representatives Joe Courtney and Erin Houchin, which requires pharmacy benefit managers, PBMs, and third-party administrators to disclose hidden compensation to plan sponsors.

The Health DATA Act, authored by Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer, is also included in this legislation. It prohibits gag clauses between health plans and third-party entities, which restricts a plan sponsor's access to its own data.

Additionally, the bill includes the Transparency in Coverage Act, authored by Representative Bob Good. It builds on the general principles of transparency and accountability enshrined in the No Surprises Act by requiring health plans to disclose their prices publicly.

Patients have been left in the dark. Because of opaque rules and industry practices, patients are often left paying higher costs. This is why we are taking action and shining a light on these issues. Increasing transparency has been proven to root out waste successfully and save healthcare dollars.

Bottom line, we want to provide workers and their families with more options at lower prices. The Lower Costs, More Transparency Act does just that while also reducing the deficit by $800 million.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support its passage.

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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, the goal of the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act is to allow a wide range of employers, workers, and health plans to benefit from increased transparency of pharmacy benefit managers so they can make more informed, cost-conscious health care decisions.

It has come to our attention that the definition of large employer in this bill, as written, may have inadvertently left out certain types of non-employer plans, such as multiemployer, union, governmental, and retiree plans.

I rise today to affirm that my colleagues and I never intended for this bill to exclude these plans from leveraging the transparency tools included in this bill.

We remain committed to addressing this technical issue as we work with our Senate colleagues to expand transparency in health care following passage of the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act today.

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