Bloomberg Law Quotes Kelly Cleary on Pandemic’s Impact on Trump Health Care Priorities

Bloomberg Law has quoted Akin Gump health care and life sciences partner Kelly Cleary in the article “Trump’s Health Priorities Set Aside, Maybe for Good, by Pandemic.” The article reports that the COVID-19 outbreak could prevent President Trump from achieving some of his healthcare goals.

As an example, Cleary said time constraints make it unlikely there will be any major changes in Medicare payment rules since they have to be finished by a certain time so Medicare rates are in place for the next year, and the Office of Management and Budget may not have time to review those policy riders. In addition, the Department of Health and Human Services last week pushed back the implementation of two rules, which Cleary said were finalized right at the start of the pandemic, and would require increased health data-sharing.

Another area that the article says could be hurt by the pandemic is drug pricing. Cleary stated that there might not be much interest in moving ahead with the administration’s proposal to tie Medicare reimbursements to foreign countries’ drug prices, known as the international pricing index.

Once the pandemic subsides, Cleary suggested that rules “viewed positively by the health-care industry” will likely go to the front of the line for consideration. This would include regulations that modify standards under the physician self-referral and anti-kickback law, which she said are seen as deregulatory. The rules pertaining to the anti-fraud law may be delayed, but she “would be surprised if they were shelved. A lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into those rules, and industry is really counting on HHS to follow through.”