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January 14, 2024
2024-0200

House Education and the Workforce Health Subcommittee hearing on competition and transparency

On January 11, the House Education and the Workforce Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions held a hearing entitled, "Lowering Costs and Increasing Access to Health Care with Employer-Driven Innovation." During the hearing, lawmakers heard from a panel representing an employer, a voluntary employees' beneficiary association (VEBA), an economist, and an academic, on the innovative ways employers are working to reduce health care costs for their workers.

Several witnesses spoke about the benefits of direct contracting and the barriers employers, particularly small employers face, in pursuing value-based payment models. Lawmakers and witnesses also spoke about the impact of employer pooling and Association Health Plans (AHPs) on health care costs, with Republicans generally speaking favorably of such plan options and Democrats generally raising concerns about the impact on those outside of pools and raising the need for safeguards and guardrails around such policies.

More information is available here.

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Attachment

Hearing on competition and transparency

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Contact Information

For additional information concerning this Alert, please contact:

Washington Council Ernst & Young