Five More Bilirakis Health Proposals Advance

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Earlier today, the Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee held a markup to advance several bills that would improve access to quality care, promote patient education and prevention via telehealth, strengthen programs to help at-risk patients in Medicaid, and streamline rare disease research that holds promise for the development of better treatments and cures.   Several of the measures that the Subcommittee opted to advance today were co-authored by Representative Gus Bilirakis.  His PREVENT DIABETES Act would improve patient outcomes while saving taxpayer money by making CDC-recognized diabetes prevention programs more accessible to at-risk Medicare patients who live in rural areas or are unable to attend in-person education programs.  While the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program (MDPP) Expanded Model has proven effective in helping patients lower their risks for developing diabetes, current law requires the program to be delivered in an in-person format.  Under Bilirakis’s proposed legislation, these virtual suppliers would be eligible to participate in the MDPP program, allowing expanded telehealth options for patients with diabetes, ultimately saving the program money in the long-run through increased education and training.  “It is often said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  This is certainly the ase with patients who are at high risk for developing diabetes,” said Congressman Gus Bilirakis.  “Through enhanced education, seniors will be empowered with tools they can use to optimize their health, avoid costly complications, and enjoy a better quality of life.

A second Bilirakis bill passed by the Subcommittee today is the Leveraging Integrity and Verification of Eligibility for (LIVE) Beneficiaries Act.  According to a recent HHS Office of Inspector General report, an audit of just 14 states found more than $249 million in improper Medicaid capitation payments that were made to Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) on behalf of deceased enrollees. Bilirakis’s commonsense legislation requires states to check the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File database on a quarterly basis and verify that Medicaid patients are not deceased. “As we work to ensure the long-term solvency of critical safety net programs, like Medicaid and Medicare, we have an obligation to ensure we are serving as good stewards of taxpayer dollars, said Congressman Bilirakis.  “This means we must prevent fraud, waste, and abuse whenever possible. By implementing simple safeguards like the ones in my bill, we can strengthen these programs and help ensure they are meeting their intended purpose of providing access to quality care for our most vulnerable citizens.”

As Co-Chair of the Rare Disease Caucus, Congressman Bilirakis has worked tirelessly to support rare disease patients and families by streamlining FDA processes and encouraging the development of treatments and cures for smaller patient populations.  As part of that work, he co-authored the RARE Act, which is a technical fix that provides regulatory certainty for rare disease drug development and eliminates ambiguity by codifying the FDA’s long-standing interpretation that orphan drug exclusivity is to be awarded based on a product’s FDA approved indication, rather than the entire disease.  Bilirakis has also filed legislation to reauthorize the Creating Hope Act of 2011 which originally expanded the FDA Priority Review Voucher (PRV) program to incentivize pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs for children with rare pediatric diseases.Since its inception, almost 50 PRVs have been awarded for over 35 different rare pediatric diseases.  Pediatric cancer remains the leading cause of death among children, yet pediatric cancer drugs are often not pursued because of the small market size and high risks associated with testing drugs in children.  The same is true for most rare diseases impacting children.  The Creating Hope Reauthorization Act of 2024 continues this critical program to incentivize companies to engage in this life-saving work for another six years.  "The Rare Pediatric PRV program has been an effective tool for incentivizing the development of new and improved treatments for children with rare diseases. I’m proud to help lead the charge in offering hope to these families by ensuring this successful initiative continues to help rare disease patients nationwide, remarked Bilirakis.  During today’s markup, Bilirakis offered an amendment to combine his two bills with the Give Kids a Chance Act, which will providea pathway for pediatric studies of “combination” cancer drugs in pediatric populations, in cases where the second drug is FDA approved and owned by the company. The amended package passed out of the Subcommittee and is moving forward in the legislative process.   

Similarly, the Congressman co-authored the Expanding Language Access in Telehealth Act, which seeks to improve access to telehealth services by directing the Department of Health and Human Services to develop best practices to improve language access for Medicare beneficiaries who have unique needs, such as patients in rural communities, patients with disabilities, and patients with Limited English Proficiency, specifically when seeking behavioral health care via video-based and audio-only telehealth. “We’ve seen in recent years how valuable telehealth can be for expanding access to critical behavioral health treatment,” notedRep. Bilirakis. “However, it has become apparent that some seniors need additional support in order to fully utilize this tool in an effective manner.  It is not enough to simply provide access to treatment, which is why our bill goes a step further and ensures that providers and patients receive the training and support they need to take full advantage of this essential tool.” During today’s markup, Congressman Bilirakis offered an amendment to combine this bill with the SPEAK Act, which promotes patient telehealth education and knowledge. His amendment was adopted. 

All five of these Bilirakis healthcare priorities are now one step closer to becoming law.  Congressman Bilirakis looks forward to them being voted favorably out of the full Energy and Commerce Committee as quickly as possible.