Kilili files 2 bills to reduce health care costs

Delegate Kilili C. Sablan (D-MP) introduced last week two bills aimed at lowering health care costs in the Marianas and other U.S. territories.

Sablan’s Supporting Territorial Safety Net Hospitals Act, or H. R. 9128, and Equitable Access to 340B Act, or H.R. 9127, seek to add the Marianas and other U.S. territories to federal compensation programs created for hospitals in rural or geographically isolated regions.

Sablan said in his e-kilili newsletter early this week that H.R. 9128 would provide enhanced Medicare payments based on reasonable costs to eligible territorial safety net hospitals.

This reimbursement rate, he said, is modeled after that of critical access hospitals elsewhere in the U.S.

The bill seeks to amend Title 18 of the Social Security Act to establish a designation for territorial safety net hospitals.

The bill was referred to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce; Committee on Ways and Means, and Committee on Budget.

H.R. 9127, on the other hand, defines disproportionate share hospitals in the territories as “covered entities” for purposes of the 340B prescription drug program.

Sablan said this drug program requires drug manufacturers to sell certain drugs at a discount to such covered entities, discounts that the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. could then pass along to patients in the Marianas.

The bill proposes to amend Title 3 of the Public Health Service Act to include territorial disproportionate share hospitals as covered entities under the 340B drug discount program.

The bill was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Delegate James C. Moylan (R-Guam) co-sponsored the two legislations.

Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan