On January 19, 2017, the United States Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) unveiled a new drug designation process for regenerative advanced therapies, an important first step toward implementation of the regenerative medicine provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act. Products for which a designation as a regenerative advanced therapy (“RAT”) is obtained are eligible
Obama Administration
Long-Awaited Accessibility Standards for Medical Diagnostic Equipment Are Released
Our colleagues Joshua A. Stein and Frank C. Morris, Jr., at Epstein Becker Green have a post on the Health Employment And Labor blog that will be of interest to many of our readers: “The U.S. Access-Board Releases Long-Awaited Final Accessible Medical Diagnostic Equipment Standards.”
Following is an excerpt:
As part of…
New Federal and State Initiatives Seek to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance
Recent federal and state legislative efforts signal an increased focus on a significant and largely underappreciated public health threat – antimicrobial resistance (i.e., when a microorganism (such as a bacteria or virus) is able to resist the effects of medications such as antibiotics and antivirals, causing such medications to be ineffective). The results of a…
The Supreme Court Mulls Obamacare; the Health Care Industry Mulls the Supreme Court
The three days of arguments about the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act are complete. The Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States have conducted their post-argument conference and are now turning their attention to the drafting and the discussions that will lead to a majority…
The Timeline for Accountable Care
Now that we have sweeping new health care legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("the Act"), let’s look at the rollout of the accountable care provisions–i.e., those changes to the payment and delivery system that hold the most long-term promise of improving quality and cost-efficiency. They are discussed in my most recent article: "The…
Infrastructure for Health Care Reform
Barack Obama signed an executive order on April 8, 2009 to formally lay infrastructure in the executive branch to facilitate health care reform activities. The executive order officially creates the White House Office of Reform (the “Health Reform Office”) and lays out its principle functions, including coordination across executive departments and agencies, outreach activities with…
Friday Wrap-Up: This Week in Health Reform Musings
In yesterday’s post on The Health Care Blog, Bill Kramer remarks upon a key difference in the health reform discourse this go-round. Simply put, “the Obama Administration is changing the debate in a fundamental way.” As President Obama stated in his opening remarks to last week’s White House Forum on Health Reform, “[h]ealthcare…
President’s Health Care Forum Officially “Sounds the Alarm”…and Hopefully a National Call to Action
Thursday’s White House Forum on Health Reform brought together people who have a stake in our health care system with people who have the ability to change it. Prior to his inauguration, President Obama called on Americans to hold community discussions about health care. More than 9,000 Americans signed up to host discussions in all…
President Announces HHS and White House Office of Health Reform Picks
On Tuesday, President Obama announced Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius as his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services. She is known for her bipartisan approach to politics and her efforts as a governor in the health care arena. If confirmed, Governor Sebelius has a once in a lifetime opportunity to execute health care reform…