President Biden signed an executive order (EO) titled ‘Executive Order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy.’ According to the release, the President signed the EO with the hopes of building on recent economic momentum to further promote and encourage competition in the American economy. The President hopes the EO will help lower prices for families, increase wages for workers, and promote innovation and spur up faster economic growth.
The full text of the EO can be accessed here, and the National Rural Health Association has highlighted a few prominent health care provisions in the text, below.
The President used this executive order to address his concerns within the prescription drug industry. The order directs the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to work with states to import prescription drugs from Canada, directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to increase support, production of generic and biosimilar drugs, and direct HHS ban “pay for delay” procedures brand-name manufacturers use to keep generic manufacturers out of the market.
Most notably, the EO focuses in on hospital consolidation and their impacts, particularly those in rural America. In the EO, the President encourages the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to review and revise their merger guidelines. Further, the EO directs HHS to support existing hospital price transparency rules and complete the implementation of surprise medical billing rules.