WASHINGTON, October 16, 2023 – The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) yesterday submitted a letter to the Health Care Task Force of the U.S. House Budget Committee, in response to its request for information (RFI) soliciting feedback to identify policy solutions that improve health outcomes for workers and families while reducing health care spending.
ERIC’s letter emphasized that employers can and should be important partners in the efforts of the Task Force to help forge solutions that result in improved health care access, affordability, quality, transparency, and safety for all Americans. Specifically, the ERIC letter outlined potential solutions, including meaningful improvements for:
- High Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) paired with Health Savings Accounts (HSAs)
- Health information technology, telehealth, and wearable technologies
- Hospital pricing, fairness in contracting, and timely and honest medical bills
- Transparency and accountability measures
- Prescription drug costs, including pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform
- Direct contracting and accountable care organizations
- Quality and patient safety
“The ERISA Industry Committee and its member companies are dedicated to making health care more affordable for workers, their families, and retirees,” said Melissa Bartlett, senior vice president of Health Policy. “We are confident that our policy recommendations can provide meaningful changes to our health care system, and look forward to working with the Health Care Task Force to further help in policy development and enacting legislation.”
Bartlett continued: “Our approach includes common-sense solutions that can be easily implemented, many of which have broad, bipartisan support, and are already well-known to lawmakers. In fact, some of the solutions relating to digital health, addressing PBM reform, and making critical changes to consumer-directed health plans and accounts, are ready for immediate consideration by Congress. Lawmakers should quickly move to draft or approve legislation to reduce health care costs and administrative burdens on both employees and plan sponsors.”
ERIC’s comment letter may be read here.