Pasco Reporter

Earlier today, the Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee convened to advance several bills aimed at improving access to quality care, promoting patient education and prevention through telehealth, strengthening programs for at-risk Medicaid patients, and streamlining rare disease research. Among these measures were five proposals co-authored by Representative Gus Bilirakis.

One of the proposals is the PREVENT DIABETES Act. This act aims to enhance patient outcomes while saving taxpayer money by making CDC-recognized diabetes prevention programs more accessible to at-risk Medicare patients living in rural areas or unable to attend in-person education programs. The current law requires the Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program (MDPP) Expanded Model to be delivered in an in-person format. However, under Bilirakis’s proposed legislation, virtual suppliers would be eligible to participate in the MDPP program. "It is often said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is certainly the case with patients who are at high risk for developing diabetes,” said Congressman Gus Bilirakis.

The Leveraging Integrity and Verification of Eligibility for (LIVE) Beneficiaries Act was another proposal passed by the Subcommittee. This act mandates states to check the Social Security Administration’s Death Master File database quarterly 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.

Congressman Bilirakis also co-authored the RARE Act as part of his efforts as Co-Chair of the Rare Disease Caucus. The RARE Act provides regulatory certainty for rare disease drug development and eliminates ambiguity by codifying FDA's interpretation that orphan drug exclusivity should be awarded based on a product’s FDA approved indication, rather than the entire disease.

In addition, he has filed legislation to reauthorize the Creating Hope Act of 2011, which expanded the FDA Priority Review Voucher (PRV) program to incentivize pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs for children with rare pediatric diseases. "The Rare Pediatric PRV program has been an effective tool for incentivizing the development of new and improved treatments for children with rare diseases," remarked Bilirakis.

Lastly, Bilirakis co-authored the Expanding Language Access in Telehealth Act. This act aims 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 with unique needs. “We’ve seen in recent years how valuable telehealth can be for expanding access to critical behavioral health treatment,” noted Rep. Bilirakis.

These five healthcare priorities proposed by Congressman Bilirakis are now one step closer to becoming law. He anticipates that they will be voted favorably out of the full Energy and Commerce Committee as quickly as possible.