Lawsuit Alleges Biden Admin Enforcement Failure Triggered Skyrocketing Drug Prices

Xavier Becerra, secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), speaks during a press conference at the HHS headquarters in Washington, on June 28, 2022. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP via Getty Images)

The Foundation for Government Accountability (FGA) has filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and Treasury for failing to enforce a drug price transparency rule.

This rule mandates that group health plans and health insurers publish the prices of prescription drugs in order to provide consumers with complete pricing information for medications. The FGA claims in their March 23 press release that the three departments have violated the rule by failing to enforce it.

In 2019, the Trump administration announced regulation to increase Transparency in Coverage for healthcare that was finalized in 2020. The section regarding the transparency of medicine prices was scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, 2022.

However, the Biden administration issued a FAQ guidance document to halt implementation of the rule; the FGA’s lawsuit asserts that the move skirted the requisite notice-and-comment procedures that must take place before making modifications to an existing regulation.

“Two years of inaction on drug price transparency is enough. FGA is taking the fight for transparency to federal court to force the Biden administration to follow the law, without exception and without delay,” Tarren Bragdon, President and CEO of FGA, said in the group’s press release.

“The American people deserve to make informed choices with all cards face up. The Biden administration has made that impossible by putting the needs of Big Pharma before the needs of patients,” Bragdon said. “FGA is fighting for transparency that puts people first.”

The pricing transparency regulation was expected to assist in reducing the cost of medical care. The Biden administration’s move has reportedly resulted in a lack of mitigation of a significant increase in the cost of more than 1,200 prescription medications during the years 2021 and 2022.

According to a study from HHS that was released in September 2022, the average price increase for prescription medications was 31.6 percent: “Some drugs in 2022 increased by more than $20,000 or 500 percent,” according to the study findings.

Stewart Whitson, FGA legal director, spoke to the suit in the group’s press release, saying “Refusing to enforce a rule on the books without following the formal process of withdrawing the rule is a violation of federal law. FGA is taking this fight directly to the federal court to order the implementation and enforcement of this drug price transparency rule.

“There are no excuses left for the Biden administration: Either they are for transparency or against [it]. Since they won’t implement the rule on their own as the law requires, we’re asking the federal court to order them to, delivering the transparency consumers deserve.”

The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’s request for comment.