The House Education & Workforce Committee last week voted to pass four pieces of legislation related to healthcare price transparency, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and New York.

• District of Columbia: The House Education & Workforce Committee last week voted to pass four pieces of legislation related to healthcare price transparency, including one that would require off-campus hospital outpatient departments to obtain a separate unique health identifier to be included on claims for services billed to commercial group health plans or enrollees. The bill would also prohibit health plans from paying the claim and hospitals from collecting payment from the plan if the claim does not include the identifier, and civil monetary penalties would be applied to hospitals violating the requirement. Other bills advancing through the committee include one that would strengthen price transparency requirements for commercial group health plans, one that would require plans' contracts with service providers to allow the employer or plan fiduciary to access de-identified claims and encounter data, and one that would require plans to further report financial arrangements with pharmacy benefit managers to the employer or fiduciary. (AHA News, 7/12)
• Massachusetts: Takeda last week announced it has voluntarily withdrawn its FDA applications for its dengue vaccine. In a press release, the company said it will review whether to proceed with attempting to bring the vaccine to market in the United States. The vaccine is already approved in the European Union, as well as the United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, and Thailand. Currently, there's only one dengue vaccine licensed in the United States, but it's only licensed for use in children and teens ages 6 to 16 living in areas where dengue is endemic. "The urgent global need to combat the growing burden of dengue remains, and we will continue to progress regulatory reviews and provide access for people living in and traveling to dengue-endemic areas while we work to determine next steps in the U.S.," said Gary Dubin, president of Takeda's global vaccines business unit. (Branswell, STAT, 7/11)
• New York: Officials in New York City are planning to propose indoor air quality legislation, which would require the city to create standards to measure, monitor, report, and enforce air quality within schools and municipal buildings within 18 months. Two other bills would develop five-year pilot programs to analyze air quality in residential and commercial buildings. These programs would be voluntary, however, any buildings whose owners or developers receive financial assistance from the city would be required to participate. If the pilot programs go into effect, officials would then make recommendations for a permanent regulatory framework for residential and commercial buildings later. (Ailworth, Wall Street Journal, 7/12)