The Biden administration proposes once again to push back, this time from March 22 to July 20, the effective date of the Trump administration’s controversial final rule to require health centers to provide insulin and injectable epinephrine to low-income patients at the price centers pay for those drugs under the 340B program.
The rule originally was set to take effect Jan. 22. The new administration on Jan. 21 froze it for 60 days “for further review and consideration of new regulations.” In a Federal Register notice today, it announced a five-day comment period on its proposal for a second 60-day delay, with comments due on or before March 14.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) said it would use the second delay to consider “whether revision or withdrawal of the rule may be warranted.” HHS said it was specifically interested in reviewing previous comments stating that the final rule would dramatically reduce health centers’ 340B savings, impose enormous administrative burdens on centers, and likely raise the cost of insulin, EpiPens, and similar epinephrine pens.
Supporters and opponents of Trump’s rule continue to spar on social media over whether Biden raised the price of insulin by freezing the rule.
