Health Care Partner Discusses HHS Secretary’s First Year in Office
Health care partner Tom Bulleit (Washington, D.C) is one of several experts selected by Law360 to provide a “report card” on U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar’s first year in office in a Jan. 29 article.
Mr. Bulleit gives Mr. Azar credit for adopting a conciliatory approach to value-based health care and innovation, resuming what he terms an Obama-era approach toward demonstration projects around bundled payments.
Mr. Bulleit is less impressed with HHS’ work on drug pricing, noting that the Trump administration’s “American Patients First” blueprint has produced little but debate, and predicting that the more potentially consequential HHS drug cost reduction proposals will be subject to legal challenges. He also notes that the Department’s backing of work requirements for Medicaid participants has sparked its own controversy.