Congress remains out of town until next week.

Readers may recall that the health insurer trade associations had requested the Department of Health and Human Services to extend by at least 90 days the comment period o the proposed out of pocket cost transparency rule applicable to health plans. Fierce Healthcare reports that the Department has granted a 15 day extension through January 29, 2020.

Health Payer Intelligence brings us up to date on health insurer efforts to take social determinants of health into account. The FEHBlog expects this effort to continue to grow over time.