Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Congress is hold a state work period recess this week. Here is a link to the Week in Congress’s report on last week’s actions on Capitol Hill.

Avik Roy, the Forbes columnist, suggests that the problem of surprise emergency room bills could be resolved if Congress

caps out-of-network [emergency care] prices [in the commercial market, e.g. FEHBP] at the lower of the median privately contracted rate and Medicare’s rates. Not only will such a policy end price exploitation by out-of-network emergency care providers, but also by in-network providers. It will also give market participants the opportunity to do better than Medicare, whether through value-based contracts, simple price competition, or other innovations.

A worthy idea. Health Payer Intelligence offers a report on the status of the issue on Capitol Hill.

Healthcare Dive reports that the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it is actively seeking to resolve a major regulatory headache for payers and providers created by a 1975 law (and implementing rules known as 42 CFR Part 2) that inhibits coordination of caring with patients with opioid addiction, among many substance use disorders. Good luck.

Last week, the Trump Administration announced that “National Cancer Institute Director Norman “Ned” Sharpless will serve as acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration,” when Dr. Scott Gottlieb steps down next month. According to MedCityNews

Sharpless has served as NCI director since October 2017, having previously served as director of the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, since January 2014. He received his medical degree from UNC in 1993, followed by a residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a hematology-oncology fellowship at Harvard Medical School’s Dana-Farber/Partners Cancer Care.