In May, we reported that the United States Department of Health and Human Services finalized a new rule that requires most television commercial advertising for prescription drugs to disclose their list prices. This week, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, vacated the rule, holding that the HHS lacked the authority to issue it. The court wrote, "Congress surely did not envision such an expansion of regulatory authority when it granted HHS the power to issue regulations necessary to carry out the 'efficient administration' of the Medicare and Medicaid programs."
Responding to the decision, White House spokesman Judd Deere said, “It is outrageous that an Obama-appointed judge sided with big pharma to keep high drug prices secret from the American people, leaving patients and families as the real victims."
The rule was supposed to go into on June 9th.
"Federal agencies typically enjoy expansive authority from Congress to formulate rules that have the force of law in areas germane to the statutes that they implement. But such authority is not unbounded."
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