In a letter to Lisa Gomez, assistant secretary of labor and head of the department’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, two House Democrats are urging U.S. Department of Labor officials to focus on the issue.
Lawmakers also question how EBSA plans to enforce new provider compensation disclosure requirements included in the health care cost transparency provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021 package.
The letter was sent by Democratic Rep. Robert Scott of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee, and Ranking Democrat Mark DeSaulnier, the ranking Democrat on the committee’s Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee.
Discussions about the 2021 CAA disclosure requirements have often focused on the disclosure requirements of agents, brokers, and consultants, but Scott and DeSaulnier directly refer only to pharmacy benefit managers and third-party administrators, or outside companies that help administer benefit plans.
Republicans currently hold a majority in the House of Representatives of 220 to 212. Democrat Nancy Pelosi of California, a former speaker of the House, said on PBS television on Tuesday that she believes Democrats have a chance of regaining the majority in the general election in November.
Legislators, unions, employees of certain companies and other stakeholders have made ERISA’s fiduciary responsibilities the focus of their lawsuits against pension plan sponsors, efforts to regulate pharmacy benefit managers and other benefit disputes over the past year.
