Despite industry opposition, President Trump signed a cost transparency executive order giving HHS the regulatory power to reveal to the public, health-care facilities’ costs of devices and procedures.

The US House completed work on the FDA portion of an appropriations “minibus” bill for 2020 on 20 June, agreeing to retain an approximate 8% increase for the agency’s device center.

In this week's Medtech Insight podcast, executive editor Shawn M. Schmitt and senior reporter Sue Darcey discuss recent reporting on efforts by US senators to control and stop Chinese researchers in the US from using their research jobs at the National Institutes of Health, and at American medical colleges and universities, to steal genomic data and share it with the Chinese government.

The US House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee held a hearing on 12 June on proposed legislation to end “surprise medical billing,” spurred in part by out-of-network laboratory and advanced imaging bills, while Senate HELP Committee leaders continued to promote their own draft Lower Health Care Cost Act, addressing similar issues.

Two Republican senators this week asked the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) to look into suspected CMS payments and trading of US citizens’ genomic information with US-partnered Chinese laboratory companies.

Threats from Chinese and other foreign researchers stealing US medical research and genomic intellectual property for their home countries’ gain continue, and in response, one Texas senator plans to introduce a Secure Our Research Act to protect federally funded research from foreign theft.