{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-urges-president-elect-trump-prioritize-fixing-medicaid-drug", "Grassley Urges President-elect Trump to Prioritize Fixing Medicaid Drug Misclassifications, Preserving a Competitive Marketplace to Help Bring Down Drug Prices", "2016-12-13", "2016", "2016-12", "Republican", "House", "IA", "Charles Grassley", "G000386", "www.grassley.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa urged President-elect Donald Trump to counteract high prescription drug prices by addressing drug misclassifications under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program and making sure laws to fight monopolistic behavior are enforced. \u00a0Grassley is working to understand the reasons behind the high cost of EpiPens. \u00a0The product has been misclassified under the Medicaid rebate program, likely leading to overcharges of hundreds of millions of dollars to taxpayers.\u201cMoving forward, I strongly urge your Administration to look at the pharmaceutical landscape and improve the regulatory approval process and enforcement authorities already in place,\u201d Grassley wrote. \u00a0\u201cI urge you to work with the Congress on legislative efforts to address anti-competitive behavior and to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens that may be impairing the timely introduction of safe, lower cost prescription drug alternatives in the market. Congress and your Administration can work together to devise policies that incentivize innovation and promote competition to the benefit of patients and taxpayers.\u00a0\u201cI also urge you to reverse the unwillingness of the executive branch \u2013 specifically the failure of the Obama Administration \u2013 to fully cooperate with congressional requests, whether it be oversight letters or hearings. Government actions must be disclosed to the public and held out in the open to foster transparency and accountability.\u201dGrassley scheduled a hearing in November to explore a reported government settlement with EpiPen maker Mylan over the Medicaid misclassification and explore the Obama Administration\u2019s efforts to hold companies accountable for drug misclassifications. \u00a0However, Obama Administration officials from the Justice Department and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services CMS) refused to testify. \u00a0Mylan followed their poor example. \u00a0Grassley plans to reschedule the hearing in 2017.Grassley raised the misclassification problem during his meeting last week with Trump\u2019s nominee for CMS administrator. \u00a0 He also discussed soaring drug prices and some of the remedies he\u2019s working on with Trump\u2019s nominee for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.Grassley\u2019s letter is available here.\u00a0\u00a0-30-", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-urges-president-elect-trump-prioritize-fixing-medicaid-drug"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7984230760484934, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}