Allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs is one of the most popular aspects of the Inflation Reduction Act, and a bill proposed by Nevada lawmakers would apply those drug price caps for all Nevadans.

Less than a month after Gov. Joe Lombardo's office sent a letter to the Patient Protection Commission telling members not to advance two of its three proposed bills, lawmakers gave each bill a hearing Wednesday.

When lawmakers kicked off their 120-day legislative session in February, the state was still recovering from a brutal winter surge of COVID-19, which saw a thousand new cases of the virus reported across the state each day.

The Patient Protection Commission plans to submit two bill draft requests to the 2021 Legislature that would expand access to telehealth services in Nevada and establish a state medical claims database based on insurance company data.

Members of the Patient Protection Commission have advanced outlines of two bill draft requests that aim to codify federal emergency guidance on telehealth amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and boost long-term health care data transparency in the state.

The Patient Protection Commission plans to explore the issue of health care pricing transparency, including the possibility of a state medical claims database, at its next meeting in two weeks.

Bobbette Bond, the director of health policy for the fund, emphasized to the Committee to Conduct an Interim Study Concerning the Cost of Prescription Drugs the complicated nature of drug pricing policies, suggesting it would be better to have a commission constantly studying the issues and focused on creating policy, rather than an interim committee that has to be re-educated every legislative session in order to draft bills.

Culinary Union Local 226 Secretary-Treasurer Geoconda Arguello-Kline surely bruised a few hearts Thursday when she announced the powerful labor organization wouldn't endorse a Democratic presidential candidate ahead of the upcoming Nevada caucus.

Price, licensing, and access for special populations were among the topics of discussion at the first meeting of the new commission on Monday. Gov. Steve Sisolak first promised to form the commission while on the campaign trail in 2018 and appeared at the meeting in person in Las Vegas to talk with the group and share his own goals. 

Gov. Steve Sisolak announced on Thursday the members and executive director of the long-awaited Patient Protection Commission, a body tasked with a top-to-bottom review of health care in Nevada and promised by Sisolak during his campaign.