| Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Tuesday the committee could markup a bill banning gag clauses next month. What are we talking about? Specifically, a bill from Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) would ban clauses in contracts between pharmacies, insurers and middle men that keep pharmacies from proactively telling customers they could save money on a prescription if they paid out of pocket instead of through insurance. Why it matters: If it passes Congress, it would be one of the few actions Congress has taken to lower drug prices this year. We explain here. A group of senators want to ensure the federal government has a way to measure its progress in curbing the opioid epidemic. The bill, introduced Wednesday, is from a bipartisan group: Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.). Solving the opioid epidemic is a large-scale public health challenge, and the senators want to make sure there are metrics in place to determine what is working, and what isn't. What the bill would do: Require federal agencies to craft ways to measure the effectiveness of efforts to tackle the opioid epidemic within 180 days, with the goal of "significantly reversing" opioid misuse and opioid-related deaths within five years. Read more here. Advocates call for reducing stigma around gout Advocates and doctors called for increased awareness of gout to reduce the stigma surrounding the illness at a roundtable dinner hosted by The Hill on Tuesday night and sponsored by Horizon Pharma. Gout, a form of arthritis that can cause episodes of serious pain, affects about 8 million people in the United States. It has been nicknamed the "king's disease" because it is often associated with overweight people, but doctors and advocates stressed that it can affect a broader range of people and should not have a stigma. Dr. Regina Benjamin, a former surgeon general of the United States, said that an awareness campaign about the disease could help people manage it better. House Dems want CBO to reject a proposal that would roll back ObamaCare's transgender discrimination protections. The group of 127 Democrats want OMB director Mick Mulvaney to reject a proposed rule that is expected to roll back a controversial anti-discrimination provision buried within ObamaCare. The rule has been under review at OMB since April, and is expected to be released later this summer. Democrats said the rule would allow health-care providers to deny treatment to transgender patients and women who have had abortions, if the provider has a religious objection. What's the objective? Mulvaney is not going to listen to House Democrats. But they're calling attention to an issue that's flown largely under the radar to date. The rule was expected to be issued as early as last year, and it will come on the heels of the administration cutting funds to Planned Parenthood and other federally funded health clinics that provide abortions. Read more about the brewing fight here | 
