The US Congress this week agreed to keep the FDA and other government agencies funded at fiscal-year 2019 levels, extending the continuing resolution another four weeks until 20 December.

MD Anderson Cancer Center chief medical officer Stephen Hahn fielded a number of questions senators asked at his 20 November confirmation hearing to lead the US FDA. Chief among them were inquiries about his government experience level, whether he would expedite a ban on electrical stimulation devices used against the intellectually disabled, and how he would address a shortage of molybdenum-99 used in advanced imaging scans.

The US Medicare agency on 15 November released a final cost transparency rule calling on hospitals to detail their standard “shoppable services” charges for X-rays, advanced imaging, laboratory tests and an array of other device-related procedures, beginning on 1 January 2021. Meanwhile, an accompanying proposed rule released by the CMS on the same day would require insurance health plans to provide to participants and beneficiaries the insurers’ negotiated rates for all covered health-care items and services.