Prices for prescription drugs edged down by 1% last year, a rare result driven by declines for generics and slow, low growth in the cost of brand-name medications, the government said Thursday.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma pushed back on hospitals' resistance to publishing payer-negotiated prices, as now mandated by a federal rule.

Saturday is the deadline for most people with Medicare coverage to sign up for private drug and medical plans for next year. But members of Congress, health care advocates and insurance agents worry that enrollment decisions based on bad information from the government’s revamped, error-prone Plan Finder website will bring unwelcome surprises.

President Donald Trump has personally tried to settle the long-running feud between his two top health appointees, telling his health secretary to fix the relationship with his Medicare chief, said three individuals with knowledge of the situation.

More than two years after California’s surprise-billing law took effect, there’s one thing on which consumer advocates, doctors and insurers all agree: The law has been effective at protecting many people from bills they might have been saddled with from doctors who aren’t in their insurance network.

More than 1,000 employers, insurers, unions, and other organizations on Thursday urged Senate leaders to scrap a controversial tax on expensive employer-sponsored health plans that's set to go into effect in 2022.