Now that the House is finally back in business following weeks of turmoil, including the removal of Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker and the election of Rep. Mike Johnson as his replacement, there’s plenty of legislative business to tackle.
One company, Mural Health, a tech platform that manages payments for clinical trial participants, wants to change that. The trials cost a significant amount of money. According to the NIH, each stage of a trial costs a median price of approximately $19 million. Some of that includes the recruitment, retention, and also replacement costs of volunteers. Compensation for clinical trials is anywhere from $150 to $13,000, depending upon the length and type of trial taking place.
People who work at hourly paying jobs with limited time off would rely on the compensation of a clinical trial to cover that income. However, since the compensation is taxable after reaching the $600 threshold, it resembles an additional expense, with a possible volunteer deciding it is not worth missing work. It also has the potential to prevent those receiving public assistance from volunteering.