First Edition: August 30, 2017
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
5 Outside-The-Box Ideas For Fixing The Individual Insurance Market
With Republican efforts to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act stalled, tentative bipartisan initiatives are in the works to shore up the fragile individual insurance market that serves roughly 17 million Americans. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee launches hearings the week Congress returns in September on “stabilizing premiums in the individual insurance market” that will feature state governors and insurance commissioners. A bipartisan group in the House is also working to come up with compromise proposals. (Rovner, 8/30)
Kaiser Health News:
Facebook Live: The Prescription Drug Pricing Pipeline
Who contributes to what you pay at the pharmacy? Why are prescription drugs so expensive in the United States? In this Facebook Live, KHN’s Julie Appleby talks with Stephanie Stapleton and answers readers’ questions about the prescription drug pricing pipeline and the industry stakeholders who have a role in what you pay. (8/29)
California Healthline:
For Low-Income Drug Users, Medi-Cal Offers A Fresh Start
Breann Johnson stopped using heroin on Mother’s Day this year, determined to end her 13-year addiction. Days later, she began three months of residential treatment in Riverside, Calif. — all paid for by California’s Medicaid program. Johnson, who has two young sons, said other inpatient drug rehab programs had refused to accept Medicaid, and she knew outpatient care would not be enough to break her habit. (Gorman, 8/30)
The Washington Post:
The Health Dangers From Hurricane Harvey’s Floods
The flooding from Hurricane Harvey, which has wreaked havoc in Texas, is both catastrophic and historic. The reported death toll rose to at least 16 Tuesday, and officials were projecting that as many as 30,000 people will ultimately be evacuated from flooded homes in Houston and other cities and towns in the state. Though the storm will pass and waters eventually recede, the danger from floodwaters will linger. “I distill it down to short term, long term and big picture,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Houston's Baylor College of Medicine. (Guarino, 8/29)
NPR:
Harvey Evacuees Need Medical Attention And Mental Health Care
As floodwaters continue to rise in parts of Houston, health workers are trying to keep people safe and well, though that challenge is escalating. "The first and foremost thing that everybody's concerned about is just getting folks out of harm's way with the flooded waters," says Dr. Umair Shah, Executive Director of Harris County Public Health, whose own home came under mandatory evacuation Tuesday morning. (Hsu and Penaloza, 8/29)
Reuters:
Storm Harvey Could Financially Hurt Already Strained Houston Hospitals
Structural improvements over the last decade to Houston hospitals have helped them so far to avoid devastation like Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, but the pounding it is receiving from Tropical Storm Harvey is expected to financially hobble many already strained Texas medical centers. The storm has forced hospitals to cancel surgeries, evacuate patients and contend with food and supply shortages. Even bigger challenges are expected in coming months when people who have lost homes and jobs avoid medical treatment or seek charitable care. (Scheyder and Mincer, 8/29)
The Washington Post:
Houston’s Polluted Superfund Sites Threaten To Contaminate Floodwaters
As rain poured and floodwaters inched toward his house in south Houston, Wes Highfield set out on a risky mission in his Jeep Cherokee. He drove in several directions to reach a nearby creek to collect water samples, but each time he was turned back when water washed against his floorboard. “Yesterday as these large retention ponds filled up, eight feet deep in places, kids were swimming in them, and that’s not good,” said Highfield, a scientist at Texas A&M University’s Galveston campus. The Brio Refining toxic Superfund site, where ethylbenzene, chlorinated hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds were once pooled in pits before the Environmental Protection Agency removed them, sits “just up the road, and it drains into our watershed,” he said. (Fears and Dennis, 8/29)
Politico:
Harvey Triggers Spike In Hazardous Chemical Releases
Hobbled oil refineries and damaged fuel facilities along the Gulf Coast of Texas from Tropical storm Harvey have released more than two million pounds of dangerous chemicals into the air this week, adding new health threats to Houston’s already considerable woes. The big spike in releases, which include carcinogenic benzene and nitrogen oxide, will add an environmental and long-term health risk to the region that's struggling with the massive flooding that Harvey has brought to the country’s energy capital, according to environmental watchdogs. (Lefebvre, 8/29)
The Wall Street Journal:
Pressure Grows To Fund Children’s Health Program
State officials increasingly worry that this year’s turbulent health-care politics could threaten funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a popular initiative that usually wins broad bipartisan support. Federal funding for CHIP is set to end Sept. 30. The federal-state program provides health coverage to more than eight million low-income, uninsured children whose family incomes are too high to qualify for Medicaid. (Armour, 8/29)
Los Angeles Times:
GOP Healthcare Vote Inspires Another Challenger For California's Rep. Jeff Denham
It was healthcare that inspired Riverbank small business owner Virginia Madueño to become the newest person to challenge Republican Rep. Jeff Denham in California's Central Valley. Madueño, 52, said she decided to run when Denham voted for the GOP bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act in May after initially saying he’d vote against it. (Wire, 8/29)
The Associated Press:
Sessions: Drug Overdoses 'The Top Lethal Issue' In The US
Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday called drug overdose deaths "the top lethal issue" in the U.S. and urged law enforcement and social workers to "create and foster a culture that's hostile to drug use." Sessions spoke to the annual conference of the National Alliance For Drug Endangered Children. He said preliminary data show nearly 60,000 overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2016, the highest ever. (Moreno, 8/29)
Politico:
Why Hasn’t The White House Declared A State Of Emergency Over The Opioid Crisis?
Speaking from Bedminster, New Jersey, in early August, President Donald Trump vowed to formally dub the U.S. opioid crisis a “national emergency.” But nearly a month later, the president has yet to officially declare a state of emergency — a move that would enable the federal government to pump funds into addressing the drug epidemic. (8/30)
NPR:
Hepatitis C Epidemic Threatens Alaska's Opioid Addicts
Like many states, Alaska is struggling under the burden of opioid abuse. Prescription painkillers and heroin accounted for 74 percent of Alaska's drug overdose deaths last year. Transmission of blood-born viruses like hepatitis C, which can cause liver scarring, cancer, and death, is exploding, increasing in some rural areas by 490 percent in just the last few years. One calculation estimated that to treat all the Alaskans who contracted hepatitis C from injecting drugs in 2015 would cost $90 million. (Hughes, 8/29)
Politico:
Mattis Allows Transgender Troops To Serve As Pentagon Studies Trump's Ban
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday that transgender troops would continue serving in the military while the Pentagon studied the issue, a decision that delays the implementation of President Donald Trump’s recently signed directive. Mattis said he would establish a “panel of experts serving within the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security” to provide advice and recommendations on putting into effect the president’s order to bar transgender individuals from serving in the armed forces. The presidential guidance, which Trump signed on Friday, gave the defense secretary until Feb. 21 to submit a plan for implementing the new policy. (Hillman, 8/29)
The Washington Post:
Gilead’s $11.9 Billion Purchase Of A Groundbreaking Cancer Therapy Could Drag It Into A New Debate On Prices
Gilead Sciences has ended the long-running suspense about what it would do with some of the billions in cash it has amassed from selling effective, but expensive hepatitis C drugs: Buy a groundbreaking cancer therapy. Gilead, which has come under congressional investigation for the $84,000 price tag it put on its first hepatitis C drug, announced Monday it would shell out $11.9 billion to acquire California-based Kite Pharma. The acquisition could stir a whole new debate on drug prices. (Johnson, 8/29)
Reuters:
AstraZeneca Strikes $400 Million Parkinson's Drug Deal With Takeda
AstraZeneca is to receive up to $400 million from Takeda Pharmaceutical after striking a deal for the Japanese company to co-develop an early-stage medicine for Parkinson's disease. The drug, MEDI1341, is an antibody treatment discovered by the British company that is due to enter Phase I clinical trials later this year. (Hirschler, 8/29)
NPR:
How Moldy Hay And Sick Cows Led To A Lifesaving Drug
There is a lifesaving drug that owes its existence to moldy hay, sick cows and rat poison. The drug is called warfarin sodium. It prevents blood clots, and it can be a lifesaver for patients who've had a heart attack or stroke. It's one of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world. (Palca, 8/29)
The Wall Street Journal:
Advisory Board Co. To Be Split And Sold For $2.58 Billion, Including Debt
The Advisory Board Co. will be split up and sold in a deal valued at around $2.21 billion, with its health-care business going to UnitedHealth Group Inc. and its education unit to private-equity firm Vista Equity Partners Management LLC. The consulting and software company had announced in February that its board was exploring strategic alternatives, including a possible sale. That move came after activist hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. said it and related entities had bought about 8.3% of the company’s shares, saying at the time they were undervalued and it wanted to engage in a dialogue with the company’s board. (Wilde Mathews and Cooper, 8/29)
The New York Times:
Can Your ‘Good’ Cholesterol Be Too High?
High levels of HDL, or “good” cholesterol, are generally considered healthy. But can you have too much of a good thing? Possibly so, a study in the European Heart Journal found. Danish researchers tracked more than 116,508 men and women, average age 57, for an average of six years. There were 10,678 deaths. (Bakalar, 8/29)
Los Angeles Times:
Adventist Health Glendale Ranks High In Multiple Areas In Latest ‘Best Hospitals’ List
In a measurement by the U.S. News & World Report, multiple areas of care at Adventist Health Glendale were recently recognized as being among the best in the region and state. The media company released its “Best Hospitals” list for 2017-18 last week and ranked Adventist Health Glendale at No. 16 in the Los Angeles metro area and No. 28 in California. (Landa, 8/29)