First Edition: January 25, 2019
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Drug-Pricing Policies Find New Momentum As ‘A 2020 Thing’
The next presidential primary contests are more than a year away. But presumed candidates are already trying to stake a claim to one of health care’s hot-button concerns: surging prescription drug prices. “This is a 2020 thing,” said Dr. Peter Bach, who directs the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and tracks drug-pricing policy. (Luthra, 1/25)
California Healthline:
Transparent Hospital Pricing Exposes Wild Fluctuation, Even Within Miles
The federal government’s new rule requiring hospitals to post prices for their services is intended to allow patients to shop around and compare prices, a step toward price transparency that California has mandated since 2005. California Healthline examined the price lists — known in hospital lingo as “chargemasters” — of four large acute care hospitals in Oakland, Calif., and another four in Los Angeles, using the documents California hospitals have been reporting annually to the California Department of Public Health — the same information the federal government is now requiring all hospitals to post on their websites. (Rowan, 1/24)
Kaiser Health News:
Postpartum Psychosis Is Real, Rare And Dangerous
Even after all she had been through — the helicopters circling her house, the snipers on the roof and the car ride to jail — Lisa Abramson still wanted to have a second child. That’s because right after her daughter was born in 2014 — before all that trouble began — everything felt amazing. Abramson was smitten, just as she had imagined she would be. She would look into her baby’s round, alert eyes and feel adrenaline rush through her. She had so much energy. (Dembosky, 1/25)
Kaiser Health News:
Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ ‘Medicare-For-All’? More? Some?
Democrats have officially launched their debate over “Medicare-for-all,” with lots of ideas on how to expand health insurance coverage (and lower costs) for Americans. Chances of any bill becoming law in the next two years are extremely slim, with Republicans still in control of the Senate and White House. But the debate is important in the run-up to the 2020 presidential primaries for Democrats. (1/24)
Stat:
How The FDA Could Keep Working Without More Funding
Two former Food and Drug Administration lawyers have a creative possibility for how the agency could continue to do some of its work if the shutdown drags on: argue that reviewing certain drugs is essential to protecting people’s lives. Parts of the federal government, including the FDA, have already been shut down for five weeks, and there’s no sign yet that President Trump and congressional leaders are nearing a deal to reopen it. (Swetlitz, 1/25)
CQ:
FDA Shutdown Prompts Call For Short-Term Fix
The Food and Drug Administration’s drug and medical device divisions were supposed to be spared from the brunt of the shutdown’s impact given their reliance on industry-paid fees instead of a government appropriation. But as the shutdown drags on into a second month, the FDA says those divisions are also running out of money — and work to do — and at some point will have to furlough employees that the agency has struggled to recruit and retain in recent years. One concerned industry group wants Congress to consider a short-term solution if it can’t pass any spending bills. (Siddons, 1/24)
The Washington Post:
Trump Says Grocery Stores, Banks Will Give Furloughed Workers A Break During Shutdown
President Trump suggested Thursday that grocery stores and banks will give a break to the 800,000 federal workers who are without pay due to the partial government shutdown. Trump was responding to a question about comments Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross made hours earlier. Ross had prompted a wave of criticism after he claimed not to understand why furloughed workers were visiting food banks and suggested they take out a loan to cover their lost wages. (Sonmez, 1/24)
CNN:
What An Ongoing Government Shutdown Means For School Lunch
Concern is mounting across the country over whether the government shutdown might have an effect on school lunches. The US Department of Agriculture's child nutrition programs -- which provide low-cost or free school meals to children in need -- are fully funded through the end of March, according to a tweet from USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue on Friday. (Howard, 1/24)
CNN:
The Shutdown Could Make The Next Wildfire Season Worse
There's been a blizzard this week in Utah, and still, State Forester Brian Cottam is preoccupied with forest fires. Usually, he and his team would be making plans with the federal government to help prevent fires. Even once the snow lets up, though, he's not sure when he'll get back to work with his federal colleagues. Fire prevention is a collaborative effort with local, state and federal agencies and private landowners -- and it's being held up because of the federal government shutdown. (Christensen, 1/24)
Politico:
‘We’re Talking’: McConnell And Schumer Attempt To Defuse Shutdown
Chuck Schumer emerged from Mitch McConnell’s office after a 30-minute meeting on Thursday afternoon bearing a wide grin. “We’re talking,” the Senate minority leader said as he walked back to his office. After five weeks of mostly radio silence, with Washington reeling from the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, the two party leaders are finally in a room together. (Everett, 1/25)
Nashville Tennessean:
Superintendent Allegedly Used Own Insurance To Help Sick Student
An Indiana school superintendent who allegedly used her own insurance to help a sick student faces multiple charges including insurance fraud. Casey Smitherman — superintendent of Elwood Community Schools in Elwood, Indiana — was booked on charges of insurance fraud, identity deception and official misconduct on Wednesday and later released on bail, according to court records. Smitherman says the charges come after she recently went to the home of a student who had missed school and saw he had symptoms of strep throat. After the student was refused treatment at a clinic, she took him to another one, this time saying he was her son. (Shannon, 1/24)
The Washington Post:
Casey Smitherman: Indiana Superintendent Charged With Insurance Fraud After Trying To Get Sick Student Treatment
The incident occurred on Jan. 9, police said. Smitherman noticed that a 15-year-old student she had helped before — buying clothes for him and helping clean his house, she told police according to an affidavit — had not shown up at school. She did not want to call the state’s Department of Child Services because she was concerned the child would be placed in a foster home, the affidavit said. She took the child, who had a sore throat, to a medical facility and checked him in by using her son’s insurance, for an evaluation under her son’s name. She then drove him to a pharmacy where she had an antibiotics prescription filled for the child, again under her son’s name, court records said, and dropped him back at his house. (Rosenberg and Wootson, 1/24)
The Hill:
School Superintendent Charged With Fraud For Allegedly Using Her Insurance To Help Sick Student
“After one clinic refused to give the boy necessary treatment, I took him to a different clinic and told them he was my son. I knew he did not have insurance, and I wanted to do all I could to help him get well,” she said, according to the court documents. “I know this action was wrong. In the moment, my only concern was for this child’s health.” Smitherman has been charged with official misconduct, insurance fraud, insurance application fraud and identity deception, according to Fox59. Prosecutors have reportedly agreed to let her enter a diversion program and avoid a criminal conviction. (Anapol, 1/24)
The Hill:
Health Care Industry Group Launches Digital Ads Against 'Medicare For All'
A health care industry group on Thursday launched a digital ad campaign against "Medicare for all," as health care companies ramp up their efforts to fight the idea gaining ground on the left. “Whether it’s called Medicare for all, single-payer or a public option, a one-size-fits-all health care system will mean all Americans have less choice and control over their doctors, treatments and coverage,” states the two-and-a-half minute video, which will run as a digital ad on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. (Sullivan, 1/24)
Los Angeles Times:
60 Hours, 50 Abortions: A California Doctor’s Monthly Commute To A Texas Clinic
The protesters are already positioned when she pulls up in her rental car. One lurches at women approaching the clinic, rosary beads dangling from her outstretched palm. Another hands patients tiny fetus dolls that match their skin color. The doctor tries to ignore them. There are demonstrators at every abortion clinic and they’re all the same, she thinks: a nuisance. In Northern California, where she lives, a man yells, “Don’t take the blood money,” as she arrives at work. At least here, in Dallas, the protesters mostly stay on the sidewalk. The doctor slips inside the mirrored glass doors of the clinic — one of the busiest abortion facilities in the United States. (Karlamangla, 1/24)
The Wall Street Journal:
Planned Parenthood Develops Chatbot To Reach More Teens
Planned Parenthood has developed a chatbot that can answer questions about sexual health, part of a larger communications effort by the health-services group to bring sex education to the young masses. The artificial-intelligence-powered tool, created by a design shop that sought guidance from high-school students, comes as the organization defends its role in a country divided on approaches to sex education for teens and issues related to women’s health, such as abortion and government funding for certain health services. (Bruell, 1/24)
Bloomberg:
Drug Middlemen Got Big Markup In New York, Pharmacists Say
Pharmacy-benefit managers are taking increasingly large markups on generic drugs in New York, according to an analysis of Medicaid prescriptions at independent pharmacies in the state. In Medicaid, private insurers are paid by the state to cover low-income citizens. The insurers in turn usually contract with pharmacy-benefit managers, or PBMs, paying them to provide drug coverage. PBMs run by CVS Health Corp., Cigna Corp. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. then bill insurers for coverage, and reimburse pharmacies for drugs. (Langreth, 1/24)
Stat:
PBMs Marked Up Generics For Medicaid, But Where'd The Money Go?
Amid intensifying scrutiny of medicine costs, an analysis of the New York Medicaid and pharmacy data suggests that pharmacy benefit managers are increasingly marking up generic drugs, raising questions about the extent to which the profits are passed back to the state health care program. In 2017, the pharmacy benefit managers that were contracted with managed care plans working on behalf of the state Medicaid program paid independent pharmacies an average of $10.85 for each generic prescription. But the managed care plans reported their average costs were $14.34 per prescription, which was a 32 percent markup. This was up from 11 percent in 2016. (Silverman, 1/24)
Bloomberg:
Big Pharma’s Drug Studies Are Getting A NASA-Style Makeover
Discoveries of new cancer-fighting and antiviral medicines grab headlines and sometimes win Nobel Prizes. But after the breakthroughs and backslapping are over, Big Pharma’s grunt work is just beginning. Companies carry out years of costly studies to prove treatments are safe and effective: finding hospitals and clinics to participate, hunting down patients who fit precise descriptions, tracking their health in minute detail for years while ensuring they take their medications, and then combing through heaps of data that will determine whether doctors can prescribe them. It’s the unsexy side of the industry, and it’s a big reason it can take more than $2 billion and 12 years to launch a new treatment. (Paton, 1/24)
Bloomberg:
Lilly Cancer Drug Shouldn't Be Started In New Patients, FDA Says
Eli Lilly & Co.’s cancer drug Lartruvo shouldn’t be started in new patients and those already taking it should ask their doctors if they should continue, U.S. regulators said, following a key study that failed to show the medicine prolonged lives. The drug for soft tissue sarcoma, a relatively rare and hard-to-treat type of tumor, was given accelerated approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2016 based on promising data from an early-stage study. The company was required to complete a larger trial to confirm the benefits. (Cortez and Edney, 1/24)
Stat:
Whistleblower Hits Justice Department Move To Dismiss Nurse Educator Lawsuits
The company that filed nearly a dozen lawsuits alleging drug makers devised schemes in which nurses were used illegally to promote medicines and boost prescriptions has filed blistering responses to a federal government effort to dismiss the cases. In court filings, the National Health Care Analysis Group took the U.S. Department of Justice to task for misunderstanding the issues raised in its whistleblower lawsuits, maintained the government never fully investigated the allegations, and suggested a conflict of interest in the Executive Branch may have influenced the decision to have the cases tossed. (Silverman, 1/24)
Reuters:
Aetna, Other Health Insurers Team Up With IBM On Blockchain Project
A group of health insurers including CVS Health Corp's Aetna, have teamed up with IBM Corp to create a blockchain network aimed at cutting costs in the healthcare industry. The companies intend to use blockchain technology, which allows the sharing of databases across a network of computers, for processing claims and payments and to maintain directories, they said in a joint statement. (1/24)
Stat:
Lawsuit Involving Gawande Venture Raises A Question: Who Counts As A Threat?
Before last month, David W. Smith was a midlevel executive at the sprawling health services company Optum. He’d never met the company’s CEO, according to a sworn affidavit, or cracked into a senior leadership team that includes about 200 people. He was basically a strategy consultant. But on Dec. 11, he became an existential threat. He took a job working for a nascent competitor, the health venture formed by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase & Co and helmed by Dr. Atul Gawande. (Ross and Sheridan, 1/25)
The Associated Press:
Sundance: Documentary Dives Deep Into The Fraud Of Theranos
Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney has always been interested in the psychology of fraud and self-deception. So when HBO CEO Richard Plepler and Graydon Carter proposed that he look into the blood-testing startup Theranos and its charismatic young leader Elizabeth Holmes, saying yes was a "no-brainer." The film, "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley," premiered Thursday on opening night of the Sundance Film Festival. (Bahr, 1/25)
The Washington Post:
CDC: Nearly 2 Percent Of High School Students Identify As Transgender — And More Than One-Third Of Them Attempt Suicide
Nearly 2 percent of high school students in the United States identify as transgender, according to data published Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ... Amit Paley, chief executive and executive director of the Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth, called the report’s findings “groundbreaking.” (Strauss, 1/24)
The Washington Post:
Go To Bed! Brain Researchers Warn That Lack Of Sleep Is A Public Health Crisis.
In the screen-lit bustle of modern life, sleep is expendable. There are television shows to binge-watch, work emails to answer, homework to finish, social media posts to scroll through. We’ll catch up on shut-eye later, so the thinking goes — right after we click down one last digital rabbit hole. Brain research, which has pushed back hard against this nonchalant attitude, is now expanding rapidly, reaching beyond the laboratory and delving into exactly how sleep works in disease and in normal cognitive functions such as memory. The growing consensus is that casual disregard for sleep is wrongheaded — even downright dangerous. (Johnson, 1/24)
The Hill:
Gum Disease Bacteria May Be Cause Of Alzheimer's: Study
Gum disease may lead to the development of Alzheimer's, according to a new study. A team of scientists led by the pharmaceutical company Cortexyme found "strong evidence" of a link between Alzheimer's and Porphyromonas gingivalis, the key bacteria in gum disease, University of Louisville researcher Jan Potempa said. (Burke, 1/24)
The Washington Post:
The Doomsday Clock Remains At 2 Minutes To ‘Midnight’
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is keeping the Doomsday Clock set at two minutes to midnight — a metaphor for the end of the world — calling the threats against humankind “a new abnormal.” The scientists announced Thursday that the clock is stuck at 11:58, citing nuclear weapons and climate change as two existential risks that leave the world dangerously close to an apocalypse. (Bever and Ohlheiser, 1/24)
The New York Times:
Why Six Months Seems To Be The Sweet Spot For Paid Parental Leave
As the United States has debated the issue of paid parental leave, a few employers have stood out by providing very generous terms. One has been the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which in 2015 began offering parents one year of fully paid leave to spend with their babies. It turns out it was too long to be sustainable. Last week, the foundation told employees it was cutting paid parental leave by half, to six months, because yearlong leaves were impairing the work of the foundation. It will add a $20,000 stipend for new parents to spend on child care costs and family needs when they return to work. (Miller, 1/25)
The Washington Post:
2018 Was The Fourth Warmest Year On Record -- And More Evidence Of A ‘New Normal,’ Scientist Group Reports
The year 2018 is likely to have been the fourth warmest year on record, a scientific group pronounced Thursday -- and joins three other extra-hot years since 2015 that suggest a leap upward in warmth that the Earth may never return from in our lifetimes. The warmest year on record for the Earth’s land and oceans was 2016 -- by a long shot, thanks to a very strong El Nino event. That’s followed by 2017, 2015, and now 2018, said Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist with Berkeley Earth, which released the findings. (Mooney, 1/24)
The Washington Post:
Older, Right-Leaning Twitter Users Spread The Most Fake News In 2016, Study Finds
The notion that fake news exists in its own universe turns out to be doubly true: One universe is the realm outside truth. The other is its own seedy pocket of social media. In a new study published Thursday in the journal Science, political scientists surveyed the inhabitants of this Internet pocket around the time of the last presidential election, from Aug. 1 to Dec. 6, 2016. They found that people who shared fake news were more likely to be older and more conservative. (Guarino, 1/24)
The New York Times:
In Davos, Prince William Calls For Action On Mental Health
Prince William, who has long spoken publicly about his emotional struggles, has taken his campaign for mental health awareness to Davos, Switzerland, urging global leaders to help break the stigma. Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, who is second in line to the British throne, spoke candidly on Wednesday about the difficulty he faced in trying to get celebrities to sign on to his cause, revealing — without naming names — that not one had initially offered to join the mental health campaign that he has run since 2016 with his wife and his brother. (Karasz, 1/24)
The Associated Press:
NFL Says Concussions Down 29 Percent In Regular Season
The NFL is encouraged by progress made in reducing concussions while stressing there is much more work to be done. On Thursday, the league said the number of concussions dropped 29 percent in 2018 from the previous season, according to preliminary data. It added that there were 135 documented concussions, down from 190. By including preseason games and practices, concussions fell from a high of 281 to 214, a 23.8 percent decrease. That was the lowest total since the 2014 season (206 reported concussions). (Wilner, 1/24)
The New York Times:
Deadly Ebola Virus Is Found In Liberian Bat, Researchers Say
For the first time, the type of deadly Ebola virus responsible for recent epidemics has been found in a bat in West Africa, Liberian health officials announced on Thursday. Bats carrying the disease had already been found in Central Africa, and scientists have long suspected that bats were a natural host of Ebola and a source of some human infections in other areas as well. But until now they had not found any bats in West Africa that harbored the epidemic species, known as Zaire ebolavirus. (Grady, 1/24)
The Washington Post:
Scientists Find Deadly Ebola Virus For First Time In West African Bat
A team of scientists working with the government of Liberia presented their findings in Monrovia, the Liberian capital. The discovery represents a major step forward in understanding where human Ebola cases come from, one of the biggest unanswered questions surrounding these outbreaks, said Jonathan Epstein, a scientist with EcoHealth Alliance, a global nonprofit that is part of the research team. No human cases of Ebola are linked to this discovery, scientists said. Liberia has reported no new human cases since the end of the 2014-2016 epidemic that devastated West Africa, killing more than 11,000 people in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. (Sun, 1/24)
The Associated Press:
Doctor Who Ordered Outsize Pain Meds Kept Working For Weeks
A doctor who ordered excessive and possibly fatal doses of pain medicine for dozens of hospital patients kept working for four weeks after concern was raised last fall, an Ohio health care system acknowledged Thursday. Three patients died during those weeks after getting excessive doses ordered by Dr. William Husel, the Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System said in a statement. The health system noted that it "should have begun a more expedited process to investigate and consider immediate removal" of the since-fired intensive care doctor after a report about him was received Oct. 25. (Franko, 1/24)
The New York Times:
Kalief Browder’s Suicide Brought Changes To Rikers. Now It Has Led To A $3 Million Settlement.
New York City has agreed to pay $3.3 million to settle a lawsuit on behalf of the estate of Kalief Browder, the young Bronx man whose detention on Rikers Island became a symbol of the breakdown in criminal justice in New York and fueled the drive to ban solitary confinement for youths in the city’s jails. Mr. Browder, who was 16 years old when he was arrested in 2010 and accused of stealing a backpack, was detained on Rikers Island for three years — about two of which were spent in solitary confinement — without being tried or convicted of a crime. In 2015, at age 22, he hanged himself at his parents’ home in the Bronx. (Weiser, 1/24)
NPR:
New York City Reaches $3.3 Million Settlement With Kalief Browder's Family
Nearly two of Browder's three years in jail were spent in solitary confinement. Upon his release in 2015, plagued by what he said was the mental anguish and trauma from his time in jail he hanged himself in his mother's home. "Kalief Browder's story helped inspire numerous reforms to the justice system to prevent this tragedy from ever happening again, including an end to punitive segregation for young people on Rikers Island," Nichaolas Paolucci, a spokesman for the city law department told NPR in an emailed statement. (Romo, 1/25)
The Washington Post:
D.C. Charter School Did Not Do Enough To Prevent Child’s Suicide, Family Says In Lawsuit
The family of a 12-year-old girl who committed suicide last year at a troubled D.C. charter school sued the school Thursday, saying it did not do enough to prevent her death after she told staff she was contemplating killing herself. On Jan. 23, 2018, Stormiyah Denson-Jackson, a 12-year-old student at SEED Public Charter School in Southeast, committed suicide in her dormitory, according to the lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court. (Moyer, 1/24)
Reuters:
CVS Unveils 'Beauty Marks' In Stores, Warning Shoppers Of Edited Images
CVS Pharmacy unveiled an initiative in U.S. stores on Thursday, labeling photos of models in its beauty aisles to make it clear whether the images had been digitally altered. The U.S. No 2 drugstore chain, part of CVS Health Corp, is the first major American company to adopt such a policy in the face of rising concerns about doctored images setting unrealistic ideals of beauty, especially for young women. (1/24)
Los Angeles Times:
L.A. Homeless Count: Seeking Out Hideaways Along An Urban Riverbed
The annual Los Angeles homeless count has come to be defined by legions of volunteers who hit the pavement to help quantify this crisis. But they’re not alone. A small group of Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies join up with outreach workers looking for homeless people in places that are hard to access or might pose a danger to volunteers. (Oreskes, 1/24)
The Wall Street Journal:
Facebook CEO’s Foundation, Firms To Raise $500 Million For San Francisco-Area Housing
Companies and philanthropists in the San Francisco Bay Area, including Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, said they plan to raise $500 million for affordable housing, weeks after California Gov. Gavin Newsom called on the private sector to do more to address the region’s critical shortage of homes. The investment fund, which has raised $260 million so far, aims to help build at least 8,000 homes in five Bay Area counties within the next 10 years, according to its leaders. It also will work to preserve homes at risk of being redeveloped into more expensive properties. (Malas, 1/24)
Los Angeles Times:
Private Power Lines, Not PG&E's, Caused Deadly Wine Country Fire, State Says
The 2017 fire that destroyed thousands of homes in Santa Rosa, Calif., and killed 22 people was caused by private power lines, not ones owned by utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric Co., a long-awaited state investigation released Thursday concluded. The finding by Cal Fire marks a bit of good news for the struggling utility as it prepares to file for bankruptcy due to huge potential liabilities related to last year’s Camp fire, which destroyed more than 90% of the town of Paradise and killed at least 86 people. (Serna and Luna, 1/24)