First Edition: March 12, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Medicaid Is Rural America’s Financial Midwife
Brianna Foster, 23, lives minutes away from Genesis Hospital, the main source of health care and the only hospital with maternity services in southeastern Ohio’s rural Muskingum County. Proximity proved potentially lifesaving last fall when Foster, pregnant with her second child, Holden, felt contractions at 31 weeks — about seven weeks too soon. Genesis was equipped to handle the situation — giving Foster medication and an injection to stave off delivery. After his birth four weeks later – still about a month early, at 5 pounds 12 ounces — Holden was sent to the hospital’s special care nursery for monitoring. (Luthra, 3/12)
Kaiser Health News:
No-Go For Idaho: Back To The Drawing Board On State-Based Health Plans
No, you can’t. That’s what federal officials told Idaho regulators and the state’s governor late Thursday regarding the state’s plan to allow insurers to sell health plans that fall short of the Affordable Care Act’s requirements. (Appleby, 3/9)
Kaiser Health News:
New Technologies Help Seniors Age In Place — And Not Feel Alone
Nancy Delano, 80, of Denver has no plans to slow down anytime soon. She still drives to movies, plays and dinners out with friends. A retired elder care nurse who lives alone, she also knows that “when you reach a certain age, emergencies can happen fast.” So, when her son, Tom Rogers, talked to her about installing a remote monitoring system, she didn’t hesitate. With motion sensors placed throughout the house, Rogers can see if his mom is moving around, if she’s sleeping (or not), if she forgot to lock the door and, based on a sophisticated algorithm that detects behavioral patterns, whether her activity level or eating habits have changed significantly, for instance. (Redford, 3/12)
Kaiser Health News:
Rising Health Costs, Soaring Drug Prices, Confusing Bills! What’s A Consumer To Do?
What should you do when you get a four-figure hospital bill? Are there any simple ways to bring down health costs? Kaiser Health News correspondent Shefali Luthra tackled these and other questions in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” chat on Friday. The takeaways: Health care prices are part of a complex, confusing system — and for consumers, the best option can be to demand transparency about medical prices, and negotiate to bring down expenses. (3/9)
The New York Times:
Seeking Cheaper Health Insurance, Idaho Bucks Affordable Care Act
In this rugged state of jagged peaks and black volcanic soils, people struggle to make a living and get good health care. Only Mississippi has lower average weekly wages, and in the last few years, about 110,000 people in Idaho, a state of only 1.7 million, have been priced out of the health insurance market by rising premiums, insurance industry estimates show. This is also a deeply conservative place, where dismantling or weakening the Affordable Care Act — the signature law of the Obama administration — has been a longstanding priority for the governor and the Republican-dominated Legislature. Now those two powerful trends are colliding. (Johnson and Pear, 3/9)
The Hill:
Idaho Governor Not Backing Down From Attempt To Skirt ObamaCare
Idaho's Gov. Butch Otter (R) is not backing down from a plan to skirt ObamaCare rules with new state health insurance plans, despite a letter from the Trump administration saying the plan appeared to violate federal law. Otter said Friday that, despite a letter warning the state about its plans this week, the Trump administration is not asking the state to back down and discussions remain open. (Sullivan, 3/9)
The Associated Press:
Lots Of Talk, Little Action On Curbing Health Care Costs
It started as a bipartisan attempt to curb soaring health care premiums. But Congress' effort to stabilize the nation's insurance markets is faltering amid escalating demands by each party and erratic positions by President Donald Trump. Democrats want bigger federal subsidies for consumers under President Barack Obama's health care law while Republicans, still fighting that statute, aim to relax its coverage requirements and win abortion restrictions. (Fram, 3/12)
The Hill:
Liberal Group Warns ObamaCare Funds Would Do 'More Harm Than Good'
A liberal group is warning against funding ObamaCare payments that are at the center of a debate in Congress, marking a shift from Democrats’ earlier position on the payments. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on Friday published an analysis warning against funding the payments, known as cost-sharing reductions (CSRs), which are the at the center of a bipartisan bill aimed at stabilizing the ObamaCare marketplaces. The bill could be included in a government funding measure this month. (Sullivan, 3/9)
The Associated Press:
Insurers Get Into Care, But Is It Good For Your Health?
In the not-too-distant future, your health insurance, your prescription drugs and some of your treatment may come from the same company. Insurers are dropping billions of dollars on acquisitions and expansions in order to get more involved in customer health. They say this push can help cut costs and improve care, in part by keeping the sickest patients healthy and out of expensive hospitals.That's a huge potential benefit for employers and other customers stressed by rising costs. But is this good for your health? (Murphy, 3/9)
Bloomberg:
Cigna To Draw Antitrust Scrutiny Amid Health-Care Deal Wave
Cigna Corp.’s proposed deal for Express Scripts Holding Co. faces a drawn-out merger review as the Trump administration’s antitrust enforcers weigh the competitive effects of a wave of consolidation sweeping the health-care industry. The tie-up of the insurer and pharmacy benefit manager comes on the heels of CVS Health Corp.’s agreement to buy insurer Aetna Inc. In both combinations, the companies say they’ll become more efficient firms and help lower health-care costs. Whether customers are actually poised to benefit is the key question for antitrust enforcers. (McLaughlin, 3/9)
The Wall Street Journal:
Insurers Game Medicare System To Boost Federal Bonus Payments
The number in the corner of Upton Martin’s Medicare plan card from Humana Inc. changed twice over the past four years. He didn’t think anything of it, and his coverage didn’t seem different in any way. The changes, though, were evidence of a lucrative maneuver that has allowed Humana and other providers of Medicare Advantage plans to collect additional revenue from the federal government. (Wilde Mathews and Weaver, 3/11)
The New York Times:
Trump To Push Ahead On Gun Training For School Employees, White House Says
President Trump is planning to move ahead with his contentious proposal to provide firearms training to school employees and intends to establish a federal commission to examine other proposals, like his suggestion to raise the age to purchase some weapons, White House officials said on Sunday night. But the administration’s efforts appeared to be piecemeal and of limited scope, falling far short of the language Mr. Trump has used for weeks about the need to end the scourge of school shootings, including at a dramatic meeting with relatives of victims of the Parkland, Fla., massacre. (Haberman, 3/11)
The Wall Street Journal:
White House Unveils Proposals To Reduce Gun Violence At Schools
The White House blueprint, which comes in the wake of last month’s mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school, calls for “hardening our schools” by instituting security procedures comparable to those in airports, sports stadiums and government buildings. One way to do that, the White House said, is to use Justice Department grants to train school personnel to carry weapons “on a voluntary basis.” (Bender, 3/11)
The Associated Press:
Trump Doesn’t Set Age For Guns, Defers On Arming Teachers
The White House unveiled a new plan to prevent school shootings that backs off President Donald Trump's support for increasing the minimum age for purchasing assault weapons to 21. Instead, a new federal commission on school safety will examine the age issue as part of a package the White House announced Sunday in response to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, last month that left 17 dead. (Colvin, 3/12)
Politico:
Trump Administration To Aid States In Firearms Training For Teachers, School Staff
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will chair a government commission exploring steps to prevent school violence, following the Parkland, Fla., shooting last month that left 17 dead, the Trump administration said. “We are committed to working quickly because there’s no time to waste,” DeVos said on a conference call with reporters. “No student, no family, no teacher and no school should have to live the horror of Parkland or Sandy Hook or Columbine again.” (Hefling and Stratford, 3/11)
The Associated Press:
Gun Background Check System Riddled With Flaws
Recent mass shootings have spurred Congress to try to improve the nation's gun background check system that has failed on numerous occasions to keep weapons out of the hands of dangerous people. The problem with the legislation, experts say, is that it only works if federal agencies, the military, states, courts and local law enforcement do a better job of sharing information with the background check system — and they have a poor track record in doing so. Some of the nation's most horrific mass shootings have revealed major holes in the database reporting system, including massacres at Virginia Tech in 2007 and at a Texas church last year. (Bellisle, 3/10)
The Associated Press:
A Look At How Background Checks Are Conducted For Gun Buys
When someone buys a weapon from a gun dealer in the U.S., they are subjected to a background check to see if they have a criminal record, mental illness or other issues that prevent them from owning weapons. It's a process that has received attention following recent mass killings and as Congress pushes to improve the background check system. Here is an explanation about the process. (Bellisle, 3/10)
The Associated Press:
Trump Uses Page From 'Smart Policymaking 101' On Health Care
A smartphone app that lets Medicare patients access their claims information. Giving consumers a share of drug company rebates for their prescriptions. Wider access to websites that reliably compare cost and quality of medical tests. The Trump administration is taking a pragmatic new tack on health care, with officials promising consumer friendly changes and savings in areas from computerized medical records to prescription drugs. New Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has been rolling out the agenda, saying it has the full backing of President Donald Trump. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/10)
The Hill:
HHS Secretary To Attend Inauguration Of Chile's New President
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar will lead the U.S. delegation attending the inauguration of Chile's next president on Sunday, the White House says. Azar, who was confirmed as the Trump administration's new health chief in January, will lead a delegation to the ceremony in which conservative Sebastián Piñera will be inaugurated as president for a second time. (Delk, 3/10)
The Hill:
Watchdog: Social Security Acting Head Hasn't Been Authorized To Serve For Months
The acting head of the Social Security Administration (SSA) has been prohibited by law from serving in her position for months, a government watchdog informed the White House this week. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) sent a letter to President Trump this week saying that Nancy Berryhill is in violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, which generally bars acting agency chiefs from serving in the post for more than 210 days. (Bowden, 3/10)
The Wall Street Journal:
House Introduces ‘Right To Try’ Legislation To Permit Use Of Unproven Drugs For Dying Patients
A House of Representatives committee early Saturday issued its version of “Right to Try” legislation that would enable a terminally ill patient to use an unproven, investigational drug in an effort to save that person’s life. Such legislation was passed in August by the Senate and supported by President Donald Trump in his State of the Union address. The conservative Goldwater Institute, which has helped such bills become law in 38 states, has been a prime driver of the idea. (Burton, 3/10)
Stat:
Key Republican Lawmaker Releases New 'Right-To-Try' Legislation
The legislation, from House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.), is more limited than an earlier measure championed by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) that passed the Senate last fall. Walden’s version would ensure that the Food and Drug Administration has more oversight of the process. Like the Senate bill, it includes liability protections for drug companies and providers who decide to use the process. Walden’s bill also limits the process to patients who are likely to die “within a matter of months” or “severely premature.” In a statement, Walden and health subcommittee chairman Michael Burgess (R-Tex.) said they believe the legislation is now ready for a vote in the House of Representatives. (Mershon, 3/10)
The Hill:
House To Vote Tuesday On 'Right To Try' Drug Bill
The House will vote Tuesday on a newly released Right to Try Act aimed at letting very sick patients request access to treatments the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasn’t yet approved. The legislation is a priority for the White House. President Trump called on Congress to pass the legislation in his State of the Union address in January. Vice President Pence is also a staunch supporter of right to try laws, signing a bill when he was governor of Indiana. (Roubein, 3/11)
Reuters:
Walgreen Must Face Lawsuit Over U.S. Generic Drug Pricing
A federal judge on Friday ordered Walgreen Co to face most of a proposed class action lawsuit accusing the drugstore chain of fraudulently overcharging customers for a decade when they bought generic drugs through private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid. Walgreen was accused of wrongly requiring insured customers to pay more than members of its Prescription Savings Club, who for a low annual fee could buy more than 500 widely prescribed generic drugs for $5, $10 and $15 for 30-day prescriptions, and $10, $20 and $30 for 90-day prescriptions. (Stempel, 3/9)
Bloomberg:
Martin Shkreli Sentenced To Seven Years In Prison
Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical industry’s enfant terrible, was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison, putting an end to a saga that captivated and sometimes enraged Washington, Wall Street and the tabloids. The brash 34-year-old — who gained notoriety for jacking up the price of a life-saving anti-infection drug — was convicted in August of lying to investors in his hedge funds and manipulating shares in Retrophin Inc., a biotech company he founded. Prosecutors sought a sentence of at least 15 years for the securities fraud. Shkreli, who once proclaimed “you can’t quell the Shkrel,” asked for as little as a year. (Hurtado and Larson, 3/9)
The Washington Post:
Va. General Assembly Wraps Up Regular Session But Still Can’t Solve Medicaid
Virginia’s General Assembly wrapped up its 2018 regular session Saturday with its most important task unfinished. At an impasse over whether to expand Medicaid to some 400,000 eligible Virginians, the legislature failed to pass a state budget before adjournment and will have to take that up at a special session. That stumble eclipsed several significant accomplishments during the 60-day legislative session, including a sweeping overhaul of electric utility regulation and several pieces of criminal justice revisions that had been stalled for years. (Schneider and Vozzella, 3/10)
The Associated Press:
Medicaid Expansion Supporters In Virginia Have New Hope
Milton Batalona's recent breathing problems were so bad he could barely walk 10 feet without getting winded. His coworkers at the grocery store where he works urged him to get treatment right away, but the 34-year-old from Yorktown, Virginia, said he was too scared he'd get stuck with a bill he can't afford. "They kept saying, 'Go to the emergency room, go to the emergency room' and I was like, 'I can't afford the emergency room," he said. (Suderman, 3/9)
NPR:
Opioid Questions Answered
Millions of Americans use opioids to relieve pain. But many also struggle with addiction. This week, a report in JAMA, the journal of the American Medical Association, found that nonopioid painkillers — like acetaminophen and ibuprofen — were as effective as opioids at treating chronic back, hip and knee pain, and with fewer side effects. (Shapiro and Wilhelm, 3/9)
The Associated Press:
West Virginia Records 872 Overdoses Last Year
West Virginia's death toll from drug overdoses has improved slightly, with 872 deaths last year. The state hit a grim record in 2016 of 887 fatal overdoses, or 52 per 100,000 residents, the highest drug-related death toll in the nation. Public Health Commissioner Dr. Rahul Gupta said he's cautiously optimistic about progress, including their study that identified risk factors for fatalities to help frame their response. That has drawn interest from other states, he said. (3/9)
Bloomberg:
Ivy League Doctor Gets 4 Years In Prison For Insys Opioid Kickbacks
A Rhode Island doctor who took kickbacks from Insys Therapeutics Inc. officials for prescribing the company’s highly addictive liquid version of the opioid painkiller Fentanyl was sentenced to more than four years in prison. Jerrold Rosenberg, who lost his medical license and was ousted from his post as a Brown University professor, pleaded guilty to taking more than $188,000 in kickbacks disguised as speaker fees and creating false patient records to dupe insurers into covering Insys’s Subsys pain medication. (Lawrence and Feeley, 3/9)
The Washington Post:
Dentists Keep Dying Of This Lung Disease. The CDC Can’t Figure Out Why.
Seven of the patients were dead, and two more were dying of a rare chronic, progressive lung disease that can be treated but not cured. It’s estimated that about 200,000 people in the United States have Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis at any one time. But the common denominator of a small group of patients at a Virginia clinic over a 15-year period is worrying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Eight were dentists; a ninth was a dental technician. (Wootson, 3/10)
Stat:
How An Inconspicuous Slaughterhouse Keeps The World’s Premature Babies Alive
It’s a substance that most meat processing plants hardly think about: Just another fluid in the fluid-filled business of turning an animal into a side of beef. But Taylor would panic if he saw any spill on the slaughterhouse floor — those lost drops could have saved babies’ lives. This small firm had carefully courted slaughterhouses so that its workers could be allowed inside to suck this off-white foam out of cow lungs. Then, they purified the hell out of it, and shipped vials of it across Canada, and to India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Ecuador, and Iran, where it was shot into the lungs of struggling premature infants. (Boodman, 3/12)
The Associated Press:
Study: Cholesterol Drug Lowers Risk Of Death, Heart Attack
A newer cholesterol drug, used with older statin medicines, modestly lowered heart risks and deaths in a big study of heart attack survivors that might persuade insurers to cover the pricey treatment more often. Results on the drug, Praluent, were announced Saturday at an American College of Cardiology conference in Florida. It's the first time a cholesterol-lowering drug has reduced deaths since statins such as Lipitor and Crestor came out decades ago. (3/10)
NPR:
Exercise To Renew A Middle-Aged Heart
Eventually it happens to everyone. As we age, even if we're healthy, the heart becomes less flexible, more stiff and just isn't as efficient in processing oxygen as it used to be. In most people the first signs show up in the 50s or early 60s. And among people who don't exercise, the underlying changes can start even sooner. "The heart gets smaller — stiffer," says Dr. Ben Levine, a sports cardiologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and director of the Institute for Exercise and Environmental Medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, in Dallas. (Neighmond, 3/12)
The Washington Post:
MRI Fear And Claustrophobia Mean Finding Ways To Cope
The thought of an MRI scanner, a coffinlike, hard-plastic tube with a ceiling just inches above the patient’s eyes, has long filled Patrice Mitchell with dread. The 64-year-old freelance editor and former journalist from Rochester, N.Y., has never been afraid of small spaces such as elevators. But she gets intensely claustrophobic when pulling anything — a sweater, for example — over her face and it gets caught. “If it gets stuck momentarily,” she says, “I immediately start to feel quite panicky and feel like I may have trouble breathing.” (Pianin, 3/11)
The Washington Post:
Surfing As A PTSD Therapy Being Studied By Navy
In song and prose, surfing has long been celebrated as a way to soothe the mind and invigorate the body. But scientific evidence has been limited. Now the Navy has embarked on a $1 million research project to determine whether surfing has therapeutic value, especially for military personnel with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or sleep problems. Researchers say surfing offers great promise as therapy. It is a challenging exercise in an outdoor environment; people surf individually or in groups; military surfers who are reluctant to attend traditional group therapy open up about their common experiences when talking to other surfers on the beach. (Perry, 3/10)
NPR:
Drone Delivery For Medical Supplies, Lab Samples And Blood
One shred of solace that surfaced as hurricanes and tropical storms pummeled Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico last fall was the opportunity to see drones realize some of their life-saving potential. During those disasters unmanned aircraft surveyed wrecked roads, bridges and rail lines. They spotted oil and gas leaks. They inspected damaged cell towers that had left thousands unable to call for help. "Drones became a literal lifeline," former Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta told the agency's drone advisory committee in November. (Landhuis, 3/10)
NPR:
Vanishing Bone: Plastic Was Weakness Of Hip Implants
It all began with a single X-ray. It was 1974, and surgeons had been doing total hip replacements for a dozen years. "Total hip replacement is an absolutely magnificent operation," says Dr. William H. Harris, "and we were able to do remarkable things to restore mobility and relief of pain and the joy of life to countless individuals." (Goldberg, 3/11)
The Washington Post:
Fertility Clinic Informs Hundreds Of Patients Their Eggs May Have Been Damaged
A long-established San Francisco fertility clinic experienced a liquid nitrogen failure in a storage tank holding thousands of frozen eggs and embryos for future use, jeopardizing tissue hundreds of women had stored in hopes of having children. The March 4 incident at Pacific Fertility Clinic, acknowledged Sunday by the facility’s president, followed a similar malfunction the same weekend at an unrelated clinic in Cleveland, the University Hospitals Fertility Center. (Goldstein, 3/11)
NPR:
Angola Prison Inmates Sue In Class-Action Suit For What They Call Substandard Medical Care
In 2005, Francis Brauner was a quarter of the way through a 20-year prison sentence at Dixon Correctional Institute in Louisiana, when he had an accident. Brauner was imprisoned for a rape conviction, which he maintains was wrongful and part of a setup by a corrupt judge. His sentence involved hard labor, and one day he was out in the fields, cutting the grass and he bent over to pick something up from the ground. He felt a sharp pain in his back. (Aronczyk and Quandt, 3/10)
The Associated Press:
Officials Tight-Lipped In Attack On California Veterans Home
Authorities in Northern California have so far been tight-lipped about why a former Army rifleman may have killed three women after a daylong siege at a veterans home in Napa County wine country. Albert Wong, 36, slipped into a going-away party for two employees of The Pathway Home on the campus of the Yountville veterans home campus about 50 miles north of San Francisco on Friday, then let some people leave, but kept the three women. (3/12)
The Washington Post:
Nursing Assistants Accused Of Sex With Patients From Psychiatric And Substance Abuse Center
Two nursing assistants have been accused of engaging in sexual relations with two patients from a psychiatric and substance abuse treatment center in Iowa. The Fayette County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that the certified nursing assistants, who were identified by authorities as Paige Lynn Johanningmeier and Megan Marie Penney, developed a relationship with two patients at the Prairie View Management facility in Fayette, a small town about 70 miles north of Cedar Rapids. (Bever, 3/9)