First Edition: March 28, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
California Healthline:
Thousands Mistakenly Enrolled During State’s Medicaid Expansion, Feds Find
California signed up an estimated 450,000 people under Medicaid expansion who may not have been eligible for coverage, according to a report by the U.S. Health and Human Services’ chief watchdog. In a Feb. 21 report, the HHS’ inspector general estimated that California spent $738.2 million on 366,078 expansion beneficiaries who were ineligible. It spent an additional $416.5 million for 79,055 expansion enrollees who were “potentially” ineligible, auditors found. (Terhune, 3/26)
Kaiser Health News:
Difficult To Measure Rate Of Suicide Among Deaths From Opioid Overdoses
Mady Ohlman was 22 on the evening some years ago when she stood in a friend’s bathroom looking down at the sink. “I had set up a bunch of needles filled with heroin because I wanted to just do them back-to-back-to-back,” Ohlman recalled. She doesn’t remember how many she injected before collapsing, or how long she lay drugged-out on the floor. “But I remember being pissed because I could still get up, you know?” (Bebinger, 3/28)
California Healthline:
Private Man At Center Of Very Public Single-Payer Debate
Dale Fountain is an intensely private man. He won’t say where he works. One of his oldest friends can’t say for sure where he lives. His sister knows he was once married but she isn’t in the loop these days — they haven’t spoken in two years. “He keeps to himself,” said Chris Pulliam, who went to high school with Fountain in Los Angeles and now lives in Silver Spring, Md. “I’ve just got into the habit of not asking about things.” Yet the elusive 42-year-old Silicon Valley tech worker has inserted himself into the forefront of California’s hottest health care debate: whether it should adopt a statewide single-payer health care system. (Bartolone, 3/27)
The New York Times:
Trump, Famous For ‘You’re Fired,’ Offers V.A. Chief Only Awkward Silence
President Trump wants to replace his secretary of veterans affairs, David Shulkin, but for a man who practically trademarked “You’re fired,” the president is reluctant to pull the trigger, choosing instead to leave the embattled secretary twisting amid reports of his imminent ouster. Mr. Shulkin, a former hospital executive and medical doctor who remains widely popular on Capitol Hill, has so far averted his gaze from the White House and pressed on with his duties, albeit with a diminished profile. (Haberman and Fandos, 3/27)
The New York Times:
Medicare Is Cracking Down On Opioids. Doctors Fear Pain Patients Will Suffer.
Medicare officials thought they had finally figured out how to do their part to fix the troubling problem of opioids being overprescribed to the old and disabled: In 2016, a staggering one in three of 43.6 million beneficiaries of the federal health insurance program had been prescribed the painkillers. Medicare, they decided, would now refuse to pay for long-term, high-dose prescriptions; a rule to that effect is expected to be approved on April 2. Some medical experts have praised the regulation as a check on addiction. (Hoffman, 3/27)
The Hill:
Opioid Crisis Has Cost US Roughly 1M Workers, $702B: Study
The U.S. economy has lost close to 1 million workers and $702 billion due to opioid addiction, according to a study released Tuesday. The American Action Forum (AAF), a right-leaning think tank, analyzed the impact of the opioid epidemic on U.S. labor force participation and output between 1999 and 2015. The group applied findings from previous studies on the economic impact of opioid addiction to data tracking the size of the U.S. workforce and gross domestic product (GDP). (Sylvan, 3/27)
NPR:
Amid Opioid Crisis, One Group Brings Injection Wound Care To The Patients In Philadelphia
Sheila Dhand treats a lot of people who might not step foot in a health clinic or hospital — until an emergency. "People don't want to show just anybody their wound," Dhand says. "A lot of time when talking about wounds, we're talking about drug use. And those things are so taboo." Dhand is a wound care nurse with Prevention Point, a nonprofit organization that provides addiction, health and harm reduction services in Philadelphia. Her job involves going out in a mobile-wound-care-van where she tends to skin and soft-tissue infections that often result from injecting drugs. (Gordon, 3/28)
The Hill:
Cigna Says It Has Reduced Customers Use Of Opioids By 25 Percent
Cigna has reduced the amount of opioids its customers use by 25 percent, the health insurer announced Wednesday. In May 2016, Cigna, one of the country’s largest health insurers, began identifying measures it could implement to try to curb the opioid epidemic. One of its efforts included decreasing opioid use 25 percent by 2019, a goal the company announced it has already met. (Roubein, 3/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
Aetna To Pass On Drug Rebates To Consumers
Aetna Inc. said Tuesday it would pass on drugmaker rebates directly to consumers who take the medications, in the latest move by a health insurer amid pressure to reduce costs and improve transparency around pharmaceuticals. The biggest U.S. insurer, UnitedHealth Group Inc., announced a similar move earlier this month.In recent years, the opaque system surrounding the cost of medicine and sharply increasing drug prices have come under public and government scrutiny. (Hufford, 3/27)
The Hill:
Aetna To Pass Discounts It Gets From Drug Companies Directly To Consumers
Drug manufacturers often give insurance companies discounts on prescription drugs, but insurers have faced scrutiny over whether they're passing these savings on to patients. Beginning in 2019, though, Aetna will automatically apply these rebates at the time of sale for its commercial fully insured plan members. The change will mostly benefit those with high-deductible health insurance plans, who have to pay the full price for a prescription before insurance kicks in. (Hellmann, 3/27)
Stat:
Aetna Is The Latest Insurer To Pass Drug Rebates To Consumers
“We have always believed that consumers should benefit from discounts and rebates that we negotiate with drug manufacturers,” Aetna chief executive Mark Bertolini said in a statement. “Going forward, we hope this additional transparency will encourage these companies to rationalize their pricing and end the practice of annual double-digit price increases.” Unlike UnitedHealthcare, Aetna already offers self-insured employers the option to pass on rebates at the point of sale and will continue to do so, a spokesman explained. (Silverman, 3/27)
Stat:
Congress Loves Shaming CEOs. Why Hasn't Pharma Been On The Hot Seat?
It’s a rite of passage for executives in the hot seat: get hauled before Congress, sit for bipartisan tirades, squirm in the face of difficult questioning. Over the past six months, lawmakers have dragged in former Equifax CEO Richard Smith, Wells Fargo’s Tim Sloan, and Amtrak’s Richard Anderson. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg could be the next one up. (Mershon, 3/28)
The Hill:
Revamped US-South Korea Trade Deal Tackles Pharma, Currency Issues
The U.S. renegotiation of its free trade agreement with South Korea will include provisions to boost American pharmaceuticals as well as a pending side agreement on currency, officials said Tuesday. The White House confirmed it had renegotiated elements of the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, known as KORUS, a day after Korean Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong announced the move. (Elis, 3/27)
The Associated Press:
Lawsuit Challenges FDA Delay Of E-Cigarette Review
Several anti-smoking groups are suing the Food and Drug Administration over a decision by Trump administration officials to delay the review of e-cigarettes. The lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court argues that the FDA didn't follow proper requirements last year when it decided to push back the deadline for makers of e-cigarettes to submit their products for review. The groups say the delay poses a threat to children's health. (Perrone, 3/27)
The Washington Post:
FDA Sued For Delaying E-Cigarette, Cigar Regulations
The lawsuit is challenging an agency decision last summer to grant lengthy deadline extensions to manufacturers seeking FDA approval for their products. Originally, the companies were required to submit such product-review applications by this August for any item that went on the market after February 2007. The revised timeline changed that to August 2021 for cigars and August 2022 for e-cigarettes. The extensions have been embraced by the e-cigarette industry, which feared that many of its products would be banned under the original schedule. In the suit filed Tuesday, health groups argue that the delay allows flavored tobacco products that target children and teenagers to remain on the market. (McGinley, 3/27)
The Hill:
Public Health Groups Sue FDA
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other groups behind the lawsuit argue candy flavored cigars and e-cigarettes appeal to children, who could grow addicted while the products are sold and before the reviews are completed. “As a result of the guidance, consumers will continue to be exposed for many years to thousands of tobacco products containing lethal and addictive components that have not met the statutory requirements,” the groups said in their 45-page complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. (Wheeler, 3/27)
The Associated Press:
Selfie Medicine: Phone Apps Push People To Take Their Pills
Take two tablets and a selfie? Your doctor's orders may one day include a smartphone video to make sure you took your medicine. Smartphone apps that monitor pill-taking are now available, and researchers are testing how well they work when medication matters. Experts praise the efficiency, but some say the technology raises privacy and data security concerns. (Johnson, 3/28)
The Washington Post:
For Military Veterans Suffering From PTSD, Are Service Dogs Good Therapy?
Adam Fuller credits a simple, one-word command — and a black Lab mix named J.D. — with helping to save his life.“Cover,” he tells J.D., who is sitting to his left in a grassy field next to a park playground. The dog calmly walks to Fuller’s right, then sits facing backward. Were someone coming up from behind, he’d wag his tail. The signal quells the sense of threat that plagued Fuller after serving in Afghanistan, that at one point had him futilely popping medications and veering toward suicide. (Brulliard, 3/27)
NPR:
How 'Bad Medicine' Dismisses And Misdiagnoses Women's Symptoms
When journalist Maya Dusenbery was in her 20s, she started experiencing progressive pain in her joints, which she learned was caused by rheumatoid arthritis. As she began to research her own condition, Dusenbery realized how lucky she was to have been diagnosed relatively easily. Other women with similar symptoms, she says, "experienced very long diagnostic delays and felt ... that their symptoms were not taken seriously." (Gross, 3/27)
The Washington Post:
Caesarean Section: Video Shows Midwife Delivering Her Own Baby By C-Section
On a recent Sunday, Emily Dial prepared to deliver a baby, just as she had done so many other times in her years as a nurse midwife. She scrubbed in, donned surgical gloves and surveyed the delivery room at Frankfort Regional Medical Center in Kentucky. There were about half a dozen members of a medical team inside, all preparing for the scheduled Caesarean section.Ready at last, Dial climbed onto the operating table and lay down as someone covered her with a see-through plastic drape. (Wang, 3/27)
The New York Times:
Hearing Loss May Make You Accident Prone
People with poor hearing are at increased risk for accidents, a new study reports. Using a nationwide health survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers found that of 232.2 million adults, 15.7 percent reported hearing problems; 2.8 percent were injured in an accident within three months of the survey date.The study, in JAMA Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery, tracked injuries related to driving, work, and leisure or sports. (Bakalar, 3/27)
The Associated Press:
Planned Parenthood Deletes Tweet Calling For Disney Abortion
A Pennsylvania branch of Planned Parenthood says a tweet declaring the need for a Disney princess who's had an abortion was not appropriate and the organization has taken it down. An executive for Planned Parenthood Keystone says the group believes pop culture plays a "critical role" in educating the public and sparking "meaningful conversations about sexual and reproductive health issues and policies, including abortion." (3/27)
The Hill:
North Carolina To Stop Shackling Pregnant Inmates During Labor
North Carolina’s prison system will no longer shackle pregnant inmates to their hospital beds while they are in labor. Prisons director Kenneth Lassiter signed a new policy on Monday to end the use of leg or wrist restraints on pregnant inmates who are giving birth, The News and Observer reported. The inmate will still be handcuffed during transportation to the hospital, as long as she could protect herself or the fetus if she were to fall. (Gstalter, 3/27)