First Edition: May 16, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
California Healthline:
California Hospital Giant Sutter Health Faces Heavy Backlash On Prices
Cooking dinner one night in March, Mark Frizzell sliced his pinkie finger while peeling a butternut squash and couldn’t stop the bleeding. The 51-year-old businessman headed to the emergency room at Sutter Health’s California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. Sutter charged $1,555 for the 10 minutes it treated him, including $55 for a gel bandage and $487 for a tetanus shot. “It was ridiculous,” he said. “Health insurance costs are through the roof because of things like this.” (Terhune, 5/15)
Kaiser Health News:
Opioid Overdose Antidote Naloxone And Narcan Can Be Hard To Get
A few months ago, Kourtnaye Sturgeon helped save someone’s life. She was driving in downtown Indianapolis when she saw people gathered around a car on the side of the road. Sturgeon pulled over, and a man told her there was nothing she could do: Two men had overdosed on opioids and appeared to be dead. “I kind of recall saying, ‘No man, I’ve got Narcan,'” she said, referring to a brand-name version of the opioid overdose antidote, naloxone. “Which sounds so silly, but I’m pretty sure that’s what came out.” (Harper, 5/16)
The New York Times:
Trump’s Plan For Cheaper Health Insurance Could Have Hidden Costs
President Trump’s plan to expand access to skimpy short-term health insurance policies, as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act, would affect more people and cost the government more money than the administration estimated, an independent federal study says. The study, by Medicare’s chief actuary, suggests that the new policies would appeal mainly to healthy people, including many who have had comprehensive coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The administration estimated in February that a few hundred thousand people might sign up for the “short-term, limited-duration policies,” which would not have to provide the standard health benefits like preventive services, maternity care or prescription drug coverage. (Pear, 5/15)
Bloomberg:
Obamacare Startup Oscar Will Expand To New States, CEO Says
Oscar Insurance Corp., the Obamacare-focused health insurance startup, plans to expand to Arizona and at least three other new markets next year, a bet on the health law’s survival despite the turbulent politics surrounding it. In an interview, Chief Executive Officer Mario Schlosser said Oscar is meeting its goals to increase membership and revenue while gaining a better handle on medical costs. (Tracer, 5/15)
Reuters:
Healthcare, Freelanced-Where Will Gig Economy Workers Get Coverage?
There are plenty of problems lurking on America's career ladder, but here is a big one: our healthcare systems are designed for the workforce of 1950. If you have a lifetime corporate 9-to-5 gig, then you probably have group health insurance. But what if that is not the kind of job you have? Well, good luck with that. (Taylor, 5/15)
The Associated Press:
AP-NORC Poll: Young Adults Feel Stress Of Long-Term Care
Most young adults haven't given much thought to their own needs as they get older, but a significant number are already providing long-term care for older loved ones, according to a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. And while those who have caregiving experience put in fewer hours than their older counterparts, they're more likely to feel stressed out by the experience. (5/15)
The Associated Press:
20 AGs Back Lawsuits By Family Planning Groups Against Trump
Twenty attorneys general voiced their support Tuesday for lawsuits challenging Trump administration rule changes they said will reduce access to family planning services. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the president is playing politics with patients by changing rules that would shift federal family planning funds toward organizations that stress abstinence. (5/15)
Stat:
Taking Aim At 340B Drug Program, Lawmakers Target Both Hospitals And Pharma
They don’t agree on the details, but both Republicans and Democrats in the Senate are ready to ramp up oversight of a federal drug discount program that hospitals generally support — and drug makers tend to want to rein in. On its face, the increasing congressional scrutiny seems like a win for the pharmaceutical industry, which has bucked against the status quo. But lawmakers at a Tuesday hearing on the program, known as 340B, signaled an interest in taking aim at both industries. (Mershon, 5/15)
Bloomberg:
$100,000 Drugs Get Targeted For Discounts Under Trump's Plan
The key proposal in President Donald Trump’s plan to lower the price of some of the most expensive drugs would open up those treatments to price negotiation, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said. Trump had once pledged, to the chagrin of many Republicans, that the federal government would be doing the negotiating, using its enormous buying power to drive down prices. But the plan his administration announced last week made no mention of that strategy. Instead, the new goal is to shift the coverage of some drugs so that insurers and pharmacy-benefit managers can negotiate better deals. (Edney and Langreth, 5/15)
The Hill:
GOP Chairman Plans Hearings On Trump Drug Pricing Proposals
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said Tuesday that he plans to conduct hearings on some of President Trump’s new proposals to bring down drug prices. Brady said it is too early to tell if the committee will move legislation on the issue, but said he wanted to consider the ideas. ...Brady said he particularly liked items in the proposal to bring drugs to market faster to increase competition, as well as ideas to make sure that savings from insurer negotiations with drug companies make their way to consumers. (Sullivan, 5/15)
The Hill:
PhRMA Expresses 'Serious Concerns' With Trump Drug Pricing Proposals
The main drug industry lobbying group on Tuesday said that it had "serious concerns" with major elements of President Trump's new plan to bring down drug prices. In the first extended remarks on the plan since Trump unveiled it last Friday, Lori Reilly, an executive vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), pointed to several proposals she said would harm patient access to drugs. (Sullivan, 5/15)
Stat:
Which Drug Makers' Medicines Are Racking Up Bigger And Bigger Bills For Medicare And Medicaid?
Medicare spending on each dose of Sanofi Genzyme’s Renvela has been ratcheting up by an annual growth rate of 21.6 percent for roughly the last five years. Nearly the same is true for Sanofi’s Lantus, Merck’s Zetia, and Amgen’s Enbrel — Medicare spending on all of them climbed by an annual rate of more than 18 percent between 2012 and 2016. Now the Trump administration is calling out the companies behind those increases as part of an effort to tout its updates to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “drug pricing dashboard” and the data available there. It updated the dashboard Tuesday as part of its broader effort to put forth policies and changes that will help lower drug prices. (Mershon, 5/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
Investors, Brace Yourselves For More Drug-Price Drama
The next leg of the Trump administration’s plan to lower the cost of drug prices could get ugly for investors. As soon as Thursday the Food and Drug Administration plans to publish a database of complaint letters from generic drug companies to the agency alleging anticompetitive activities from branded pharmaceutical companies. It is likely that some complaints will pertain to high-price blockbuster drugs that investors watch most closely. (Grant, 5/16)
The Washington Post:
After Outcry, Drugmakers Decide Not To Triple The Price Of A Cancer Pill
Last week, two drug companies that jointly sell a blood-cancer drug made a rare decision: to not move forward with changes that would have effectively tripled the cost of a lifesaving medicine for some patients. Most patients take three capsules of Imbruvica a day, at an annual price of $148,000 — most of which is picked up by insurance. But just as early evidence began to suggest a lower dose might be effective, Janssen and Pharmacyclics announced they were discontinuing the old capsule and introducing once-a-day tablets in four different dosages. (Johnson, 5/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
Novartis Top Lawyer Departs Over Cohen Payments
A top executive at Swiss drugmaker Novartis is stepping down as the global fallout widens from the recent disclosure of payments to a company owned by U.S. President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer. Novartis said Wednesday that general counsel Felix Ehrat, 61 years old, is retiring from the company in connection with $1.2 million in payments it made over the course of a year to Michael Cohen’s shell company, Essential Consultants LLC. (Blackstone and Bernhard, 5/16)
The Hill:
Trump Administration Won't Approve Lifetime Limits On Medicaid
The Trump administration will not approve state requests to impose lifetime limits on Medicaid coverage, breaking with conservatives who have pushed for the strict limitation. “We’ve indicated we would not approve lifetime limits, and we’ve made that pretty clear to states,” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma said Tuesday. Speaking at a Washington Post event on health care, Verma did not give details about other decisions facing the administration, such as whether to allow work requirements in states that have not expanded Medicaid under ObamaCare, and whether to allow drug testing for Medicaid enrollees, as Wisconsin is proposing. When asked about drug testing, Verma said only that the administration wants to evaluate state goals on an individual basis. (Weixel, 5/15)
The Washington Post:
One-On-One With Seema Verma, Administrator Of The U.S. Centers For Medicare And Medicaid Services
The Washington Post’s Paige Winfield Cunningham speaks one-on-one with U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma, who outlines her vision for Medicaid. (5/15)
The Washington Post:
Virginia State Sen. Richard Saslaw Is Threatening To Exercise 'The Nuclear Option' To Nudge The Legislature To Expand Medicaid
Sen. Minority Leader Richard L. Saslaw said he will resort to a “nuclear” procedural move — one that would wrest the state budget bill from the Senate Finance Committee — if the panel does not send a spending plan to the full Senate before it reconvenes next week. Saslaw (D-Fairfax) said he will make a motion to “discharge” the committee, which he says has been dragging its feet on the budget since a second Republican senator declared his willingness to approve Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. (Vozzella, 5/15)
Reuters:
U.S. State Lawsuits Against Purdue Pharma Over Opioid Epidemic Mount
Litigation against OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP is intensifying as six more U.S. states on Tuesday announced lawsuits, accusing the company of fueling a national opioid epidemic by deceptively marketing its prescription painkillers to generate billions of dollars in sales. U.S. state attorneys general of Nevada, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, North Dakota and Tennessee also said Purdue Pharma violated state consumer protection laws by falsely denying or downplaying the addiction risk while overstating the benefits of opioids. "It's time the defendants pay for the pain and the destruction they've caused," Florida State Attorney General Pam Bondi told a press conference. (5/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
Florida And Texas Are Among Latest States To Sue Opioid Painkiller Companies
Florida, Texas and four other states became the latest to file lawsuits against Purdue Pharma LP and other opioid painkiller makers, alleging they fueled an addiction crisis by misrepresenting the risks of their drugs. Florida and Texas, the most populous states yet to pursue litigation, join more than a dozen other states and hundreds of counties, including Ohio, Alabama, Missouri, New Hampshire and Washington, to sue opioid painkiller makers. Many states and counties have also sued painkiller distributors. (Whalen and Randazzo, 5/15)
Los Angeles Times:
A Dangerous Opioid Is Killing People In California. It's Starting To Show Up In Cocaine And Meth
Fentanyl, a potent opioid already responsible for thousands of deaths nationwide, is increasingly showing up in drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine in California, officials say. The white powder, a lethal substance 50 times stronger than heroin, is sometimes mixed into other opioids to produce a stronger high. Now its presence in non-opioids has public health experts worried that California may be staring down a new dimension of the deadly epidemic. (Karlamangla, 5/15)
The Associated Press:
Cherokee Nation Lauded For Hepatitis C Elimination Effort
Recovering addict Judith Anderson figures if she hadn't entered a program that caught and treated the hepatitis C she contracted after years of intravenous drug use, she wouldn't be alive to convince others to get checked out. The 74-year-old resident of Sallisaw, Oklahoma — about 160 miles (257 kilometers) east of Oklahoma City near the Arkansas border — said the potentially fatal liver disease sapped her of energy and "any desire to go anywhere or do anything." (Juozapavicius, 5/16)
The Associated Press:
Nation's Most Restrictive Abortion Law Is Challenged In Iowa
A lawsuit challenging the nation's most restrictive abortion law was filed Tuesday in Iowa, a state that for years was largely left out of Republican efforts to overturn abortion protections and where the Democratic attorney general has refused to defend the law. If allowed to take effect on July 1 as planned, the law would ban most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, around the sixth week of pregnancy. Abortion-rights groups say that's a time when many women do not know they are pregnant. (Rodriguez, 5/15)
The Washington Post:
Abortion Rights Groups Ask Iowa Court To Block ‘Heartbeat Bill,’ Calling It ‘Beyond Extreme’
Abortion rights advocates filed a lawsuit in an Iowa district court Tuesday seeking to block Iowa’s newest abortion law — known as “the heartbeat bill” — which bans most abortions at about the sixth week of pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. The law is among the most restrictive abortion bans in the country. The Iowa law is part of a flurry of legislation that aims to test the legality of abortion restrictions, as some Republicans want legal challenges to the laws to reach the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to overturn its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. In Mississippi this year, GOP lawmakers passed a 15-week abortion ban that was signed by Mississippi’s Republican governor, but the law was quickly put on hold after a court challenge. (Wax-Thibodeaux, 5/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
Youth Suicidal Behavior Is On The Rise, Especially Among Girls
A new study finding a rise in suicidal thoughts and attempts among young people adds to the research pointing to a decline in mental health among U.S. children and adolescents. The study showed the proportion of young people treated at 31 U.S. children’s hospitals for suicidal thoughts or attempts more than doubled between 2008 and 2015, from 0.66% of all visits to 1.82% of all visits. Rates were higher during the school year than in the summer, and nearly two-thirds of the visits involved girls, according to results published in the medical journal Pediatrics. (Whalen, 5/15)
NPR:
Kids Struggle With Thoughts Of Suicide
Lead author Gregory Plemmons, a pediatrician and researcher at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., says the study results confirmed what he'd been seeing at the hospital. He says he hopes clinicians and families take note. "The number one thing to take home is that it's important to talk about this and important to ask about it," he says. The findings line up with past data showing a steady increase in teen suicide over the past decade. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last year that a drop in adolescent suicide in the 1990s and early 2000s reversed course in 2008, though it's not yet reached peak levels seen in the 1980s. It's not clear what has contributed to the increase, but the study noted the 2008 financial crisis may be one factor among others. (Haelle, 5/16)
The New York Times:
Kids’ Suicide-Related Hospital Visits Rise Sharply
About five years ago, pediatricians at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville found that more and more of their inpatient beds at the children’s hospital were occupied by children and adolescents with mental health issues, especially those who had come in because of suicide attempts, or suicidal thoughts. These patients were known as “boarders”: They were waiting for psychiatric placement because it wasn’t safe for them to go home. (Klass, 5/16)
The Associated Press:
More US Adults Try Vaping But Current Use Is Down, Data Show
New research shows 1 in 7 U.S. adults have tried electronic cigarettes. That's an increase but it's offset by a small decline in the number currently using the devices. About 3 percent of adults were current users in 2016, down from almost 4 percent in 2014, the study found. Adults who said they have tried vaping at least once reached just over 15 percent in 2016, versus 12.6 percent in 2014. That means an estimated 33 million U.S. adults have tried e-cigarettes, said University of Iowa researcher Dr. Wei Bao, the lead author. (Tanner, 5/15)
The Washington Post:
Exploding Vape Pen Death: Man Dies After Pieces Strike His Head, Autopsy Says
A 38-year-old man in Florida was killed when his vape pen exploded, sending projectiles into his head and causing a small fire in his house, in what is believed to be one of the first deaths from an e-cigarette explosion. Tallmadge D’Elia was found May 5 in the burning bedroom of his family’s home in St. Petersburg, according to the Tampa Bay Times. An autopsy report released his week blamed a vape pen explosion for his death, according to local news media outlets. The cause of death was listed as “projectile wound of head” — the pen exploded into pieces, at least two of which were sent into his head, the report said — and he suffered burns on about 80 percent of his body. (Rosenberg, 5/16)
The Washington Post:
More Men With Low-Risk Prostate Cancer Are Forgoing Aggressive Treatment
American doctors are successfully persuading increasing numbers of men with low-risk prostate cancer to reject immediate surgery and radiation in favor of surveillance, a trend that is sparing men's sexual health without increasing their risk of death. The latest evidence that more men are postponing aggressive therapy unless their symptoms worsen came in a large study published Tuesday that involved more than 125,000 veterans diagnosed with nonaggressive prostate cancer between 2005 and 2015. (McGinley, 5/15)
The New York Times:
Broke Your Right Arm? Exercise Your Left. It May Help, Really.
If you sprain an ankle or break a wrist this summer and cannot use one of your limbs, the muscles there will weaken and shrink — unless you exercise those same muscles in your other limb. According to a fascinating new study, working out the muscles on one side of our bodies can keep the muscles on the other side strong and fit, even if we do not move them at all. The finding has implications for injury recovery and also underscores how capable and confounding our bodies can be. (Reynolds, 5/16)
NPR:
Children Get Fewer Antibiotics
Children and adolescents are getting fewer prescription drugs than they did in years past, according to a study that looks at a cross-section of the American population. "The decrease in antibiotic use is really what's driving this overall decline in prescription medication use that we're seeing in children and adolescents," says Craig Hales, a preventive medicine physician at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics and lead author of a study published Tuesday in JAMA. (Harris, 5/15)
The New York Times:
Yanny Or Laurel: Which Do You Hear? You’re Right
Three years ago, the internet melted down over the color of a dress. Now an audio file has friends, family members and office mates questioning one another’s hearing, and their own. Is the robot voice saying “Yanny” or “Laurel”? The clip picked up steam after a debate erupted on Reddit this week, and it has since been circulated widely on social media. (Salam, 5/15)
The New York Times:
Scientists Made Snails Remember Something That Never Happened To Them
Transferring memories from one living thing to another sounds like the plot of an episode of “Black Mirror.” But it may be more realistic than it sounds — at least for snails. In a paper published Monday in the journal eNeuro, scientists at the University of California-Los Angeles reported that when they transferred molecules from the brain cells of trained snails to untrained snails, the animals behaved as if they remembered the trained snails’ experiences. (Greenwood, 5/15)
The Associated Press:
Judge Tosses California Law Allowing Life-Ending Drugs
Betsy Davis threw herself a party before becoming one of the first people to use a California law allowing her to take her own life in 2016. Her sister and other advocates fear others won't have the same choice after a Riverside County judge threw out the law Tuesday because he said it was unconstitutionally approved by the Legislature. Superior Court Judge Daniel Ottolia ruled lawmakers illegally passed the law during a special session devoted to other topics, but he gave the state attorney general five days to appeal. (Thompson, 5/16)
Los Angeles Times:
Riverside Judge Overturns California's Doctor-Assisted Suicide Law
In a statement emailed to The Times, California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said: "We strongly disagree with this ruling and the state is seeking expedited review in the Court of Appeal." California's law allows patients with less than six months to live to request end-of-life drugs from their doctors, a practice that has been allowed in Oregon for more than 20 years. Now, nearly 1 in 5 Americans live in a state where physician-assisted suicide is legal, according to advocacy group Compassion and Choices. (Karlamangla, 5/15)
Sacramento Bee:
California Assisted Death Law Court Ruling Q&A
Nearly two years after it took effect, California's controversial assisted death law is back in limbo. A judge in Riverside County on Tuesday overturned the law because of concerns about how it was passed by the Legislature. (Koseff, 5/16)
The Associated Press:
For Chicago Teen Activists, Survival Is The No. 1 Goal
At his desk at North Lawndale College Prep High School, Gerald Smith keeps a small calendar that holds unimaginable grief. In its pages, the dean and student advocate writes the name of each student who's lost a family member, many of them to gun violence. And then he deploys the Peace Warriors — students who have dedicated themselves to easing the violence that pervades their world. (5/16)
The Associated Press:
Maryland Bans 'Gay Conversion Therapy' For Minors
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan signed a bill into law on Tuesday to prohibit health professionals from practicing "gay conversion therapy" on minors, as a growing number of states and municipalities are banning it. Maryland is the 11th state to enact legislation against the practice of trying to alter a person's sexual orientation through psychological intervention. Supporters of the ban note the therapy is widely discredited by medical and mental health associations. The law will classify the practice as unprofessional conduct. (5/15)
Los Angeles Times:
For Years, A Doctor Was Accused Of Bad Behavior With Young Women. USC Let Him Continue Treating Students
For nearly 30 years, the University of Southern California's student health clinic had one full-time gynecologist: Dr. George Tyndall. Tall and garrulous, he treated tens of thousands of female students, many of them teenagers seeing a gynecologist for the first time. Few who lay down on Tyndall's exam table at the Engemann Student Health Center knew that he had been accused repeatedly of misconduct toward young patients. (Ryan, Hamilton and Pringle, 5/15)
The Associated Press:
Governor Signs Bill Regarding Cancer Patients’ Fertility
The governor of Maryland has signed legislation requiring insurers to pay to freeze the eggs and sperm of people with cancer who undergo treatments that could diminish their chances of having children. The Baltimore Sun reports Gov. Larry Hogan signed the legislation Tuesday. The law requires insurers to pay for harvesting and freezing the eggs and sperm, but not the annual storage costs. (5/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Philadelphia’s Soda Tax Goes To Court: What You Need To Know
Should sodas and sugary drinks be subjected to a special tax? Philadelphia has become ground zero in the national debate over whether to tax sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages. On Tuesday, Pennsylvania’s highest state court is set to hear a challenge by the American Beverage Association and others to the city’s soda tax, which went into effect in January 2017. (Armental, 5/15)
Los Angeles Times:
Following Golden State Killer Suspect's Arrest, California Lawmakers Want Rape Kits Tested More Quickly
Less than a month after police arrested a man suspected of being the Golden State Killer — one of California’s most prolific serial rapists — state lawmakers in Sacramento on Tuesday said they want to ensure all sexual assault kits are counted and swiftly tested. Under a bill by Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino), law enforcement agencies would have to submit rape kits to crime labs within 20 days of their collection, and labs would have no more than 120 days to test them. Another bill by Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) would require a statewide audit of all untested exams. (Ulloa, 5/15)
The Washington Post:
Salmonella Outbreak: Egg Farm Had Rodent Infestation, FDA Says
A North Carolina egg farm that authorities say is responsible for an outbreak of salmonella illness that has sickened several people in nine states has had a heavy rodent infestation and failed to take actions to reverse it, according to an inspection report. Dozens of rodents, some alive and some dead, were found inside Rose Acre Farms’ hen houses in its North Carolina facility. Many, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration report says, were burrowing in manure piles. Insects also hovered around chicken feeds and throughout the farm. Employees were seen touching body parts and dirty surfaces while handling food. (Phillips, 5/15)
NPR:
Flavored Tobacco, Vaping Juice Targeted By San Francisco Ballot Measure
San Francisco could become the first city in the nation to ban flavored tobacco products from all store shelves. The ban includes everything from candy-flavored e-cigarettes to conventional menthol smokes. City supervisors last year unanimously approved a ban on the products, but the tobacco industry funded a referendum, Proposition E, to put the issue before voters instead. San Francisco residents will decide in the June 5 election whether the ordinance goes into effect. (McClurg, 5/16)
Reuters:
Competition Heats Up For Controversial A2 Milk Company
Stay-at-home mother Anna Wei wanted the best milk formula to feed her firstborn, so she chose the most expensive brand her money could buy: Platinum by a2 Milk Company Ltd. "I always felt that the higher the price, the better the quality," said 28-year-old Wei, who lives in Shanghai. Buyers like Wei have fanned a phenomenal success for New Zealand-based a2 Milk and its controversial milk powder that is marketed as easier to digest than conventional milk because it lacks the A1 caesin protein. (5/16)