First Edition: October 2, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Drugmakers Play The Patent Game To Lock In Prices, Block Competitors
David Herzberg was alarmed when he heard that Richard Sackler, former chairman of opioid giant Purdue Pharma, was listed as an inventor on a new patent for an opioid addiction treatment. Patent No. 9861628 is for a fast-dissolving wafer containing buprenorphine, a generic drug that has been around since the 1970s. Herzberg, a historian who focuses on the opioid epidemic and the history of prescription drugs, said he fears the patent could keep prices high and make it more difficult for poor addicts to get treatment. (Tribble, 10/2)
Kaiser Health News:
Feds Settle Huge Whistleblower Suit Over Medicare Advantage Fraud
The settlement by HealthCare Partners Holdings LLC, part of giant dialysis company DaVita Inc., is believed to be the largest to date involving allegations that some Medicare Advantage plans exaggerate how sick their patients are to inflate government payments. DaVita, which is headquartered in El Segundo, Calif., did not admit fault. “This settlement demonstrates our tireless commitment to rooting out fraud that drains too many taxpayer dollars from public health programs like Medicare,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna in announcing the settlement Monday. (Schulte, 10/1)
Kaiser Health News:
Immigrants’ Health Premiums Far Exceed What Plans Pay For Their Care
President Donald Trump has repeatedly condemned U.S. immigration policy, arguing that many immigrants pose a threat to the nation and drain U.S. resources. But a study released Monday about health insurance challenges the president’s portrayal. The study in the journal Health Affairs found that immigrants covered by private health insurance and their employers contributed nearly $25 billion more in premiums in 2014 than was spent on their care. Those in the country without legal status contributed nearly $8 billion toward the surplus. (Heredia Rodriguez, 10/1)
California Healthline:
California’s Newly Minted Health Care Laws: Doctor Misconduct, Drug Prices, Kids’ Meals And More
California Gov. Jerry Brown, who faced the final bill-signing deadline of his gubernatorial career on Sunday, approved a variety of health care measures that will directly affect consumers — right down to the drinks in their children’s kiddie meals. Some of these laws broke ground nationally, such as one that will require doctors to notify patients if they’ve been placed on probation for serious misconduct. Others exemplify California’s ongoing resistance to Trump administration policies. (Ibarra, 10/1)
NPR:
Cheap, Short-Term Health Policies May Leave Gaps In Coverage
If you're looking for cheaper health insurance, a whole host of new options will hit the market starting Tuesday. But buyer beware! If you get sick, the new plans – known as short-term, limited duration insurance — may not pay for the medical care you need. (Kodjak, 10/1)
USA Today:
‘I Knew Something Was Not Right’: Mass Cancellations Of Diagnostic Test Orders At VA Hospitals Draw Scrutiny
Radiology technologist Jeff Dettbarn said he knew something was wrong at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Iowa City, Iowa, when a patient arrived in February 2017 for a CT scan, but the doctor’s order for it had been cancelled. “To have a patient show up for a scan and not have an order – you’re like, ‘What the heck is going on?’” he told USA TODAY in an interview. ... Cancellations of more than 250,000 radiology orders at VA hospitals across the country since 2016 have raised questions about whether – in a rush to clear out outdated and duplicate diagnostic orders – some facilities failed to follow correct procedures. At issue is a concern over whether some medically necessary orders for CT scans and other imaging tests were canceled improperly. (Slack, 10/1)
The Washington Post:
Trump’s Family Separation Policy Was Flawed From The Start, Watchdog Review Says
The Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” crackdown at the border this spring was troubled from the outset by planning shortfalls, widespread communication failures and administrative indifference to the separation of small children from their parents, according to an unpublished report by the Department of Homeland Security’s internal watchdog. The report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is the government’s first attempt to autopsy the chaos produced between May 5 and June 20, when President Trump abruptly halted the separations under mounting pressure from his party and members of his family. (Miroff, Sacchetti and Kim, 10/1)
The Hill:
Top Trump Immigration Official Downplays Impact Of 'Public Charge' Proposal
The Trump administration’s top immigration official downplayed the attempted impact of a new proposal that would restrict green cards and visas for immigrants who use public benefits. Francis Cissna, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said the proposed “public charge” rule is very specific in the scope of benefits it targets, and the number of immigrants who are eligible for those benefits, or who could become eligible for those benefits, is limited. (Weixel, 10/1)
The New York Times:
The Government Is Moving Migrant Children To A Texas Tent City. Here’s What’s Behind It.
More than 1,600 migrant children have been sent with little notice on late-night voyages to their new home: a barren tent city in West Texas, where they do not receive schooling and have limited access to legal representation. The Trump administration opened the facility because shelters that house migrant children have been overflowing. Here’s a look at what’s happening. (Dickerson, 10/1)
The New York Times:
For Private Prisons, Detaining Immigrants Is Big Business
Thomas W. Beasley had something for sale, and figured he could market it the same as any other merchandise. “You just sell it like you were selling cars or real estate or hamburgers,” he told an interviewer. That was three decades ago. Only Mr. Beasley wasn’t hawking new wheels, beachfront property or beef patties. His stock in trade was prison bars. As a co-founder of Corrections Corporation of America in 1983, and with a get-tough-on-crime spirit ascendant in the country, he sold lockup space to federal and state governments that were jailing people faster than they could find room in their own institutions. (Haberman, 10/1)
The Associated Press:
Medicare Upgrades Its Website Ahead Of Sign-Up Season
Approaching annual sign-up season, Medicare is modernizing its website to make it more useful for beneficiaries already accustomed to searching online for insurers, hospitals and doctors, officials announced on Monday. But some consumer advocates said the changes reflect a subtle bias toward private plans on the part of the Trump administration. (10/1)
NPR/ProPublica:
Health Insurance Industry Insider To Employers: Learn To Negotiate
Marilyn Bartlett took a deep breath, drew herself up to her full 5 feet and a smidge, and told the assembled handful of Montana officials that she had a radical strategy to bail out the state's foundering benefit plan for its 30,000 employees and their families. The officials were listening. Their health plan was going broke, with losses that could top $50 million in just a few years. It needed a savior, but none of the applicants to be its new administrator had wowed them.Now here was a self-described pushy 64-year-old grandmother interviewing for the job. (Allen, 10/2)
Boston Globe:
At Elegant McLean Psychiatric Outpost, $2,150 A Day, And Insurance Is Not Welcome
McLean’s steady expansion into the realm of private-pay care, which now accounts for 40 percent of its residential beds and several outpatient programs, exposes a tension in mental health care: Options for the upper middle class and wealthy are growing at a time when many other patients say they can’t get their insurers to pay for adequate treatment. The phenomenon threatens to create a two-tier system “where high-quality care is only accessible to those with enough resources to afford care out of their own pocket,’’ said Brian Rosman, policy director at Health Care for All, a Boston-based patient advocacy group. (Kowalczyk, 9/30)
ProPublica/The New York Times:
Cancer Center’s Board Chairman Faults Top Doctor Over ‘Crossed Lines’
The chairman of the board of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center bluntly disparaged the hospital’s former chief medical officer on Monday, telling the hospital’s staff that the medical chief had “crossed lines” and had gone “off the reservation” in his outside dealings with health and drug companies. The remarks by Douglas A. Warner III, the chairman of the center’s board of managers and overseers, as well as Dr. Craig B. Thompson, the chief executive, went beyond previous hospital statements about the former chief medical officer, Dr. José Baselga. Until Monday, the hospital had said Dr. Baselga followed internal policies and had mainly just failed to disclose his industry affiliations in some medical journal articles. (Ornstein and Thomas, 10/1)
The Associated Press:
Drugmaker Pfizer's CEO Read To Be Replaced By COO Bourla
The biggest U.S.-based drugmaker will change leaders in January when Pfizer Chief Operating Officer Albert Bourla replaces CEO Ian Read, who has led the company for nearly eight years. Pfizer Inc. said Monday that Read will become executive chairman of Pfizer's board of directors. The move comes after Pfizer's board in March gave Read an $8 million bonus contingent on boosting Pfizer's stock price and staying on for up to a year. (Johnson and Murphy, 10/1)
Reuters:
Pfizer To Replace Longtime CEO Read With Veteran Bourla
Under Read, a Scot who joined the company in 1978, Pfizer has weathered patent expirations of several blockbusters, including cholesterol drug Lipitor, through dealmaking, expansion in emerging markets and cost cuts. Pfizer won 30 approvals from the U.S. health regulator during his tenure. Read, however, failed to pull off two mega deals - acquisition of British drugmaker AstraZeneca Plc in 2014 and Botox maker Allergan Plc in 2016 - that would have helped lower its corporate taxes. (Mathias and Banerjee, 10/1)
The Wall Street Journal:
Pfizer CEO Read To Step Aside At Year’s End
Mr. Bourla will confront one more big U.S. patent loss, on the pain drug Lyrica at the end of this year. Lyrica generated $3.5 billion in U.S. sales last year. Pfizer executives say the company is well positioned to increase revenue if its pipeline of new drugs and vaccines realize their promise. Pfizer says it has 15 products in the late stages of development, each of which could achieve a billion dollars in sales or more. (Rockoff, 10/1)
Stat:
'Nurse Educators' Paid By Drug Companies Facing Scrutiny As Lawsuits Mount
The lawsuits contend the companies hired third-party contractors to deploy nurses — sometimes by phone, sometimes in patient’s homes — to ensure that prescriptions were refilled. The drug makers also allegedly provided kickbacks to physicians in the form of free insurance processing assistance, medical practice management software, and marketing assistance to persuade them to prescribe their drugs. ... On one hand, the nurses teach patients how to use complicated medications, work to resolve drug-related problems, and help with insurance paperwork — all of which [Carson Domey and other Humira patients may appreciate. But they also keep patients taking the world’s best-selling medication, even if another drug would work just as well, [professor Adriane] Fugh-Berman said. (Silverman and Weintraub, 10/2)
The New York Times:
Breakthrough Leukemia Treatment Backfires In A Rare Case
A highly unusual death has exposed a weak spot in a groundbreaking cancer treatment: One rogue cell, genetically altered by the therapy, can spiral out of control in a patient and cause a fatal relapse. The treatment, a form of immunotherapy, genetically engineers a patient’s own white blood cells to fight cancer. Sometimes described as a “living drug,” it has brought lasting remissions to leukemia patients who were on the brink of death. Among them is Emily Whitehead, the first child to receive the treatment, in 2012 when she was 6. (Grady, 10/1)
The New York Times:
Suicides Get Taxi Drivers Talking: ‘I’m Going To Be One Of Them’
Both men were longtime taxi drivers from Romania. Both were worried about paying their bills as Uber decimated their industry. They were best friends. And both had struggled with depression. Nicanor Ochisor’s wife dragged him to a doctor in March to get help. Two days later, he hanged himself in his garage. “I didn’t know he was so depressed,” his friend, Nicolae Hent, said. (Fitzsimmons, 10/2)
The New York Times:
These Cholesterol-Reducers May Save Lives. So Why Aren’t Heart Patients Getting Them?
Heart disease runs in Mackenzie Ames’s family. Her grandfather had a fatal heart attack at age 30 while dancing with her grandmother at the Elks Lodge in Bath, N.Y. Her mother had a quadruple bypass when she was 42. When Ms. Ames was just 9 years old, her LDL cholesterol level (the bad kind) was 400 mg/dL, about four times higher than it should have been. (Kolata, 10/2)
The New York Times:
Detailed New National Maps Show How Neighborhoods Shape Children For Life
The part of this city east of Northgate Mall looks like many of the neighborhoods that surround it, with its modest midcentury homes beneath dogwood and Douglas fir trees. Whatever distinguishes this place is invisible from the street. But it appears that poor children who grow up here — to a greater degree than children living even a mile away — have good odds of escaping poverty over the course of their lives. (Badger and Bui, 10/1)
The Washington Post:
‘Sammies’ Honor Government’s Best And Most Innovative Employees
Peggy Honein vividly remembers the day in 2016 when an obscure virus went from a curiosity to a major public health threat. There were disturbing reports out of Brazil of newborns with tiny heads, and the scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were trying to determine why that was happening. “One of the most important moments was when the CDC’s lab first found evidence in some samples that Zika was destroying the brain tissue of newborns,” Honein recalled in an interview. (Bernstein, 10/2)
The New York Times:
Everyone Should Have A Postpartum Doula
New parenthood — during which ordinary people find themselves abruptly responsible for a brand-new and sometimes famished, inconsolable being — is famously harrowing. It’s good to have supportive family and friends during this time. But increasingly, parents are turning to postpartum doulas, as well. Unlike birth doulas, who assist mothers during pregnancy and childbirth, postpartum doulas step in when the baby is already born, and throughout the first six weeks after birth. (Greenberg, 10/2)
The Washington Post:
‘It Seemed To Last Forever.’ One Year Later, Mystery Of Las Vegas Massacre Remains
When the first bullets cracked through the air over a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip last year, many concertgoers thought they were hearing fireworks. It took a moment to realize it was gunfire, a barrage of bullets that seemed endless, they recalled afterward. “I remember my husband saying, ‘Get down — get down,’” a 33-year-old woman from California who came to Las Vegas to attend the festival would later tell police. She was then hit in the upper left thigh: “It was within a few seconds of being on the floor I got shot instantly.” (Berman, 10/1)
Los Angeles Times:
One Year Later: Las Vegas Dims The Neon And Pauses To Reflect On Its Darkest Hour
Mynda Smith’s sleep was restless. Normally, she would have had a protein shake for breakfast, but on Monday all she could do was sip water. A year ago her sister was killed. Neysa Tonks, 46, was one of 58 people gunned down at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip — the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. The tragedy was big and public, but within Tonks’ family, the loss was also private and constant. (Montero, 10/1)
The New York Times:
Ivy League Football Saw Large Reduction In Concussions After New Kickoff Rules
A simple rule change in Ivy League football games has led to a significant drop in concussions, a study released this week found. After the Ivy League changed its kickoff rules in 2016, adjusting the kickoff and touchback lines by just five yards, the rate of concussions per 1,000 kickoff plays fell to two from 11, according to the study, which was published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Mervosh, 10/2)
The Associated Press:
Concussions Drop In Ivy League Football With Kickoff Change
The NCAA approved the changes on an experimental basis for the eight private universities in the Ivy League. Other NCAA teams have kickoffs at the 35. ...The aim of the 5-yard move was to have more kickoffs land in the end zone and reduce returns. That play is one of the only times “where players on both teams have the space to get up to full speed” rushing at each other and potentially risking a head-on tackle, said University of Pennsylvania researcher Douglas Wiebe, the lead author. The 2016 change came at the recommendation of league coaches after data from the previous year showed kickoffs accounted for 6 percent of all plays but 21 percent of concussions. (Tanner, 10/1)
Los Angeles Times:
After A Small Change In Kickoff Rules, Ivy League Football Players Saw A Big Drop In Concussions
The study authors cautioned that their results might not apply to other Division 1 teams in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn., let alone professional teams in the National Football League. But as the NCAA contemplates a nationwide adjustment to kickoff rules, these findings demonstrate that “targeted policy changes can reduce sport-related concussion,” the researchers concluded. (Kaplan, 10/1)
The Associated Press:
Study Suggests More Older Women May Benefit From Bone Drugs
A bone-strengthening drug given by IV every 18 months greatly lowered the risk of fracture in certain older women, a large study found. The results suggest these medicines might help more people than those who get them now and can be used less often, too. (10/1)
NPR:
Zoledronate Cuts Bone Fracture Risk In Elderly Women
"This is an extremely important paper," says Dr. Ethel Siris, a Columbia University medical professor who specializes in thinning bones and wasn't involved in the study. "We now know that we have a therapy that has been shown to be highly effective." The findings were published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at a meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research in Montreal. (Stein, 10/1)
The Associated Press:
Studies In Healthy Older People Aim To Prevent Alzheimer's
It may be too late to stop Alzheimer's in people who already have some mental decline. But what if a treatment could target the very earliest brain changes while memory and thinking skills are still intact, in hope of preventing the disease? Two big studies are going all out to try. Clinics throughout the United States and some other countries are signing up participants — the only studies of this type enrolling healthy older people. (10/2)
The Associated Press:
Serena Williams Sings, Goes Topless For Breast Cancer Video
Tennis great Serena Williams goes topless and sings "I Touch Myself" in a video to promote breast cancer awareness month. With her hands covering her breasts, Williams writes in the Instagram post that the video took her out of her "comfort zone." But she said she wanted to do it because early detection saves so many lives. (10/1)
The Associated Press:
Texas Surf Resort Tested After 'Brain-Eating Amoeba' Death
Test results are expected later this week after a man who visited a landlocked surf resort in Central Texas died from a rare "brain-eating amoeba," local health officials said Monday. Fabrizio Stabile, a 29-year-old from New Jersey, died on Sept. 21 after falling ill with Naegleria fowleri, a rare but deadly amoeba that can cause a brain infection. People are usually infected when contaminated water enters the body through the nose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (10/1)
The New York Times:
A Man Died After Being Infected With Brain-Eating Amoeba. Here’s What You Should Know.
The amoeba is a single-celled organism that can cause a rare infection of the brain called primary amoebic meningoencephalitis, also known as PAM, which is usually fatal. It thrives in warm temperatures and is commonly found in warm bodies of fresh water, such as lakes, rivers and hot springs, the C.D.C. said, though it can also be present in soil. ...Infection typically occurs when people go swimming in lakes and rivers, according to the C.D.C. (Hauser, 10/1)
ProPublica:
A Surgeon So Bad It Was Criminal
The pain from the pinched nerve in the back of Jeff Glidewell’s neck had become unbearable. Every time he’d turn his head a certain way, or drive over bumps in the road, he felt as if jolts of electricity were running through his body. Glidewell, now 54, had been living on disability because of an accident a decade earlier. As the pain grew worse, it became clear his only choice was neurosurgery. He searched Google to find a doctor near his home in suburban Dallas who would accept his Medicare Advantage insurance. (Beil, 10/2)
The Wall Street Journal:
Texas Hospital Giants Baylor Scott & White And Memorial Hermann Plan To Merge
Two Texas hospital giants announced they plan to merge, which would combine dominant hospital systems in two of the nation’s largest metropolitan markets, one of the latest signs of the consolidation reshaping the health-care industry. Baylor Scott & White Health, a nonprofit based in Dallas, and Memorial Hermann Health System, based in Houston and also a nonprofit, announced a letter of intent to create a 68-hospital system spanning from the Gulf of Mexico to the Oklahoma border. (Evans, 10/1)
The Associated Press:
Health Company To Pay $270M Over Improper Billing Practices
A health care company has agreed to pay $270 million to resolve allegations it provided inaccurate information to Medicare, federal prosecutors said Monday. DaVita Medical Holdings admitted to practices that caused incorrect diagnosis codes to be submitted in order to obtain inflated payments, according to the U.S. Justice Department. (10/1)
The Associated Press:
Police In Florida Fatally Shoot Man During ER Lockdown
Police officers in Florida on Monday fatally shot an unarmed patient they say told hospital emergency room workers that he had a gun and that "it was going to end right here today. "Orlando Police Chief John Mina said during a news conference that the man was taken to Orlando Regional Medical Center for a medical condition. After arriving at the hospital, Mina said the man told staff there he would "shoot anyone who came near him." Police were called and the emergency room was placed on lock down. (10/1)
The Associated Press:
Northam Forms Advisory Commission On Opioids
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has asked a group of experts to advise him on how to fight the state’s opioid epidemic. Northam signed an executive order Friday establishing an advisory commission on opioids and addiction. The governor, who is a pediatric neurologist, said the commission will review the state’s current approach at curbing opioid abuse and offer feedback on ways to improve. (10/1)
Los Angeles Times:
Prominent Gynecologist At Huntington Hospital Again Accused Of Sexual Misconduct By Medical Board
A prominent Pasadena obstetrician is facing the possible loss or suspension of his medical license following an accusation by state regulators that he made inappropriate comments about a patient’s appearance and sex life. The allegation lodged last week by the Medical Board of California marks the fifth time Dr. Patrick Sutton has been accused of sexual misconduct, according to a review by The Times of court records and medical board files. (Ryan and Hamilton, 10/1)