Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Day One Of Theranos CEO's Trial Sees Her Characterized As A Liar
NPR: Prosecutors Call Theranos Ex-CEO Elizabeth Holmes A Liar And A Cheat As Trial Opens
Jurors in the fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes heard vastly different portrayals on Wednesday of the onetime whiz kid who amazed Silicon Valley with promises of biotech breakthroughs at her company, Theranos. In a stinging opening statement on Wednesday, federal prosecutors described Holmes as a manipulative fraudster who duped investors and patients alike and knew the whole time that she was hoodwinking them. "This is a case about fraud, about lying and cheating to get money," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Leach. "It's a crime on Main Street, and it's a crime in Silicon Valley." (Allyn, 9/8)
In other health care industry news —
Roll Call: Provider Groups Lobby HHS As COVID-19 Fund Deadlines Near
Medical provider groups are pressuring the Biden administration to ease the rules for a $178 billion COVID-19 relief fund as the first deadline nears for doctors to report on how they spent the money. Hospital and physician groups are lobbying the administration to release the $24 billion remaining in the fund and extend deadlines for spending and reporting the money, in addition to a series of wonky requests with implications for hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars. (Clason, 9/8)
Modern Healthcare: VC And Private Equity Firms To Face More Scrutiny, CMS Official Warns
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will turn a skeptical eye toward venture capital and private equity investments in healthcare and demand greater transparency, a key agency official said Wednesday. Officials worry patients won't get the care they need if investors are only in healthcare to collect government money, Pauline Lapin, director of the Center for Medicaid and Medicaid Innovation's Seamless Care Models Group, said during the Policies, Techies & VCs conference on Wednesday. (Brady, 9/8)
Modern Healthcare: Patients Burdened By Administrative Hassles That Delay Care, Survey Shows
Navigating the labyrinthine U.S. healthcare system is so challenging for patients that it leads to delayed or foregone medical care, new research shows. Twenty-five percent of insured, working age adults have either postponed or gone without necessary healthcare because of administrative obstacles, according to a study published in the journal Health Services Research Thursday. Nearly three-quarters of patients reported undertaking tasks like scheduling appointments, seeking health information, obtaining prior authorizations and resolving problems with bills and premiums. The researchers used data from the Urban Institute's March 2019 Health Reform Monitoring Survey. (Devereaux, 9/8)
Stat: Concert Health Delivers Mental Health Care To Those Missed By The Unicorns
The explosion of investor interest in behavioral health startups has minted an expanding list of unicorns focused on helping people access care through employer benefits or commercial insurance. Concert Health has its eye on the other part of the market. (Aguilar, 9/9)
Modern Healthcare: LGBTQ+ Health Startups Grow To Meet Demand For Specialized Services
In the first half of this year, funding for LGBTQ-focused digital health tools already more than tripled compared to investments in all of 2020, according to digital health consultancy Rock Health. As the LGBTQ digital health space is relatively new, most companies in this category have received only seed investment and Series A rounds. Companies such as Denver-based Plume, Boston-based Folx, New York-based Included Health and others say their missions are to empower marginalized individuals by offering care from culturally competent staff, as opposed to forcing LGBTQ individuals to meet with providers who may not understand—or may be openly hostile—to their care needs. (Tepper and Devereaux, 9/8)
KHN: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: How Charity Care Made It Into The ACA
Charity care is one tiny provision in the giant Affordable Care Act, and it can make a big difference for patients who face huge bills. How did it get into the law? One Republican senator made sure the ACA required nonprofit hospitals to act more like charities — and less like loan sharks — but he still voted against the whole bill. The national requirement to offer charity care emerged from the Obama White House’s failed courtship of GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa. In this episode, we hear how that political tango almost tanked the ACA — and how the battle over the ACA “broke America.” Featured are David Axelrod, a former adviser to President Barack Obama; longtime health policy reporter and KHN chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner; and a top Grassley aide. (Weissmann, 9/9)
KHN: Watch: Same Providers, Similar Surgeries, But Different Bills
Ely Bair had similar surgeries, at the same hospital, with the same insurer. But he received very different big medical bills. KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal joins “CBS This Morning” to break down how this could happen to you and what you can do to avoid it. (9/4)
In obituaries —
San Francisco Chronicle: Arthur Ammann, UCSF Doctor Who Discovered AIDS Virus In Infants, Dies At 85
Before AIDS had a name and was still thought to be a disease primarily affecting gay men, Dr. Arthur Ammann at UCSF Parnassus discovered the same condition in a newborn who had undergone a blood transfusion. Further research by Ammann led to what he described as a “terrible discovery”: The illness could also be transmitted mother-to-baby during pregnancy. That finding put maternity wards, pediatric units and the entire blood donor industry on alert. (Whiting, 9/8)
