Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Fed: Public Health Failures Will Threaten The U.S. Economy
The Wall Street Journal: Fed Says U.S. Public Health Among Biggest Near-Term Risks To Financial System
The potential for U.S. public health to worsen as the Covid-19 pandemic continues is one of the greatest near-term risks to the financial system, the Federal Reserve said, while noting that asset prices are susceptible to large declines should investor sentiment shift. Any deterioration in the public-health situation could slow the recent economic recovery, particularly if widespread business closures returned and supply chains were further disrupted, the Fed said. The number of new Covid-19 cases has fallen in recent months, but a resurgence this summer, tied to the Delta variant, coincided with a slowdown in hiring and economic growth. (Ackerman, 11/8)
Stat: How Nancy Pelosi Almost Killed Drug Pricing Reform
The White House stunned health care experts last month when it declared it was abandoning its efforts to reform drug pricing in the major domestic spending package moving through Congress, a seeming death knell for what had long been a major priority for Democrats. But unlike earlier in the negotiations, moderate Democrats weren’t the holdouts. This time, it was Speaker Nancy Pelosi who dealt the blow, late the night before, to the latest deal on offer, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. (Cohrs, 11/9)
Modern Healthcare: Supreme Court To Review Federal Laws Around Dialysis Coverage
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review federal laws outlining how employee health plans must treat patients with end-stage renal disease. The nation's highest court granted a petition to review regulations on Friday, after the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an Ohio hospital's health plan violated the federal Medicare Secondary Payer Act and the Employer Retirement Income Security Act when it categorized all dialysis providers as out of network. The decision also conflicted with an earlier ruling from the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. (Topper, 11/8)
Bloomberg: Unsealed Emails Show How J&J Shaped Report on Talc's Links to Cancer
Unsealed emails reveal the role baby-powder maker Johnson & Johnson played in a report that an industry group submitted to U.S. regulators deciding whether to keep warnings off talc-based products linked to cancer. The emails -- unsealed in the state of Mississippi’s lawsuit against J&J over its refusal to add a safety warning -- show J&J and its talc supplier chose the scientists hired by their trade association, the Personal Care Products Council, to write the 2009 report assessing talc-based powders’ health risks. They also show the researchers changed the final version of their report at the companies’ behest. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it relied in part on the report in its decision to forgo a warning for the product. (Feeley and Edney, 11/8)
The US joins nations trying to cut emissions from the health industry —
The New York Times: More Than 40 Nations Pledge To Cut Emissions From Their Health Industries
More than 40 countries have pledged to cut greenhouse-gas emissions across their health systems, World Health Organization officials said late Monday, representing the largest global effort to date to try to reduce contributions by the world’s hospitals and health care industry to global warming. “This announcement is huge,” said Josh Karliner, the international director of program and strategy at Health Care Without Harm, a nonprofit that has worked to reduce the environmental impact of the health care sector. It is designed to put the industry on a path toward “net zero” emissions of greenhouse gases, he said, and “what it implies is that the way health care is provided is going to be fundamentally transformed.” (Choi-Schagrin, 11/8)
Fauci speaks about covid again —
NPR: What Dr. Fauci Sees Coming For The COVID Pandemic This Winter
The United States has seen a decline in cases and hospitalizations since the summer's delta surge — but the decline is declining. COVID-19 is still killing more than 1,000 people in the U.S. every day. New cases still hover around 72,000 per day — and infections are actually trending up in some pockets of the country, including parts of the Mountain West and the Northeast. (Jarenwattananon, Intagliata, and Morell, 11/8)
Also —
KHN: Medicare Enrollment Blitz Doesn’t Include Options To Move Into Medigap
Medicare’s annual open-enrollment season is here and millions of beneficiaries — prompted by a massive advertising campaign and aided by a detailed federal website — will choose a private Medicare Advantage plan. But those who have instead opted for traditional Medicare face a critical decision about private insurance. Too often the import of that choice is not well communicated. (Meyer, 11/9)
