Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: April 21, 2015
Kaiser Health News: Cash-And-Carry Health Insurance For Some In Los Angeles
The largest publicly run health plan in the nation, L.A. Care, will allow customers who do not have traditional bank accounts to pay their health insurance premiums with cash. One in four Americans who were previously uninsured and eligible for federal insurance subsidies do not have a bank account, relying instead on pre-paid debit cards, money orders and cash to pay bills, according to a study by Jackson Hewitt Tax Service. (Varney, 4/20)
Kaiser Health News: What’s At Stake In The Supreme Court Obamacare Case
The Affordable Care Act mandates that all Americans get health coverage or pay a penalty. To help people pay for that insurance, the federal government subsidizes insurance premiums for millions of Americans. In just a couple of months, the Supreme Court will rule in a major case concerning those subsidies. The question is whether the law allowed for them across the country or just in the minority of states that set up their own insurance exchanges. A decision to take away those subsidies could leave millions without insurance. ... Louisiana is a state where a lot of people could be affected. ... We traveled to the state to interview many of these people who could lose subsidies if the Supreme Court rules against them. (Cohen, 4/21)
The Associated Press: Obama Plans Reception For Overhaul Of Medicare Payment Plan
President Barack Obama has invited Democratic and Republican lawmakers to the White House for a reception thanking them for their work on legislation permanently changing how Medicare pays doctors. The event will be held Tuesday in the Rose Garden. Obama signed the legislation on Friday, marking a rare bipartisan achievement and ending years of last-minute fixes. Obama said then that he wanted to act quickly without ceremony to allow for the new payments. He said he would have lawmakers to the White House this week. (4/20)
The Associated Press: Talks Begin On Capitol Hill Budget Measure
Lawmakers quarreled Monday over Medicare, taxes and almost $40 billion in unrequested money for overseas war-fighting as House and Senate negotiators kicked off work on a Republican budget blueprint for next year and beyond. (Taylor, 4/20)
The Washington Post: Pressure Mounts For Loretta Lynch Vote, But No Deal Yet
The Senate wrapped up its business last week with high hopes that a solution might be at hand to break an impasse that has delayed a confirmation vote for attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch for more than six weeks. By the end of Monday's Senate business, no such deal was in place. But senators of both parties said an agreement was close at hand and could be announced on Tuesday. Democrats have filibustered a bill cracking down on human trafficking due to abortion restrictions embedded within it, and Republicans have vowed not to move forward with Lynch's confirmation until the trafficking bill is dealt with. After weeks of gridlock, leaders of both parties sounded optimistic on Thursday that a deal could be hashed out over the weekend. (DeBonis, 4/20)
The New York Times: Bill Would Give F.D.A. More Muscle On Cosmetics
For decades, the Food and Drug Administration has had fewer than a dozen pages of instructions for how to regulate the millions of lipsticks, moisturizers and other cosmetics sold each year. Now, a new bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, proposes to give the F.D.A. broader oversight, including the authority to force recalls of dangerous products. (Abrams, 4/20)
The Associated Press: Task Force: Mammograms In 40s A Choice, But Don’t Skip At 50
Women should get a mammogram every two years starting at age 50 — and while routine screening brings little benefit in the 40s, beginning it that early should be a personal choice, a government task force said Monday. Also, there’s not enough evidence to tell if new 3-D mammograms are the best option for routine screening, or if women with dense breasts need extra testing to find hidden tumors, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force concluded. (Neergaard, 4/21)
NPR: Federal Panel Revisits Contested Recommendation On Mammograms
In 2009, I was among the scrum of reporters covering the controversial advice from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that women in their 40s think twice about regular mammograms. The task force pointed out that the net benefits in younger women were small and said women should weigh the pros and cons of screening before making a decision. (Hobson, 4/20)
USA Today: BRCA Gene Datashare Will Help Detect Cancer Risk
A first-of-its-kind genetic datashare program is being launched to zero in on patients with unclear BRCA test results — and save more women from the devastation of breast and ovarian cancer. U.S.-based Quest Diagnostics announced Tuesday that it is pairing with Inserm, the French public health institute, to launch BRCA Share. The goal: provide scientists and labs around the world with open access to BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic data and improve the ability of diagnostic labs to predict which individuals are at risk of developing hereditary breast and ovarian cancers. (Miller, 4/21)
The New York Times: New Genetic Tests For Breast Cancer Hold Promise
A Silicon Valley start-up with some big-name backers is threatening to upend genetic screening for breast and ovarian cancer by offering a test on a sample of saliva that is so inexpensive that most women could get it. At the same time, the nation’s two largest clinical laboratories, Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, normally bitter rivals, are joining with French researchers to pool their data to better interpret mutations in the two main breast cancer risk genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2. Other companies and laboratories are being invited to join the effort, called BRCA Share. (Pollack, 4/21)
The Associated Press: Cardinal Health Paying $26.8M In FTC Settlement
Cardinal Health will pay $26.8 million as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission over charges it monopolized the sale in 25 markets of diagnostic drugs known as low-energy radiopharmaceuticals. The charges allege that the pharmaceutical and medical-products distributor forced hospitals and clinics to pay inflated prices for the drugs, used to diagnose a range of conditions, including heart disease. (4/20)
The Wall Street Journal: Cardinal Health To Pay $26.8 Million To Settle Allegations It Inflated Prices
Cardinal Health Inc. agreed to pay $26.8 million to settle U.S. accusations that the drug distributor inflated the prices for radiopharmaceutical drugs used to diagnose illnesses such as heart disease. Cardinal Health said that as part of the settlement, it didn’t admit or deny any wrongdoing and that it doesn’t believe it violated the law. According to the company, it voluntarily agreed to the settlement to avoid the costs and inherent unpredictability associated with litigation. (Stynes, 4/20)
The Wall Street Journal's Pharmalot: How Much?! Teva Agrees To Pay $512M To Settle A Pay-To-Delay Case
In what attorneys are calling the largest such settlement of its kind, Teva Pharmaceutical agreed to pay $512 million to resolve allegations that Cephalon, a brand-name drug maker it purchased four years ago, used anti-competitive tactics to delay entry of generic versions of the Provigil narcolepsy pill. (Silverman, 4/20)
The New York Times' DealBook: Oscar, A Health Insurance Start-Up, Valued At $1.5 Billion
Sixteen months after going live, the insurance company Oscar has joined the elite group of start-ups known as unicorns, or those with billion-dollar valuations. The company plans to announce on Monday that it has raised $145 million from a group led by the billionaire Peter Thiel and his Founders Fund venture capital firm. Other investors in the round included the Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing’s Horizon Ventures, the Wellington Management Company and Goldman Sachs. (de la Merced, 4/20)
The Washington Post: House Republicans Take Issue With Another D.C. Law
After months of fiery rhetoric and even a threat to jail the mayor, conservative House Republicans on Tuesday are poised to take yet another swipe at the District’s liberal leaders by trying to throw out a new law. For the first time in 23 years, a powerful House committee has scheduled a vote to upend a D.C. law that bans employers from discriminating based on reproductive health decisions. Some conservatives have interpreted the bill to mean that employers in the District, including religious organizations, could eventually be required to provide coverage for contraception and abortions. (Davis, 4/20)
The Associated Press: Indiana Governor Extends Needle Exchange Program To Curb HIV
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Monday extended a needle exchange program in a rural, southern Indiana county to help combat an HIV outbreak, even though he generally opposes such programs. Pence approved the 30-day extension of a March 26 executive order that declared a public health emergency in Scott County, about 30 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky. Republican Pence opposes such programs as part of a statewide anti-drug policy but said the efforts to fight the outbreak must continue. (Schroeder, 4/20)
The Associated Press: NY Blueprint Lists Steps To End AIDS Scourge
Experts and advocates in New York, a state hit hard early in the AIDS epidemic, have drafted a blueprint for reducing new HIV infections and related deaths to the point of nearly ending them in five years. The plan, requested by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, expands steps already reducing deaths and newly diagnosed infections statewide to fractions of what they once were. (4/21)
Los Angeles Times: Abortion Restrictions Relying On 'Junk Science,' Rights Advocates Say
In Montana, the Legislature has approved and sent to the governor a bill that would require a fetus to be anesthetized before an abortion is performed so it would not feel pain. In Arizona and Arkansas, doctors are now required to tell women that drug-induced abortions can be "reversed" mid-procedure, even though the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says the reversal claims are "not supported by the body of scientific evidence." (La Ganga, 4/20)
