First Edition: April 6, 2018

Kaiser Health News: Patient Advocacy Groups Take In Millions From Drugmakers. Is There A Payback?
Pharmaceutical companies gave at least $116 million to patient advocacy groups in a single year, reveals a new database logging 12,000 donations from large publicly traded drugmakers to such organizations. Even as these patient groups grow in number and political influence, their funding and their relationships to drugmakers are little understood. Unlike payments to doctors and lobbying expenses, companies do not have to report payments to the groups. (Kopp, Lupkin and Lucas, 4/6)

Kaiser Health News: Explore The Database: Pre$cription For Power
KHN's investigative database allows you to explore the financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and organizations representing patients who need their prescription medicines. (4/6)

Kaiser Health News: To Treat Pain, PTSD And Other Ills, Tennessee Vets Try Tai Chi
Every week in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Zibin Guo guides veterans in wheelchairs through slow-motion tai chi poses as a Bluetooth speaker plays soothing instrumental music. “Cloudy hands to the right, cloudy hands to the left,” he tells them, referring to the move traditionally known as “cloud hands.” “Now we’re going to open your arms, grab the wheels and 180-degree turn.” (Farmer, 4/6)

Bloomberg: Democrats Aim To Turn Obamacare Into Asset From Burden In 2018 
Andy Kim decided to run against House Republican Tom MacArthur last year as he watched TV coverage of GOP efforts to repeal Obamacare while waiting in a hospital room for news on his unborn son. Kim was sparked by MacArthur’s amendment that would have let insurers charge more for patients with pre-existing conditions and his central role in helping the repeal pass the House. An ultrasound had just shown that Kim’s son was dramatically underweight, and he wondered "if my baby boy is going to have a problem for the rest of his life." (John, 4/6)

The Washington Post Fact Checker: White House Report Uses Fuzzy Logic To Tout ‘Insurer Profitability’ In Obamacare
The Council of Economic Advisers was established by law in 1946 to provide presidents with objective economic advice. Naturally, as an arm of the White House, the analyses produced under each administration tend provide economic justification for a president’s policies. But they are supposed to be grounded in facts. Thus The Fact Checker was surprised to come across a three-page report issued by the CEA in March, just as lawmakers were deciding whether to add money to the omnibus spending bill to temporarily restore cost-sharing reduction (CSR) subsidies. (Kessler, 4/6)

The New York Times: Under Trump, An Office Meant To Help Refugees Enters The Abortion Wars
Scott Lloyd’s unadorned job title betrays little hint of the power he has over the pregnant teenagers in his custody. As director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, he oversees the assistance program for the tens of thousands of refugees who still seek shelter in the United States, even with the Trump administration’s crackdown. But as the government official who is also responsible for the care of young, undocumented immigrants who enter the United States without their parents, he spends much of his time trying to stop those who want an abortion. (Peters, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Amid New Talk Of Criminalizing Abortion, Research Shows The Dangers Of Making It Illegal For Women
The idea of criminalizing abortions is not new, but a push has emerged recently among some antiabortion advocates for enacting strict penalties against women who have the procedure, and not just doctors and clinics that provide abortions. Research over the past decade, however, casts significant doubt on whether criminalizing abortion would reduce abortion rates. And data from countries where abortion is  outlawed suggests it could have serious consequences on women’s health and safety. (Wan, 4/5)

Politico: The Atlantic Splits With Conservative Writer Over Abortion Comments
The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said Thursday the magazine was “parting ways” with newly hired conservative writer Kevin Williamson after fresh evidence emerged that he had endorsed hanging women who get abortions. Goldberg had initially defended hiring Williamson from National Review despite complaints about his previous writing, some of which critics said was racially insensitive or offensive to transgender people. Much of the criticism involved a 2014 tweet that suggested women who had abortions “should face capital punishment, namely hanging.” (Calderone, 4/5)

The Hill: Two HHS Officials Leave Family Planning Office Amid Changes
Two employees at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) are no longer with the agency following a tumultuous rollout of a federal family planning program.  Cathy Deeds and Mary Vigil, who were both senior advisers at the Office of Population Affairs (OPA), are no longer employed by HHS, a spokesperson confirmed Thursday. (Hellmann, 4/5)

Bloomberg: JPMorgan CEO Sees Long Timeline, Big Goals For Health Venture
A three-way partnership between Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. has been the talk of the health-care industry, though the companies themselves have said precious little about it. That changed Thursday morning, when JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon laid out some of his ambitions for the venture in his annual letter to the bank’s shareholders, months after its January launch. Notably, Dimon said that the companies would be updating investors on their progress in “coming years,” suggesting a long timeline for the closely watched endeavor. (Tracer, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Anthem May Win By Sitting Out Wave Of Health Insurance Deals
Anthem’s patience is going to pay off. Talks between Walmart and health insurer Humana, if successful, would be the latest in a string of splashy deals in the insurance sector. Pharmacy chain CVS Health has announced it plans to buy Aetna, while Cigna has plans to purchase the pharmacy-benefits manager Express Scripts Holding. The largest publicly traded insurer, UnitedHealth Group , has been bulking up its pharmacy benefit management business for years and has recently bought surgical care centers and physician staffing groups. (Grant, 4/6)

Reuters: U.S. Medicare Sets Outpatient Rate For Yescarta Reimbursement
Medicare, the U.S. government healthcare program for the elderly and disabled, will pay hospitals close to its standard mark-up rate for administering cell therapy Yescarta for cancer outpatients, who will have a co-payment of nearly $80,000, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Additional Medicare reimbursement for inpatients has been requested by Yescarta maker Gilead Sciences Inc and Novartis AG, which makes Kymriah, a similar therapy. Both therapies were approved last year by the Food and Drug Administration and are being used by growing number of major cancer centers. (Beasley, 4/5)

The Hill: GOP Panel Proposes Lifting Medicaid Limits On Opioid Care
Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Wednesday night unveiled a proposal to lift limits on Medicaid paying for opioid treatment. The proposal could be one of the more significant and costly steps that Congress takes to fight the opioid epidemic, but there are concerns about how to pay for it.  (Sullivan, 4/5)

The Hill: CVS To Offer Discount To The Uninsured For Anti-Overdose Drug
CVS Health will offer a discount on the anti-overdose drug Narcan to uninsured customers, the company announced Thursday. CVS will apply a manufacturer’s coupon for Narcan nasal spray for patients without insurance. It will reduce the cost to $94.99, which the company said is the lowest price available for people without insurance. (Weixel, 4/5)

The Associated Press: AP-NORC Poll: Most Americans See Drug Addiction As A Disease
A slim majority of Americans see prescription drug addiction as a disease that requires medical treatment, but most would not welcome those suffering from the problem into their neighborhoods, workplaces or families. New survey results reveal Americans’ complex view of addiction as the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history ripples through communities nationwide. More than 1 in 10 Americans say they have had a relative or close friend die from an opioid overdose, according a recent survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (Perrone, 4/5)

The Associated Press: New Addiction Treatment Center Opens In Broome County
A new addiction treatment center has opened to provide services for people struggling with substance abuse in New York's Southern Tier. State officials announced the grand opening of the facility on Thursday. Located at the former Broome County Developmental Center in Binghamton, the 50-bed center will focus on short-term detoxification efforts for individuals before they begin a recovery program. (4/6)

The Associated Press: New Plan Combats Substance Abuse Among Student-Athletes
Several state agencies are participating in a new initiative to help schools across New York prevent and address substance use disorder among students. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday that the departments of Health, Education and Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services are making flash drives available for coaches, teachers, school nurses, and other educators. (4/6)

Bloomberg: When These New Pharma Bros Show Up, Drug Prices Tend To Go Monumentally Higher 
For at least the past three years, Todd Smith and Benjamin Bove have crisscrossed the U.S., offering a sure-fire fix for struggling pharmaceutical companies. And wherever they go, the price of prescription drugs tend to skyrocket. ...The Chicago-based duo has played important roles at no fewer than four companies that have raised prices on life-saving and other drugs by as much as 4,116 percent. (Hopkins and Martin, 4/6)

Stat: Trump Administration Is Urged To Override Patents On Pricey Muscular Dystrophy Drug 
Six advocacy groups have asked the federal government to sidestep a handful of patents on a pricey drug used to treat a rare form of muscular dystrophy as part of an ongoing campaign to provide wider access to high-cost medicines. In a letter sent on Wednesday to the Department of Health and Human Services, the groups argued that the patents — which are either owned or licensed by Sarepta Therapeutics (SRPT) — failed to disclose federal funding for grants that were used to develop a drug known as Exondys 51 for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This is an accompanying memo sent to HHS. (Silverman, 4/5)

Stat: Feds Broaden The Definition Of 'Pharmacy' In A Bid To Level Playing Field For Startups 
Across the country, upstart pharmacies are turning the prescription drug business on its head, offering digitally-enabled mail order offerings and more convenient ways for customers to get, and take, their medications. Massachusetts company PillPack, for instance, is pre-sorting drugs into daily regimens and shipping them to customers nationwide; another business, Capsule, is filling prescriptions on demand and delivering them to homes and workplaces across New York City. But their ability to grow is largely controlled by existing competitors, including major pharmacy benefit managers who have been accused of twisting contract terms to block pharmacies’ access to their millions of U.S. customers. (Ross, 4/6)

Stat: Drug Makers Must Post Policies On Experimental Medicines. Not All Do
Drug companies are routinely flouting a law requiring that they publicly disclose detailed policies on how they handle patient requests to provide access to experimental drugs outside clinical trials, according to a STAT review. A provision in the 21st Century Cures Act said drug makers must disclose their policies on so-called expanded access requests, which are generally made by terminally ill patients. The language doesn’t force companies to offer the experimental treatments, but it does aim to help patients navigate the system more easily — making readily available information including whether companies accepts the requests, who a patient can contact in such cases, and how long it typically takes the drug maker to respond. (Mershon, 4/5)

The New York Times: A Perplexing Marijuana Side Effect Relieved By Hot Showers
By the time Thomas Hodorowski made the connection between his marijuana habit and the bouts of pain and vomiting that left him incapacitated every few weeks, he had been to the emergency room dozens of times, tried anti-nausea drugs, anti-anxiety medications and antidepressants, endured an upper endoscopy procedure and two colonoscopies, seen a psychiatrist and had his appendix and gallbladder removed. The only way to get relief for the nausea and pain was to take a hot shower. (Rabin, 4/5)

Los Angeles Times: Surprise! Scientists Find Signs Of New Brain Cells In Adults As Old As 79
Do we continue to add new neurons to our brain circuitry throughout our lives? Or does our neuron count remain fixed once we reach adulthood? The scientific debate rages on. In a report published Thursday in Cell Stem Cell, scientists from Columbia University present new evidence that our brains continue to make hundreds of new neurons a day, even after we reach our 70s, in a process known as neurogenesis. (Netburn, 4/5)

Stat: Harvard Doctor Pursues A Long-Ignored Treatment For Strokes, Heart Attacks
He’s a professor at Harvard Medical School, but in many ways, Dr. Victor Gurewich is an outsider. ... So it’s perhaps not surprising that, more than 20 years after figuring out a combination therapy that he believes is a safer, more effective way to treat heart attacks and strokes, he’s had little success getting anyone to listen. (Weintraub, 4/6)

Los Angeles Times: In L.A. Today, Fitness Can Mean IV Drips, Vitamin Shots And A Daily Freeze At -292 Degrees
When Amber Dodson needs a break from her rigorous workout regimen, she steps nearly naked into a high-tech machine that looks like a giant energy drink can. Only her head is visible as the temperature in the chamber plummets to minus 292 degrees Fahrenheit for three minutes, liquid nitrogen vapor billowing down the sides. "I tend to get extremely inflamed and I don't like taking days off," said Dodson, 36, who pays $299 a month for up to 30 sessions at Coast Cryo in Marina del Rey. "It's been a lifesaver because I can't deal with sore muscles and bad sleep." (White, 4/5)

The New York Times: Body Of Missing C.D.C. Employee Found In Atlanta River
The body of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employee who went missing two months ago was found in a river in Atlanta on Tuesday, the authorities said on Thursday. In February, the authorities announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and indictment in the disappearance of Timothy J. Cunningham, 35. But on Thursday the authorities said there did not appear to be any signs of foul play in his death. (Stack, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Timothy Cunningham: Body Of Missing CDC Epidemiologist Found In River
Authorities said that there was no indication that there had been foul play, however, the circumstances surrounding Cunningham's death are still largely a mystery. Authorities said during a news conference Thursday that it appears Cunningham drowned, but they have not yet determined whether his drowning was accidental or intentional. (Bever and Horton, 4/5)

NPR: CDC Epidemiologist Found Dead Weeks After Going Missing, Drowning Suspected
Gorniak added that the condition of Cunningham's body is "consistent" with having been in the water since the day he went missing and that there were no signs of trauma or underlying medical conditions. Officials said Cunningham's body was recovered Tuesday evening. Since his disappearance, Cunningham's friends, family and CDC co-workers had been questioned and a $10,000 reward offered. (Held, 4/5)

The Associated Press: Medically Assisted Suicide Becomes Legal In Hawaii
Hawaii became the latest liberal-leaning state to legalize medically assisted suicide Thursday as the governor signed a measure into law allowing doctors to fulfill requests from terminally ill patients to prescribe life-ending medication. "It is time for terminally ill, mentally competent Hawaii residents who are suffering to make their own end-of-life choices with dignity, grace and peace," Gov. David Ige said. (4/5)

The Associated Press: Maryland Governor Signs Bills To Help Stabilize Health Care
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan signed measures on Thursday to help stabilize health insurance rates in the Maryland Health Care Exchange’s distressed individual market. Hogan signed measures to create what’s known as a reinsurance program, which protects insurers against very high claims. The exchange’s board will need to apply for a federal waiver to create the program. (Columbus, 4/5)

The Associated Press: New Law Puts Focus On Suicide Prevention Efforts In Virginia
As suicides have risen in Virginia - including a 29 percent increase among children in 2016 - Gov. Ralph Northam has signed legislation calling on state officials to report how they are addressing the problem. House Bill 569, introduced by Del. Wendy Gooditis, D-Clarke, requires the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services to report annually its progress and activities on suicide prevention. The report will go to the governor and General Assembly. (Malone, 4/5)

The Washington Post: A Bisexual Maryland Lawmaker Argues Against Conversion Therapy - After Her Father, A State Senator, Urged Her To Undergo It.
The Maryland state senator opposed a bill to ban “gay conversion therapy” for minors. On the Senate floor, Sen. Bryan W. Simonaire (R-Anne Arundel), who also opposed same-sex marriage, suggested that families should be able to use “loving” conversion therapy. What he did not say last week was that he and his wife recommended that their daughter — Del. Meagan Simonaire (R-Anne Arundel) — seek counseling when she told them she was bisexual. The 27-year-old told her story on the floor of the House of Delegates on Wednesday, shortly before the House gave final approval to the bill to ban conversion therapy. (Chason, 4/5)

The Associated Press: Woman Sues Idaho Fertility Doctor For Using His Own Sperm
A Washington state woman is suing an Idaho fertility doctor after discovering through an online ancestry website that the man had secretly fathered her. Kelli Rowlette and the parents who raised her, Sally Ashby and her then-husband Howard Fowler, filed the lawsuit in Idaho district court in March against Dr. Gerald Mortimer, his wife and the Obstetrics and Gynecology Associates of Idaho Falls. (4/5)

The Associated Press: Oregon County, State Clash Over List Of Pot Grow Sites
A state agency has refused to provide a county sheriff and prosecutor in Oregon with a list of medical marijuana grow sites, marking the latest friction over marijuana between local and state officials. On March 13, Oregon Health Authority official Carole Yann told Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel and Sheriff Shane Nelson that the law doesn't permit the agency to provide the list. (4/5)