First Edition: Aug. 8, 2022

KHN: Tribe Embraces Recreational Marijuana Sales On Reservation Where Alcohol Is Banned
In a growing number of U.S. states, people can both drink alcohol and legally smoke recreational marijuana. In others, they can use alcohol but not pot. But on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the opposite is true: Marijuana is legal, but booze is banned. Citizens of the Oglala Sioux Tribe overwhelmingly voted in 2020 to legalize recreational and medical marijuana on their sprawling reservation, which has prohibited the sale and consumption of alcohol for more than 100 years. (Zionts, 8/8)

KHN: Patients And Doctors Trapped In A Gray Zone When Abortion Laws And Emergency Care Mandate Conflict
Each week, Dr. Kim Puterbaugh sees several pregnant patients at a Cleveland hospital who are experiencing complications involving bleeding or infection. The OB-GYN has to make quick decisions about how to treat them, including whether to remove the dead or dying fetus to protect the health and life of the mother. Leaving in place a fetus that has no chance of survival dramatically increases the chance of maternal infection and permanent injury. But now her medical decisions are complicated by Ohio’s new abortion law, which generally prohibits abortions after six weeks of pregnancy if cardiac activity is detected in the embryo or fetus — which can persist for hours or days even if a pregnancy has no chance of progressing. (Meyer, 8/8)

KHN: Journalists Put Polio, Price Transparency, And A Personal Covid Battle In Perspective 
KHN senior correspondent Arthur Allen discussed New York’s polio case with WBEZ’s “Reset With Sasha-Ann Simons” on Aug. 2. ... KHN senior correspondent Julie Appleby discussed health insurance price transparency rules that took effect July 1 on WJR’s “The Pre W. Smith Show” on July 28. ... KHN senior editor Andy Miller discussed his experience with covid-19 on WGUA’s “The Health Report” on Aug. 1. (8/6)

Politico: Senate Dems Pass Long-Awaited Climate, Tax And Health Care Bill 
Senate Democrats passed their signature climate, tax and health care package Sunday afternoon, handing a long-sought victory to President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer even as the bill hit some last-minute snags. In a 51-50 vote, Senate Democrats approved their party-line package after an amendment process that spanned more than 15 hours. Democrats fought off most GOP efforts to change their fragile deal but did make a change just before the bill’s final passage that adjusted the corporate minimum tax provisions. (Levine, Everett and Carney, 8/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Senate Passes Democrats’ Climate, Healthcare And Tax Bill
The bill’s prescription drug plan would for the first time empower Medicare to negotiate the prices of a limited set of drugs selected from among those that account for the biggest share of government expenditures, long a goal for lawmakers. It would also cap out-of-pocket drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries at $2,000 a year beginning in 2025, and starting next year mandate free vaccines for Medicare enrollees. It would cap insulin costs for Medicare patients at $35 a month starting next year. Subsidies for purchasing health insurance through the ACA, which Democrats passed into law in 2021, would continue through 2025, under the bill, an extension that will cost $64 billion. (Duehren and Hughes, 8/7)

Stat: In A Huge Victory For Dems, Medicare Poised To Negotiate Drug Prices
The reform is a stunning defeat for the pharmaceutical industry, which has invested a staggering amount of money to get its way in Washington, and which launched a seven-figure campaign last month to try to stop this effort. Allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices has been the sector’s third rail for two decades. While drugmakers’ influence watered down the proposal, even the good will they earned after developing highly effective vaccines to treat Covid-19 wasn’t enough to stop it. Implementing Medicare’s new negotiating power will be a contentious experiment. Drugmakers have tremendous resources to deploy and three years before any of the provisions would take effect — time they can use to try to bend the regulatory process to their will. How the new policy will change the complex dynamic of investors’ decisions, pharmaceutical companies’ calculations, and the outlook for generic drugs is still unclear. (Cohrs, 8/7)

CNN: Democrats Lose Effort To Cap Insulin At $35 For Most Americans Before Passage Of Senate Reconciliation Bill
Senate Democrats failed to realize their longstanding goal of lowering the price of insulin for the more than 150 million Americans with private health insurance. The party had pushed to include a measure in their climate and health care package that passed the chamber Sunday that would place a $35 cap on insulin for those on Medicare and with private coverage. (Luhby, 8/7)

ABC News: Republicans Strip $35 Insulin Price Cap From Democrats' Bill -- But Insist Senate Rules Are To Blame
The cap's scrapping was quickly seized on by Democrats and stirred controversy beyond them, with critics of the GOP citing the sometimes startling cost of needed insulin for diabetics. Republicans, in turn, accused Democrats of being misleading about a vote that they said amounted to a technicality rather than a policy difference. (Axelrod, 8/7)

The New York Times: What’s In The Climate, Tax And Health Care Bill
The legislation, while falling far short of the ambitious $2.2 trillion Build Back Better Act that the House passed in November, fulfills multiple longstanding Democratic goals, including countering the toll of climate change on a rapidly warming planet, taking steps to lower the cost of prescription drugs and to revamping portions of the tax code in a bid to make it more equitable. Here’s what’s in the final package. (Cochrane and Friedman, 8/7)

AP: A Look At What Is, And Isn't, Included In The Senate's Big Bill 
Launching a long-sought goal, the bill would allow the Medicare program to negotiate prescription drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, saving the federal government some $288 billion over the 10-year budget window. Those new revenues would be put back into lower costs for seniors on medications, including a $2,000 out-of-pocket cap for older adults buying prescriptions from pharmacies. The money would also be used to provide free vaccinations for seniors, who now are among the few not guaranteed free access, according to a summary document. (Mascaro, 8/7)

Axios: Why Generics Oppose Democrats' Drug Pricing Bill
Generic drugmakers are warning that Democrats' plan to let Medicare to negotiate the prices of drugs may undercut competition from lower-cost copycats, inject massive uncertainty into their market and may forfeit potential long-term savings. (Owens, 8/8)

Politico: The Sinema-Manchin Split That Shaped Dems’ Deal 
Sunday’s passage of the legislation marked a triumphant moment for a party that for years has talked a big game on lowering drug prices and fighting climate change. (Everett and Levine, 8/7)

Bloomberg: Eli Lilly Says Indiana Abortion Law Forces Hiring Out-Of-State
A growing list of companies, including Citigroup Inc., Apple Inc., Bumble Inc. and Levi Strauss & Co., are offering benefits for reproductive-care services in states that have imposed restrictions. But Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly’s announcement marks a swift escalation by a multinational that employs 10,000 people in Indiana, where the drug maker was founded in 1876. (Fisher, 8/6)

Los Angeles Times: Proposed Abortion Ban Dies In San Clemente After Heated City Council Meeting
A proposal to declare San Clemente an abortion-free city has died after an emotional meeting where dozens of residents spoke on both sides of the issue. The City Council voted 3 to 1 Saturday to withdraw the proposal from the agenda of an upcoming meeting. Despite San Clemente’s reputation as a conservative bastion, the proposal has mostly fallen flat. (Do, 8/7)

AP: 5th Abortion Clinic Opened In Kansas In Lead Up To Vote
Planned Parenthood quietly opened another abortion clinic in Kansas in the lead up to a decisive statewide vote in favor of protecting abortion access. The Wyandotte Health Center in Kansas City, Kansas, had long been in the works but opened with little notice this summer. ... It brings the number of clinics in the state to five, three of which are operated by Planned Parenthood. (8/5)

The New York Times: Some Women Turn To Self-Managed Abortion As Access Recedes
In states that have banned abortion, some women with unwanted pregnancies are pursuing an unconventional workaround: They are “self-managing” their abortions, seeking out the necessary know-how online and obtaining the medications without the supervision of a clinic or a doctor. At first glance, the practice may recall the days before Roe v. Wade, when women too often were forced to take risky measures to end an unwanted pregnancy. But the advent of medication abortion — accomplished with drugs, rather than in-office procedures — has transformed reproductive care, posing a significant challenge to anti-abortion legislation. (Rabin, 8/7)

NPR: Confusion Roiled Michigan For Days As Abortion Rights Changed Hour To Hour
When Dr. Audrey Lance, an OB-GYN at Northland Family Planning Centers in Metro Detroit, got to work Monday morning, abortion was legal in the state of Michigan. By noon, it wasn't. Then by 5 p.m., it was legal again, with at least some certainty it would probably stay that way, at least until a hearing Wednesday. (Wells, 8/5)

AP: Minnesota Jury: Woman Wasn't Entitled To Morning-After Pill 
A jury on Friday ruled that a central Minnesota pharmacist did not violate a woman’s rights when he refused to provide her emergency contraceptives more than three years ago. Andrea Anderson, a mother of five from McGregor, sued under the Minnesota Human Rights Act after the pharmacist, based on his religious beliefs, refused to accommodate her request. ... Anderson eventually got her prescription filled at a pharmacy in Brainerd, making the round-trip of more than 100 miles in wintry driving conditions. (8/5)

The Washington Post: A Challenge For Antiabortion States: Doctors Reluctant To Work There
In a few years, Olgert Bardhi’s skills will be in high demand. A first-year resident in internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, he’ll be a full-fledged physician by 2025 in a nation facing a shortage of primary care doctors. The trouble for Texas: Because of the state’s strict antiabortion laws, Bardhi’s not sure he will remain there. (Rowland, 8/6)

The Washington Post: Post-Roe, Some In GOP Wage Uphill Battle To Offer Families More Support 
GOP aides and conservative policy analysts are skeptical that the Supreme Court decision will produce a meaningful shift in the party’s stance on federal family benefits. Republicans have mostly opposed Democrats’ efforts to create new social programs for the last century. Meanwhile, one of their central economic policy goals — cutting federal taxes — is at odds with an expanded safety net. (Stein and Caldwell, 8/7)

The New York Times: Biden Emerges From Isolation Again After Second Negative Coronavirus Test 
President Biden left isolation on Sunday morning after a weeklong rebound case of Covid-19, heading to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware for a short getaway before resuming official travel. The president appeared in good spirits as he emerged from the White House in the early morning hours without a tie and headed to Marine One for the flight to the beach. “I’m feeling good,” he told reporters. (Baker, 8/7)

Politico: Long Covid Could Become A Mass Disabling Event. Congress Has It On The Back Burner.
Democrats have introduced several bills to improve research and access to treatment for long Covid. So far, none have support from Republicans, who have raised a number of objections, including the difficulty of diagnosing and defining long Covid, more important issues need to be tackled and new economic aid programs can lead to fraud and abuse. In the House, the bills have yet to get a hearing or markup. In the Senate, some long Covid provisions were tucked into the pandemic preparedness bill that has seen no movement since it was passed out of committee in March. Asked what’s happening now with the pandemic preparedness bill, the committee’s top Republican Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) deadpanned: “Nothing.” (Ollstein, 8/8)

ABC News: Novavax's COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Off To Sluggish Start With Just 7,000 Doses In Arms
Following its emergency authorization last month, just 7,300 doses of Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to Americans across the country, newly updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reveals. (Mitropoulos, 8/5)

The Boston Globe: ‘It Feels Yucky’: Pediatricians Say They’re Discarding Vaccine Doses For The Youngest Amid Lack Of Demand
“It feels yucky. I hate waste,” said Dr. Wayne Altman, a family physician in Arlington. His practice has had a comparatively high uptake of vaccine, with about one-quarter of eligible patients getting it. Still, he has not once used up every dose in a vial. (Freyer, 8/7)

Axios: CDC: Limit Sexual Partners To Avoid Monkeypox
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated guidance Friday recommending that people limit their sexual partners while waiting to get vaccinated against monkeypox. (Habeshian, 8/5)

NBC News: Illinois Daycare Worker With Monkeypox Might Have Exposed Children, Officials Say
An Illinois daycare worker with monkeypox might have exposed children under his care, and an exemption was granted to allow those youths to receive the vaccine, health officials said Friday. The case was reported in Rontoul, a village in Champaign County in central Illinois, health officials said. (Romero, 8/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: S.F. Jail Inmate With Suspected Case Of Monkeypox In Isolation
Friday’s announcement marks the jail’s first suspected case of a viral disease that has shot through the city over the past few weeks, prompting San Francisco officials to declare a public health state of emergency late last month. Similar declarations from the state and U.S. followed days later. (Cassidy, 8/5)

NPR: How Colleges Are Preparing For Monkeypox 
Andrea Connor has become "the accidental COVID Czar" of Lake Forest College, a small school north of Chicago where she serves as dean of students. "When COVID started, our crisis management team sort of multiplied," she says. Now, she's relying on that same team to respond to a new health threat: monkeypox. (Salhotra, 8/6)

The Atlantic: What Should Worry Most Americans About Our Monkeypox Response
Seventy-eight days and more than 7,000 documented cases into the United States’ 2022 outbreak of monkeypox, federal officials have declared the disease a nationwide public-health emergency. With COVID-19 (you know, the other ongoing viral public-health emergency) still very much raging, the U.S. is officially in the midst of two infectious-disease crises, and must now, with limited funds, wrangle both at once. (Wu, 8/5)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Jobs Report Shows Hiring Rise In July
Healthcare employers added an estimated 69,600 jobs in July as hiring rose from the previous month, according to preliminary U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday.  Healthcare jobs accounted for 13.3% of hires across the economy last month. Ambulatory services, including health practitioners, and hospitals saw the largest gains among healthcare employers. (Hudson, 8/5)

Modern Healthcare: Health System's Second-Quarter Financials Mixed
Labor costs, driven by demand for contract workers amid staff shortages, were the hot topic in the hospital industry's second-quarter earnings reports. Health system are doling out higher pay and bonuses to attract workers, despite ongoing financial challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Hudson, 8/5)

Detroit Free Press: Michigan Health Providers Can Be Forced To Explain Medical Errors
Sophie Rassey died just days after she was born at Beaumont Hospital in Troy. Alayna Perkins will turn 7 years old this month, but needs 24-hour care; she can no longer walk, talk or feed herself. Both girls, their parents say, were victims of medical mistakes at metro Detroit hospitals that have admitted liability but until now have refused to explain the errors that led to the tragedies or detail what steps have been taken to ensure the same blunders aren't repeated. (Jordan Shamus, 8/7)

Stat: Health Industry Swarms Washington As Surprise Billing Rules Get Ironed Out
Solving surprise medical bills was supposed to be straightforward. It has been anything but. (Herman, 8/8)

The Wall Street Journal: CVS Plans To Bid For Signify Health 
CVS Health Corp. is seeking to buy Signify Health Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, as the drugstore and insurance giant looks to expand in home-health services. ... Signify uses analytics and technology to help health plans, employers, physician groups and health systems with in-home care. It also offers in-home health evaluations for Medicare Advantage and other government-run managed-care plans. At the close of its deal this year to buy Caravan Health Inc., Signify said it supported roughly $10 billion in total medical spending. (Lombardo, Cooper and Terlep, 8/7)

Modern Healthcare: Amwell Tapped For CVS Health's Virtual Care Platform
Amwell is working with CVS Health on its new virtual care platform, the telehealth company announced Thursday. CVS Health's offering will include remote primary care, chronic-condition management and mental healthcare, and will roll out to Aetna and CVS Caremark members next year, the company announced in May. The platform will also help members find in-network specialists and other providers for in-person care. (Kim Cohen, 8/5)

Modern Healthcare: Advocate Aurora-Atrium's Proposed Megamerger Sparks Pricing Concerns
Two weeks after announcing plans in May to merge with Atrium and form a $27 billion health system, Advocate Aurora was hit with a federal lawsuit alleging its all-or-nothing contract provisions stymied competition and allowed the health system to raise prices. Advocate last month filed a motion to dismiss the complaint filed by a self-insured Wisconsin pharmacy. (Kacik, 8/8)

Stat: Telehealth Fraud Concerns In Washington Could Impact Industry's Future
Recent federal crackdowns on Medicare fraud linked to telehealth have raised concerns in Washington that virtual care introduces new opportunities for criminals to defraud vulnerable patients. But lobbyists and researchers say risks aren’t necessarily greater than in-person, and warn that fear could drive lawmakers to make virtual care harder to access. (Ravindranath, 8/8)

Politico: Fraud Is The Killjoy At The Telehealth Party
When the House recently passed legislation in a landslide vote extending Medicare reimbursements for medical visits that occur by video or phone call through 2024, every Democrat got on board, except one: Lloyd Doggett. In his 14th term representing an Austin, Texas, district, Doggett is a major voice on health care policy from his perch as chair of the Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. He said he isn’t against continuing a telehealth expansion that began with the pandemic, but is warning about the need to build protections against fraud into the law. (Leonard, 8/7)

NBC News: Once Feared, Illicit Fentanyl Is Now A Drug Of Choice For Many Opioid Users
One of the deadliest street drugs, illicit fentanyl, has transitioned from a hidden killer that people often hope to avoid to one that many drug users now seek out on its own. (Edwards, 8/7)

The Washington Post: It’s About To Get Easier To Access Affordable Naloxone
The first shipment of naloxone in a new national effort to reverse overdoses arrived somewhat unceremoniously. Delayed by shipping wait times and packaged in nondescript cardboard, 100,000 doses of Pfizer’s injectable drug were delivered Wednesday by a driver who steered two massive pallets into an unassuming warehouse that is home to the newly created nonprofit Remedy Alliance, which is expected to distribute mass amounts of the drug that reverses opioid overdoses to smaller community groups. (Kornfield, 8/7)