Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: Dec. 6, 2022
KHN: Employers Use Patient Assistance Programs To Offset Their Own Costs
Anna Sutton was shocked when she received a letter from her husband’s job-based health plan stating that Humira, an expensive drug used to treat her daughter’s juvenile arthritis, was now on a long list of medications considered “nonessential benefits.” The July 2021 letter said the family could either participate in a new effort overseen by a company called SaveOnSP and get the drug free of charge or be saddled with a monthly copayment that could top $1,000. (Appleby, 12/6)
KHN: Florida Leaders Misrepresented Research Before Ban On Gender-Affirming Care
Behind Florida’s decision to block clinical services for transgender adolescents is a talking point — repeated by the state’s governor and top medical authorities — that most cases of gender incongruence fade over time. The Florida Board of Medicine voted Nov. 4 to approve a rule that barred physicians from performing surgical procedures on minors to alter “primary or secondary sexual characteristics” and from prescribing them medication to suppress puberty and hormones. The rule included an exception for patients who were already receiving those treatments. (Reyes, 12/6)
AP: Pfizer Asks FDA To Clear Updated COVID Shot For Kids Under 5
Pfizer is asking U.S. regulators to authorize its updated COVID-19 vaccine for children under age 5 — not as a booster but part of their initial shots. Children ages 6 months through 4 years already are supposed to get three extra-small doses of the original Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine — each a tenth of the amount adults receive — as their primary series. If the Food and Drug Administration agrees, a dose of Pfizer’s bivalent omicron-targeting vaccine would be substituted for their third shot. (Neergaard, 12/5)
CNN: Pfizer/BioNTech Seek FDA Authorization For Updated Covid-19 Vaccine For Youngest Kids
The vaccine makers announced on Monday that if authorized for emergency use, children in that age group will still receive the original version of the Covid-19 vaccine as their first two doses and then the updated Covid-19 vaccine – formulated to target the coronavirus Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 – as the third dose. (Howard, 12/5)
Reuters: Pfizer, BioNTech Countersue Moderna Over COVID-19 Vaccine Patents
Pfizer Inc and its German partner, BioNTech SE, fired back at Moderna Inc on Monday in a patent lawsuit over their rival COVID-19 vaccines, seeking dismissal of the lawsuit in Boston federal court and an order that Moderna's patents are invalid and not infringed. (Brittain, 12/5)
AP: Pfizer Announces $750M Expansion Of Western Michigan Plant
Pfizer announced a $750 million project Monday toward expanding capacity at the western Michigan pharmaceutical plant where the company first mass produced its COVID-19 vaccine. Company officials said the project will boost the plant’s manufacturing of sterile injectable medications and could lead to 300 new jobs at the Portage plant near Kalamazoo that now has about 3,000 workers. (12/5)
CBS News: Flu Shots Are A "Very Good Match" To This Season's Strains, CDC Says
"We look in real time as to how well we think the influenza match is to what's circulating. And right now, the good news is that it looks like it is a very good match," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters at a briefing on Monday. (Tin, 12/5)
AP: Some Indiana Hospitals Restrict Visitors Over Flu Rates
The hospitals in Indiana’s largest health system and in its most populous county have begun visitor restrictions because of a rise in reported cases of flu and other respiratory viruses, they announced Monday. The restrictions will go into effect by Tuesday at all IU Health hospitals. They began Monday at all hospitals in Marion County, home to Indianapolis. (12/5)
USA Today: Strep Throat Symptoms: What Are The First Signs And How To Treat It?
While the United Kingdom has reported the deaths of six children due to strep A, U.S. health officials on Tuesday said there hasn't been a "notable increase" in streptococcal disease here. Regardless, it's always good to be prepared. Here's everything you should know about strep throat, from symptoms to treatment to spread. (Kaufman, 12/5)
The Atlantic: The Year Without Germs Changed Kids
In the spring of 2021, Brett Finlay, a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia, offered the world a bold and worrying prediction. “My guess is that five years from now we are going to see a bolus of kids with asthma and obesity,” he told Wired. Those children, he said, would be “the COVID kids”: those born just before or during the height of the crisis, when the coronavirus was everywhere, and we cleaned everything because we didn’t want it to be. (Wu, 12/5)
CIDRAP: Shortages Of Drugs To Treat Kids' Respiratory Illnesses Troubling Doctors, Parents
Experts worry that the lack of acetaminophen and ibuprofen to relieve symptoms could force parents to seek care for their children at urgent-care centers and emergency departments. "It's a huge problem," Kristina Powell, a Virginia pediatrician, told the Washington Post. "Parents run to Walmart or Target, the shelves are empty. … This is going to be a long fall and winter of viral infections." (12/5)
CIDRAP: FDA Leader Wants Pharma Firms To Warn Of Demand Spikes Ahead Of Shortages
A US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official wants pharmaceutical companies to start reporting spikes in demand for drugs in an effort to prevent or ease shortages, Endpoints News reports. In a webinar last week hosted by the nonprofit Alliance for a Stronger FDA, Valerie Jensen, RPh, associate director of the FDA's Drug Shortage Staff, noted increasing quality-related issues and demand for certain drugs over the past decade—but particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic. She called on drug companies to report demand spikes, although they are currently required only to report supply disruptions. (12/5)
Los Angeles Times: Senior Citizens Are Hit Hard As COVID Surges Across State
There has been a troubling spike in coronavirus-positive hospital admissions among seniors in California, rising to levels not seen since the summer Omicron surge. Hospitalizations have roughly tripled for Californians of most age groups since the autumn low. But the jump in seniors in need of hospital care has been particularly dramatic. (Lin II, 12/5)
CIDRAP: Long-COVID Symptoms In Teens May Evolve Over Time
Long-COVID symptoms in adolescents may change over time, finds a study of nearly 5,100 non-hospitalized 11- to 17-year-olds in the United Kingdom published yesterday in The Lancet Regional Health-Europe. ... The prevalence of shortness of breath and fatigue in those who reported them at 6 or 12 months appeared to increase at both 6 and 12 months in those who tested positive. But examination of individual questionnaires showed that the prevalence of these two symptoms actually declined at baseline or 6 months. The same pattern was also seen in participants who tested negative. (Van Beusekom, 12/5)
San Francisco Chronicle: Black COVID Patients Were Delayed Treatment Because Of One Medical Device. Why Are Doctors Still Using It?
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, East Bay Dr. Stephanie Brown began noticing a startling trend. Many of her Black patients were getting worse, even while their oxygen measurements said the opposite. (Miolene, 12/5)
Modern Healthcare: Blue Shield Of California Lays Off Hundreds
The nonprofit insurer will lay off 373 employees across several sites by Jan. 25, according to a notice Blue Shield filed with the California Employment Development Department last month. The majority will occur at Blue Shield’s Sacramento-area offices, although the company is also cutting 62 employees from its Oakland headquarters. The layoffs represent a small portion of Blue Shield’s total workforce of 7,800. (Tepper, 12/5)
Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente's Nursing Union Ratifies Contract
Kaiser Permanente and more than 21,000 nurses across Northern California represented by the California Nurses Association ratified a new contract Monday, averting a looming strike. (Kacik, 12/5)
Becker's Hospital Review: West Virginia Hospital Evacuates After Bomb Threat
Madison, W.Va.-based Boone Memorial Hospital was evacuated following a bomb threat on the evening of Dec. 4. Staff received the threat via telephone at 9:04 p.m., according to a news release shared on Boone Memorial Health's Facebook page. Law enforcement was contacted and the hospital was evacuated using its "Bomb Threat Emergency Preparedness Procedures." (Kayser, 12/5)
AP: Ala. Medicaid To End Sobriety Mandate On Hepatitis Treatment
The U.S. Department of Justice said Monday that it has entered into a settlement agreement with Alabama’s Medicaid program to end a sobriety requirement for treatment of people with Hepatitis C. Federal officials said Alabama agreed to end a a “blanket sobriety restriction” that refused to pay for antiviral treatment for Hepatitis C if the Medicaid patient had used drugs or alcohol six months before or during treatment. (12/5)
Modern Healthcare: Medicaid DHS Payment 'Slippage' Saps Safety-Net Hospitals: Study
Nearly a third of Medicaid disproportionate-share hospital payments in 2015—the latest data available—went to hospitals that provided less uncompensated care than the median level in their respective states, according to an analysis of DSH payment data from 2011 to 2015 published Monday in the peer-reviewed Heath Affairs journal. Uncompensated care is the sum of patients’ outstanding bills known as bad debt and charity care. (Kacik, 12/5)
The Washington Post: Social Security Disability Benefit Offices Reach Breaking Point With Huge Claim Backlogs
The Disability Determination Division in Austin was at a breaking point. Inside its vast two-story warehouse, close to 130,000 claims were awaiting review by the state employees who help decide whether Texans will get disability benefits from the Social Security Administration — a backlog that would take at least a year to clear. Nearly 40 percent of the examiners had quit since January, driven out by crushing workloads and low wages that could not compete in the high-tech boomtown. Those who stayed toiled in long rows of cubicles or at home reviewing massive medical files. (Rein, 12/5)
The Boston Globe: A Tweet Draws Attention To A Lawsuit Accusing CVS Of Fundraising Fraud At Checkout. CVS Has Filed A Motion To Dismiss The Suit
In May, a New York resident filed a class-action complaint, accusing CVS of deceptive fundraising in a campaign it held for the American Diabetes Association. Prior to each customer’s transaction, a checkout screen prompts the customer with several options for pre-selected dollar amounts, as well as an opt-out option, allowing donations to the diabetes association. Yet, the plaintiff alleges, CVS did not forward donations to the diabetes association, but instead applied the donations toward a legally binding $10 million obligation CVS made to the diabetes association. (Gagosz, 12/5)
AP: Hawaii's New Gov. Green Aims To End Tax On Food, Medication
Hawaii Gov. Josh Green took the oath of office on Monday and immediately vowed to address homelessness and housing, and ask the Legislature to help eliminate the state’s tax on food and medication. (McAvoy, 12/6)
Bangor Daily News: A New Health Insurer In Maine Hopes Its Unique Model Will Lower Costs
Freelance bookkeeper Sara Ameigh of South Portland has never liked traditional health insurance. “I felt like I was paying a ton of money, a few hundred dollars a month, and then nothing was covered at all,” she says. “So it was like, what’s the point of it? Why do I even need this?” (Wight, 12/5)
The Boston Globe: Mass. Could Be The Birthplace Of A Dental Revolution. Here’s Why
The battle over Question 2 on November’s ballot essentially began as a showdown between a disgruntled orthodontist and a well-connected dental insurer. By the time Election Day arrived, it had become so much more than that. Maybe even the start of a revolution. (Chesto, 12/5)
Stat: NIH Reviewing Request To Lower Cancer Drug Cost By Sidestepping Patents
One year after being asked to widen access to a pricey cancer treatment by using a controversial provision of federal law, the National Institutes of Health is only now preparing to review and assess the request. And the delay is raising fresh doubts that the Biden administration will use this tactic to address the high cost of some medicines, despite being urged to do so by dozens of lawmakers. (Silverman, 12/5)
The Washington Post: Cancer Surgeons Should Avoid These Three Words, Researchers Warn
It’s a common scene: A patient recovering from cancer surgery speaks with their surgeon, who reassures them the procedure went well and that doctors “got it all.” But those three words can sow serious misunderstandings and even medical mistrust, suggest the authors of a recent viewpoint article in JAMA Oncology. (Blakemore, 12/5)
Public Health Watch: Ancient Lung Disease Strikes Countertop Cutters In LA
The men are haggard, starved of breath and tethered to oxygen tanks. Neither will live to an old age; without lung transplants, both may die within a year. Juan Gonzalez Morin, 36, and Gustavo Reyes Gonzalez, 32, made a living cutting and grinding engineered-stone countertops, the synthetic slabs that have become popular with consumers. Cheaper and more durable than natural stone, they are composed of crushed quartz bound by a plastic resin. But the cutting of the slabs releases tiny crystalline silica particles that can kill workers who inhale them. (Morris and Rojas, 12/3)
CNN: Ultraprocessed Food May Contribute To Dementia, Study Says
We all eat them — ultraprocessed foods such as frozen pizza and ready-to-eat meals make our busy lives much easier. Besides, they are just darn tasty — who isn’t susceptible to hot dogs, sausages, burgers, french fries, sodas, cookies, cakes, candy, doughnuts and ice cream, to name just a few? If more than 20% of your daily calorie intake is ultraprocessed foods, however, you may be raising your risk for cognitive decline, a new study found. (LaMotte, 12/5)
NBC News: People Lost More Weight When They Were Offered Cash Incentives
Offering people cash can help them shed excess pounds, a study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine finds. Participants who were offered cash incentives for either pounds lost or for completing certain activities were more likely to lose weight compared with those who were simply offered tools, such as diet books, fitness trackers and access to a weight loss program, the study found. (Carroll, 12/5)
Los Angeles Times: Is Working Out While High L.A.'s Next Fitness Craze?
Morgan English was sitting on the fire escape in her Portland State University apartment, smoking weed, when she felt a pull toward a stationary bicycle. So she walked across the street to the gym. For the first time in her life, she said, exercise didn’t feel like punishment. (Mishkin, 12/5)
AP: Minnesota Board: Moorhead-Made THC Gummies Are Too Potent
The Minnesota Board of Pharmacy on Monday sued a Moorhead-based manufacturer of THC-laced gummies, saying the company’s candies contain far stronger doses of the chemical that gives marijuana its high than state law allows. (12/5)
Stat: Psychedelic Therapy Moving To Next Frontier: Workplace Perk
Acupuncture and chiropractic care weren’t always the common fixtures of employer benefit plans they are today. It took clamoring from workers, the accumulation of evidence, and the slow realization by businesses that those perks would be popular with workers. (Bannow and Goldhill, 12/6)
Stat: Congress Has Its Sights Set Too Low On Addiction, Advocates Charge
With just weeks remaining in the current session, Congress appears poised to let Biden’s first two years in office come and go without enacting any significant reforms to the country’s system for preventing and treating addiction — a potential missed opportunity that advocates warn could cost thousands of lives. (Facher, 12/6)
Axios: False Holiday Suicide Myth Is Driven By Media, Data Shows
The perception that the suicide rate rises with the holiday season is a myth driven by false media narratives, the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) said in an analysis released Monday. Allowing people to think that suicide is more likely this time of year can have a contagious effect on people who are contemplating taking their lives. (Bettelheim, 12/5)
Reuters: Exclusive: Musk’s Neuralink Faces Federal Probe, Employee Backlash Over Animal Tests
Elon Musk’s Neuralink, a medical device company, is under federal investigation for potential animal-welfare violations amid internal staff complaints that its animal testing is being rushed, causing needless suffering and deaths, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and sources familiar with the investigation and company operations. (Levy, 12/5)
Stat: Apple, AliveCor Go Head-To-Head Over Smartwatch Heart Monitoring
Two years after it accused Apple of copying its heart monitoring technology and putting it into millions of smartwatches, a small company called AliveCor may soon notch a fresh legal victory. But if you’re going to go to war with Apple, you’d better be ready to fight to the death. (Aguilar, 12/6)
Fortune: The Best Heart Health Supplements (And What To Skip)
These days there seems to be a supplement for everything, and your heart is no different. But which ones are actually beneficial, and which ones can you pass on? A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology has some answers. (Payton, 12/5)
