First Edition: July 26, 2018

Kaiser Health News: No Gaps In Understanding: Here’s Your Primer On Medigap Coverage 
Every year, older adults can opt out of a Medicare Advantage plan and opt in to original Medicare during open enrollment season, which begins on Oct. 15. But unexpected problems can arise with this change. Notably, seniors who want to return to original Medicare might not be able to purchase Medicare supplemental insurance, also known as Medigap coverage. Medigap covers some or all of the out-of-pocket costs associated with Medicare (deductibles, copayments and coinsurance), minimizing the financial risk to seniors. Under original Medicare, there is no limit to an individual’s out-of-pocket liability. (By contrast, Medicare Advantage plans limit out-of-pocket costs to a maximum $6,700 a year.) (Graham, 7/26)

Kaiser Health News: How Soon Is Soon Enough To Learn You Have Alzheimer’s?
Jose Belardo of Lansing, Kan., spent most of his career in the U.S. Public Health Service. He worked on the front lines of disasters in such places as Haiti, Colombia, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic. At home with his three kids and wife, Elaine, he’d always been unfailingly reliable, so when he forgot their wedding anniversary two years in a row, they both started to worry. “We recognized something wasn’t right and pretty much attributed it to being overworked and tired,” Elaine said. (Smith, 7/26)

California Healthline: Community Frets As Buyer For Cherished Rural Hospital Slips From View
Confusion is growing in the remote Surprise Valley region of northeastern California as locals wonder whether a Denver entrepreneur will make good on his pledge to save their bankrupt rural hospital. Surprise Valley Community Hospital, located in Cedarville, Calif., was featured in a June 6 California Healthline story illustrating the plight of strapped rural hospitals and controversial efforts by some to stay solvent through laboratory billing for patients never treated on-site. (Ostrov, 7/25)

The Associated Press: Trump's Top Medicare Official Slams 'Medicare For All'
The Trump administration's Medicare chief on Wednesday slammed Sen. Bernie Sanders' call for a national health plan, saying "Medicare for All" would undermine care for seniors and become "Medicare for None." The broadside from Medicare and Medicaid administrator Seema Verma came in a San Francisco speech that coincides with a focus on health care in contentious midterm congressional elections. (7/25)

The Hill: Top Trump Health Official Slams 'Medicare For All' 
"Ideas like 'Medicare for all' would only serve to hurt and divert focus from seniors,” Verma said. Verma said the focus of Medicare should be on seniors and disabled individuals and that expanding the program to cover younger, healthier people will drain the program of funding and deprive seniors of the coverage they need. “By choosing a socialized system, you are giving the government complete control over the decisions pertaining to your care or whether you receive care at all. It would be the furthest thing from patient-centric care,” Verma said. (Weixel, 7/25)

The Washington Post: A Year After GOP Measure’s Demise, Democrats See Health Care As A Winning Issue
One year ago, with the flick of his thumb, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) foiled the Republican Party’s quest to undo the Affordable Care Act and fulfill a seven-year promise to remake the health-care system. Now, three months from the midterm elections, health care remains a gaping political vulnerability for the GOP. Although Republicans have been unable to produce an alternative to the law, they have succeed in undoing key provisions that critics say are leading to rising premiums for individual buyers of health insurance. (DeBonis and Goldstein, 7/25)

The Hill: Poll: Majority Says They Will Hold Trump Accountable For ObamaCare Failings
A majority of the public says they hold the Trump administration and Congress accountable for any problems with ObamaCare because they have made changes to the law, according to a poll released Wednesday. The Kaiser Family Foundation tracking poll found that a majority of those surveyed — 58 percent — said they hold the administration and Republican members of Congress responsible for any problems with the ACA moving forward, since they have made a number of changes to the law. (Hellmann, 7/25)

The Hill: House Votes To Delay ObamaCare Health Insurance Tax 
The House on Wednesday passed a measure to delay ObamaCare’s health insurance tax for two years and expand Health Savings Accounts, part of a GOP effort to try to lower premiums. The bill, which passed 242-176, is part of a Republican effort to blunt Democratic attacks on the GOP for rising premiums – a key argument in the midterm elections this year. (Sullivan, 7/25)

The New York Times: New Alzheimer’s Drug Shows Big Promise In Early Trial Results
The long, discouraging quest for a medication that works to treat Alzheimer’s reached a potentially promising milestone on Wednesday. For the first time in a large clinical trial, a drug was able to both reduce the plaques in the brains of patients and slow the progression of dementia. More extensive trials will be needed to know if the new drug is truly effective, but if the results, presented Wednesday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Chicago, are borne out, the drug may be the first to successfully attack both the brain changes and the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. (Belluck, 7/25)

The Associated Press: Hopes Rise Again For A Drug To Slow Alzheimer's Disease
The drug from Eisai and Biogen did not meet its main goal in a study of 856 participants, so overall, it was considered a flop. But company officials said that 161 people who got the highest dose every two weeks for 18 months did significantly better than 245 people who were given a dummy treatment. There are lots of caveats about the work, which was led by company scientists rather than academic researchers and not reviewed by outside experts. The study also was too small to be definitive and the results need to be confirmed with more work, dementia experts said. But they welcomed any glimmer of success after multiple failures. (7/25)

Stat: Experimental Alzheimer’s Drug Significantly Slowed Patients’ Cognitive Decline
“I’ll remain cautiously optimistic,” said Dr. Ronald Petersen, director of Mayo Clinic Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. “I think the data are intriguing. The effect sizes sound reasonable, the drug seems safe, and on the biological side of it, the drug seems to be working.” But, he added, “you’d really want to see a Phase 3 to replicate those results.” Whether he’ll get one remains an open question. (Garde, 7/25)

Politico: Most Deported Migrants Were Not Asked About Leaving Children Behind, Trump Official Says
Homeland Security officials may have neglected to give a choice to as many as three-quarters of all migrant parents removed from the United States about leaving their children behind, contradicting repeated public assurances from Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. The Trump administration failed to document consent in most such cases, an administration official told POLITICO. That lapse increased the number of departed parents whom officials must now find and contact about whether they wish to be reunited with their children, and, if so, figure out the logistics of how to bring them together. The revelation threatens to delay reunifications one day ahead of a court-ordered deadline to return most migrant children to their parents. (Hesson, Rayasam and Diamond, 7/25)

Reuters: Reunited Family's Next Challenge: Fighting For U.S. Asylum
Maria Marroquin Perdomo fretted as she waited with her 11-year-old son, Abisai, in the New Orleans International Airport. A day earlier, the mother and son had been reunited in Texas after being separated by U.S. immigration officials for more than a month, an ordeal that followed a harrowing journey from Honduras. Now they awaited another reunion: With the father Abisai had not seen in person since he was an infant. (Thevenot and Elliott, 7/25)

Reuters: Insurer Anthem Profit Beats Estimates On Lower Patient Costs
Anthem Inc reported a better-than-expected profit on Wednesday, driven by higher premiums and lower patient medical costs even as fewer people enrolled in its insurance plans. Enrollment fell about 2.2 percent to 39.5 million members at the end of the quarter, hit by a decline in the number of people signing up for Medicaid as well as for its Obamacare plans. (Banerjee and Mathias, 7/25)

Stat: Democrats Introduce A Bill To Allow Medicare Negotiations And Sidestep Patents If Talks Fail 
As the Trump administration labors to execute its blueprint for tackling high drug costs, a group of Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill on Wednesday that would allow the federal government to negotiate on behalf of Medicare — and authorize licenses for lower-cost generics when talks fail. Unlike other bills that would permit negotiations over Part D drugs, the legislation would allow the Department of Health and Human Services to pursue a generic alternative by issuing a competitive license when a company refuses to offer a reasonable price. In effect, the bill would create a new mechanism for the U.S. government to sidestep patents when it would be in the public interest to do so. (Silverman, 7/25)

Stat: Trump Administration Proposes More Cuts To Drug Discounts That Aid Hospitals 
The Trump administration wants to expand its cuts to a controversial drug discount program that benefits hospitals. Its latest proposal, out Wednesday, centers on the so-called 340B program, which forces drugmakers to give some safety net and not-for-profit hospitals discounts on nearly all their drugs. Federal programs reimburse them for the same medicines at a higher rate, and hospitals say they use the spread to pay for charity care and other services. (Mershon, 7/25)

Stat: New Jersey Looks To Loosen Restrictions On Dinners For Docs, A Victory For Pharma
In a victory for the pharmaceutical industry, New Jersey plans to loosen a new rule that restricts what drug makers can pay for meals for doctors, dentists, nurses, and other prescribers. The rule, which went into effect last January, caps what prescribers can earn from drug makers at $10,000 a year, and limits “modest” meals given to prescribers at just $15. The move was the first state effort to take a comprehensive approach to limiting industry sway and came in response to concerns that some drug makers may use various forms of payments to influence prescribing of opioids. (Silverman, 7/25)

Stat: Bill To Eliminate ‘Gag Clauses’ On Drug Prices Advances In Senate
Lawmakers on a key Senate health committee advanced legislation to make it easier for pharmacists to tell consumers if they could pay less for a drug if they don’t use their insurance. It’s a first step for a relatively small bill, but the legislation is one of only a handful of drug pricing bills that has cleared any Senate committees this year, even as policymakers across Capitol Hill say they want to prioritize efforts to bring down the cost of prescription drugs. (Mershon, 7/25)

Stat: Did AbbVie Unfairly Thwart Competition By Creating A 'Patent Thicket'? 
In a little noticed order, a federal judge recently raised the intriguing possibility that a so-called patent thicket — a large number of patents that a drug maker obtains to thwart rivals — might stifle competition if the patents were established as the result of some misbehavior. The order was issued last month in a lawsuit filed by AbbVie (ABBV), which is seeking to prevent Boehringer Ingelheim from marketing a biosimilar version of its Humira rheumatoid arthritis treatment. The medicine generated nearly $12.4 billion in sales last year in the U.S. alone for AbbVie and is protected by dozens of patents, many of which do not expire until 2022. (Silverman, 7/26)

Stat: Sarepta Halts Early-Stage Gene Therapy Trial For DMD 
Sarepta Therapeutics’ clinical trial for a gene therapy to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy has been paused by the Food and Drug Administration because some of the materials used in the treatment weren’t as they should be, the company announced Wednesday. A stray DNA fragment was found “in connection with routine quality assurance testing” of the plasmids used in the company’s gene therapy, said Douglas Ingram, Sarepta’s president and CEO. Plasmids carry the genetic material used in gene therapy into a cell. The FDA notified Nationwide Children’s Research Institute, where the trial is being conducted, of the clinical hold on Tuesday. (Sheridan, 7/25)

The Associated Press: Kentucky Drug Overdose Deaths Jump 11.5 Percent In 2017
Since 2011, a year when Kentucky was flooded with 371 million doses of opioid painkillers, state officials have cracked down on pain clinics, sued pharmaceutical companies and limited how many pills doctors can prescribe. The result is nearly 100 million fewer opioid prescriptions in 2017 — and an 11.5 percent increase in drug overdose deaths. (Beam, 7/25)

The Associated Press: With Rare Candor, Lovato Chronicled Her Recovery And Relapse
While most celebrities tend to hide their struggles with drugs and battles with depression, Demi Lovato not only acknowledged her issues, she’s shared them with the world. Lovato has been an open book since she announced in 2010 that she was checking into a rehabilitation center to deal with an eating disorder, self-mutilation and other issues. Over the next eight years, she became a role model and bona fide pop star, releasing multi-platinum songs and albums that range from playful to serious with lyrical content about her battles with drugs and alcohol. (Fekadu, 7/25)

The Associated Press: EMT Pleads Guilty To Stealing Opioids, Replacing With Saline
A southern Missouri paramedic has pleaded guilty to stealing opioids and filling the empty vials with saline solution. The Springfield News-Leader reports that 30-year-old Zachary McCleary pleaded guilty Monday to tampering with a consumer product. Prosecutors say 18 patients in Barton County alone reported getting salt water instead of painkillers because of McCleary's actions. (7/25)

Stat: Powerful People In Health Care Are Finding A New Landing Pad: Google 
It used to be that big-name health care officials and executives on their way out of power would take a cozy perch at a university. Now? More and more of them are landing at Google companies. Dr. Toby Cosgrove, the longtime president and CEO of Cleveland Clinic, is the latest health care bigwig to pick Google as a landing pad. He’ll become an executive adviser to Google Cloud’s team working on health care and life sciences, the company announced recently. (Robbins, 7/26)

Politico: Pulse Check: Sylvia Mathews Burwell
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the former HHS secretary and current American University president, reflects on her work in the Obama administration, the fate of the Affordable Care Act and her new challenges in higher ed. (7/25)

The Washington Post: Pregnant Women Took Generic Viagra In A Clinical Drug Trial. Eleven Babies Died.
Dutch doctors were trying to answer a simple question about a popular drug: Could the active ingredient in Viagra be used to help a particular group of at-risk babies often born tiny and premature with slim chances of survival? The study had already been conducted in New Zealand and Australia, according to Amsterdam Universitair Medische Centra (University Medical Center), which headed the latest trial. The Dutch component involved some 183 pregnant women who suffered from fetal growth restriction, where an underdeveloped placenta can’t get enough oxygen or nutrients to a gestating baby. (Wootson, 7/25)

The Washington Post: Happy Birthday, Louise Brown! 40 Years After The First IVF Baby, 8 Million More And Counting
“I would hope that within a very few years … instead of this being a seven-day wonder this will become a fairly commonplace affair.” Those prescient words were spoken by Robert Edwards, a 52-year-old Cambridge physician on July 25, 1978, when he announced the wondrous birth of baby girl who was the first to be conceived outside the body. Louise Joy Brown, born healthy and screaming at 5 pounds 12 ounces, made headlines around the world and gave new hope to infertile couples everywhere. Scientists “hailed it as a momentous medical achievement,” according to the New York Daily News. “The jubilation was tempered, however, by warnings over the morality and ethics of producing human life in the laboratory.” (Cha, 7/25)

The Associated Press: Study: Lowering Blood Pressure Helps Prevent Mental Decline
Lowering blood pressure more than usually recommended not only helps prevent heart problems, it also cuts the risk of mental decline that often leads to Alzheimer's disease, a major study finds. It's the first time a single step has been clearly shown to help prevent a dreaded condition that has had people trying crossword puzzles, diet supplements and a host of other things in hope of keeping their mind sharp. (7/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Aggressive Blood Pressure Treatment Reduces Cognitive Risk, Study Says
The study showed that using common medications to reduce systolic blood pressure to below 120 reduced the risk of mild cognitive impairment by about 19% compared with lowering to less than 140—the standard target until a few years ago. Mild cognitive impairment is a slight but noticeable decline in memory and other thinking skills and is considered a potential precursor to dementia. It increases a patient’s risk of Alzheimer’s disease, the dementia-causing disorder that affects about 5.7 million Americans. (Loftus, 7/25)

The Washington Post: A Healthier Heart May Mean A Healthier Mind, New Study Shows
The findings, which are expected to be published later this year, could provide a relatively easy way to lower the rate of Alzheimer’s dementia, which in the United States is 10 percent of people 65 and older. “For many years now, we’ve observed that people with lower blood pressure, even if it’s achieved through medication, have a lower risk for developing dementia,” said Jeff Williamson, professor of internal medicine and epidemiology and chief of geriatric medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., who presented the study. “Now, for the first time in history, we have something to say if you lower your blood pressure you can lower your risk for mild cognitive impairment and dementia.” (Bahrampour, 7/25)

Los Angeles Times: Another Reason To Keep Your Blood Pressure Down: It Can Lower Your Risk Of Dementia
Systolic blood pressure is the amount of pressure in a person’s arteries during the contraction of her heart muscle. Because it is the highest pressure to which the blood vessels are subjected, systolic blood pressure is thought to have the most detrimental impact on the delicate capillaries that nourish the brain as well as the kidneys, heart and liver. In large populations, lowering that reading to 120 already has been found to reduce rates of cardiovascular disease and kidney failure. (Healy, 7/25)

The New York Times: Men Are Panicking About Their Sperm Count
Dr. Paul Turek was on his way to speak to employees at a cryptocurrency investment firm one recent afternoon about a growing anxiety for the men in the office: what’s going on with their sperm? Is there enough? Is the existing supply satisfactory? Are we men enough? “They’re worried, right?” Dr. Turek said. “And we’re O.K. with the worry.” (Bowles, 7/25)

The Associated Press: Ultrasound Jiggles Open Brain Barrier, A Step To Better Care
A handful of Alzheimer’s patients signed up for a bold experiment: They let scientists beam sound waves into the brain to temporarily jiggle an opening in its protective shield. The so-called blood-brain barrier prevents germs and other damaging substances from leaching in through the bloodstream — but it can block drugs for Alzheimer’s, brain tumors and other neurologic diseases, too. Canadian researchers on Wednesday reported early hints that technology called focused ultrasound can safely poke holes in that barrier — holes that quickly sealed back up — a step toward one day using the non-invasive device to push brain treatments through. (Neergaard, 7/25)

Stat: Zika's Destructive Power Might Be Turned Against Tumors, Scientists Say
As the world discovered in 2016, the seemingly benign Zika virus is capable of inflicting life-altering damage when it finds its way into the developing brains of fetuses. Now scientists hope to harness that horrible potential as a weapon to fight cancer. Several research groups are exploring whether Zika viruses could be unleashed on cancers, effectively wiping out the dangerous cells of a brain or central nervous system cancer. One group, at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Orlando, published findings of early-stage work Wednesday in the journal PLOS One. (Branswell, 7/25)

The Washington Post: Physician-Assisted-Suicide Opponent J.J. Hanson Chose To Live Out His Last Days
There was a time — several months after J.J. Hanson was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, but several years before he died from it — when, he once said, he might have considered ending it all. The husband and father said in 2015 that the previous year, he learned that he had a Grade 4 brain tumor called glioblastoma multiforme and was given four months to live. He had been fighting the cancer, but now, sick in bed and worried about becoming a burden to his family, he was lost in his thoughts. (Bever, 7/25)

NPR: Brain Injuries And Shoulder-Launched Assault Weapons
Chris Ferrari was just 18 the first time he balanced a rocket launcher on his right shoulder and aimed it at a practice target. "Your adrenaline's going and you're trying to focus on getting that round to hit, and then you go to squeeze that trigger and, you know." Boom! (Hamilton, 7/25)

The Wall Street Journal: How Virtual Reality Is Being Used To Treat Eating Disorders
Shortly after the young woman walks into Howard Gurr’s psychology practice, she is taken to a beach and encouraged to relax. She is helped to feel calm and let go of her worries. Dr. Gurr then changes course, bringing his patient to a restaurant or other place that is a source of anxiety. Dr. Gurr doesn’t change offices every day. He’s a therapist who is using virtual-reality scenery to tackle the anxieties and body-image issues of patients with eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia and binge eating. (Colville, 7/25)

The New York Times: 50 More Women Sue U.S.C. As Accusations Of Gynecologist’s Abuse Pile Up
The scandal surrounding the three-decade tenure of Dr. George Tyndall, a former gynecologist at the University of Southern California, continued to grow this week as more than 50 additional women sued the university, saying it had failed to protect them from sexual abuse and harassment by Dr. Tyndall. The lawsuits, filed on Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court against both Dr. Tyndall and U.S.C., claim that the university concealed years of complaints against Dr. Tyndall’s “sexually charged and deviant comments and behavior” and “allowed him many years of unfettered sexual access to young female students.” (Zaveri, 7/25)

The Washington Post: Federal Appeals Court Won’t Reconsider Rejection Of Md. Drug Price-Gouging Law
A federal appeals court has denied a request from Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D) to rehear a lawsuit challenging the state’s drug price-gouging statute. Frosh asked the U.S. Court of Appeals in April to reconsider the case after a three-judge panel of the court ruled that the law violates the commerce clause of the Constitution. The court rejected the request on Tuesday. (Wiggins, 7/25)

The Associated Press: Oklahoma Pharmacy Board Fires Director Amid Probe Into Texts
The Oklahoma Board of Pharmacy fired its executive director Wednesday after state investigators confirmed she is the target of a bribery probe involving text messages exchanged with a top lawyer involved in writing the state's new medical marijuana rules. The board unanimously voted to fire Chelsea Church following a closed-door meeting in Oklahoma City. The special meeting was called after the online news agency Nondoc reported on a series of text messages in which Church appears to offer Department of Health attorney Julia Ezell a higher paying job at the agency in exchange for medical marijuana rules favorable to pharmacists. (7/25)