First Edition: June 20, 2018
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Administration Eases Way For Small Businesses To Buy Insurance In Bulk
The new regulations eliminate the geographical restriction for similar employers, allowing, for example, family-owned auto-repair shops in multiple states to offer one big health plan, said Christopher Condeluci, a health benefits lawyer and former Senate Finance Committee aide. The rules, to be implemented in stages into next year, also allow companies in different industries in the same region to form a group to offer coverage — even if the only reason is to provide health insurance. (Hancock and Appleby, 6/19)
Kaiser Health News:
‘Holy Cow’ Moment Changes How Montana’s State Health Plan Does Business
Marilyn Bartlett, the director administrator of Montana’s Health Care and Benefits Division, recalls thinking “holy cow” when she got an urgent directive from state legislators in late 2014: “You have to get these costs under control, or else.” Increasing health care costs in the state workers’ health plan were helping hold down workers’ wages. The plan’s financial reserves were dwindling, heading for negative territory. (Appleby, 6/20)
California Healthline:
First Female Dean ‘A Sea Of Change’ At USC’s Scandal-Plagued Medical School
The University of Southern California veered sharply and deliberately from tradition in naming the first woman — and the first geriatrician — to lead its 133-year-old medical school. Dr. Laura Mosqueda, who took over the position on May 1, says she’ll work hard to steer more young doctors toward elderly care to treat the country’s aging population. At the same time, she will face a stiff challenge trying to help rehabilitate the image of USC as it grapples with the growing fallout from recent drug and sexual misconduct scandals. (Abram, 6/19)
The New York Times:
New Trump Rule Rolls Back Protections Of The Affordable Care Act
A sweeping new rule issued Tuesday by the Trump administration will make it easier for small businesses to join forces and set up health insurance plans that circumvent many requirements of the Affordable Care Act, cutting costs but also reducing benefits. President Trump, speaking at a 75th-anniversary celebration of the National Federation of Independent Business, said the new rule would allow small businesses to “escape some of Obamacare’s most burdensome mandates” by creating new entities known as association health plans. (Pear, 6/19)
The Washington Post:
Trump Administration Expands Use Of Health Plans That Skirt ACA Consumer Protections
The rules, throwing the doors wide open to a type of insurance known as association health plans, accomplish through executive power what congressional Republicans have tried and failed to write into law over the past two decades. Announced Tuesday morning by Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, the final rules expanding access to such health plans come eight months after President Trump directed the government to foster alternatives to the ACA’s insurance provisions and five months after the Labor Department proposed a draft version. They are the most recent piece in the administration’s jigsaw efforts to undercut elements of the ACA through its own powers after the Republican-led Congress failed last year to repeal a broad swath of the sprawling 2010 statute. (Goldstein, 6/19)
The Wall Street Journal:
New Trump Administration Rule To Expand Access To Health Plans Without ACA Protections
The rule makes it far easier for small businesses and self-employed individuals to band together and obtain “association health plans” for themselves and their employees. Many of the plans will be subject to the same rules as larger employers, which means they won’t have to provide comprehensive benefits, such as maternity services, prescription drugs, or mental health care, mandated under the ACA. That is expected to lead to lower prices for people who enroll. “You may be able to buy a policy that’s several thousand dollars cheaper,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.), said in an interview before the rule’s release. “This is the most promising proposal for quality insurance for self-employed people who might make $60,000 to $70,000 but get no subsidies.” (Armour, 6/19)
The Hill:
Trump Officials Move To Expand Non-ObamaCare Health Plans
Democrats strongly oppose the move as allowing for “junk” insurance that will not meet people’s needs and that will cause premiums to rise for those remaining in ObamaCare plans, once some healthier people are siphoned off into the new plans. Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta on Tuesday said the new plans “will offer more health care coverage options at a better price.” (Sullivan, 6/19)
Politico:
Trump’s New Health Insurance Rules Expected To Hurt Obamacare
Critics warn the steps will further destabilize wobbly Obamacare markets by siphoning off younger and healthier customers, who are more likely to favor cheaper plans that cover less. The law’s insurance markets have already been beset by skyrocketing premiums and diminishing competition, problems that are likely to grow worse if the customer base becomes even smaller and sicker. “These plans weaken protections for Americans with pre-existing conditions,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “No single group that represents physicians, patients, hospitals or nurses is supportive. Not one." (Demko and Cancryn, 6/19)
The Hill:
Conservative Groups Outline New ObamaCare Repeal Plan
A coalition of conservative groups on Tuesday released the outlines of a new plan for repealing and replacing ObamaCare, indicating that at least some corners of the Republican Party are still pushing for repeal. The plan was drafted by groups led by the Heritage Foundation, the Galen Institute and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who have been leading meetings for months. (Sullivan, 6/19)
The Wall Street Journal:
Conservatives Make New Push To Repeal Affordable Care Act
The proposal risks irking centrist Republicans who want to focus on other subjects. Republican leaders have said they have no appetite for another push to repeal the ACA before the November midterm elections unless such a bill clearly has the votes to pass. Republicans faced a series of obstacles—including internal division and unified Democratic opposition—as their effort to repeal the ACA collapsed last year. There is little evidence those dynamics in Congress have changed. Still, the proposal’s release reflects the continuing eagerness of conservatives to topple the ACA, a longtime Republican promise whose window could close if Democrats make gains in the midterms as expected. But right-leaning groups are already at odds over the proposal, which drew swift condemnation from some organizations that said it retains too much of the health law’s spending. (Armour, 6/19)
The New York Times:
How One Conservative Think Tank Is Stocking Trump’s Government
On the day after Thanksgiving in 2016, Ed Corrigan, then the vice president for policy promotion at the Heritage Foundation, was summoned to Trump Tower in New York to join the senior leadership team of the Trump transition. From inside the building where the climactic personnel decisions of “The Apprentice” were once taped, Corrigan oversaw the staffing of 10 different domestic agencies. Donald Trump, the former reality-TV star, was now the president-elect of the United States, and he had an administration to fill. (Mahler, 6/20)
The Hill:
Zero Tolerance Policy Stirs Fears In Health Community
Thousands of migrant children separated from their families at the U.S. border could face significant health issues in the short and long term, health experts warn. The impact of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which sends parents to detention centers and kids to government-run shelters, could extend far past the initial trauma of separation. (Hellmann, 6/18)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Effects Of Parental Separation On Children
Many medical associations and thousands of mental-health professionals have criticized the Trump administration’s policy of dividing immigrant families at the southern border, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association. In many cases, professionals cite the negative health effects parental separation has on children. In response to the backlash over his immigration policy, President Donald Trump called on Congress Tuesday to give his administration the power to detain and deport migrant families as a unit, saying he considered that the “only solution to the border crisis.” (Sweedler, 6/20)
The Washington Post:
Trump Urges House GOP To Fix Immigration System, Expresses No Strong Preference On Rival Bills Amid Uproar Over Family Separations
President Trump implored anxious House Republicans to fix the nation’s immigration system but did not offer a clear path forward amid the growing uproar over his administration’s decision to separate migrant families at the border. Huddling with the GOP at the Capitol on Tuesday evening, Trump stopped short of giving a full-throated endorsement to immigration legislation meant to unite the moderate and conservative wings of the House Republican conference. (DeBonis, Rucker, Kim and Wagner, 6/19)
The New York Times:
Fact-Checking The Trump Administration’s Case For Child Separation At The Border
President Trump and top administration officials have continued to defend their practice of breaking up families who arrive at the border in the face of bipartisan outcry, criticism from the United Nations and a lawsuit. They’ve denied the existence of a policy and that they were the first to enforce it, pointed to surges in illegal immigration and fraud, trotted out decades-old court cases and human trafficking laws, blamed Democrats and even cited the Bible. Here are their defenses, fact-checked. (Qiu, 6/19)
The Associated Press:
Youngest Migrants Held In 'Tender Age' Shelters
Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border to at least three "tender age" shelters in South Texas, The Associated Press has learned. Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the Rio Grande Valley shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis. The government also plans to open a fourth shelter to house hundreds of young migrant children in Houston, where city leaders denounced the move Tuesday. (Burke and Mendoza, 6/19)
The Associated Press:
No Clear Plan Yet On How To Reunite Parents With Children
Trump administration officials say they have no clear plan yet on how to reunite the thousands of children separated from their families at the border since the implementation of a zero-tolerance policy in which anyone caught entering the U.S. illegally is criminally prosecuted. "This policy is relatively new," said Steven Wagner, an acting assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services "We're still working through the experience of reunifying kids with their parents after adjudication." (Merchant and Long, 6/20)
The Associated Press:
AP Explains: US Has Split Up Families Throughout Its History
Some critics of the forced separation of Latino children from their migrant parents say the practice is unprecedented. But it's not the first time the U.S. government has split up families, detained children or allowed others to do so. Throughout American history, during times of war and unrest, authorities have cited various reasons and laws to take children away from their parents. Here are some examples. (Contreras, 6/20)
The New York Times:
Veterans Owe The D.O.D. Thousands For Survivor Benefits. Why Can’t They Opt Out?
On an afternoon in late February, Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon, who goes by Dan, got in his truck and drove down the dirt road near his house in Westcliffe, Colo., to meet his son’s school bus at the bottom of the hill. It is one of few tasks Dan, who is 54 and retired, can still manage on his own after being wounded in Iraq in 2004. As he waited, he checked his mailbox, where he found a letter addressed to him from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, an office within the Defense Department. When he opened the letter, his stomach dropped. It said Dan owed the government money for something called the Survivor Benefit Plan and that the department would start deducting the program premiums from his monthly entitlement for combat-related disabilities. The notice also said he owed $23,451 in unpaid premiums, plus interest, that he was expected to pay. (Jerving, 6/20)
The Washington Post:
House GOP Plan Would Cut Medicare, Social Security To Balance Budget
House Republicans released a proposal Tuesday that would balance the budget in nine years — but only by making large cuts to entitlement programs, including Medicare and Social Security, that President Trump vowed not to touch. The House Budget Committee is aiming to pass the blueprint this week, but that may be as far as it goes this midterm election year. It is not clear that GOP leaders will put the document on the House floor for a vote, and even if it were to pass the House, the budget would have little impact on actual spending levels. Nonetheless the budget serves as an expression of Republicans’ priorities at a time of rapidly rising deficits and debt. (Werner, 6/19)
Bloomberg:
House GOP Unveils Budget To Fast-Track Tax Cuts, End Obamacare
The budget, which claims to balance by 2027 through $8 trillion in spending cuts, seeks to revive the deficit-cutting mantle for Republicans after a two-year deal that increased spending by $300 billion. A massive tax cut approved last year is expected to add $2 trillion in deficits over 10 years. The budget proposal lays out a platform for the Republicans to run on in November. Democrats need a net gain of 23 seats to win the House and the party has reason to be optimistic about achieving that goal in November’s election. (Wasson, 6/19)
USA Today:
Feds Oppose Public Reporting Of Hospital Infections
Federal health regulators will have to stop releasing data on hospital infections — which affect one in 25 hospital patients every day — under a proposal set to take effect in November, according to an analysis by patient safety advocates. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) plan, part of a complex 500-page proposed rule, could halt the public disclosure of the "super bug" MRSA, post-operative sepsis and surgical site infections, as well as accidents and injuries ranging from bedsores to respiratory failure after surgery. (O'Donnell, 6/19)
The New York Times:
Disability Applications Plunge As The Economy Strengthens
The number of Americans seeking Social Security disability benefits is plunging, a startling reversal of a decades-old trend that threatened the program’s solvency. It is the latest evidence of a stronger economy pulling people back into the job market or preventing workers from being sidelined in the first place. The drop is so significant that the agency has revised its estimates of how long the program will continue to be financially secure. This month, the government announced that the program would not run out of money until 2032, four years later than its previous estimate last year. Two years ago, the government had warned that the funds might be depleted by 2023. (Schwartz, 6/19)
The Associated Press:
CVS Health Will Now Deliver Prescriptions To Your Home
CVS Health will make prescription deliveries nationwide to accommodate the heightened expectations of convenience from consumers. The nation's second-largest drugstore chain says it also will make home deliveries of other items, like allergy medicines, vitamins or household products. The service will cost $4.99 for deliveries made in one or two days. (Murphy, 6/19)
The Wall Street Journal:
CVS Adds Home Delivery With Help From Post Office
CVS is rolling out the nationwide service as it fights falling sales in its roughly 9,800 pharmacies and braces for potential competition from Amazon, which has considered launching a prescription offering and has made a bigger push into medical supplies. CVS is also facing competition from venture-backed startups like PillPack Inc. and Capsule Corp., which provide home delivery of medicines. (Terlep, 6/19)
The Hill:
AMA Will Oppose CVS-Aetna Merger
The country’s largest physician lobbying group has come out against a proposed merger between Aetna and CVS. The American Medical Association (AMA) announced its formal opposition during a hearing Tuesday before the California Department of Insurance. AMA said it is concerned the proposed merger will result in reduced competition in the insurance market. (Weixel, 6/19)
Stat:
Sarepta’s Gene Therapy For Duchenne Raises Hopes For ‘Real Change’
An experimental gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, licensed to Sarepta Therapeutics, produced jaw-dropping increases in a crucial muscle protein normally missing in patients with the disease, according to preliminary clinical trial data released Tuesday. The data were collected from just three boys, but the effect of the gene therapy — producing 38 percent of a truncated form of the normal dystrophin muscle protein — is profound enough to suggest it may halt or even reverse the effects of Duchenne in certain patients. (Feuerstein, 6/19)
The Wall Street Journal:
Sarepta Gets Boost From Early Trial Results On Muscular Dystrophy Treatment
Sarepta said study results showed the therapy helped patients with the crippling disease significantly reduce levels of creatine kinase, an enzyme associated with muscle damage caused by the disorder. Results also showed patients receiving the treatment had robust levels of a protein key to muscle function. No serious adverse events were observed in the study, the Cambridge, Mass., biopharmaceutical company said. (Al-Muslim, 6/19)
Stat:
What Sarepta's Game-Changing Data Mean For Other Duchenne Players
Sarepta Therapeutics became the toast of biotech on Tuesday after revealing early data on a gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy that far outstripped Wall Street’s expectations. But Sarepta is hardly alone in the field, and nothing in biotech happens in a vacuum. Here’s a look at what the latest DMD results mean for the company’s competitors. (Garde, 6/19)
Stat:
FDA Says Drug Shortages Fell Last Year, But Don't Blame The Agency For Persistent Problems
There’s good news and bad news in the latest report on shortages from the Food and Drug Administration. There were fewer ongoing shortages at the end of last year, but the number of new shortages rose in 2017. To be specific, the number of new shortages totaled 39 drugs and biologics, bucking a downward trend that was registered during each of the previous two years, when new shortages amounted to 26, according to a new FDA report. On the bright side, this is also much less than the 251 new shortages that occurred in 2011. (Silverman, 6/19)
Stat:
Lawmaker Calls For Scrutiny Of Drug Discounts — But Not Broader Changes
A key Senate Republican renewed his commitment to ramping up oversight of a controversial drug discount program in a hearing Tuesday. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who chairs the Senate health committee, called for stricter reporting requirements and a closer examination of participants in the so-called 340B program, under which drug makers must give eligible hospitals discounts on their medicines. The hearing was his panel’s third examination of the program. (Mershon, 6/19)
Stat:
Facebook To Redirect Users Searching For Opioids To Federal Crisis Help Line
Facebook users attempting to purchase opioids or seeking out addiction treatment will be instead be redirected to information about a federal crisis help line, the company announced Tuesday, a major step for an industry leader facing pressure to more aggressively police illicit drug sales on its platform. The announcement comes a week before an “opioids summit” convened by the Food and Drug Administration to get Facebook and other tech companies, including Twitter and Google, to take additional measures to help curb the nation’s opioid crisis. (Facher, 6/19)
The Hill:
Facebook Launches Feature Connecting Users With Opioid Treatment Information
“We look at this as one of a number of steps that we've taken and will be taking to find ways to connect the community on Facebook with the resources they need,” Avra Siegel, Facebook’s policy programs manager who’s running its efforts to counteract the opioid epidemic, told The Hill. The feature was planned in coordination with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and in consultation with Facing Addiction, an addiction advocacy nonprofit. (Roubein, 6/19)
NPR:
Meth Is On The Rise And Communities Are Paying A Heavy Price
Principal Mary Ann Hale dreads weekends. By the time Fridays roll around, 74-year-old Hale, a principal at West Elementary School in McArthur, Ohio, is overcome with worry, wondering whether her students will survive the couple of days away from school. Too many children in this part of Ohio's Appalachian country live in unstable homes with a parent facing addiction. For years, the community has struggled with opioids. Ohio had the second-highest number of drug overdose deaths per capita in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Rezvani, Martin and Hajek, 6/20)
The New York Times:
More Whites Dying Than Being Born In A Majority Of U.S. States
Deaths now outnumber births among white people in more than half the states in the country, demographers have found, signaling what could be a faster-than-expected transition to a future in which whites are no longer a majority of the American population. The Census Bureau has projected that whites could drop below 50 percent of the population around 2045, a relatively slow-moving change that has been years in the making. But a new report this week found that whites are dying faster than they are being born now in 26 states, up from 17 just two years earlier, and demographers say that shift might come even sooner. (Tavernise, 6/20)
NPR:
A Top Bioterror Danger: Making Existing Bacteria And Viruses More Virulent
New genetic tools are making it easier and cheaper to engineer viruses and bacteria, and a report commissioned by the Department of Defense has now ranked the top threats posed by the rapidly advancing field of "synthetic biology." One of the biggest concerns is the ability to recreate known viruses from scratch in the lab. That means a lab could make a deadly virus that is normally kept under lock and key, such as smallpox. (Greenfieldboyce, 6/19)
Stat:
Anti-Aging Researcher Faces Loss Of His Inspiration: His 96-Year-Old Father
Leonid Peshkin calmly strokes his father’s thin, white hair. He gently exercises the old man’s arms to activate his muscles and get the blood flowing. He speaks, voice raised to reach him through the fog of age, poor hearing, and illness. “Papa,” he asks in their native Russian, “are you in pain?” ... The younger Peshkin, 48, studies the genetics of aging at Harvard Medical School in Boston. A broad-shouldered man with a twinkle always lurking in his brown eyes, Peshkin has been obsessed with aging since childhood because he worried that his father — then as old as other kids’ grandparents — would soon pass away. (Weintraub, 6/20)
The New York Times:
For Survivors Of Childhood Cancer, Walk
Exercise could improve the life expectancy of adults who survive cancer as children, even if the activity begins years after treatments end, according to an inspiring new study. But the study also finds that many survivors rarely, if ever, move much.In one of the most stirring success stories of modern medicine, many childhood cancers are now treatable, including types that once would have been fatal. (Reynolds, 6/20)
NPR:
Research Points To Potential Upside Of Social Media For Kids
Screen time is often considered the enemy when it comes to teaching kids to be active and well-behaved. But should all forms of media be considered equal? Research being presented Tuesday finds that for 9- and 10-year-old children taking part in a study of brain development, greater social media use, such as using scrolling through Instagram and texting, was associated with some positive effects, including increased physical activity, less family conflict and fewer sleep problems. (Watson, 6/19)
The New York Times:
Dr. Adel Mahmoud, Who Was Credited With HPV And Rotavirus Vaccines, Dies At 76
Dr. Adel Mahmoud, an infectious-disease expert who played a vital role in the development of lifesaving vaccines, died on June 11 in Manhattan. He was 76. His death, at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s Hospital, was caused by a brain hemorrhage, his wife, Dr. Sally Hodder, said. (Grady, 6/19)
The New York Times:
Marijuana In New York: Here’s How The Laws Are Changing
New York is getting closer to legal marijuana. On Monday, the state health commissioner said he would recommend legalizing the drug, and on Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city would hand out tickets to people smoking pot instead of arresting them. But before New Yorkers break out their gummies and vape pens, here’s an explainer on what’s changing and when. (Wolfe, 6/20)