First Edition: June 6, 2016

Kaiser Health News: Regulators Probing Whether Health Net Is Stiffing Drug Treatment Providers
California insurance officials are looking into whether Health Net Inc. has improperly withheld payments to addiction treatment centers for months while the company investigates concerns about fraudulent claims. The California Department of Insurance began an inquiry after receiving numerous complaints from substance-abuse treatment facilities statewide that Health Net had not paid them since at least January, according to providers questioned by the agency. Health Net is California’s fourth-largest health insurer, acquired in March for $6 billion by Centene Corp., a St. Louis-based insurer. (Terhune, 6/6)

The New York Times: Why The Economic Payoff From Technology Is So Elusive
For several years, economists have asked why ... technical wizardry seems to be having so little impact on the economy. The issue surfaced again recently, when the government reported disappointingly slow growth and continuing stagnation in productivity. The rate of productivity growth from 2011 to 2015 was the slowest since the five-year period ending in 1982. One place to look at this disconnect is in the doctor’s office. Dr. Peter Sutherland, a family physician in Tennessee, made the shift to computerized patient records from paper in the last few years. There are benefits to using electronic health records, Dr. Sutherland says, but grappling with the software and new reporting requirements has slowed him down. He sees fewer patients, and his income has slipped. (Lohr, 6/5)

The New York Times: Prince’s Death May Spur Action On Opioid Bill
The official confirmation of Prince’s death by opioid overdose is likely to reverberate in Washington, where lawmakers are still trying to hammer out a deal on legislation attempting to stem a national crisis in abuse of those drugs. “No one is immune,” Senator Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican and one of the main authors of the Senate legislation, said in a statement. “The heroin and prescription drug epidemic is devastating families and communities all over the country, and we need to get this bill to the president’s desk as quickly as possible.” (Hulse, 6/3)

The Associated Press: Heroin, Painkiller Overdose Antidote Getting Easier To Buy
It is becoming easier for friends and family of heroin users or patients taking strong painkillers to buy an antidote that can reverse the effect of an overdose, as policymakers look for ways to fight a growing epidemic. Naloxone, which is known by the brand-name Narcan, can quickly revive someone who has stopped breathing after overdosing on so-called opioids, highly addictive drugs that include prescription painkillers like Vicodin as well as illegal narcotics like heroin. In the past, naloxone has been available mostly through clinics, hospitals or first responders like paramedics. (6/3)

The Associated Press: Obama Opposes Privatization Of The Department Of Veterans Affairs
President Obama is opposing suggestions to privatize the Department of Veterans Affairs to improve the health care that veterans receive. In an interview with The Colorado Springs Gazette, he said that his administration had made progress modernizing the department and providing veterans with more timely care. Privatizing the agency would delay that progress, Mr. Obama said. (6/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Veterans Affairs Department Proposes Coverage For Gender Reassignment Surgery
The Department of Veterans Affairs is proposing a rule change to begin covering sex-reassignment surgeries and other related medical treatment for transgender veterans. ... “Surgical procedures are now widely accepted in the medical community as medically necessary treatment for gender dysphoria,” the medical diagnosis required for a transgender person to have sex-reassignment surgery, the proposed rule change said. “Recent medical research shows that gender dysphoria is a serious condition that has had severe medical consequences for certain patients if transition-related surgeries and procedures are not provided.” (Kesling and Radnofsky, 6/3)

NPR: A Permanent Fund That Could Help Fight Zika Exists, But It's Empty
Public health advocates who are exasperated by the fight on Capitol Hill over how much to spend to combat the Zika virus are looking longingly at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA has a standing fund that it can draw upon when disaster strikes. The fund is replenished when the money is spent cleaning up from hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters. If only, public health experts sigh. (Kodjak, 6/3)

Reuters: WHO Experts Say Zika May Cause Birth Defects In Thousands Of Babies
World Health Organization officials on Friday cautioned that "many thousands" of infants infected with Zika virus could suffer neurological abnormalities and said nations dealing with an outbreak need to watch for problems beyond the widely reported cases of microcephaly. These include spasticity, seizures, irritability, feeding difficulties, eyesight problems and evidence of severe brain abnormalities. (Berkrot, 6/3)

Reuters: WHO Emergency Panel To Meet In June On Zika And Olympics: Spokeswoman
With debate growing over the safety of holding the Olympics in Brazil amid the ongoing Zika virus outbreak, the World Health Organization's Emergency Committee on Zika will meet in the coming weeks to evaluate the risks tied to going on with the Games in August, a WHO spokeswoman said on Friday. "The Emergency Committee meeting will consider the situation in Brazil, including the question of the Olympics," WHO spokeswoman Nyka Alexander told Reuters in response to a query. (Nebehay and Berkrot, 6/3)

The Associated Press: Gabby Douglas: 'I Don't Care About No Stupid Bugs.'
Olympic champion Gabby Douglas says the Zika virus won't affect her plans to pursue more gold in Rio de Janeiro. "It's the Olympics," Douglas said Friday. "Mosquitoes? Like, whatever. I'm going. This is my shot. I don't care about no stupid bugs." The 20-year-old Douglas and other Olympic hopefuls are in Hartford for the Secret U.S. Classic on Saturday. The meet is the final tune-up for the national championships in St. Louis this month. (6/3)

The New York Times: Parkinson’s: A Progressive, Incurable Disease
Muhammad Ali, who died on Friday after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease, was given the diagnosis in 1984 when he was 42. The world witnessed his gradual decline over the decades as tremors and stiffness set in, replacing his athletic stride with a shuffle, silencing his exuberant voice and freezing his face into an expressionless mask. (Grady, 6/4)

The New York Times: ‘Liquid’ Cancer Test Offers Hope For Alternative To Painful Biopsies
A blood test to detect cancer mutations produced results that generally agree with those of an invasive tumor biopsy, researchers reported, heralding a time when diagnosing cancer and monitoring its progression may become less painful and risky. The blood tests, known as liquid biopsies, represent one of the hottest trends in oncology. They take advantage of the fact that DNA fragments from tumors can be found in tiny amounts in the blood of patients with cancer. (Pollack, 6/4)

The New York Times: Extending Estrogen Suppressor May Aid Breast Cancer Patients, Study Says
Women with early-stage breast cancer could benefit from taking an estrogen-suppressing drug for 10 years rather than the standard five, researchers reported here on Sunday, citing the results of a new study. In the study, postmenopausal women who took a drug known as an aromatase inhibitor for an additional five years lowered the risk of their cancer returning or of a new case of cancer occurring in the other breast. (Pollack, 6/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Combination Drug Therapies For Cancer Show Promise At Higher Potential Cost
Cancer researchers see promise in giving patients combinations of multiple drugs that are proving more effective than one or two. But the strategy poses a dilemma for health insurers and patients: even higher prices. Researchers said at a medical meeting here Sunday that adding a third drug, Johnson & Johnson’s Darzalex, to an older two-drug combination for patients with multiple myeloma significantly slowed the blood cancer’s growth compared with the older two-drug combination alone in a clinical trial. But the combined cost of the drugs—based on current list prices and the dosing schedule used in the study—would be at least $180,000 for the first full year of treatment for the average patient. (Loftus, 6/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Valeant Looks To Show Steps Toward Normalcy
After months of turmoil over its drug-price increases and business practices, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. will try to show this week that it’s getting back to business as usual. Valeant reports its first-quarter earnings Tuesday. To paint a picture of normalcy, the Canadian drug company and its new chief executive, Joseph Papa, will have to address some pointed questions about its performance and prospects. (Rockoff and Rapoport, 6/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Martin Shkreli Faces A New Conspiracy Charge
Federal prosecutors on Friday unsealed a new conspiracy charge against former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli and his former lawyer, Evan Greebel. Both men were arrested last December and accused of scheming to steal money from pharmaceutical company Retrophin Inc., where Mr. Shkreli had been the chief executive, to cover up losses suffered by investors in Mr. Shkreli’s hedge funds. Retrophin’s board ousted Mr. Shkreli as CEO in 2014. Mr. Shkreli had pleaded not guilty to seven counts of securities fraud and conspiracy. Mr. Greebel had pleaded not guilty to one count of wire-fraud conspiracy. (Hong, 6/5)

The Associated Press: More Charges Against Ex-Pharmaceutical Executive Shkreli
Federal prosecutors in New York have filed additional criminal charges against a pharmaceutical executive who separately was heavily criticized for raising the price of a lifesaving malaria medication. A new indictment filed Friday in Brooklyn says Martin Shkreli and his former attorney Evan Greebel schemed to defraud potential investors of his former drug company Retrophin Inc., based in San Diego. They say the two allocated company stock to seven employees to conceal Shkreli's ownership of it. (6/3)

The New York Times: Scientists Find Form Of Crispr Gene Editing With New Capabilities
Just a few years ago, Crispr was a cipher — something that sounded to most ears like a device for keeping lettuce fresh. Today, Crispr-Cas9 is widely known as a powerful way to edit genes. Scientists are deploying it in promising experiments, and a number of companies are already using it to develop drugs to treat conditions ranging from cancer to sickle-cell anemia. Yet there is still a lot of misunderstanding around it. Crispr describes a series of DNA sequences discovered in microbes, part of a system to defend against attacking viruses. Microbes make thousands of forms of Crispr, most of which are just starting to be investigated by scientists. If they can be harnessed, some may bring changes to medicine that we can barely imagine. (Zimmer, 6/3)

NPR/KQED: Families Isolated By Rare Genetic Conditions Find New Ways To Reach Out
Shortly after Milo Lorentzen was born, nurses whisked him away to the neonatal intensive care unit for low blood sugar and jaundice. An exam then found a cluster of irregularities, including a cleft palate and a hole in his heart. The staff called in a geneticist, who issued a misdiagnosis — the first frustrating episode in what would become years of testing, as Karen Park and Peter Lorentzen searched for a way to help their son. (Snow, 6/5)

Los Angeles Times: Medical Technician Suspected Of Contaminating Instruments At Hospitals Tests Positive For HIV
Rocky Elbert Allen, the medical technician suspected of stealing drugs and contaminating surgical instruments at six Western hospitals, has tested positive for HIV, the Denver U.S. attorney’s office said. Confirmation that Allen has the virus that causes AIDS poses an added concern for 6,400 surgical patients in California, Washington, Colorado and Arizona who may have been exposed to infection by Allen’s alleged needle swapping, said an attorney who has filed lawsuits against five of the hospitals. (Anderson, 6/3)

The Washington Post: Hurdles For Long-Awaited Hospital Stir Worry In Prince George’s
Shortly after Prince George’s County officials chose a Largo site for their proposed regional medical center, developers launched apartments and retail projects across the street. The apartments are finished and are being leased. But the ground-floor retail spaces are as empty as the grass lot on Arena Drive where, according to the original plans, the new hospital should be nearing completion. The projected 2017 opening date has been pushed back nearly three years as the state hospital board assesses the project and weighs whether to approve it. (Hernández, 6/3)