First Edition: March 22, 2019
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Even With Insurance, She Faced $227K In Medical Bills. What It Took To Get Answers.
The first surprise was the massive heart attack, which struck as Debbie Moehnke waited in a Vancouver, Wash., medical clinic last summer. “She had an appointment because her feet were swollen real bad,” said Larry Moehnke, her husband. “But she got in there and it was like, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe!’” Her life suddenly at risk, the 59-year-old was rushed by ambulance, first to a local hospital, where she was stabilized, and then, the next day, to Oregon Health & Science University across the river in Portland for urgent cardiac care. (Aleccia, 3/22)
Kaiser Health News:
FDA Chief Calls For Stricter Scrutiny Of Electronic Health Records
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on Wednesday called for tighter scrutiny of electronic health records systems, which have prompted thousands of reports of patient injuries and other safety problems over the past decade. “What we really need is a much more tailored approach, so that we have appropriate oversight of EHRs when they’re doing things that could create risk for patients,” Gottlieb said in an interview with Kaiser Health News. Gottlieb was responding to “Botched Operation,” a report published this week by KHN and Fortune magazine. (Schulte and Fry, 3/21)
Kaiser Health News:
Aspiring Doctors Seek Advanced Training In Addiction Medicine
The U.S. Surgeon General’s office estimates that more than 20 million people have a substance use disorder. Meanwhile, the nation’s drug overdose crisis shows no sign of slowing.
Yet, by all accounts, there aren’t nearly enough physicians who specialize in treating addiction — doctors with extensive clinical training who are board-certified in addiction medicine. (Stone, 3/22)
California Healthline:
Crowd At Capitol Demands Immigrant Health Coverage
“Vivan los inmigrantes!” echoed through the halls of the state Capitol on Wednesday as immigrants and activists gathered to push for legislation that would extend full Medicaid coverage to adults in the country illegally. Sons and daughters clutched photos of their late parents. If they had had health insurance, maybe they would still be alive, they said. Others held “Health for All” signs and practiced the testimony they planned to give inside the fourth-floor hearing room. (Ibarra and Rowan, 3/20)
The New York Times:
$1 Billion For Mental Health: The Reality Of De Blasio’s ‘Revolutionary’ Plan
On his now-frequent tours of early presidential primary states, Mayor Bill de Blasio has taken to invoking a less-familiar aspect of his tenure: a nearly $1 billion plan to address mental illness in New York City. Mr. de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, has done the same, presenting the effort as a national model to audiences from Atlanta to Seattle. The mental health initiative, known as ThriveNYC, is crucial to Ms. McCray’s potential as a future political candidate, and has become increasingly important to Mr. de Blasio as he toys with a possible 2020 presidential bid. He now regularly names Thrive as one of his administration’s core achievements. (Goodman, 3/22)
The Washington Post:
VA Is Gearing Up For A Massive Shift Of Health Care To The Private Sector. But Democrats Are Fighting Back.
President Trump’s signature policy for veterans — allowing more of them to shift their health care from the government-run system to private doctors and hospitals — is under attack from newly empowered Democrats and their allies on Capitol Hill. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie is moving quickly to roll out new rules by June that would expand access to private care, especially for veterans in rural and congested areas, if they have a 30-minute drive to receive primary care. (Rein, 3/21)
Reuters:
Mississippi Governor Signs 'Heartbeat' Abortion Ban
Mississippi's Republican governor signed one of America's strictest abortion bills on Thursday banning women from obtaining an abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can often occur before a woman even realizes she is pregnant. Dubbed the 'heartbeat bill,' this is the second legislative attempt in less than a year aimed at restricting abortions in a state with a single abortion clinic. In a tweet earlier this week, Governor Phil Bryant thanked the state's legislature for "protecting the unborn" by passing the bill and sending it to him for his signature. (3/21)
The Washington Post:
Mississippi's New Fetal-Heartbeat Law Bans Most Abortions At About 6 Weeks
Mississippi’s new restrictions are part of a reinvigorated nationwide effort to limit access to abortion, propelled by Republican-dominated state legislatures and an increasingly conservative Supreme Court. This year alone, 12 states have introduced so-called heartbeat bills, including Texas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Missouri — some of the country’s most populous states. (Thebault, 3/21)
The Associated Press:
Glance At What Some State Legislatures Are Doing On Abortion
Mississippi's governor signed into law one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the country on Thursday. The bill outlaws abortions after the heartbeat of a fetus can be detected, around roughly the sixth week of a pregnancy. The ban is set to take effect on July 1, but abortion-rights advocates have already pledged to file lawsuits to stop it. Actions taken on abortion by legislatures across the United States. (3/21)
The Wall Street Journal:
House Republicans Now Unanimous In Opposing Abortion Rights
The start of a new Democratic-led House this year also marked the end of an era, as the House Republican caucus now doesn’t have a single lawmaker considered a supporter of abortion rights. The unanimity on opposing abortion rights followed the retirements of centrist Republican Reps. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania and Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey. Their ranks could continue to diminish in the Senate, where only GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine remain as supporters of abortion rights. (Peterson, 3/21)
Politico:
Blue States Threaten To Drop Family Planning Program Over Trump Abortion Rule
Some Democratic states plan to withdraw from the main federal family planning program if they can’t win a court challenge to stop the Trump administration from steering the money away from health providers who offer abortions or make abortion referrals. Oregon and Washington already have said they would opt out of the Title X program, which steers $286.5 million for birth control and reproductive health services for low-income women, if the new rules take effect in early May. Maryland could soon join them, and other states may follow. They say the new restrictions would undermine medical care for patients, and, in some cases, violate state laws. (Roubein and Ollstein, 3/21)
The Associated Press:
Poll: More Americans Say Too Little Spending On Health
A growing majority of Americans want greater government spending on health care, and the increase is being driven by both Democrats and Republicans. That's according to new data from the General Social Survey, a widely respected trend survey that has been measuring views of government spending since the 1970s. An analysis by The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and General Social Survey staff reveals that Americans want to spend more money on a wide range of government functions. (3/21)
The Hill:
Government Watchdog: Costly Air Ambulances Can Put Patients At 'Financial Risk'
Air ambulances can be life-saving for critically ill patients who need to get to a hospital quickly, but they can also put patients in financial risk, according to a study conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The median price charged by air ambulance providers in 2017 was from $36,400 to $40,600, and those costs aren't always covered by insurance, according to the report. (Hellmann, 3/21)
The New York Times:
A.I. Can Improve Health Care. It Also Can Be Duped.
Last year, the Food and Drug Administration approved a device that can capture an image of your retina and automatically detect signs of diabetic blindness. This new breed of artificial intelligence technology is rapidly spreading across the medical field, as scientists develop systems that can identify signs of illness and disease in a wide variety of images, from X-rays of the lungs to C.A.T. scans of the brain. These systems promise to help doctors evaluate patients more efficiently, and less expensively, than in the past. (Metz and Smith, 3/21)
Stat:
Digital Health Just Had A Record Year. But Is A Day Of Reckoning Ahead?
On paper, they are health care’s most promising upstarts — companies using data and software to detect the onset of debilitating diseases, deliver medical advice and treatments online, and monitor patients’ steps, sleep, weight, blood sugar, and heart function. In 2018, digital health firms had a record year, raking in $8.1 billion from investors buying into the industry’s efforts to re-engineer the delivery of medical services, according to the venture capital firm Rock Health. That’s a 42 percent increase over the prior year. (Ross, 3/22)
Reuters:
FDA Says Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities Found In Some Medtronic Devices
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday said cybersecurity vulnerabilities were identified in Medtronic Plc's implantable cardiac devices, clinic programmers, and home monitors. But, the FDA recommended the usage of the devices and said the medical device maker was developing updates to further mitigate those vulnerabilities. The health regulator added it was not aware of any reports of patients being harmed. (3/21)
NPR:
How Best To Bring Down Prescription Drug Prices?
A new drug to treat postpartum depression is likely to reach the U.S. market in June, with a $34,000 price tag. The approval of the drug by the Food and Drug Administration comes on the heels of another approval, just two weeks ago, of a different antidepressant, whose retail price will be as much as $6,700 a month. Those giant list prices send shivers through the insurance industry and across the federal government and state governments, which pay for about 40 percent of prescription drugs sold in the United States. (Kodjak, 3/22)
The Hill:
Senate Panel To Hear From Pharmacy Middlemen On Drug Prices
The Senate Finance Committee said Thursday that it has secured commitments from executives of five major pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to testify next month about the high costs of prescription drugs. Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said executives from Cigna, CVS, Humana, OptumRx and Prime Therapeutics have agreed to appear on April 9. (Weixel, 3/21)
The New York Times:
Drug Company Protections Are Latest Stumbling Block For Nafta Rewrite
President Trump’s ability to get his revised North American Free Trade Agreement through Congress may hinge on a little-noticed provision governing intellectual property protections for new pharmaceutical products. Congressional Democrats have seized on measures in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that establish protections for drug companies, saying they are a boon to the pharmaceutical industry and could undermine efforts to make American health care more affordable. (Swanson, 3/21)
Reuters:
Kentucky Launches Probe Into Drug Overcharges By Pharmacy Benefit Managers
Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear said on Thursday he had launched an investigation into allegations that pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) had overcharged state health insurance programs for drugs and discriminated against independent pharmacies. The investigation comes against the backdrop of widespread criticism of rising costs of prescription medicines in the United States, with PBMs, middlemen who negotiate prices for employers and health insurers, coming under intense scrutiny. (3/21)
The Hill:
Oversight Committee Seeks Purdue OxyContin Documents
The House Oversight and Reform Committee is seeking documents from Purdue Pharma related to how the Sackler family aggressively marketed OxyContin, a powerful painkiller that has been blamed for its role in the national opioid crisis. In a letter to Purdue’s president and CEO, Craig Landau, Oversight committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Rep. Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.) asked for a list of all members of the Sackler family who had served on the board of Purdue or worked as company officers. (Weixel, 3/21)
Stat:
House Democrats Request Purdue Pharma Opioid Documents
In a letter to Purdue CEO Craig Landau, Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the committee’s chairman, and Mark DeSaulnier of California asked for a list of Sacklers who had served on the board of Purdue or worked as company officers. The lawmakers are also seeking documents prepared for the Sackler family about the company’s marketing strategies for its medications and communications between company employees and family members. Purdue is fending off increasing accusations that it misled prescribers and patients about the safety of its drugs and helped ignite the addiction crisis. It is a defendant in hundreds of lawsuits from cities, counties, states, and tribes tied to the opioid epidemic.(Joseph, 3/21)
Stat:
FDA Panel Chair And Consumer Advocate Petition FDA To Halt Opioid Approvals
Arguing that the Food and Drug Administration is “culpable” in creating the opioid crisis, a consumer advocacy group and a leading academic — who also chairs an FDA advisory panel — are calling for the agency to impose a moratorium on approving any new or reformulated opioids. In a Citizen’s Petition filed with the FDA, Public Citizen and Dr. Raeford Brown, a professor of anesthesiology and pediatrics at the University of Kentucky, maintained the agency has displayed “dangerously deficient oversight” and that none of more than two dozen opioids approved between 2009 and 2015 provided benefits that outweighed the risks. Two drugs — Opana ER and Dsuvia — were singled out as examples. (Silverman, 3/21)
The Associated Press:
Study: About 4 Percent Of Women Are Pregnant When Jailed
About 4 percent of women incarcerated in state prisons across the U.S. were pregnant when they were jailed, according to a new study released Thursday that researchers hope will help lawmakers and prisons better consider the health of women behind bars. The number of imprisoned women has risen dramatically over the past decades, growing even as the overall prison rates decline. (3/21)
NPR:
What We Do And Don't Know About Pregnancy And Incarceration
The correctional system hasn't adapted to the large increase in incarcerated women, according to study author Dr. Carolyn Sufrin, an OB-GYN at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. And there are profound health and social consequences for the children of incarcerated mothers. She says the report provides the first data that could inform policy changes to address the health and well-being of incarcerated women who are pregnant, and the children born to them. (Lambert, 3/21)
The Associated Press:
Monkey Birth A Step To Saving Fertility Of Boys With Cancer
Scientists are closing in on a way to help young boys undergoing cancer treatment preserve their future fertility — and the proof is the first monkey born from the experimental technology. More and more people are surviving childhood cancer, but nearly 1 in 3 will be left infertile from the chemotherapy or radiation that helped save their life. (3/21)
The Washington Post:
Advance Offers New Hope For Fertility Preservation In Young Boys With Cancer
Susan Taymans, program director of the fertility and infertility branch of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and who oversaw the funding of the study, said that while this experiment was small and limited to monkeys, it raises “a good bit of hope” that the technique can be further developed for use in regular medical practice — possibly even in the lifetime of today’s boys. (Cha, 3/21)
The Wall Street Journal:
New Hope For Fertility Of Young Cancer Patients Using Frozen Testicular Tissue
“I’m excited about this work because it truly addresses a need in human clinical care,” says Robert Brannigan, a professor of urology at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine who wasn’t involved in the work, noting that the procedure is still experimental. “The proof of principle is one that’s very encouraging.” (Abbott, 3/21)
Stat:
Alzheimer's And Amyloid: 'It's Time To Do Something Else'
If there is anything more certain than the failure of experimental Alzheimer’s drugs — nearly 300, at last count — it is the immediate reaction of many diehard supporters of the amyloid hypothesis: They insist that idea, which served as the basis for most of those compounds, is still sound. Roche pulls the plug on its anti-amyloid antibody crenezumab in January, after it has no chance of showing any benefit? Not enough to kill the amyloid hypothesis. Merck bails on verubecstat, which shut down production of toxic amyloid, in 2017? Still not enough. Eli Lilly announces in 2016 that its anti-amyloid solanezumab failed to show benefit in people with mild Alzheimer’s? (Begley, 3/21)
Bloomberg:
Alzheimer's Drug Fails And Scientists Ask, Is It Time To Move On?
This week, Biogen Inc. and Eisai Co. joined the ranks of frustrated companies that spent years nurturing expensive, experimental therapies that ultimately fell short. Many scientists and drug developers are now asking whether it could be time to find another approach to treat the pernicious memory-wasting disease. The brain has been a black box for drug developers, but focusing on beta amyloid has long been viewed as the best hope for treating the mysterious ailment that affects millions of Americans and their families. For many, the hypothesis became an article of faith, motivating billions of dollars in research spending and putting thousands of patients through clinical trials. (Langreth, 3/22)
USA Today:
Loneliness Soars Among Teens Along With Social Media Use, Study Says
Teens whose face time with friends is mostly on their phones are the loneliest of all, but even those who mix real-world socializing with social media still are increasingly isolated, a report out Wednesday shows. Loneliness isn't just an age thing; it's generational, says the author of the study, San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge. The percent of high school seniors who said they often felt lonely increased from 26 percent in 2012 to 39 percent in 2017. The number of 12th graders who said they often felt left out also increased, from 30 percent in 2012 to 38 percent in 2017. (O'Donnell, 3/20)
NPR:
Minorities Neglected In Human Genetics Research That Focuses On White Europeans
Precision medicine promises to tailor the diagnosis and treatment of disease to your unique genetic makeup. A doctor may use the presence of certain genetic markers to diagnose a disease, or choose one drug for treatment over another. But the studies that link genetic markers with disease focus largely on white European populations and neglect other races and ethnicities, according to an analysis published in the journal Cell on Thursday. (Lambert, 3/21)
The New York Times:
Trigger Warnings May Not Do Much, Early Studies Suggest
For years, they have been the subject of impassioned academic debate: Trigger warnings, do they protect people from distress or encourage fragility? The warnings, which alert individuals to disturbing material, have been talked about, used and promoted on college campuses and elsewhere for more than a decade, but little was known about how well they work. Now, a pair of recent studies suggest that they may have little effect at all. (Chokshi, 3/22)
The Wall Street Journal:
Despite Rulings, Farmers Remain Loyal To Bayer’s Roundup
Farmers are standing by Bayer AG’s Roundup herbicide despite rulings from two juries that the world’s most widely used weedkiller caused cancer in plaintiffs. The chemical, used on the vast majority of corn, soybean and cotton acres planted in the U.S., remains prized by farmers for its low cost and effectiveness. (Bunge, 3/21)
Reuters:
UPS Eyes In-Home Health Services With U.S. Vaccine Project
United Parcel Service Inc wants to get beyond U.S. doorsteps with a new push into healthcare. The world's largest package delivery firm is preparing to test a U.S. service that dispatches nurses to vaccinate adults in their homes, Reuters has learned, as the company and its healthcare clients work to fend off cost pressures and competitive threats from Amazon.com. (Baertlein and Erman, 3/22)
NPR:
New Postpartum Depression Drug Zulresso Offers Promise, High Price Tag
One in nine women in the United States suffer from depression after childbirth. For some women, postpartum depression is so bad that they struggle to care for their children and may even consider or attempt suicide. This week, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new drug that can help, the first drug approved specifically for postpartum depression. While researchers and clinicians are excited about the drug's potential, some foresee obstacles to making it available to women who need it the most. (Chatterjee, 3/21)
Bloomberg:
Zulresso Postpartum Depression Drug Still Has High Hurdles
Zulresso, the world’s first-ever drug for postpartum depression, cleared a major hurdle when it won approval from the Food and Drug Administration this week. Even bigger challenges lie ahead for Sage Therepeutics Inc., the drug’s developer. Zulresso, the brand name for brexanolone, works much faster to treat the condition than anything currently available. Experts have hailed it as “groundbreaking,” a “game changer.” And postpartum depression affects as many as one in nine new mothers. These facts alone would suggest the drug is destined to be a blockbuster. Yet there’s a difference between a drug that works and a drug that sells. (Koons, 3/22)
Stat:
Sage's CEO Reflects On Progress Treating Postpartum Depression
On Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration approved brexanolone, the first drug specifically targeted to treat postpartum depression. To be marketed as Zulresso, it’s the first drug developed by and approved from Sage Therapeutics of Cambridge, Mass. Jeff Jonas, Sage’s CEO, recently chatted with STAT about the drug, its price, and how it’s administered. He also shared some thoughts on Biogen and the failure of its biggest hope for an Alzheimer’s drug. (Ambrose, Feuerstein and Herper, 3/22)
The Washington Post:
Homeless, Living In A Tent And Employed: The Changing Face Of Homelessness In The U.S.
Before 10 a.m. on another cold Thursday, Monica Diaz stirred in her tent, filled with dread. It had been two weeks since the last cleanup, and city workers would again be here soon, with their dumpster truck and police cars, to clear out the encampment. Every morning was awful, but these were the worst of all, when Monica, who’d otherwise be resting before work, was forced to confront publicly what she did her best to hide: that she’s homeless. That she lives in a tent. That she just turned 40, and that this is somehow her life. “You ready?” Monica asked her husband, after a sleepless night at the base of Union Station, near CNN’s Washington bureau, where the noise never stopped and they’d huddled together with their dog, Sassy, against the cold. (McCoy, 3/22)
The Associated Press:
Vermont Hospital Email Hack Exposes Info Of More Than 72,000
Officials at a Vermont hospital say the information of more than 72,000 people may have been exposed during an email hack. Rutland Regional Medical Center says the email accounts had information such as patient names, medical records and contact information, as well as more than 3,500 Social Security numbers. The breach was first discovered in December after an employee noticed a large number of spam emails sent from their account. (3/21)
Los Angeles Times:
Gov. Newsom May Prohibit New Death Sentences, Setting Up Possible Conflict With Becerra
A week after issuing an executive order imposing a blanket moratorium on the execution of California death row inmates, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he is considering a plan to prohibit any new death sentences in local criminal cases. Newsom’s pronouncement could create conflict with another top Democratic leader, state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra, who has supported capital punishment, even though the governor said he wants to work collaboratively with the attorney general. (Willon and McGreevy, 3/21)
The Associated Press:
Benzene Warning Lifted Near Houston-Area Petrochemical Plant
Residents near a petrochemical storage terminal in the Houston suburb of Deer Park were warned to shelter in place for several hours on Thursday after elevated levels of benzene were detected in the air. The warning was lifted around noon after air-quality readings improved, but health officials said air monitoring will continue as firefighters and company officials work to stop any risk of a flare-up and to clean up the site. (3/21)
The Associated Press:
CEO Of Maryland Medical System Taking Leave Of Absence
The president and CEO of the University of Maryland Medical System is taking a temporary leave of absence after reports that about a third of the system’s board has received compensation for their businesses through the network’s contracts, the chairman of the board announced Thursday. Board Chairman Stephen Burch said Robert Chrencik’s leave of absence will begin Monday. (Witte, 3/21)