Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: September 12, 2016
Kaiser Health News: Better Training, Tourniquets And Techniques Since 9/11 Are Saving Lives
Kaiser Health News staff writer Rachel Bluth reports: "War abroad and carnage at home since 9/11 have taught Americans much about saving lives after violent tragedies. Whether they were hurt in mass shootings or gruesome car accidents, it’s not uncommon for victims to bleed to death on the scene because trained assistance didn’t arrive in time to help them. But one of the most powerful initiatives in trauma care in the past 15 years might make a difference." (Bluth, 9/12)
Kaiser Health News: Colorado Gun Shops Work Together To Prevent Suicides
It’s ladies night at the Centennial Gun Club in a suburb of Denver. More than 80 women are here for safety instruction and target practice. Tonight the club is offering more than shooting, though. The women rotate through the firing range, and in another large room, they hear a sobering presentation from emergency room doctor Emmy Betz. She’s part of a collaboration between gun shops and public health leaders in the state to help prevent suicide. (Daley, 9/12)
The New York Times: Dropout By Dartmouth Raises Questions On Health Law Cost-Savings Effort
In its quest to remake the nation’s health care system, the Obama administration has urged doctors and hospitals to band together to improve care and cut costs, using a model devised by researchers at Dartmouth College. But Dartmouth itself, facing mounting financial losses in the federal program, has dropped out, raising questions about the future of the new entities known as accountable care organizations, created under the Affordable Care Act. (Pear, 9/10)
The Associated Press: NY Regulators Announce Measure To Protect Some Insurers
New York's Department of Financial Services has issued an emergency regulation intended to help the state's health insurers deal with a federal requirement that puts some under sharp financial stress. The federally mandated program for adjusting financial risk under the Affordable Care Act transfers pooled funds to plans showing higher-risk clients. (9/11)
The New York Times: Health Care Providers Scramble To Meet New Disaster Readiness Rule
An estimated 72,315 American health care providers and suppliers — from hospitals and nursing homes to dialysis facilities and care homes for those with intellectual disabilities — will have a little over a year to meet federal disaster preparedness requirements completed this week by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The new rule is aimed at preventing the severe breakdown in patient care that followed disasters including Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy, while also strengthening the ability to provide services during other types of emergencies, such as pandemics and terrorist attacks. (Fink, 9/9)
Los Angeles Times: 15 Years Later, Sept. 11 Responders Might Be Sick And Not Even Know It
Making the decision to help 15 years ago might end Garrett Goodwin's life early. Goodwin, 39, was one of tens of thousands of people at ground zero right after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. A trained medic, he traveled from Tampa, Fla., to New York to volunteer. But now, his lungs are failing him, and doctors say that will lead to his death. Goodwin is one of many volunteers who spent long hours toiling in the World Trade Center ruins, where toxic fumes have left many sick or dead. (Bowen, 9/9)
The Washington Post: Clinton Falls Ill During 9/11 Memorial Service In New York
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton fell ill during a memorial service marking the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, leaving abruptly and inserting new speculation about her health into a presidential campaign in which Republican Donald Trump has called her weak and unfit. Video of Clinton’s hurried departure from the Ground Zero memorial showed her buckling and stumbling as she got into her van. Clinton’s campaign issued a statement from her doctor later Sunday revealing that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia two days earlier. (Phillip and Gearan, 9/11)
The Wall Street Journal: Hillary Clinton’s Pneumonia Jolts The Presidential Race
Hillary Clinton’s campaign said Sunday she had been diagnosed with pneumonia and would cancel a planned two-day swing through California, hours after the Democratic presidential nominee abruptly left a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York for what her aides described as her feeling “overheated.” The diagnosis, coupled with a remark by Mrs. Clinton late Friday criticizing some Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables,” is an unwelcome distraction for a campaign facing a tightening of polls in recent weeks. (Nicholas and Hook, 9/12)
The New York Times: Hillary Clinton Has Pneumonia: What That Means
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, has pneumonia, her doctor said in a statement on Sunday. Here are some facts about the illness: what it is, what it does and how people recover. (Chokshi, 9/11)
Reuters: Clinton Spokeswoman Defends Drug Plan After Pfizer Comments
U.S. Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's spokeswoman said on Friday Clinton's plan to curb drug spending was not the blow to medical innovation that Pfizer Inc Chief Executive Ian Read described it as being on Thursday. "Throughout this campaign, Hillary Clinton has called for expanding investments in innovation for healthcare, from a cure for Alzheimer's to building on Vice President Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative," campaign spokeswoman Julie Wood said in an emailed statement. (Humer and Pierson, 9/9)
The Wall Street Journal: Zika-Funding Deal Nears With Talk Of Dropping Planned Parenthood Clause
Lawmakers are edging closer to breaking a monthslong impasse over funds to combat the Zika virus, as Republican lawmakers and aides said they expected to drop a contentious provision that would effectively block funding to clinics in Puerto Rico that work with Planned Parenthood. Lawmakers and aides from both parties said Friday they anticipated that this month Congress would pass a package combining Zika funding with a spending bill that would keep the government running until early December. The government’s current funding is scheduled to expire at midnight on Sept. 30. (Peterson, 9/9)
The Associated Press: Puerto Rico Doctors Warn Of Scarce Resources To Fight Zika
Doctors in Puerto Rico are warning that the U.S. territory does not have the resources to handle the fallout of a Zika epidemic as officials report an uptick in the number of fetuses with malformations that were carried by women infected with the virus. The cases are among the first of what health officials believe could reach a couple hundred next year, sparking concerns about the lack of funds and specialists needed to care for children with severe birth defects on an island mired in a deep economic crisis. (9/9)
The Wall Street Journal: Google Parent And Sanofi Name Diabetes Joint Venture Onduo
French pharmaceutical group Sanofi SA is joining with Verily Life Sciences LLC, a unit of Google parent Alphabet, to create a joint venture called Onduo to research diabetes treatments.“ Onduo’s mission is to help people with diabetes live full, healthy lives by developing comprehensive solutions that combine devices, software, medicine, and professional care to enable simple and intelligent disease management,” Sanofi and Verily, which was previously known as Google Life Science, said. (Landauro, 9/12)
The Wall Street Journal: Big Pharma, Not Small Investors, Is Driving Biotech Values Now
The needs of big drugmakers are driving the stock-price outlook of smaller biotech companies. That suggests the brightening investment environment could stick around. The biotech market has heated back up after an ugly start to the year. Placid markets have lowered the cost of issuing equity, and deals are back on the table now after a lull. The recent sale of Medivation to Pfizer fetched $14 billion including debt, far more than investors expected, with no shortage of suitors. Despite Friday’s selloff, the Nasdaq Biotechnology Index has returned 8.5% over the past six months. Smaller companies generally have done better. (Grant, 9/11)
The Washington Post: A Maker Of Deadly Painkillers Is Bankrolling The Opposition To Legal Marijuana In Arizona
The campaign against marijuana legalization in Arizona received a major infusion of cash last week from a synthetic cannabis drugmaker that has been investigated for alleged improper marketing of a highly addictive prescription painkiller, according to campaign finance reports. The $500,000 donation from Insys Therapeutics, based in Chandler, Ariz., amounts to more than one-third of all money raised by Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, the group opposing legalization. It's one of the largest single contributions to any anti-legalization campaign ever, according to campaign finance records maintained by ballotpedia.com. (Ingraham, 9/9)
The Associated Press: Cops: Photos Of Boy With Passed-Out Adults Show Drug Scourge
A safety director in a city that released photos of a 4-year-old boy in a vehicle with two adults slumped over after overdosing on heroin and fentanyl said Friday he and others wanted to send a message to addicts they should find safe places for their children when using debilitating drugs. The photos were taken Wednesday in East Liverpool, a city of about 11,000 residents along the Ohio River, and were posted to the police department’s Facebook page Thursday. (Gillispie, 9/9)
The Washington Post: Newest Superbug Found In A Connecticut Toddler
This summer, a Pennsylvania woman was found to carry a superbug that is resistant to the antibiotic of last resort, causing alarm about the potential of dangerous drug resistance spreading across the United States. Ever since, health researchers have been looking for where else such germs might be lurking. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the superbug popped up in a 2-year-old girl in Connecticut. She got sick in June and was found to have a strain of E. coli bacteria with the antibiotic-resistance gene known as mcr-1, making her the fourth human case in the United States identified so far. (Sun, 9/9)
NPR: A Map To Help Cancer Doctors Find Their Way
What if doctors could call up a computerized map that would show them how a case of cancer is likely to progress? Tumor cells can mutate in unexpected ways. And cancers can suddenly grow. For doctors, anticipating cancer's next moves can help guide timely, effective patient treatment. A mapping program, called PiCnIc for short, aims to help physicians in staying a step ahead of cancer and preparing long-term treatment plans with fewer elements of surprise. (Kim, 9/9)
The Washington Post: Vitamin D May Help Cut Down Asthma Attacks
For anyone with asthma, preventing attacks of wheezing, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath is a top priority. Might vitamin D help? (Searing, 9/10)
