Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Judge To OK Purdue Pharma $7 Billion Bankruptcy Plan
The New York Times: Judge To Approve Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy, Releasing Billions For Opioid Plaintiffs
The drugmaker Purdue Pharma, which along with its owners came to symbolize greedy indifference to surging opioid overdose deaths, will soon cease to exist, after a bankruptcy judge said Friday that he would give final approval to a plan to settle thousands of lawsuits against the company. The agreement comes more than two decades after the first legal actions were filed against Purdue over its aggressive sales tactics and promotion of the opioid painkiller OxyContin as largely nonaddictive. (Hoffman, 11/14)
More health news from across the U.S. —
Bloomberg: Judge Denies Texas Bid For Bar On Tylenol Marketing In State
A judge rejected for now a bid by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to bar Tylenol-maker Kenvue Inc. from marketing its over-the-counter pain medication as being safe for pregnant women within the state. After a hearing Friday, State District Judge LeAnn Rafferty denied Paxton’s request for a temporary restraining order, court records show. The attorney general sued Kenvue and its former parent Johnson & Johnson on Oct. 28, claiming they concealed the risks of autism and other disorders for children if mothers take Tylenol during pregnancy. (Mekelburg, Feeley, and Brown, 11/14)
New Hampshire Public Radio: NH One Step Closer To Imposing Work Requirements For Medicaid Expansion Recipients
New Hampshire is one step closer to imposing work requirements for Medicaid recipients, as a legislative committee this week approved amendments to the state’s expanded Medicaid program. But the plan moving ahead in the State House would go further than what the federal government has proposed. (11/14)
North Carolina Health News: Eye Surgeon's Lawsuit Could Upend NC's Certificate Of Need Law
A New Bern eye surgeon who is challenging North Carolina’s laws that cap the kinds of medical services, facilities and equipment that can be offered in geographic regions of the state will take his case back to court this week. Jay Singleton, owner of Singleton Vision Center has been fighting for five and a half years to upend how health care industries have done business in this state for nearly half a century. (Blythe, 11/17)
Iowa Public Radio: Iowa's Prison Health Care System: Jobs Lost To Privatization
The Iowa Department of Corrections announced Friday that it is no longer pursuing privatization of medical care in the state’s prisons, according to two current medical employees and Todd Copley, a local union president. (Delkamiller, 11/14)
AP: Victims Hospitalized As Oklahoma Town Cleans Up Ammonia Leak
At least seven people remained hospitalized Friday from injuries they suffered from an ammonia leak in a small Oklahoma town as authorities focused on how the potentially deadly gas began spewing out of the tanker truck carrying it. The leak Wednesday night from a truck outside a hotel in Weatherford forced at least 500 to 600 people to evacuate their homes early Thursday while others were ordered to remain inside theirs for several hours. Firefighters went door-to-door to tell those who needed to leave. (Hanna and Hollingsworth, 11/14)
Chicago Tribune: Orland Park Facility Offers Free Services For Cancer Patients
Cancer patients in the south suburbs have a new ally as they face the reality of what it takes to try to beat the disease, thanks to a resource center that treats the whole patient. (Moore, 11/14)
The Washington Post: She Told Police Her Boyfriend Strangled Her. Weeks Later, They Say, He Shot Her.
Prosecutors, experts and family say Cristwell’s story reflects the complicated reality of domestic violence and a system that too often fails those it’s meant to protect. (Benn Jr., 11/16)
KFF Health News: Once A Patient’s In Custody, ICE Can Be At Hospital Bedsides — But Detainees Have Rights
In July, federal immigration agents took Milagro Solis-Portillo to Glendale Memorial Hospital just outside Los Angeles after she suffered a medical emergency while being detained. They didn’t leave. For two weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractors sat guard in the hospital lobby 24 hours a day, working in shifts to monitor her movements, her attorney Ming Tanigawa-Lau said. (Boyd-Barrett, 11/17)
Also —
AP: Fetterman Says He's Back Home After A Fall Put The Senator In The Hospital
Sen. John Fetterman says he has returned home to his family in Pennsylvania after being hospitalized due to what his office said was a ventricular fibrillation flare-up that caused him to feel light-headed and fall during an early morning walk Thursday. (11/16)
AP: Alice Wong, Disability Rights Activist And Author, Dead At Age 51
Alice Wong, a disability rights activist and author whose independence and writing inspired others, has died. She was 51. Wong died of an infection Friday at a hospital in San Francisco, said Sandy Ho, a close friend who has been in touch with Wong’s family. Ho called her friend a “luminary of the disability justice movement” who wanted a world in which people with disabilities, especially ones of marginalized demographics who were people of color, LGBTQ and immigrants, could live freely and have full autonomy over their lives and decisions. (11/16)
