Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
KHN First Edition: June 1, 2018
Kaiser Health News: Listen: As Puerto Rico Struggles To Rebuild Health System, Changes In Medicaid Loom
KHN reporter Carmen Heredia Rodriguez joins in a discussion on WNYC’s “The Takeaway” about health care issues following widespread destruction by Hurricane Maria on the island. (5/31)
Kaiser Health News: Virginia Reverses Course On Medicaid Expansion
After years of fighting Democratic governors who wanted to expand the state’s health program for low-income residents, lawmakers in Richmond Wednesday agreed to the measure. Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, discusses the development with WAMU. (5/31)
The Washington Post: Why The Trump Administration Made It Easier For Virginia Republicans To Expand Medicaid
In becoming the first state in nearly two years to open Medicaid to more of its poor residents, Virginia lawmakers found political buffering and momentum in a recent conservative health policy shift in Washington. Three of four Republican state senators who defected from their caucus’s long-held opposition to expanding Medicaid cited the fact that the Trump administration is allowing states to impose work requirements for the first time in the half-century history of this central piece of the nation’s social safety net. (Goldstein and Vozzella, 5/31)
The Wall Street Journal: Trump Administration Targets State Rules That Women Must Be Told Of Abortion Services
The Department of Health and Human Services is investigating requirements by California and Hawaii that anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers” tell women about state-subsidized family-planning services including abortion, according to people familiar with the matter. The HHS Office for Civil Rights has sent letters to the two states saying it has legal authority to investigate these requirements and is doing so, according to the people. The move is part of a new approach under the Trump administration to use civil rights law to roll back Obama-era health-care rules. (Armour, 5/31)
The Washington Post: Arkansas Abortion Pill Restriction Seen As Both Protecting Women And A Major Rights Setback
Stephanie Ho and her staff scrambled to call patients, canceling appointments for the women who had sought the two-pill medical abortions that the Fayetteville Health Center offered. It was moments after the U.S. Supreme Court declined Tuesday to hear a case challenging an Arkansas law that effectively prohibits medical abortions in the state, and Ho’s practice needed to ensure the women knew that option was no longer available to them. Women in Arkansas who had sought to take what is commonly known as “the abortion pill” now would have to travel to the only abortion clinic in Arkansas that offers surgical abortions, in Little Rock. (Wax-Thibodeaux, 5/31)
The Associated Press: Students, Anti-Abortion Group At Odds Over Fellowship
Student activists at the University of Minnesota are trying to reinstate a medical school fellowship in reproductive health that the school has delayed following opposition from anti-abortion groups. University officials announced this month that the fellowship would be delayed for a year as they examine the value of the training. The program was scheduled to begin this fall. (5/31)
The New York Times: Sergeant Sues Defense Dept. Over ‘Outdated’ H.I.V. Policies
Army Sgt. Nick Harrison learned he was infected with H.I.V. six years ago, but the once fatal diagnosis has barely changed his routine at work or at home because he keeps the virus in check with a once-a-day pill. The only thing H.I.V. crippled was his military career. The military bars anyone with the virus that causes AIDS from joining. Policies crafted in the 1980s allow troops who contract the disease while in the military to stay as long as they remain otherwise healthy, but bars them from deploying in nearly all cases. (Philipps, 5/31)
NPR: Study Aims To Show Transplants Between HIV-Positive Patients Are Safe, Save Lives
A large-scale clinical trial launched by the National Institutes of Health in May could pave the way for more HIV-positive patients with kidney disease to receive life-saving transplants. The trial, called the HOPE in Action Multicenter Kidney Study, will assess the risks of transplanting kidneys from HIV-positive donors into patients living with the virus, says Dr. Christine Durand, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University and a principal investigator of the study. (Forman, 6/1)
The Hill: Number Of Opioid Prescriptions Falls For Fifth Year In A Row
The number of opioid prescriptions issued nationwide has dropped by 22 percent between 2013 and 2017, which a doctors group touted as progress in fighting the epidemic of opioid addiction. The report from the American Medical Association (AMA) finds there were 55 million fewer prescriptions over that time period and the number of prescriptions has dropped for five years in a row. (Sullivan, 5/31)
The Wall Street Journal: Philadelphia Clears Two Opioid Tent Camps
Philadelphia authorities on Wednesday cleared two tent camps where opioid users congregated, capping a monthlong effort to move people into treatment and shelters. Four tunnels filled with tents and mattresses beneath a freight railway have become highly visible symbols of the city’s drug problem, spilling out into Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood. Deeming the tunnels health and safety hazards, the city cleared two of them as part of a pilot project. (Kamp, 5/31)
Los Angeles Times: California Is Now Paying For People To Test Their Drugs For Fentanyl
As the death toll from the nation’s opioid crisis swells, California officials have launched an experiment: paying for people to test their drugs for fentanyl. Fentanyl, an opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin, is responsible for a growing number of overdose deaths each year. Typically manufactured as a white powder, it can be mixed into other drugs such as heroin and cocaine without the user knowing, but with extreme consequences. (Karlamangla, 5/30)
The Associated Press: Opioid Maker Seeks Dismissal Of Alaska Lawsuit
An attorney for Purdue Pharma, the company that makes the prescription opioid painkiller OxyContin, told an Alaska judge Thursday that there is an opioid crisis but the state has no legal basis for trying to pin that crisis on the company. (Bohrer, 5/31)
Bloomberg: Utah Sues Purdue Pharma After Opioid Settlement Talks Founder
Utah sued OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP after talks sponsored by state attorneys general failed to yield a settlement over the company’s handling of the opioid painkiller. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said Thursday that after months of negotiations in the so-called multi-state talks with Purdue about its role in the U.S. opioid epidemic, the negotiations were “no longer effective.” (Feeley, 5/31)
Stat: Another Insys Sales Rep Pleads Guilty To Bribing Docs To Prescribe Subsys
Yet another former Insys Therapeutics (INSY) sales rep has pleaded guilty to bribing doctors to write prescriptions for the Subsys opioid painkiller, which contains fentanyl and carries a high risk of dependency. Michelle Breitenbach, 38, who worked in New Jersey for the drug maker, paid kickbacks and bribes to an unspecified number of physicians in the form of speaking fees for purported education events, according to the New Jersey attorney general. She faces up to five years in prison. (Silverman, 5/31)
The Associated Press: Recreational Pot Measure Likely Headed To Michigan Ballot
Worried that Michigan voters might legalize recreational marijuana this fall, some Republican lawmakers think they have a way to apply the brakes: pass it themselves first to make it easier to change later. To be clear, passage in the Legislature is a longshot. Republican House Speaker Tom Leonard said it would take a “marijuana miracle” for the House to vote on it by a Tuesday deadline. Republicans, who control both chambers, are divided on the issue and Democratic leaders want voters to decide. (Eggert, 6/1)
The Washington Post: Romaine Lettuce Made 172 People Sick. Government Investigators Might Never Know Why.
More than seven weeks after the start of a massive E. coli illness outbreak from romaine lettuce that sickened 172 people and caused romaine sales to plummet 45 percent, the Food and Drug Administration says it has no idea who or what caused the contamination. Agency investigators have not managed to trace the affected lettuce back to one farm, processor or distributor, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in an update Thursday. And with the affected lettuce now off shelves and the growing season over, there’s a chance the FDA may never crack the case. (Dewey, 5/31)
Los Angeles Times: Homelessness Dips In L.A. And Countywide, But More People Are Living On The Streets For The First Time
After three years of precipitous increases, homelessness dipped slightly this year, the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported Thursday, providing a hopeful sign that new money flowing into housing and services is having an effect. But in releasing results of the 2018 count, officials also warned that the number of people falling into homelessness for the first time increased, holding back the potential gains. And the report noted that three out of four homeless people in the county live on the street, a figure unchanged from last year. (Smith, Holland and Smith, 5/31)
Reuters: Special Report: In Louisiana Jail, Deaths Mount As Mental Health Pleas Unheeded
The East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, a squat brick building with low-slung ceilings and walls sometimes smeared with feces, is the face of a paradigm shift: penitentiaries as mental health care providers. Across the United States thousands of jails are sheltering a wave of inmates accused of crimes and serving time while suffering from illnesses ranging from depression to schizophrenia. (Fares and Levinson, 5/31)
Stat: With Positive Data, Madrigal Joins Lucrative Race To Treat Fatty Liver Disease
Nine months of treatment with an experimental pill from Madrigal Pharmaceuticals resulted in the significant reversal of the fatty liver disease known as NASH, according to updated data from a placebo-controlled clinical trial released Thursday. A significantly greater number of patients taking the Madrigal drug also saw NASH liver symptoms resolve completely. There was a more modest reduction in the most troublesome tissue-scarring process known as fibrosis. The Madrigal drug is called MGL-3196. (Feuerstein, 5/31)
NPR: When Scientists Develop Products From Personal Medical Data, Who Gets To Profit?
If you go to the hospital for medical treatment and scientists there decide to use your medical information to create a commercial product, are you owed anything as part of the bargain? That's one of the questions that is emerging as researchers and product developers eagerly delve into digital data such as CT scans and electronic medical records, making artificial-intelligence products that are helping doctors to manage information and even to help them diagnose disease. (Harris, 5/31)
Los Angeles Times: Rick Caruso Is Named Chair Of USC's Trustees, Vows Swift Investigation Of Gynecologist Scandal
The University of Southern California’s board of trustees has elected mall magnate Rick Caruso to be the new chair of the board, giving fresh leadership as the university navigates a widening scandal involving a longtime campus gynecologist. The move marks the latest effort by USC to address the case, which has sparked a criminal investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and dozens of civil lawsuits. More than 400 people have contacted a hotline that the university established for patients to make reports about their experience with Dr. George Tyndall. (Hamilton, Ryan and Curwen, 5/31)
Los Angeles Times: UCLA Doctor Stripped Of License, Accused Of Sexually Assaulting Former County-USC Hospital Colleagues
A UCLA cardiologist has been temporarily stripped of his medical license after state regulators described him as a “sexual predator” who assaulted three female colleagues when he was working and training at L.A. County-USC Medical Center. (Parvini and Hamilton, 5/31)
The Associated Press: Oregon Looks Into Price Gouging As City Faces Tainted Water
The National Guard will hand out free water to residents who can’t drink tap water contaminated by an algae bloom in the Salem, Oregon, area, and state law enforcement authorities are looking into claims of price gouging after officials extended an emergency drinking water advisory. Gov. Kate Brown’s office said Thursday the water will be distributed to people at 10 locations in the state’s capital and Stayton because of toxins created by a bloom at Detroit Lake, a municipal reservoir. (James, 6/1)
The New York Times: How Many People Can’t Tolerate Statins?
Studies show that about 5 percent to 10 percent of people are unable to tolerate statins, largely because of muscle aches and related side effects, including potential muscle damage. But many people who have been labeled intolerant to the drugs probably are not, and medical researchers, normally a genteel lot, disagree sharply on the extent to which side effects are a problem. (Klasco, 6/1)
Reuters: National Basketball Players Association Adds First Director Of Mental Health
The National Basketball Players Association named Dr. William D. Parham its first director of mental health and wellness on Thursday. In his role, Parham will oversee the development and management of the newly launched NBPA Mental Health and Wellness Program designed to assist all members of the union in addressing any mental heath challenges or issues they face. (5/31)
