Latest KFF Health News Stories
Read recent commentaries about drug-cost issues.
News outlets report on stories related to pharmaceutical pricing.
EPA Disregarded Its Own Scientists’ Warnings When It Issued Restrictions But Not A Ban On Asbestos
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said when the rule was issued that it would significantly strengthen public health protections. But in the memos dated Aug. 10, more than a dozen of the agency’s own experts urged the EPA to ban asbestos outright, as do most other industrialized nations.
Lawmakers Raise Red Flags About How Health Apps Use, Share Data Of Patients
Guidelines might be necessary, says Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) as federal agencies push for a free exchange of information. News on technology and health focuses on price comparing on smartphones, interoperability, Google’s health leaders and more.
Judge Stops Short Of Permanent Injunction Of 340B Medicare Rate Cuts, But Halts Them For Now
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras is ordering the government the deficiencies in the rule. HHS Secretary Alex Azar “patently violated the Medicare Act’s text,” the judge wrote. “Unlike cases in which the agency’s decision may have been lawful, but was inadequately explained … no amount of reasoning on remand will allow the secretary to re-implement the 340B rates in the same manner.”
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday lawmakers discussed ideas to curb high drug prices, such as the international price index and using the patent system to increase competition in the marketplace. “I think we’re dangerously close to building a bipartisanship consensus around change,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said during the hearing.
Heartbeat bills are popular in the anti-abortion movement despite the fact that they’ve been repeatedly knocked down in court. Gov. Brian Kemp (R-Ga.) said he approved the bill “to ensure that all Georgians have the opportunity to live, grow, learn and prosper in our great state.” Abortion news comes out of Wisconsin, Virginia, Texas and Pennsylvania, as well.
And huge disparities persist in maternal death rates for African-American, Native American and Alaska Native women. “The bottom line is that too many women are dying largely preventable deaths associated with their pregnancy,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC, told The New York Times.
Tennessee May Be First State To Achieve Longtime GOP Goal Of Shifting To Medicaid Block Grants
Proponents of the block grant model say it gives states flexibility to more efficiently run their programs and try novel ideas to lower costs. But opponents, including providers and patient advocacy groups, warn that capped models like block grants or per-capita caps would lead to reduced Medicaid funding over time and require states to cut enrollment, benefits and payment rates.
The poverty level is used to determine things like who qualifies for Medicaid and food stamps. Critics seized on the proposal as the Trump administration’s latest broadside against those struggling the most to make ends meet.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
New Hampshire Health Care Professionals Want Lawmakers To Unfreeze Medicaid Reimbursement Rates
The rates have remained mostly stagnant for the past 13 years. Other Medicaid news comes from Oregon, California and Georgia, as well.
Major Mental Health And Addiction Treatment Center To Settle Allegations It Defrauded Medicaid
The company is accused of billing Medicaid for marked up costs for blood and urine tests.
Media outlets report on news from Pennsylvania, Arizona, California, Minnesota, Illinois, Massachusetts and Maryland.
Opinion writers weigh in on these health topics and others.
CMS wants to make it easier for insurers to sell across state lines, but those companies say it’s not regulations that are stopping them. “These states have each taken a different approach, none of which has, to date, resulted in insurers offering comprehensive health insurance in a state in which it is not licensed,” the National Association of Insurance Commissioners said in a comment letter. “This shows that the impediments to interstate sales are not in federal law but are inherent in the business of health insurance.” In other health law and insurance news: accountable care organizations, preexisting conditions protections, and enrollment.
“With all honesty, we are in the early stages” of applying artificial intelligence to cancer care and research, said Dr. Bernardo Goulart, lead author of the study. Other news on technology and health looks at future challenges of certifying devices, data breaches, patients rights and social care networks.
Beneath The Bright, Tantalizing Promises Of Stem Cell Industry Festers A Dark Underbelly
Alongside legitimate, scientifically proven treatments, an industry has sprung up in which largely unregulated, specialized clinics offer unproven “miracle” remedies from poorly understood stem cell products. In other public health news: strokes, conference room air, heart failure, anesthesia, food safety and more.
What harm, if any, is caused by systemic exposure to the chemicals remains unclear, according to the study. But the FDA is asking sunscreen manufacturers to research the effects.
In Nursing, Experiencing Trauma And The Resulting PTSD Is A Fact Of Life
As many as one in four nurses experience PTSD at some point in their careers. The stressful environment of nursing can support many the “triggers and traumas of PTSD,” Meredith Mealer, an associate professor at the Anschutz Medical Campus at the University of Colorado, Denver, tells The New York Times. “Nurses see people die. They work on resuscitating patients. They try to control bleeding. They have end-of-life discussions. And sometimes they are verbally or physically abused by patients or visiting family members.”
