Latest KFF Health News Stories
Trial To Begin For Insys Founder Accused Of Engineering Bribes, Kickbacks To Push Powerful Opioid
John Kapoor and four other former Insys Therapeutics executives go on trial in Boston this week over business practices that prosectors equate to mobster tactics. In other news: developments in a lawsuit again the maker of OxyContin and investigations of doctors and a nurse also make headlines.
Drugmaker’s Strategy To Use Tribe’s Sovereign Immunity To Avoid Generics Competition Draws Scrutiny
The Supreme Court will be asked to rule on a deal between Allergan and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe that some consumer groups see as an abuse of the patent system with the intention of limiting market competition. So far, the drugmaker has not been successful in arguing the case that it’s protecting its intellectual property. Meanwhile, the deal is likely to be front-and-center when Congress, which has just announced a broad investigation into drug prices, looks at patents’ role in high costs.
Trump Gives $100,000 From Salary To National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
President Donald Trump’s older brother suffered from and died of alcoholism-related complications.
As Many As Two Million People Exposed To Blood-Pressure Drugs Containing Probable Carcinogens
The FDA assesses the risk to individual patients as being small, though.
Long-Term Financial Damage From Shutdown Hangs Like A Dark Cloud Over Federal Contractors
While federal employees’ health insurance was safe, some federal contractors lost theirs during the shutdown as companies were unable to pay their premiums. And unlike federal employees, who have been promised full back pay in coming days, the millions of government contractors have no legal claim to the five weeks of lost wages now that the government has reopened.
First Edition: January 28, 2019
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Opinion writers weigh in on these health care reform topics and other health issues.
Each week, KHN’s Shefali Luthra finds interesting reads from around the Web.
Media outlets report on news from Ohio, California, Oregon, Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and Texas.
Attorney General Xavier Becerra, however, says he has a responsibility to ensure the conditions of the sale are met. “The conditions include the requirement to have an emergency room, inpatient facility beds, intensive care services, and NICU [neonatal intensive care unit]. The Attorney General is fighting to ensure these conditions are enforced,” his office said. News on hospitals also comes from Texas, New Hampshire, Louisiana and Kansas, as well.
Dr. William Husel kept working for four weeks after concerns were raised, and three patients died during that time after getting excessive doses. News on the opioid epidemic comes from Minnesota and Kentucky, as well.
Young Man’s Suicide Following Stint At Rikers Island Shines Light On Mental Health Crisis In Prisons
Kalief Browder, who was accused of stealing a backpack, spent three years on Rikers Island without being tried or convicted—and about two of those years were spent in solitary confinement. New York City has reached a $3.3 million settlement with his family. “There is no reason he should have gone through this ordeal,” NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “and his tragic death is a reminder that we must continue to work each day to provide the mental health services so many New Yorkers need.”
Knowing which types of bat carry Ebola may help health officials prevent outbreaks by educating the public about how to prevent contact with the creatures, scientists said.
The research found that bacteria associated with gum disease was also in 96 percent of the brains of people with Alzheimer’s used in the study. But more research will need to be done to determine exactly what role it plays in the progression of the disease. In other public health news: transgender students, sleep, the Doomsday clock, Photoshopping, paid parental leave, climate change, and more.
Lawsuit Over Medicaid And Transition-Related Care For Transgender People Hits Iowa’s Supreme Court
At the arguments on Thursday, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union argued that Iowa’s Medicaid ban on transition-related care discriminated unlawfully on the basis of gender identity. The attorney representing the Iowa Department of Human Services said the women’s attorneys failed to show discriminatory intent. Medicaid news comes out of Utah, Mississippi, Wyoming and Idaho.
‘I’m Not As Much Use In California’: Doctors Travel Across State Lines To Combat Abortion Deserts
There’s a great disparity in abortion access in the country. In an attempt to address that imbalance, abortion rights activists created a program in 2016 to match clinics needing doctors with providers who could travel to work. The Los Angeles Times follows one of those doctors.
The venture, launched by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, has been cloaked in secrecy from the start and it has the health care industry on edge.
The findings in the report suggest “hundreds of millions of dollars” that should have been allocated toward patient care may have been “shifted elsewhere,” said the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York, which hired a firm to conduct the analysis of pharmacy benefit managers. In other pharmaceutical news: whistleblower lawsuits, cancer drugs, a setback for Bristol, and the 2020 election.
U.S. District Judge John Bates seemed to express skepticism over the reason the Trump administration gave for expanding association health plans. “The case seems to me a dispute between Congress and the administration — an executive dispute with a former Congress,” Bates said near the end of the Justice Department’s arguments.
The group behind the ad is the Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, whose members include major industry players such as America’s Health Insurance Plans and PhRMA. The video is part of a five-figure ad buy over the next three weeks, as part of a larger six-figure effort that will continue through the year, the group said.
