Viewpoints: Congress’ Dithering On Zika; Fixing Medicare Drug Spending; Doctor Pay

The Washington Post: Congressional Republicans Are Playing Games With A Public-Health Emergency
When members of Congress visit their districts over the Memorial Day recess, we hope they keep in mind a warning from Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Zika virus, for which there is no effective vaccine or therapy, can infect a person in a flash, he said during a visit to The Post on Thursday. ... The Republican congressional leaders, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (Wis.), have vowed to end gridlock on Capitol Hill. But in response to Zika, they have inexcusably dithered. (5/30)

Bloomberg: An Obvious Fix For Medicare Drug Spending
It's hard to say which is more crazy: Washington's failed system for keeping drug costs under control, or the resistance to a modest attempt to change it. The problem is obvious: In addition to paying doctors for treating Medicare patients, the federal government also pays them 6 percent of the cost of any drug administered in their office. The financial incentive for doctors is to prescribe the most expensive drugs available. (5/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Macra: The Quiet Health-Care Takeover
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, known simply as Macra, was enacted to replace the outdated and dysfunctional system for paying doctors under Medicare. The old system, based on the universally despised sustainable-growth rate formula, perennially threatened to impose unsustainable cuts in physicians’ fees. Macra passed Congress with bipartisan support and President Obama quickly signed it. Unfortunately, the law empowers the federal bureaucracy at the expense of the doctor-patient relationship, putting the quality of American health care at risk. (James C. Capretta and Lanhee J. Chen, 5/31)

The New York Times: Why It’s Not Time To Panic About Cellphones And Cancer
Recently, I lost a day at work when my Upshot colleague Austin Frakt emailed me first thing in the morning to tell me that headlines were appearing declaring that an “explosive new cellphone-cancer” study was making the rounds. As I have long been interested in this topic, I started to read the headlines and news. “Cellphone-Cancer Link Seen in Rat Study,” said Time. “Cellphone Radiation Linked to Cancer in Major Rat Study,” said IEEE Spectrum, a magazine for engineers. I was dismayed to say the least. “Game-changing,” as a quotation in a Mother Jones headline put it, seemed like a bit of an overreach. (Aaron E. Carroll, 5/31)

The Washington Post: Here’s How Lawmakers Want To Fix Our Kidney Shortage
A little-discussed medical crisis in the United States finally seems to be getting a lot of attention: our massive shortage of living organ donations. Lawmakers introduced legislation last week that may make it easier to reward people who donate their organs, which would hopefully help close the gap. As of January, more than 121,000 people were on waiting lists to have failing organs replaced, with about 100,000 of those in need of new kidneys. And the problem is getting worse: A surge in kidney failure created a situation in which people being added to wait lists outnumber those receiving transplants 2-to-1. (Robert Gebelhoff, 5/31)

Seattle Times: Innovation Is Needed In The Fight Against Rare Diseases
Lately, there has been a national uproar over the rising cost of medicine in the U.S. While this is an important public debate, it largely overlooks the critical importance of innovation, which is desperately needed for medical conditions that have no treatment. Welcome to the world of rare disease. There are 30 million Americans affected by 7,000 rare diseases, and, of those, only 5 percent have Food and Drug Administration-approved therapies. (Klane K. White and David Fajgenbaum, 5/31)

JAMA: Better Palliative Care For All
The recent announcement by Vice President Joseph Biden of a cancer cures “moonshot” has brought renewed attention to the goals of 21st-century cancer care. Not since the late President Nixon’s declaration of War on Cancer has so much focus been directed toward the experiences of the 1.66 million persons diagnosed with cancer annually in the United States. The framing of this initiative is focused on accelerating scientific progress against cancer as a disease, with little attention to equity or to the experience of those living with cancer and its consequences. As billions of dollars are invested in seeking the cure for cancer, attention to the quality of life of people living with cancer and the effect of cancer treatment are at least as important to address and far more achievable in the near term. (Arif H. Kamal, Thomas W. LeBlanc and Diane E. Meier, 5/31)

Forbes: Obamacare Gets Grade Of D+ From Blue Cross Blue Shield Of North Carolina CEO
In an interview with WRAL’s David Crabtree, BCBSNC CEO Brad Wilson conceded that he was a strict grader and that “on a good day” he might give the ACA a C+. He acknowledged that the health law had provided coverage to 500,000 previously uninsured North Carolinians (“a very good thing”), but also warned that after 2-1/2 years of operation, it was very clear that the financial underpinning of the Obamacare exchanges was not stable. (Chris Conover, 5/31)

Health Affairs: We’re Failing Adolescents And Families Coping With Behavioral Health Issues
During my twenty-five years as president and CEO of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF), I have learned how to help people navigate the health care system. But I have struck out miserably when it comes to helping people facing behavioral health issues. ... The consequences of not addressing the adolescent behavioral health crisis are severe and may span generations. Half of all mental illnesses begin by age fourteen, according to the World Health Organization. Yet, the average time between when teens presented behavioral health symptoms and when they received treatment was about a decade, according to research that was published in 2005 in the Archives of General Psychiatry and funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. When left untreated or treated ineffectively, such problems can alter the course of a young person’s life. (Karen Wolk Feinstein, 5/31)

Morning Consult: The Importance Of Hearing Aid Coverage
Like vision and dental, hearing health care plays a vital role in one’s quality of life. If affordable hearing device expansion is the overall objective of opening up the regulatory framework, then the first step should be increasing coverage instead of deregulating cheaper, less reliable devices. (Cate McCanless, 6/1)

Stat: Money-Back Guarantee: The New Trend In Drug And Device Marketing
In most realms of commerce, if a product fails to deliver what’s been promised, consumers are financially covered through refunds and warranties. This has never been the case with pharmaceuticals and medical devices. Increasingly, however, that’s going to change. (Rita E. Numerof, 5/31)

The Boston Globe: Why Boston And Mass. Need More Walk-In Clinics
After nearly a decade of opposition, Boston may be on the verge of getting its first for-profit walk-in clinic. Although it’s not yet official, it appears the city’s Zoning Board of Appeals has approved an urgent-care center application in West Roxbury. Almost 3,000 “convenience” clinics in 41 states have served 10 million people. ... No community needs the clinics more than Boston. A recent survey of 15 metropolitan markets found that Boston patients experience the longest average wait to get a doctor’s appointment — 45.4 days. It took city residents an average of 66 days just to get an appointment with a family physician. Is it any wonder that they turn to emergency rooms for treatment? (Jim Stergios, 6/1)

Bloomberg: U.S. Food Safety
Every year, 1 in 6 Americans gets sick and 3,000 die from food they eat. To combat this, President Barack Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2011, the most significant reform in more than 70 years. It’s taken a lawsuit and more than five years to finalize the rules, some of which will not be fully implemented until 2022. (5/31)

The Columbus Dispatch: Pediatric Research: Too Much Noise A Problem For Premature Babies
When I trained in pediatrics three decades ago, the neonatal intensive care unit was among the busiest areas in Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. ... Research in the intervening years has taught us that stress caused by bright lights, loud, continuous noise and painful stimuli such as blood tests hurts the fragile, still-developing brains of premature infants. Noise, especially, is a concern. (John Barnard, 5/29)