Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Is Most-Favored-Nation Pricing All It's Cracked Up To Be?; TikTok Diagnoses Have Real Potential
Stat: How Most-Favored Nation Drug Pricing Could Backfire
The Trump administration faces a huge task under the president’s latest executive order: develop pricing targets in the next 30 days for thousands of drugs to equalize what Americans pay compared with patients overseas. They can accomplish his larger goal by embracing this opportunity to bring some rational thinking to the drug pricing system. (Darius Lakdawalla and Dana P. Goldman, 5/15)
Bloomberg: TikTok Is Diagnosing Mental Health. That's Good And Bad.
“My ADHD? I figured it out on TikTok,” a new patient told me proudly. She hadn’t turned to social media for answers because she wanted to; she just couldn’t afford the cost of a formal psychiatric evaluation. Appointments for neuropsychological assessments, the gold standard for diagnosing conditions such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, are increasingly hard to come by. Many are also expensive and can run anywhere from $800 to over $10,000, depending on the complexity of the tests. (Sarah Gundle, 5/12)
Los Angeles Times: California Isn't Backing Down On Healthcare For Immigrants
One of the many traits that set California apart from other states is the way undocumented immigrants are woven into our communities. Their economic impact is obvious, and the Golden State would be hard-pressed to keep our status as a world-competing financial power without their labor. But most Californians know, and are OK with the reality, that at least some of our neighbors, our kids’ classmates, our co-workers, are without legal documents, or in blended-status families. (Anita Chabria, 5/14)
Miami Herald: Florida Faces $4 Billion Medicaid Cuts
Imagine one in every five people you pass on the street — whether it’s your neighbor, your barista, a family member or a colleague — suddenly losing access to essential healthcare. That’s the threat looming over millions of Americans as Medicaid lands on Congress’s chopping block. (Raghuram Reddy, 5/14)
The CT Mirror: The Case To License CT Hospital Administrators
While we hold doctors and nurses to high ethical standards to be mandated reporters and to “do no harm,” there are some hospital workers making decisions that impact patient outcomes who are not required to be licensed- hospital administrators. (Paul Banach, 5/15)
