Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: 'Ugly' Facts About Aetna Scandal And Health Industry; Women Of Color Deserve Safer Pregnancies
Los Angeles Times: What The Aetna Scandal Tells Us About Our Healthcare System: It's A Money Pit
Gillen Washington was a student at Northern Arizona University in 2014 when his health insurer, Aetna, denied authorization for the costly drug infusion he'd been receiving each month to treat his rare immunodeficiency disease. He appealed, but while he was waiting for a decision he wound up hospitalized with pneumonia and a collapsed lung. These ugly facts were enough to prompt a lawsuit, but Washington's claim against Aetna surfaced an even uglier revelation: that Aetna's medical director at the time, Dr. Jay Ken Iinuma, granted or denied coverage for treatments without ever bothering to look at the patients' medical records. According to CNN, Iinuma said in his sworn deposition that he relied on what he was told by the nurses working for Aetna, who checked to see whether the requested treatments complied with the insurer's guidelines. Denying authorization amounts to vetoing a treatment for all but the very few people who can afford to cover the cost out of pocket. (2/14)
The New York Times: Making Pregnancy Safer For Women Of Color
The clinic is unassuming, in an office building just blocks from the revitalized downtown strip in Winter Garden, Fla., 30 minutes from Orlando. As you head up to the third floor, you might share the elevator with pregnant women making small talk in Spanish, a grandmother holding a newborn in a carrier, or a white woman with a baby strapped to her chest in an eco-friendly wrap. (Miriam Zoila Perez, 2/14)
USA Today: Focus On The Flu, Not The New
When Ebola struck with a vengeance in West Africa in 2014 or SARS was reported in Asia in 2003, the viruses dominated the news and Americans were gripped by fear over the potential spread in the United States. In the end, Ebola, while taking an enormous toll in Africa, killed two people in America, neither of whom contracted the disease in this country. SARS was diagnosed in just eight U.S. patients, and all recovered. But the flu, neither exotic nor rare, garners too little attention and too few resources. (2/14)
JAMA: Language, Science, And Politics
The Albert Einstein Memorial in front of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, expresses a core value of science and medicine: “The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true." Evidence informs decisions about the safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals, medical treatment, and public health. Science, of course, is not value-neutral and has always been intertwined with politics. Yet ideology and politics can never justify obscuring the truth, including clarity of language. (Lawrence O. Gostin, 2/14)
The Hill: Health Chief Must Protect Doctors Against Changing Medical Culture
The new Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Alex Azar, is speaking to the members of the Health Subcommittee on Thursday, who are eager to learn from him how he plans to use his position to positively impact millions of Americans. Health care professionals across the country, especially concerned physicians like me, are hoping he will tell the members that he is planning to support the new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division within the HHS Office for Civil Rights. (Grazie Pozo Christie, 2/15)
