Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Want To Work In A Pediatric Specialty? The Biden Admin Will Pay You $100K
Modern Healthcare: HHS, HRSA Establish Student Loan Repayment Program For Pediatric Clinicians
Efforts to recruit and retain clinicians caring for children and adolescents, particularly in schools and underserved areas, are getting a $15 million boost from the federal government. The need for the services is growing. Over the course of the pandemic, pediatric behavioral health in particular has been a major area of concern with delays in treatment due to a lack of qualified personnel and access to specialized care. (Devereaux, 6/12)
In other news from the Biden administration —
Reuters: Biden Postpones NATO Leader Meeting After Root Canal Treatment
President Biden reported tooth pain on Sunday, prompting an X-ray examination and root canal treatment by a team from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, according to a letter from his physician that was distributed to the press. "The President tolerated the procedure well," the physician, Kevin O'Connor, wrote about the previously undisclosed treatment. "There were no complications." Biden, 80, experienced more pain on Monday, received local anesthesia and did not need to transfer his powers to Vice President Kamala Harris under the 25th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the White House said. (Hunnicutt, 6/12)
On the high cost of drugs —
The Washington Post: Sanders Vows To Oppose NIH Nominee Until Biden Produces Drug-Pricing Plan
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), chairman of the Senate health panel, is vowing to not move forward with President Biden’s nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health — or any health nominee — until he receives the administration’s “comprehensive” plan on lowering drug prices. “I will oppose all nominations until we have a very clear strategy on the part of the government … as to how we’re going to lower the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs,” Sanders said in an interview with The Washington Post. (Diamond, 6/12)
The Boston Globe: Biogen CEO Calls New Alzheimer’s Drug First Breach Of Disease’s ‘Fortress Wall’
Chris Viehbacher, chief executive of Cambridge-based Biogen, speaking Monday at the World Medical Innovation Forum in Boston, also called for broad insurance coverage of the treatment, Leqembi, and defended the $26,500 annual price of the drug set by Biogen and its Japanese partner Eisai. Viehbacher, interviewed in a fireside chat with CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell, said he “struggles with” pricing drugs, but believes industry critics don’t fully appreciate the expense and risk inherent in drug discovery — and the decades of failures in attempts to treat the memory-robbing disease. (Weisman, 6/12)
Axios: The Billion-Dollar Rule That Has Hospitals On Edge
Safety net hospitals will soon learn how the government plans to reimburse them for nearly $10 billion resulting from underpayments from the federal drug discount program. The question is whether it will come at the expense of other hospitals. (Dreher, 6/13)
