Wednesday, December 5, 2018

From KFF Health News - Latest Stories:

KFF Health News Original Stories

No Cash, No Heart. Transplant Centers Require Proof Of Payment.

The case of a Michigan woman told to fundraise $10,000 for a heart transplant sparked viral outrage, but experts say “wallet biopsies” are common. ( JoNel Aleccia , 12/5 )

Summaries Of The News:

Capitol Watch

Incoming Democrats Amped Up To Leverage Their Victories At The Ballot Box Into Victories In Congress

“It’s a confluence of things. It’s about the committees that we’ll be appointed to. It’s about the values- and issues-based caucuses that we’ll serve on," said Rep.-elect Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) Some of their top issues will be gun control and health care. Meanwhile, the Pro-Choice Caucus is ready to stretch its wings with the Democrats now in power.

The Associated Press: Freshman Democrats In Congress Ready To Use New-Won Power

Incoming members of the Democratic Party's new U.S. House majority say they're ready to turn the energy of their campaigns into real power on Capitol Hill. Rep.-elects Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and a handful of other liberal-leaning incoming Democrats used an orientation event for freshman lawmakers Tuesday sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics to stake out some of their top issues — from gun violence to health care to climate change. (12/4)

Boston Globe: Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez, And Other Rookie Democrats Protest At Harvard

Flanked by a crowd of demonstrators chanting in support of universal health care and legislation to combat climate change, the soon-to-be lawmakers briefly abandoned the biennial program for newly elected members of Congress that was going on inside. Instead, some of the left’s rising stars — the first real glimmer of hope for progressive causes in about two years — staked out a strategy that doesn’t sound much like the bend-over-backwards-for-bipartisanship, please-sir-may-I-have-another Democrats who might as well have Republican footprints tattooed on their necks. (Ramos, 12/5)

CQ: Pro-Choice Caucus Preps For Democratic Majority

An influential House caucus hopes to use the Democrats’ majority next year to counteract Republican efforts to restrict abortion and family planning, although the group still faces an uphill battle against a Republican Senate and administration with strong ties to the anti-abortion lobby. The Pro-Choice Caucus has been recently overshadowed by its conservative rival, the Bipartisan Congressional Pro-Life Caucus, which counts Republican leadership and lawmakers from the influential Freedom Caucus among its members. (Raman, 12/5)

Government Policy

Brewing Battle Over Fetal Tissue Research Could Undermine Testing Of HIV Treatments

Over the past few months, the Trump administration has been quietly auditing all federal funding involving fetal tissue research. The University of California at San Francisco's research laboratory, which has been instrumental in testing virtually all HIV therapies subsequently approved by the FDA since the 1990s, has been sucked into the controversy.

The Washington Post: Trump Administration Threatens Future Of HIV Research Hub

The Trump administration has thrown into doubt a multimillion-dollar research contract to test new treatments for HIV that relies on fetal tissue — work targeted by antiabortion lawmakers and social conservatives aligned with the president. The turmoil over the National Institutes of Health contract with the University of California at San Francisco is part of a building battle between conservatives opposed to research using fetal tissue and scientists who say the material is vital to developing new therapies for diseases from AIDS to Parkinson’s. (Goldstein, 12/4)

In other news on HIV —

St. Louis Public Radio: HIV PrEP Program Thrives In St. Louis, Makes ‘Tools To End The Epidemic’ Widely Accessible

Every year on Dec. 1, the international community mourns those who have been lost to HIV/AIDS and celebrates the ongoing progress in treating, preventing and researching the disease. On Tuesday’s St. Louis on the Air, president and CEO of AIDS United Jesse Milan told host Don Marsh that the day of commemoration is “an opportunity to remind people that this is still an epidemic nationally and globally.” (Ellin, 12/4)

Marketplace

American Hospital Association Sues Over Trump Administration Policy That Cuts Some Medicare Rates

The policy roiled the hospital industry when it was introduced in a proposed rule over the summer, and hospitals have been lobbying Congress to intervene with the administration and reverse the policy.

Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Sue Over Site-Neutral Payment Policy

The American Hospital Association on Tuesday led a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the CMS' final rule imposing a site-neutral payment policy, which cuts some Medicare rates for outpatient hospital sites to match the rates for physicians' offices. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenges the "serious reductions to Medicare payment rates" as executive overreach. The rate reduction is scheduled to start Jan. 1. In 2019, hospitals' reimbursements will drop approximately $380 million in 2018, according to the CMS. (Luthi, 12/4)

In other news on hospitals and health systems —

Modern Healthcare: Questions Loom Over Sutter Health's Community Benefit Spending

It's virtually impossible to learn how Sutter arrives at the community benefit spending figures it reports each year, a situation that underscores how pieced-together and full of holes the community benefit reporting process is overall. A Sutter spokeswoman declined to break down its spending on broader community benefits—health services, screenings, free clinics, training health professionals and research—beyond the $124 million Sutter reported having spent last year. The health system files roughly 30 different 990 tax forms—the documents where it reports such spending to the federal government—but adding up the community benefit expenses from the tax forms does not equal the numbers in its annual reports. (Bannow, 12/4)

Tobacco Giant Eyes Cannabis, E-Cigarette Business As Traditional Sales Continue To Tank

The cigarette industry has for years used price increases to boost revenue and profits despite falling cigarette volumes, but that decline has sped up in recent months. Now Altria, the U.S. cigarette market leader, is looking to branch out before it goes down on a sinking ship.

The Wall Street Journal: Slowing Cigarette Sales Push Altria To Explore Other Opportunities

Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc. is eyeing cannabis and e-cigarettes, searching for growth outside its traditional business, as the long decline of U.S. cigarette sales accelerates. The tobacco giant is in separate talks to make investments in Canadian cannabis company Cronos Group Inc. and in San Francisco e-cigarette startup Juul Labs Inc., according to Cronos and people familiar with the Juul matter. The two companies would give Altria access to new customers and overseas markets, but a deal with either isn’t imminent. (Maloney, 12/4)

In other health industry news —

Reuters: Medtronic To Pay $51 Million To Resolve U.S. Medical Device Probes

Medtronic Plc said on Tuesday it would pay $50.9 million to resolve U.S. Justice Department probes into how companies it later acquired marketed medical devices, including one meant to treat a vascular defect in the brain. As part of the accord, ev3 Inc, which Medtronic now owns, will pay $17.9 million and plead guilty to a charge related to its marketing of a neurovascular medical device for unproven and potentially dangerous uses, federal prosecutors in Boston said. (12/4)

Opioid Crisis

Teens' Wisdom Teeth Removal Surgery Can Often Open The Door To Opioid Addiction

In the year following the surgery, close to 6 percent of patients who left their dentist’s office with a prescription for opioids had a “health care encounter” in which a diagnosis of opioid abuse was documented. That’s well over 10 times the rate at which a comparison group. In other news on the crisis: addiction counselors, life insurance and naloxone, supervised injection sites, and more.

Los Angeles Times: Surgery To Remove Wisdom Teeth Puts Some Teens And Young Adults On A Path To Opioid Abuse

For older teens and young adults, the extraction of so-called wisdom teeth is a painful rite of passage. A new study suggests it’s likely made more perilous by the package of narcotic pain pills that patients frequently carry home after undergoing the common surgical procedure. The study offers fresh evidence of how readily — and innocently — a potentially fatal addiction to opioids can take hold. It also underscores how important it is that dentists rethink their approach to treating their patients’ postoperative discomfort. (Healy, 12/4)

NPR: Schools Help Students Whose Families Struggle With Opioid Addiction

When Maddy Nadeau was a toddler, her mother wasn't able to care for her. "I remember mom was always locking herself in her room and she didn't take care of me. My mom just wasn't around at the time," she says. Every day, her older sister Devon came home from elementary school and made sure Maddy had something to eat. "Devon would come home from school and fix them cold hot dogs or a bowl of cereal — very simple items that both of them could eat," says Sarah Nadeau, who fostered the girls and later adopted them. (Gotbaum, 12/5)

WBUR: Why You May Be Denied Life Insurance For Carrying Naloxone

That's a message public health leaders aim to spread far and wide. "BE PREPARED. GET NALOXONE. SAVE A LIFE," summarized an advisory from the U.S. surgeon general in April. But life insurers consider the use of prescription drugs when reviewing policy applicants. And it can be difficult to tell the difference between someone who carries naloxone to save others and someone who carries naloxone because they are at risk for an overdose. (Bebinger, 12/5)

Denver Post: Feds Threaten Reprisals If Denver Proceeds With Supervised Drug-Use Site

In recent weeks, the Denver City Council and Mayor Michael Hancock approved a law that would allow the city to host a supervised drug-use facility. If state lawmakers also approve, Denver could become the first U.S. city where people can use heroin and other drugs under the supervision of medical professionals. The idea is that supervision can prevent overdose deaths and help people get services. But the sites remain illegal under federal law, as the city was reminded in a letter Tuesday from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the local field office of the Drug Enforcement Administration. (Kenney, 12/4)

Kansas City Star: Suit Blames Fentanyl Choking Death On Overland Park Regional

A woman choked to death after staff at Overland Park Regional Medical Center gave her the powerful opioid fentanyl and then left her unattended to eat breakfast, according to a new lawsuit. The suit, filed Friday in Johnson County, says that Mollie Watkins was admitted to the hospital in December 2016 for an infection. (Marso, 12/4)

Public Health

After Analyzing CRISPR Work Done By Chinese Researcher, Scientists' Verdict Is That It's Way Worse Than Initially Realized

Ethical criticism of He Jiankui's work has been coming in fast and furious over the past week. But now scientists are also criticizing the research itself, saying it's plagued with massive technical shortcomings. His results show that “this was all a terrible idea in basically every way,” said Erik Sontheimer, who studies CRISPR in his lab at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Stat: 'CRISPR Babies' Experiment More Flawed Than Scientists First Realized

When He Jiankui unveiled data last week on the two baby girls born from embryos whose genes he had edited with CRISPR-Cas9 — the world’s first “CRISPR babies” — his 59 slides flew by in a 20-minute blur, leaving scientists in the audience of the International Summit on Human Genome Editing desperately taking iPhone pictures for later scrutiny. Now many of them, as well as researchers who watched the webcast of the Hong Kong summit, have had time to analyze the data. The verdict: What He did is way worse than initially realized. (Begley, 12/5)

The Cut: He Jiankui, Scientist Who Gene-Edited Babies, Missing

Last Monday, Chinese scientist He Jiankui made a startling announcement at a scientific conference: He claimed that he had produced the world’s first genetically altered babies. On Wednesday, he reemerged to defend his work and reveal another “potential pregnancy” within his study. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since. (Paiella, 12/4)

5.1 Million Pounds Of Beef Added To Recall Over Salmonella Worries

The CDC is also warning people to thoroughly cook meat because that's the only way to kill salmonella and to check their freezer for meat products. The products were packaged between July and September. Illnesses have been reported in 25 states.

The Associated Press: More US Beef Being Recalled Over Salmonella Fears

An Arizona company is expanding the scope of its recall of raw beef that could be contaminated with salmonella, federal officials said Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a news release that a unit of Brazil's JBS is now recalling a total of more than 12 million pounds (5.44 million kilograms) of raw beef that was shipped around the U.S. According to officials, information obtained in three additional cases of sickened patients led to the identification of other ground beef products that weren't part of the initial recall. ...There were 246 illnesses reported from 25 states as of mid-November.(12/4)

The Hill: 5.1 Million Pounds Of Beef Added To Salmonella Recall

The raw beef items, which were sold to grocery stores across the country, were packaged between July and September, according to the statement. This is an expansion of an October recall by JBS Tolleson, which took around 7 million pounds of beef off the market after a salmonella outbreak caused hundreds of people to fall ill in the U.S. (Birnbaum, 12/4)

The Washington Post: Beef Salmonella Recall: Hundreds Fall Ill In Outbreak

Common symptoms of salmonella illness are diarrhea, abdominal cramps and fever within 12 to 72 hours of eating the contaminated product, according to the food safety alert, which also advises individuals concerned about an illness to contact their health-care provider. Tuesday’s recall follows a Thanksgiving-time salmonella outbreak linked to raw turkey. Earlier this year, one person died and 17 others were sickened after consuming contaminated chicken. (Paul, 12/4)

Dallas Morning News: Company Recalls 12M Pounds Of Beef — Some Sold In Texas — Over Salmonella Concerns

The beef, which was packaged under a wide variety of labels, was shipped to Texas stores including Brookshire Brothers, Fiesta Mart, Sam's Club, Sprouts and Walmart. Health officials are concerned that consumers may have the recalled beef stored in their freezers. (Steele, 12/4)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Another 12 Million Pounds Of Ground Beef Recalled

Forget anything but a well-done burger, if you don’t know the source of your ground beef. That’s the advice of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), after an additional recall of 12 million pounds of ground beef was announced Tuesday Dec. 4 for possible Salmonella Newport bacterial contamination. (Snook, 12/4)

Scientists Claim To Develop Simple, Fast Blood Test That Detects Cancer

While the results of the study need to be confirmed, some scientists are hailing the Australian discovery of the 10-minute test as groundbreaking. Scientists have been working to identify cancer earlier, as early detection increases the success rate of therapeutic treatment and surgery.

USA Today: Cancer Researchers In Australia Develop Universal Blood Test

Australian scientists have developed a simple blood test that they claim can diagnose cancer in mere minutes by identifying a unique DNA signature present in all types of the disease. A genetic pattern in all cancers, researchers said Tuesday, could help make diagnosing cancer more accessible and affordable. The blood test detected cancer with 90 percent accuracy in the University of Queensland’s tests of different human cancers and healthy cells and can be done in only 10 minutes. (Lam, 12/4)

CNN: Australian Researchers Develop 10-Minute Cancer Test

The test works by identifying the presence of that structure, a discovery which could help detect cancer in humans far earlier than current methods, according to the paper published in journal Nature Communications. "Discovering that cancerous DNA molecules formed entirely different 3D nanostructures from normal circulating DNA was a breakthrough that has enabled an entirely new approach to detect cancer non-invasively in any tissue type including blood," said Professor Matt Trau in a statement. (McKirdy, 12/5)

Public Health Roundup: Easier Foster Care Guidelines; First Baby Born Via Uterus Transplant From Deceased Donor

As foster systems are strained across the country with an influx of children whose guardians have been effected by the opioid crisis, advocates are hopeful that new guidelines will make it easier to find them homes. Meanwhile, doctors are reporting the first successful birth of a baby that was carried via a uterus transplant from a deceased donor. In other public health news: how much sleep is too much sleep?; medical schools, products that trigger puberty, head-shaping baby helmets, and more.

Stateline: New Rules Could Open More Homes To Foster Kids

The new proposed regulations, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services collected public comment on for several months this summer and fall, don’t include a square-footage requirement or a minimum number of bedrooms — rules that many states have enforced for years. Instead, they talk about “sleeping spaces” that apartment-dwelling foster families might carve out of their living rooms. The suggested standards also propose that states not require foster parents to own a car, as long as they have access to reliable public transportation. That change would make it easier for city residents to become foster parents. (Wiltz, 12/5)

The Associated Press: 1st Baby Born Using Uterus Transplanted From Deceased Donor

Brazilian doctors are reporting the world's first baby born to a woman with a uterus transplanted from a deceased donor. Eleven previous births have used a transplanted womb but from a living donor, usually a relative or friend. Experts said using uteruses from women who have died could make more transplants possible. Ten previous attempts using deceased donors in the Czech Republic, Turkey and the U.S. have failed. (12/4)

Stat: In A First, A Baby Is Born Via A Uterus Transplant From A Deceased Donor

The whole field of uterus transplantation is in its early days. But researchers said that if transplant teams can reliably use uteruses from deceased donors, it could expand the availability of organs and reduce living donors’ risks during surgery to remove the uterus. “This is really an exciting moment,” said Dr. Rebecca Flyckt, a reproductive endocrinologist at the Cleveland Clinic, who was not involved in the research. “It’s proof-of-concept that a deceased donor is really a good model.” (Joseph, 12/4)

CNN: Sleep: Too Much Is Linked To A Greater Chance Of Disease Or Death

The recommended amount of sleep for adults is six to eight hours a night. Sleeping more than those hours is associated with an increased risk of death and cardiovascular diseases, says a global study published Wednesday in the European Heart Journal. Looking at data from 21 countries, across seven regions, the research team found that people sleeping more than the recommended upper limit of eight hours increased their risk of risk of major cardiovascular events, like stroke or heart failure, as well as death by up to 41%. (Avramova, 12/4)

NPR: Under Pressure, U.S. Medical Schools Increase Diversity

In 2009, the body that accredits medical schools issued a new requirement: All medical schools must implement policies that help them attract and retain more diverse students. Failure to do so can lead to citations from this body, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, and can affect their status as accredited institutions. (Gordon, 12/4)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Study: These Common Personal Care Products Can Speed Puberty In Girls

Chemicals commonly found in personal care products could cause girls to reach puberty early, according to a new report. Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley recently conducted a trial, published in the Human Reproductive journal, to determine how early environmental exposures affect childhood development. (Parker, 12/4)

CNN: Chrissy Teigen Inspires Parents To Share Photos Of Babies With Head-Shaping Helmets

American model Chrissy Teigen sparked a social media trend after sharing on Twitter and Instagram a photo of her son, Miles, with a corrective helmet to treat his flat head syndrome. The 6-month-old was fitted for the helmet to fix his "adorable slightly misshapen head," Teigen posted. Flat head syndrome, or plagiocephaly, is a common problem for babies -- one in every five is affected -- because they spend a lot of time sleeping on their backs, the UK's National Health Service says. (Mezzofiore, 12/4)

The New York Times: Why The World Needs To Rethink Retirement

The golden years look very different depending on where in the world you are, and, increasingly, which generation you are in. Aging populations and decreasing birthrates are spurring countries across the globe to reassess how retirement works — and what needs to change in order to extend the benefits available today to future retirees. (Robertson, 12/4)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Blood Pressure Pill Recalls: Cancer Concerns, Alternative Meds, More

Within the last few months, many common drugs that contain valsartan, used to treat high blood pressure, have been recalled in the United States due to potential cancer risk. The flagged medications, which include amlodipine/valsartan and amlodipine/valsartan/hydrochlorothiazide combination tablets, contain a potentially dangerous ingredient called N-nitroso-diethylamine (NDEA). (Parker, 12/4)

The New York Times: What A Hungry Snail Reveals About Your Grocery Store Breakdowns

If you’ve ever gone grocery shopping when you’re super hungry, you may have bought a few foods in strange combinations that you later regretted. “It’s not just one thing that you’re more likely to buy,” said Michael Crossley, a neuroscientist at the University of Sussex in England. “Your entire perception of everything is slightly altered when you undergo hunger.” Dr. Crossley has found that we’re not the only creatures in the animal kingdom that make unusual dietary choices when hungry: Hungry pond snails will also swallow potentially harmful foods they’d normally spit out. (Klein, 12/5)

State Watch

As Camp Fire Survivors Begin To Return Home, Many Are Plagued With Anxiety About Finding Nothing There

The Butte County Sheriff’s Office last week said it completed its search for human remains and will this week allow survivors to visit what’s left of their homes, a wait that has been unusually long, which local officials attribute to the scale of the devastation.

The Wall Street Journal: California Fire Survivors Begin Returning To Homes That No Longer Exist

Nearly a month after the Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise and surrounding communities, some residents are beginning to see what is left. Authorities gave residents of Magalia, Calif., just north of Paradise, 12 hours on Sunday to look through what remained of their homes. “It really looks like a bomb went off,” Manny Carrasco, 46, said after briefly visiting what was once a two-bedroom home surrounded by pine trees in Magalia. “All the houses in the neighborhood were leveled. It was total devastation.” (Carlton, 12/5)

Los Angeles Times: How Northern California's Destructive Wildfires Could Exacerbate The State's Housing Crisis

Northern California’s recent wildfires have burned homes at a greater pace than developers are building them, deepening a housing shortage that already has left millions struggling to find affordable places to live. Five large wildfires over the past 14 months, with November’s Camp fire the most devastating, have destroyed nearly 21,000 homes across six counties. That total is equivalent to more than 85% of all the new housing built in those counties over the past decade, according to Construction Industry Research Board building permit statistics. (Dillon, 12/5)

State Highlights: Columbia University Sued Over Sexual Abuse Allegations Against Gynecologist; Three Of Four Nursing Homes In Georgia Have Received Penalties From Medicare

Media outlets report on news from New York, Georgia, Texas, Minnesota, Utah, California and Tennessee.

The Wall Street Journal: Women Sue Columbia University, Alleging School Failed To Protect Them From Abusive Doctor

Seventeen women who claim they were sexually abused by a Manhattan gynecologist filed a lawsuit Tuesday against hospitals and clinics affiliated with Columbia University, claiming the institution was aware of the doctor’s alleged abuse but didn’t protect its patients. The women, all but one of whom are kept anonymous in the suit, were patients at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in northern Manhattan and elsewhere, the lawsuit says. (Ramey, 12/4)

Georgia Health News: Medicare Penalties Hit Most Ga. Nursing Homes

Three of four nursing homes in Georgia have received penalties from Medicare for avoidable hospital readmissions of nursing home patients. The 75 percent figure is slightly higher than the national average. The federal government gave bonuses for lower readmissions to 23 percent of the 373 nursing homes in the state. Two percent had no change under the new penalty program. (Miller, 12/4)

Dallas Morning News: Half Of Women Ages 15 To 44 Lack Health Insurance In Dallas County, New Report Says

Almost half of women between the ages of 15 and 44 in Dallas County lack health insurance, according to analysis from the Center for Public Policy Priorities.The finding highlights the daunting challenge before Dallas city and county leaders who want to address the instability that low-income women and single mothers face daily, as well as issues of child poverty, education reform and homelessness. The Center for Public Policy Priorities presented its findings about the state of Dallas County poverty, education and health Tuesday morning at the Communities Foundation of Texas. (Manuel, 12/4)

The Associated Press: New York Hospitals To Repay Victims Charged For Rape Kits

Six New York hospitals have agreed to repay sexual assault victims who were illegally charged as much as $3,000 for rape examinations that should've been billed to the state or their insurers, Attorney General Barbara Underwood said Thursday. The hospitals — five in New York City and the other in suburban Rockland County — wrongly billed victims for at least 200 forensic rape exams in recent years and had collections agencies go after some women who failed to pay, Underwood said. (11/29)

Dallas Morning News: How To Fight Dallas-Fort Worth’s High Health Costs? Stand With Your Insurer, Says Blue Cross

The Dallas area has some of the nation’s highest health care spending, and the state’s largest insurer, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, has been pushing back. Among other things, it’s calling for more “value-based” care that rewards providers for keeping people healthy, rather than for providing more services. So it wants to steer more patients to providers with a record of low-cost, high-quality treatment. (Schnurman, 12/4)

The Star Tribune: Telemedicine Sees A Dramatic Rise In Minnesota, With Urban-Rural Contrast

The popularity of telemedicine has soared among Minnesotans in the past decade, with urban dwellers seeking the convenience of routine care online and rural residents videochatting with distant doctors for everything from prescription refills to psychiatric sessions to cancer consults. A first-of-its-kind report used a Minnesota database of health insurance claims and found that the number of telemedicine visits increased sevenfold from 2010 to 2015. The study is part of a special edition of the influential journal Health Affairs that assesses the national impact of telemedicine — a broad term to describe billable patient care that isn’t provided face to face, including online queries and videoconferencing. (Olson, 12/4)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Atlanta Water Issues Could Mean About $250M In Economic Loss

An Atlanta water system disruption caused problems for residents, schools and businesses for about 25 hours this week and could cost the local economy hundreds of millions of dollars. A boil-water advisory forced some restaurants to shut down, schools to distribute bottled water and hand sanitizer, and residents to take precautions. (Godwin and McCray, 12/4)

The Associated Press: Utah Patients Can Use Medical Pot; But Concerns Still Loom

Patients can use medical marijuana legally in conservative Utah after a compromise agreement was signed into law despite concerns from advocates that it's too restrictive, but they likely won't be able to buy it legally in-state until at least 2020, officials said Tuesday. The state will need time to first build up a database to start issuing patients medical-cannabis cards, and then begin granting licenses for dispensaries, health department spokesman Tom Hudachko said. (12/4)

San Jose Mercury News: Bay Area Cannabis Researchers Claim Breakthrough Against Chronic Diseases

A Marin County medical cannabis and pharmaceutical coalition says it has found a way to ramp up production of one of the rarest compounds produced by marijuana flowers that early studies have shown could be a way to treat diabetes, lower cholesterol and provide other health benefits. This cannabinoid known as THCV, or tetrahydrocannabivarin, is considered one of the rarest cannabinoids and is only found in trace amounts in most strains of the plant. (Houston, 12/4)

Nashville Tennessean: TennCare Seeking $18 Million From Prohealth Rural Health Services

Officials at a Franklin-based health care clinic that filed for bankruptcy in August repeatedly over-billed TennCare for patient visits then lied to state officials about it, according a filing in bankruptcy court seeking $18 million in payments and penalties. Prohealth Rural Health Services operates clinics in Franklin and Columbia, serving patients in 16 surrounding counties. It is designated a "rural health clinic" allowing it to earn higher payments in exchange for seeing patients in under-served communities. (Wadhwani, 12/4)

Prescription Drug Watch

Diabetics Are Taking Extreme Measures To Access The Pricey Insulin They Need To Live

News outlets report on stories related to pharmaceutical pricing.

The Wall Street Journal: Insulin Quest: When Lifesaving Drugs Are Out Of Reach

Nearly one in 10 Americans has diabetes. But because of rising insulin prices many of them struggle to afford the drugs they need and some diabetics ration their dosage. This episode of Moving Upstream examines how diabetics like Karyn Wofford, a 29-year-old freelance writer from Jackson, Ga., are finding unconventional ways to get their insulin. She trades diabetes medications with online friends on Facebook and Twitter , and she once created a GoFundMe page where she asked strangers to help pay for her medication. (Macnaughton and Jones, 12/3)

Stat: How Trump’s New Drug Pricing Idea, On Rebates, Fits With Earlier Policies

The Trump administration announced last week that, in an effort to lower drug costs for seniors, some “rebates” would be passed on to Medicare recipients at the pharmacy counter. At first blush, it sounded like a new version of the administration’s previous pledge to upend the pharmacy benefit manager industry and the system of “rebates,” which lawmakers and drug makers have blamed for high prices. It got some lobbyists wondering if the administration was pushing this small change in lieu of a more grandiose proposal. (Swetlitz, 12/4)

The Hill: GOP Balks At Trump Drug Pricing Plan

Republican opposition is building to a proposal from President Trump to lower drug prices in Medicare. The rare break between Trump and Republican allies follows an aggressive step from the president in October that would tie certain Medicare drug prices to lower prices in other countries, a departure from the traditional GOP position. (Sullivan, 12/2)

WSHU: Rep. DeLauro To Take On Prescription Drug Pricing

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut said she will champion legislation to lower prescription drug prices when Democrats take control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January. The New Haven Democrat made the promise on Monday. In January DeLauro will chair the U.S. House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on basic biomedical research. Speaking in West Haven she said she’ll use her new power to fight to lower the high cost of prescription drugs by bringing greater transparency and requiring drug companies to justify their exorbitant price increases. (Udoma, 12/4)

KTVZ: Merkley Intros Bill To Cut Prescription Drug Prices

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., introduced a bill Thursday that he said would ensure Americans do not pay more for prescription drugs than people do in other developed countries, helping to address a top concern among Oregonians and Americans who time and time again are facing the impossible choice between affording prescription drugs or other necessities. (11/29)

FiercePharma: Trump's Drug-Prices-In-Ads Idea Gets Two More Nay Votes As Federal Comment Deadline Looms

In the latest salvos challenging the value of adding drug prices to pharma TV ads, two academics and a well-known advertising association have set out their arguments against the proposal. The authors of a New England Journal of Medicine article in mid-November and a blog post from the Association of National Advertisers last week agree the government’s push for lower drug prices is a worthy goal, but price tagging drugs won’t help. And like other opponents, the two detractors contend sticker prices in TV ads could confuse consumers, given the convoluted pricing and reimbursement system in the U.S. (Bulik, 12/3)

The Associated Press: GlaxoSmithKline To Spend $5.1B On Cancer Drugmaker Tesaro

Shares of Tesaro soared Monday after GlaxoSmithKline said it would pay about $5.1 billion in cash to buy the cancer drugmaker. Glaxo plans to pay $75 per share for Tesaro, which makes the ovarian cancer treatment Zejula. That represents a premium of more than 60 percent to the stock’s $46.38 closing price Friday. The total deal price includes Tesaro’s net debt. Glaxo CEO Emma Walmsley said in a statement that the deal will accelerate growth of the British drugmaker’s oncology business. (12/3)

The Wall Street Journal: GlaxoSmithKline To Acquire Tesaro For $4.16 Billion

The acquisition hands Glaxo Tesaro’s ovarian cancer drug Zejula, which went on sale in the U.S. and Europe last year. Zejula is one of a new class of drugs known as PARP inhibitors, which have increased survival rates for women with recurrent ovarian cancer. PARP inhibitors are also showing promise in other forms of cancer, such as lung, breast and prostate. (Roland and Chin, 12/3)

Bloomberg: Bayer's Health Unit Pinches Pennies As Monsanto Drains Cash

Mass layoffs at the inventor of aspirin show that Bayer AG, the German maker of drugs and seeds, has more headaches than its Monsanto hangover. The conglomerate’s health-care division, which provides more than half its revenue, needs urgent attention. Bayer will begin losing patent protection for two blockbuster drugs in the next five years and has little under development to compensate. Growth in the consumer-health unit, beefed up four years ago with brands like Claritin, has stalled. (Loh and Kresge, 11/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Bayer Sets New Growth Targets

Bayer AG said Wednesday that it is aiming to increase sales and profitability across all its divisions through 2022. The company said it aims to grow sales about 4% in 2019 and between 4% and 5% annually on average from 2020 and 2022. It also aims to grow adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization by 9% per year on average through 2022, the company added. (Bernhard, 12/5)

Reuters: Mylan To Recall All Batches Of Blood Pressure Medicine Valsartan In U.S.

Mylan NV said on Tuesday it is expanding a nationwide voluntary recall of its blood pressure medicine valsartan to include all lots, two weeks after it recalled select batches. The drugmaker said it was recalling 104 additional lots "out of an abundance of caution" after the valsartan-containing products were found to contain traces of a probable cancer-causing impurity. (12/4)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Virginia Moves To Limit Mail-Order Specialty Pharmacies Following Concerns Of Mishandling Medicines For Complex Conditions

These pharmacies, which focus on high-cost medication therapies to treat serious, complex conditions, such as cancer or rare diseases, are growing in popularity as insurance companies favor the cost savings that result from negotiations and personalization of the prescription to the patient. As more people use the service, Virginia regulators are seeking greater control over the delivery of these medications from specialty pharmacies, either to a practitioner’s office — known as “white bagging” — or directly to the patient’s home — known as “brown bagging.” (Balch, 11/28)

Miami Herald: Teva Recalls Two More Valsartan Drugs For Cancerous NDEA

The list of blood pressure drugs recalled because they have NDEA grew by two Tuesday when Teva Pharmaceuticals yanked all lots of Amlodipine/Valsartan and Amlodipine/Valsartan/Hydrochlorothiazide combination tablets. Both have too much N-nitroso-diethylamine (NDEA) in its Valsartan, the active ingredient made by Mylan India. (Neal, 11/28)

Perspectives: Implementing Socialist-Style Price Controls On Drugs Is Not A Win For Trump, It's A Surrender

Read recent commentaries about drug-cost issues.

The Hill: International Price Index For Medicine Will Harm Patients

President Trump was elected on his promise to stop other nations from taking advantage of the United States. Our allies let us pay for most of their own national defense needs. Treaties allowed once poor countries to hit American products with tariffs and trade barriers. The Paris agreement on climate change burdened our manufacturers and workers, while letting China and India build and expand without such onerous restrictions. Trump highlighted that nations steal our intellectual property through piracy and use their monopoly power as a buyer to force our innovative drug industry to sell American products at cut rate prices or have their patents stripped. This is extortion plain and simple. (Grover Norquist and Alexander Hendrie, 12/4)

Stat: Ferreting Out Prescription Drug Scams On Social Media

"Are you in pain?” Millions of Facebook users saw an ad asking this question and suggesting that relief was available by clicking here. Those who clicked were presented with a pop-up survey that sought more information about their pain condition, along with insurance and personal contact information. For the unsuspecting folks who filled out the survey, their involvement in a multimillion-dollar fraudulent prescription drug scheme had just begun. (Rick Battelle, 12/5)

Bloomberg: Will Donald Trump Stand Up To Seniors On Drug Prices?

President Donald Trump’s drug pricing-push is about to run into what might be its most potent opponent yet: America’s senior citizens. ... The Trump administration released a proposal for rules that would make it easier for Medicare Part D prescription-drug plans to negotiate prices for a broader array of medicines than they do currently. That’s arguably a good thing. But in order for this effort to have a real impact, plans will likely have to be able to restrict the access that senior citizens have had for more than a decade to certain classes of drugs. (Max Nisen, 11/27)

Stat: 'Rebate Walls' For Drugs Should Be Dismantled By The FTC

While policymakers are giving considerable attention to escalating drug prices and ways to rein them in, the Federal Trade Commission needs to use its muscle by opening antitrust investigations and bringing enforcement actions against pharmaceutical manufacturers where necessary. It can start by addressing a questionable contracting practice in the pharmaceutical industry known as a rebate wall or rebate trap. Although “rebate” sounds like something that should benefit consumers and result in lower prices, there is increasing evidence that rebates from pharmaceutical manufacturers to pharmacy benefit managers and others have actually inflated the price of drugs and stifled the ability to compete by rival manufacturers of less expensive drugs to compete. (12/4)

Chicago Sun Times: EpiPens And High Drug Prices: We Need A Shot Of Fairness

The scandalously high price of life-saving EpiPens was supposed to fall, but it has not. As Stephanie Zimmermann reported in Monday’s Sun-Times, a new generic competitor to EpiPens, which people use to inject epinephrine when they are experiencing a severe allergic reaction, is clocking in at $300. If competitive forces cannot drive down the price of an essential drug that costs just $75 across the border in Canada, Congress and federal regulators have the authority, as well as an ethical obligation, to step in. (12/3)

Des Moines Register: Lower Drug Prices On The Way For Iowa Seniors

Iowa is getting grayer. By 2030, roughly three in 10 Iowans will be older than 60. That's a 30 percent spike from today. Keeping these seniors healthy depends on sound health coverage, especially for prescription drugs, as the typical American senior takes four different drugs each day. (Drew Kamp, 12/4)

Las Vegas Review-Journal: NYT Shows Link Between Innovations And High Drug Prices

It’s well-known that the United States spends more per person on prescription drugs than other countries. The causes of that disparity are complex and less familiar. Last month, The New York Times looked into rising prescription drug spending. The article had an obvious slant — that the United States needs price controls. Look beyond the editorializing, however, and a different picture emerges. (11/30)

Bloomberg: GlaxoSmithKline Deal For Tesaro: It's The Wrong Medicine

GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s ambitious but rather vague efforts to rebuild its pharma unit became more concrete Monday with its $5.1 billion acquisition of Tesaro Inc. But the deal comes with details that investors may not like. The company is paying a significant premium for Zejula, an ovarian cancer drug with sluggish sales, and an unproven pipeline. It’s difficult to get biotech deals done without paying up, and Glaxo is rebuilding a cancer program from scratch. While Tesaro’s lofty past valuation gives the appearance of a bargain, Glaxo may not have gotten one. Glaxo achieved an ignominious milestone Monday morning: Its market cap declined by more than the deal cost. (Max Nisen, 12/3)

Editorials And Opinions

Viewpoints: Forget The Tough Love Policy During Opioid Epidemic And Really Help Sufferers; Think Climate Change Won't Make Us Sick? Think Again.

Opinion writers weigh in on these health care topics and others.

The Washington Post: The Incredibly Unpopular Idea That Could Stem Opioid Deaths

Prescription heroin? Remember, I said you might not like the solution. I don’t like it, either — and frankly, neither do the drug policy researchers who told me it may be necessary. But when fentanyl took over the U.S. illicit drug markets, it also got a lot of addicts as hostages. We’ll never be able to rescue them unless we can first keep them alive long enough to be saved. (Megan McArdle, 12/4)

The Hill: Here's How Climate Change Is Going To Make You Sick

It is convenient to ignore issues that seem invisible. Such apathy among people has been observed repeatedly in social and environmental issues that otherwise could have been averted by strong preemptive policies. Similar is the case with climate — and in some ways, the internet tends to promote picture of false equivalency between believers and deniers of our climate changing. But this might change now; mostly because these issues are affecting individual lives and not a distant cold continent. (Junaid Nabi, 12/4)

USA Today: Female Genital Mutilation: We Need New Laws

For more than two decades, underage girls in this country have been federally protected from the horrific practice of female genital mutilation (FGM). The ritualistic cutting or removal of a young girl’s external genitalia is an anachronistic act that occurs mostly in parts of Africa, the Middle East and a few countries in Asia. Last month, during a trial of a Michigan doctor accused of performing FGM on nine minor girls, a federal judge ruled that the law banning FGM is unconstitutional. Now, Congress and the states must act immediately to re-enact FGM protections. (Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, 12/4)

Stat: When Women Are Denied An Abortion, Their Children Fare Worse Than Peers

For the past decade, I have been leading the nationwide Turnaway Study at the University of California, San Francisco. My colleagues and I have followed more than 200 women who were denied abortions because they showed up at abortion facilities too late in pregnancy. More than two-thirds of these women carried the unwanted pregnancy to term and gave birth. Our study shows that denying a woman a wanted abortion has a negative impact on her life and the lives of her children. (Diana Green Foster, 12/5)

The Hill: Your Tax Dollars Are Going To 'Humanized Mice' Experiments

The apparently widespread acceptance in the scientific community of using aborted baby parts in the name of science should alarm citizens and lawmakers alike. Scientific progress should not be accepted as sacrificing the life of one for the alleged benefit of another. The very idea is counterintuitive to a nation devoted to protecting and preserving life. The White House and those at the Department of Health and Human Services should demand more transparency from those awarded our hard-earned taxpayer dollars and cancel contracts like the NIH-UCSF humanized-mice study, just as they cancelled a much smaller contract with ABR. (Jeanne Mancini, 12/5)

The New York Times: George Bush And The Obituary Wars

On Twitter over the weekend, the television writer Bryan Behar did something unconscionable.He praised George H.W. Bush. The former president had just died. In Behar’s view, it was a moment to recognize any merit in the man and his legacy. Many of his followers disagreed. They depended on Behar for righteous liberal passion, which left no room for such Bush-flattering adjectives and phrases as “good,” “decent” and “a life of dignity.” How dare Behar lavish them on a man who leaned on the despicable Willie Horton ad, who nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, who did too little in the face of AIDS, whose privilege often blinded him to need. (Frank Bruni, 12/4)

Huffington Post: The Media Is Erasing George H.W. Bush's Catastrophic Harm To LGBTQ People

Perhaps that was what Bush “believed,” but it was far from the truth. Bush was as captive to the evangelical right on social issues — and thus a decidedly Republican president — as was his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, who cultivated religious conservatives as a potent political force and bowed to their anti-LGBTQ agenda as the AIDS epidemic mushroomed in the 1980s. (Michelangelo Signorile, 12/2)

Los Angeles Times: How To Improve California's Emergency Alert System

California’s alert system is, in reality, 58 county alert systems duct-taped together, with 58 different processes and capabilities. The problem with this set-up, as we learned last month, is that local officials are inevitably overwhelmed in the early minutes of a catastrophe.As the frequency of extreme weather events increases with climate change, California and the rest of the country need to bring more order to the chaos of our sprawling and fractured public warning systems. (Kelly McKinney, 12/5)

Miami Herald: Denying Citizenship For Being Poor In Miami-Dade Is Unfair

While the reprehensible family-separation policy rightly commanded our attention for much of the year, the administration announced another, stealthier policy proposal, one that pursues, mostly, immigrants who are in this country legally. These are people who are following the rules, hewing to the process to become naturalized citizens. The proposal would deny citizenship to immigrants who use certain public benefits, including food stamps, housing assistance and Medicaid. (12/4)

Columbus Dispatch: NO: Heartbeat Bill Would Punish Doctors, Their Patients

To attract highly qualified doctors in all regions of the state, Ohio must stop advancing legislation that would allow doctors to face felony charges if they perform an abortion after a heartbeat is detected, which usually occurs around six weeks into a pregnancy. The Ohio House of Representatives already passed the six-week ban. (Alice Frazier, 12/5)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio Lawmakers Need To Consider The Serious Implications Of Their Heartbeat Bill Vote For Ohio Women And Reproductive Freedoms

As Ohio legislators consider whether they will pass the six-week ban, and ultimately try to override outgoing Gov. Kasich’s veto, individual state legislators have more power over the future of abortion access than ever before. The implications of their decisions are serious. Forcing a woman to continue a pregnancy against her will is dangerous, especially for low-income women and women of color who are already subject to inadequate health care access. (Kellie L. Copeland, 12/5)

San Jose Mercury News: East Bay Makes Some Progress On Opioid Epidemic

The opioid epidemic continues to ravage communities across the nation. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prescription and illicitly obtained opioids killed more than 49,000 people in 2017, more than any year on record. Behind these numbers are countless family members, friends and neighbors devastated by the loss of a loved one and those patients still struggling with opioid-use disorders. (Tom Sugarman and Kathleen Clanon, 12/4)