The Hill: Short-Term Spending Bills Leave Public Health Agencies In Suspense
Congress’s inability to pass a long-term spending bill has major ramifications for public health, advocates and former agency officials warn. The short-term measures hinder efforts to play ahead and recruit staff even as they keep the government open, the advocates say. They have left public health agencies “treading water,” said Ellie Dehoney, vice president of policy and advocacy at Research!America. “It’s just a state of suspended animation.” (Weixel and Roubein, 1/24)

The Hill: Community Health Centers Await Funding That Expired Months Ago 
While Congress on Monday extended the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for six years, more than 1,000 community health centers around the country are still waiting for the government to take action on their own funding. Both programs expired at the end of September, but only CHIP was funded in the short-term spending bill signed by President Trump. (Hellmann, 1/23)

The Hill: Neighborhood Health Clinics Popular With Veterans Face Crisis As Federal Funding Evaporates
Kymberly Grafton winces with every step she takes, the lingering burden from a training accident and car crash. And the disabled Navy reservist’s pain may soon be compounded by a budget battle on Capitol Hill that threatens her neighborhood health center. Grafton is one of 300,000 low-income veterans who receive health care at community health centers nationwide. She gets regular treatment at Unity Health Center near her home in Washington’s Anacostia neighborhood, allowing her to skip a miles-long trek to the nearest hospital. (Spann, 1/24)

The CT Mirror: Congress Funds Children’s Health Program, But Not Health Centers
While the three-day government shutdown has ended, the fate of many federal programs is still up in the air – but a children’s health program that serves about 17,000 kids in Connecticut has come out a winner in the partisan fight over the federal budget. The stopgap funding bill that was approved by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump Monday funds most of the federal government for three weeks but the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, for six years. (Radelat, 1/23)

NPR: CHIP Deal Brings Relief
When parts of the federal government ground to halt this past weekend, Linda Nablo, who oversees the Children's Health Insurance Program in Virginia, had two letters drafted and ready to go out to the families of 68,000 children insured through the program, depending on what happened. One said the federal government had failed to extend CHIP after funding expired in September and the stopgap funding had run out. The program would be shutting down and families would lose their insurance. (Simmons-Duffin, 1/23)

Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office scores Congress' plan to delay certain health law taxes as part of the spending agreement —

The Hill: Congressional Scorekeeper: Delay Of ObamaCare Taxes In Spending Bill Will Cost About $31B
The delay of three of ObamaCare's taxes will reduce federal revenue by $31.3 billion over 10 years, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) said Tuesday. The taxes were delayed as part of the stopgap spending bill that Congress passed Monday in order to end the three-day government shutdown. The medical device tax was delayed for two years, until 2020, while the "Cadillac" tax on high-cost health plans, which had been set to take effect in 2020, was delayed until 2022. The health insurance tax was suspended for 2019. (Jagoda, 1/23)

The Hill: Senate Advances Trump's Health Secretary Nominee
The Senate on Tuesday advanced the nomination of Alex Azar to be secretary of Health and Human Services over a key hurdle by a 54-43 vote. Most Democrats voted against advancing Azar, but seven Democrats joined Republicans to move his nomination forward. A vote on final confirmation is expected to soon follow. Azar will replace Tom Price, who resigned in September after a firestorm surrounding his travel on private planes. (Sullivan, 1/23)

CQ: HHS Nominee Shares Views On Key Issues Ahead Of Vote
Alexander Azar, the Trump administration’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has told lawmakers his top priority would be addressing high prescription drug costs. But Azar, a former pharmaceutical company executive, is not offering any ideas beyond what the administration has already proposed, according to his answers to follow-up questions asked by senators after his confirmation hearings. With the Senate poised to take up Azar's nomination this week, several Democrats from the Finance and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committees on Tuesday shared Azar’s replies to their questions. (Siddons and Clason, 1/23)

CQ: Flu Concerns Dominate Panel Debate On Public Health Threat Bill
Senators discussing the reauthorization of public health legislation expressed concerns Tuesday that the nation would be unprepared for a mass casualty biological attack, given that the United States is reeling this year just from a harsh flu season. During its second hearing on the topic in the same number of weeks, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee debated how to best deal with the current flu season, especially if it were to worsen, and provide stable funding for future federal public health efforts. (Raman, 1/23)

Modern Healthcare: Federal Funding Doesn't Fully Support Hospitals Facing Large-Scale Emergencies Like Flu
Public health experts told lawmakers on Tuesday that our nation's hospitals don't have enough federal funding to properly handle large-scale emergencies like the current flu epidemic. Dr. Tom Inglesby, director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, testified before a Senate health committee hearing on Tuesday. He said hospitals as a whole are not prepared to address the more than 8,000 flu-related admissions that have been reported throughout the country as of Jan. 13. (Johnson, 1/23)

The Washington Post: Local Health Officials Are Reporting A Serious Spike In Flu This Season
A vicious strain of the flu is battering the Washington region, mirroring a wave of debilitating illness that in recent weeks has seized the entire United States, health officials say. With the number of cases across the country still rising, health officials in the District, Maryland and Virginia are reporting a surge in patients showing up at doctor’s offices and emergency rooms suffering from fever, severe headaches, muscle aches and nausea. (Chason and Schwartzman, 1/23)

The Washington Post: She Claims Paramedics Said Her 6-Year-Old Had Common Flu Symptoms And Left. Now Her Daughter Is Dead.
Six-year-old Emily Muth first fell ill with the flu on Jan. 16. Three days later, she had difficulty breathing, so her mother, Rhonda Muth, called for an ambulance. Muth said a paramedic told her that labored breathing was a common symptom of the flu, so the ambulance was sent back. But Emily's breathing continued to slow, and when paramedics returned a second time, it was too late. Emily's sudden death was heartbreaking and unsettling to her parents and her 8- and 10-year-old brothers, Muth said. (Eltagouri, 1/23)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Greater Cincinnati Flu Season By The Numbers
Local health departments say that this flu season is showing signs of looking like the one of 2014-2015, which was one of the more severe seasons in recent memory. So far this season, which runs from October through the spring but peaks in December through February, Hamilton County has seen three pediatric deaths and schools across the region taking extra steps to keep students healthy. (Brookbank, 1/23)

San Jose Mercury News: This Flu Season: An App To See Your Doctor ASAP
The growing market of on-demand and telemedicine appointments is booming this winter as the flu season continues its rampage across California. Doctor’s offices and hospital emergency rooms are overflowing with flu patients as the death toll from one of the worst flu seasons in more than decade has risen to 74, including 25 in the Bay Area. (Seipel, 1/23)

KCUR: Assailed And Besieged, A Year Into Trump The Affordable Care Act Still Offers Lifeline To Many
Entrepreneurs Keely Edgington and Beau Williams, owners of a Westport bar called Julep, say that the Affordable Care Act has been an easy, inexpensive way for them to get health insurance. Having insurance has been critical for the married couple. Their daughter Lula was diagnosed with cancer in 2016 when she was nine months old. Even with insurance, the family needed help from friends and family to pay her medical costs. (Smith, 1/24)

In other health law news —

WBUR: Under Obamacare, Out-Of-Pocket Costs Dropped But Premiums Rose, Study Finds
Passing the Affordable Care Act was always much more about extending coverage than cutting costs. Still, as the landmark law faces one challenge after another, new data are giving a better picture of how the law has played out. (Goldberg, 1/23)

The Wall Street Journal: Health-Care Costs Rose For Americans With Employer-Sponsored Insurance
Spending on health care accelerated in 2016 for Americans who get insurance through work, even as use of most health-care services declined or remained flat. The reason, according to a new report: price increases. Rising prices for prescription drugs, surgery, emergency-room visits and other services drove a 4.6% increase in total spending per person, versus 4.1% in 2015 and less than 3% in the two previous years, according to the research nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute, which analyzed data for nearly 40 million people up to age 65 with employer-sponsored insurance. (Whalen, 1/23)

Modern Healthcare: Price Spikes Drove Employer-Based Healthcare Spending In 2016 
Spending per person in 2016 grew 4.6% to $5,407 over 2015. In 2015, spending grew 4.1% over the prior year. Healthcare spending per person has grown cumulatively by 15% over the entire study period of 2012 to 2016, according to the report released Tuesday. In 2016, increased spending was driven mostly by the cost of outpatient services, such as emergency room visits and surgeries, as well as prescription drug prices. Per person spending on outpatient services reached $1,507 in 2016, an increase of 6.2% over 2015, while spending on prescription drugs totaled $1,030, up 5.1%. Spending on drugs did moderate a bit from the 10.4% growth seen in 2015. (Livingston, 1/23)

The Hill: Study: Americans Using Less Health Care, But Paying More For It 
“It is time to have a national conversation on the role of price increases in the growth of health care spending,” said Niall Brennan, president of the HCCI. “Despite the progress made in recent years on value-based care, the reality is that working Americans are using less care but paying more for it every year. Rising prices, especially for prescription drugs, surgery, and emergency department visits, have been primary drivers of faster growth in recent years.” (Hellmann, 1/23)

In other news about health care costs —

Stat: Paying More And Getting Less: As Hospital Chains Grow, Local Services Shrink
When most hospitals close, it’s plain to see. Equipment and fixtures are hauled out and carted away. Doctors and nurses leave and buildings are shuttered, maybe demolished. But another fate befalling U.S. hospitals is almost invisible. Across the country, conglomerates that control an increasing share of the market are changing their business models, consolidating services in one regional “hub” hospital and cutting them from others. (Ross, 1/24)

The Washington Post: Bernie Sanders Talks Universal Medicare, And 1.1 Million People Click To Watch Him
With more than one million people watching at home, and hundreds watching from the studio audience, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) leaned across his desk with a crucial health-care question. “What’s the quality of the Norwegian system?” Sanders asked Meetali Kakadi, an Oslo-based health researcher. “Is it good?” In her view, it was: “Far better than Canada.” (Weigel, 1/24)

Modern Healthcare: In Bow To Investors, Tenet Lets Majority Shareholders Convene Meetings 
Tenet Healthcare Corp., in a sign it may be willing to bend to activist shareholders, is letting its investors call formal meetings where they could potentially vote on significant changes, such as selling the company. The county's third-largest investor-owned hospital company changed its corporate bylaws this week to let majority shareholders request meetings. Before, only the CEO, board chairman or board of directors could do so. Since no single shareholder owns a majority stake in Tenet, the request would need to come from multiple shareholders. (Bannow, 1/23)

In other health industry news —

Boston Globe: Big Insurers Take A Big Hit In Shakeup Of Public Workers’ Plans
Two of Massachusetts’ largest nonprofit health insurers are bracing for a significant drop in revenues that could force at least one of them to cut jobs, after a state agency eliminated them from coverage options for tens of thousands of public workers. The state has offered plans from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan for more than three decades. But beginning in July, neither of the well-known insurers will be available to public workers who buy commercial health plans. (Dayal McCluskey, 1/24)

Bloomberg: Express Scripts Clashes With Investor Over Cyber-Risk Disclosure 
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will review a dispute between Express Scripts Holding Co. and New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli over his effort to force the prescription-benefits manager to increase cyber-risk disclosures. Express Scripts told the SEC last month it would exclude the proposal from its annual proxy statement. DiNapoli, who’s pushing for the company’s board to report its efforts to prevent and mitigate cyber threats, objected last week in a letter to the regulator. (Melin and Langreth, 1/23)

The New York Times: New York City Sues Drug Companies Over Opioid Crisis
Mayor Bill de Blasio on Tuesday announced that New York City had filed a lawsuit against the manufacturers and distributors of opioid prescription drugs, joining a national campaign to hold the companies responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in costs related to the deadly opioid epidemic. It was the second time this month — and the second time in his just-begun sophomore term — that Mr. de Blasio has held a news conference to herald legal action taken against corporate giants that he blames for problems that impact the city and beyond. (Goodman and Neuman, 1/23)

The Wall Street Journal: New York City Sues Companies Over Opioid Abuse
The lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, seeks half a billion dollars that city officials say they need to fight the opioid epidemic. “More New Yorkers have died from opioid overdoses than car crashes and homicides combined in recent years,” Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, said in a statement. “Big Pharma helped to fuel this epidemic by deceptively peddling these dangerous drugs and hooking millions of Americans in exchange for profit.” (Ramey and Randazzo, 1/23)

The Hill: New York City Sues Eight Opioid Producers, Distributors 
“Big Pharma helped to fuel this epidemic by deceptively peddling these dangerous drugs and hooking millions of Americans in exchange for profit,” Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said in a news release. “It’s time for hold the companies accountable for what they’ve done to our City, and help save more lives.” (Savransky and Roubein, 1/23)

In other news on the epidemic —

Reuters: U.S. Lets More Healthcare Workers Prescribe Opioid Addiction Treatment
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said on Tuesday it had changed a regulation to allow more healthcare professionals to prescribe a medication used to treat opioid addiction, opening up access in rural America where there are few doctors. Prior to 2000, only physicians could treat those with opioid addiction and had to register with the DEA as both physicians and operators of narcotic treatment programs. The latest change is part of a 2016 law that added categories of practitioners who may prescribe the narcotic drug buprenorphine for maintenance or detoxification treatment, the DEA said in a statement. (Abutaleb, 1/23)

The Associated Press: Philadelphia Wants Safe Injection Sites To Help Opioid Fight
Philadelphia wants to become the first U.S. city to allow supervised drug injection sites as a way to combat the opioid epidemic, officials announced Tuesday, saying they are seeking outside operators to establish one or more in the city. Public Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said the sites could be "a life-saving strategy and a pathway to treatment," and would be just one piece of the city's overall plan to fight the epidemic. (1/23)

The Baltimore Sun: Hogan Opioid Plan Would Possibly Turn Closed Baltimore Jail Into A Treatment Center 
The Hogan administration is considering turning part of the closed Baltimore City Detention Center into a mental health and substance abuse treatment center for inmates as part of its efforts to combat the state’s opioid addiction epidemic. The idea, included in the governor’s broader opioid initiative announced Tuesday, was questioned by some health officials and substance abuse experts who think the state should act now to address this underserved population. (McDaniels, 1/23)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Several Bills To Address, Curb Opioid Epidemic Soar Through Committees
A slew of bills meant to curb the ongoing opioid epidemic, or address one of its many side effects, soared through their first committee hearings Tuesday. Two subcommittees of the Senate Education and Health Committee heard the bills, which ranged from addressing the soaring number of babies born addicted to opioids to expanding access to and the rules overseeing the state’s prescription monitoring program, a database used to detect patterns of physicians overprescribing opioids. (O'Connor, 1/23)

The New York Times: Vaping Can Be Addictive And May Lure Teenagers To Smoking, Science Panel Concludes
A national panel of public health experts concluded in a report released on Tuesday that vaping with e-cigarettes that contain nicotine can be addictive and that teenagers who use the devices may be at higher risk of smoking. Whether teenage use of e-cigarettes leads to conventional smoking has been intensely debated in the United States and elsewhere. While the industry argues that vaping is not a steppingstone to conventional cigarettes or addiction, some antismoking advocates contend that young people become hooked on nicotine, and are enticed to use cancer-causing tobacco-based cigarettes over time. (Kaplan, 1/23)

NPR: Public Health Review Of E-Cigarettes Is Mixed
"There is conclusive evidence that most products emit a variety of potentially toxic substances. However the number and intensity is highly variable," says David Eaton, who heads the committee that wrote the report. He is also the dean and vice provost of the graduate school of the University of Washington, Seattle. "In some circumstances, such as their use by nonsmoking adolescents and young adults, their adverse effects clearly warrant concern." (Neighmond and Fulton, 1/23)

San Antonio Press-Express: San Antonio Part Of Study Finding Speedier PTSD Therapy
Retired Army Col. Don Gagliano was finally ready to believe he had post traumatic stress syndrome after a road rage incident in California last year. By then, doctors were pushing him to join a clinical trial whose promising results were published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (Christenson, 1/23)

Los Angeles Times: Military Families Bolster The Case That Obesity Is Indeed Contagious
Members of the military serve their country in myriad ways. That includes helping researchers figure out whether obesity is a contagious disease. A new study involving thousands of military families suggests that the answer is yes. The idea that fatness can spread like chicken pox or the flu may sound downright crazy. But how else do you explain the fact that families assigned to Army bases in communities with higher rates of obesity were more likely to be overweight or obese compared with families sent to bases where excess pounds were less common? (Kaplan, 1/23)

Los Angeles Times: Less Smartphone Time Equals Happier Teenager, Study Suggests
A precipitous drop in the happiness, self-esteem and life satisfaction of American teens came as their ownership of smartphones rocketed from zero to 73% and they devoted an increasing share of their time online. Coincidence? New research suggests it is not. (Healy, 1/23)

The Hill: Psychiatrist Who Briefed Lawmakers On Trump's Mental State Says She Received Death Threats
The Yale psychiatrist who last month warned lawmakers on Capitol Hill about the threat posed by President Trump said she has received thousands of death threats, most of them on Twitter. "I was concerned because I was getting a thousand threatening messages a day at one point," Dr. Bandy X. Lee told  the New Haven Register on Sunday. (Conradis, 1/23)

The New York Times: Murphy Starts To Expand Access To Medical Marijuana In New Jersey
Having campaigned on a pledge to fully legalize marijuana, Gov. Philip D. Murphy took the first step toward expanding access to the drug in New Jersey on Tuesday, signing an executive order that would ease regulations on the use of marijuana for medical purposes. New Jersey legalized medical marijuana in 2010, but Mr. Murphy’s predecessor, Chris Christie, a Republican, kept tight limits on the drug, including on which conditions could qualify for prescriptions. (Corasaniti, 1/23)

The Washington Post: Vermont Is The First State To Legalize Marijuana Through Legislature
Vermont has become the first state in the nation to legalize marijuana legislatively. Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed a bill Monday legalizing marijuana for adults over 21. It allows for the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana, two mature and four immature plants. Vermont is the ninth state to legalize recreational marijuana for adults. The other states did so through ballot initiatives. But Vermont’s law is notable for what it does not do: create a state marketplace for the sale of marijuana. (Zezima, 1/23)

The Cannifornian: Medical Marijuana Patient Barred From Volunteering To Care For Hospice Patients
Federal law still classifies cannabis as a Schedule I narcotic, a category reserved for drugs such as heroin that are said to be highly addictive and have no medical value. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been doubling down on that stance, even though polls show a record-high number of Americans now believe marijuana should be legal, 29 states permit medical marijuana and nine states plus Washington, D.C. allow recreational use. For cannabis consumers, the ongoing conflict with federal law can impact everything from gun ownership rights to employment opportunities. (Edwards Staggs, 1/23)

Texas Tribune: Texas Medical Cannabis Cultivator And Dispensary Has First Harvest
In 2015, the Texas Compassionate Use Act was passed. It legalized oils containing CBD, a non-euphoric component of marijuana known to treat epilepsy and other chronic medical conditions. Recently, the first state-licensed medical cannabis cultivator and dispensary harvested its first crop of medical cannabis. (Dehn, 1/24)

Iowa Public Radio: Wyoming Standing Firm On Pot Laws
In Wyoming, pot is illegal. Not so in neighboring Colorado, where recreational marijuana is available in a variety of different forms. The general feeling is that if you bring marijuana legally purchased in Colorado into Wyoming, you'll probably get into trouble. But what kind of trouble remains to be seen. (Beck, 1/24)

Georgia Health News: Transparency Legislation Is Latest Effort To End Surprise Billing
Georgia’s General Assembly will take another look at surprise billing this year, with new legislation sponsored by state Rep. Richard Smith, a Columbus Republican who has been a leading voice on the issue. ...His new bill is quite different from the one he offered last year, which would have required that any doctor credentialed to work at a specific hospital be part of its insurance network. (Miller, 1/23)

NPR: Abortion Pills: California Senate Bill Requires On-Campus Access
In California, the state Senate is considering legislation that would ensure that students at four-year public universities in California have access on campus to medication for abortions. Sen. Connie Leyva introduced the bill, SB 320, in February 2017. It would require all health centers within the University of California and California State University systems to stock the drugs prescribed for medication abortion and ready their campus health clinics to provide them by 2022. (Wilhelm, 1/23)

The Washington Post: Woman Says Missouri’s Strict Abortion Regulations Violate Her Religion: The Satanic Temple
A member of the Satanic Temple in Missouri has filed a lawsuit against the state that alleges that her religious rights are violated by the state’s abortion restrictions. The anonymous plaintiff, who goes by the name Mary Doe in the lawsuit because she fears she would be subject to “personal attack,” brought her case before the state Supreme Court on Tuesday. The woman, who has had an abortion, according to local news reports, alleges that the state’s requirement that Planned Parenthood — the only abortion provider in the state — distribute a booklet from the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services that stipulates that life begins at conception violates her beliefs as a member of the Satantic Temple. (Rosenberg, 1/23)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Aurora Sinai Suspends Employees After Reports Of Homeless Patient Discharged, Left On Sidewalk
An undisclosed number of employees at Aurora Sinai Medical Center in downtown Milwaukee were suspended Tuesday after reports that a mentally ill homeless patient was discharged and left on a cold, wet sidewalk outside the hospital. A photo and video of a shoeless man – clad in pants and what appears to be a hospital gown and sitting on a sidewalk outside the hospital –began circulating on social media and television stations after the incident allegedly occurred Monday. (Garza, 1/23)

The Associated Press: San Diego Declares End To Hepatitis A Emergency
San Diego's public health emergency for Hepatitis A has ended, officials declared Tuesday, after no new cases of the liver-damaging virus were reported in the past month and no deaths since October. Officials vowed to continue efforts to keep the illness under control. On Sept. 1, authorities declared the emergency to fight the worst epidemic of its kind in 20 years in the U.S. It killed 20 people and sickened 577 people between November 2016 and October 2017. (1/23)

The New York Times: New York Legislator Renews Effort To Bar Tackle Football For Children
A bill being reintroduced in the New York state legislature this week would bar youth tackle football for children under 12 years old, the latest attempt to address the emerging dangers of repeated head hits on young brains. Sponsored by state assemblyman Michael Benedetto, who represents Bronx County in New York City, the bill would prevent organized youth football leagues and schools from offering the tackle version of the game in New York state. (Belson, 1/24)

Houston Chronicle: In Mediation, Doctors Reduce Billed Charges By Millions
Of $7 million in disputed surprise medical bills patients submitted to the state's mediation process last year, insurers agreed to increase their overall payments by $1 million, new Texas Department of Insurance data show. That means physicians made the more dramatic concessions, reducing their demands by $6 million. The who-pays-what argument is at the core of an ongoing state crisis over a confusing medical business practice called balance billing that costs patients millions of dollars each year. Under the system, a doctor who is outside a patient's insurance network can charge more and then shift any or all of the "balance" not paid by the insurer onto patients. (Deam, 1/23)

Dallas Morning News: 6 Unvaccinated People Infected With Measles In Ellis County
There have been six confirmed cases of measles in Ellis County contracted by people who have not been vaccinated, health officials announced Tuesday. Those who are involved in the outbreak have connections to Waxahachie and Midlothian, and it's possible more cases will occur because of how contagious measles is, the Texas Department of State Health Services said. Health officials announced Friday that  someone who was contagious went to the movies Jan. 9 at the ShowBiz Cinemas in Waxahachie. (Cardona, 1/23)

Orlando Sentinel: Orange County Commissioners Favor UCF Over Florida Hospital For Sanford Burnham Building
Orange County commissioners heard competing pitches Tuesday from the University of Central Florida and Florida Hospital for reviving the research facility that was built for Sanford Burnham research institute nearly a decade ago with one of the largest incentive packages in the state’s history. In the end, the commissioners advised Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs that they either favored UCF’s proposal or preferred that the bidding opportunity is opened up to all, a new twist in this ongoing and bumpy local affair. (Miller, 1/23)

The Star Tribune: South Dakota's Sanford Health Expands Into Five More Countries 
South Dakota-based Sanford Health is launching new clinic and research ventures in Costa Rica, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa and Vietnam as it expands its global presence. The new operations rolled out Tuesday mean that the Sanford World Clinic division will now have operations in nine countries with more than 30 locations. (Snowbeck, 1/23)

The Star Tribune: Defunct Empi Accused Over Overbilling Military Health Care Program 
The owners of a defunct Shoreview-based medical device company, Empi Inc., have agreed to pay the Justice Department $7.6 million to resolve allegations of overbilling a military health care program for pain-fighting devices. The Justice Department on Tuesday accused Empi of overbilling the government by encouraging Tricare beneficiaries to place orders for nerve-stimulation electrodes that they didn’t need or use. The company did not admit wrongdoing or liability as part of the settlement. (Carlson, 1/23)

Dallas Morning News: Another Garland Medical Center Set To Close Next Month 
The Select Specialty Hospital on Marie Curie Drive is the latest medical facility in Garland to announce plans to close its doors. The last day of operations is Feb. 9, the Pennsylvania-based health system that operates the hospital confirmed on Tuesday. The facility, which focuses on patients with acute or chronic respiratory disorders, sits on the third floor of Baylor Scott and White Medical Center of Garland. (Rice, 1/23)

California Healthline: Hospitals’ Best-Laid Plans Upended By Disaster
It was 3:35 a.m. and flames from a massive Northern California wildfire licked at the back of a Santa Rosa hospital. Within three hours, staffers evacuated 122 patients to other facilities — something they’d never come close to doing before. Ambulances sped off with some of the sickest patients; city buses picked up many of the rest. With phone lines charred and communication restricted, doctors and nurses struggled to figure out who was sent where — forced to keep their wits even as some of their own homes burned and their families fled. (Ibarra, 1/23)

Stat: The Drug Industry’s Two Big Trade Groups Set A New Record For Lobbying In 2017
The two big groups that lobby on behalf of drug companies set a new record for their collective spending in the first year of the Trump administration. Shelling out a combined sum of nearly $35 million to lobby the federal government in 2017, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization upped their expenditures at a time when the sweeping tax overhaul was on the line and fears of a crackdown on drug pricing were top of mind. Remarkably, however, the record-setting spending push came in spite of the fact that neither group took a position on the biggest health policy story of the year, the long and steady Republican quest to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. (Robbins, 1/23)

The Hill: PhRMA Ups Lobbying By 30 Percent In Trump's First Year Of Presidency 
The pharmaceutical industry's top trade group responded to growing anger over rising drug costs in 2017 by upping its federal lobbying spending by 30 percent. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) increased its lobbying expenditures from $20 million in 2016 to $25.4 million in 2017. (Hellmann, 1/22)

CQ: Health Industry Groups Increased Lobbying In 2017
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America spent $25.4 million on lobbying over the course of last year, $5 million more than what they spent in 2016. The American Medical Association closely followed the group, spending $20.9 million on lobbying efforts last year. Those two groups, along with the American Hospital Association which spent $17.5 million last year, were among the top 10 top spenders of advocacy groups last year. The AHA spent slightly less in 2017 than during the previous year, when it spent $18.8 million. (McIntire, 1/23)

Stat: FDA Policy Wades Into Battles Between Drug Makers And Compounders
Amid rising tension between drug makers and compound pharmacies, the Food and Drug Administration has issued new policies that seek to bolster manufacturing standards for compounded medicines and, in the process, may serve to establish competitive boundaries between these rival sets of companies. A key piece of the effort focuses on a contentious issue: compounded drugs that, essentially, may be copies of prescription medicines. The agency specifies that compounders should not copy FDA-approved drugs, except when shortages exist. (Silverman, 1/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Big Drugmakers Pay Big Prices For Promising Biotechs
Big drugmakers, searching for new sources of revenue, are paying hefty premiums for biotechnology businesses, with two multibillion-dollar acquisitions announced Monday among the latest such deals.Sanofi SA agreed to pay $11.6 billion in cash, a 63% premium, to buy hemophilia-drug company Bioverativ Inc., confirming a Wall Street Journal report Sunday. (Rockoff, 1/22)

Stat: Did The Government Overpay For Hundreds Of Drugs? It's Complicated
It looked like the watchdog had found something big — in December 2017, a government report proclaimed that drug companies might have stiffed Medicaid over a billion dollars by pricing some generic drugs like brand-name drugs. The report didn’t name those companies, but Mylan, maker of EpiPen, landed in hot water for similar behavior the year before. In August 2017, the company paid a $465 million settlement, facilitated by the Department of Justice, and agreed to have its pricing practices reviewed in order to resolve claims that it overcharged Medicaid for EpiPen. (Swetlitz, 1/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Johnson & Johnson Results Driven By Pharmaceutical Sales Growth
Johnson & Johnson sales rose in the fourth quarter, but the company reported a loss after taking a $13.6 billion charge as a result of the new U.S. tax law. J&J expects the new law to lower its effective tax rate by 1.5 to 2.5 percentage points from the current rate of 17.2%. Analysts said the positive impact probably figured in the company’s better-than-expected financial outlook for this year. (Rockoff and Prang, 1/23)

The New York Times: Sanofi, Facing Threat From Generics, Moves To Buy Hemophilia Drug Maker
The French drug maker Sanofi said on Monday that it had agreed to acquire Bioverativ, a biopharmaceutical company focused on treatments for hemophilia and other rare blood disorders, for $11.6 billion in cash. Sanofi has sought use acquisitions to bolster its portfolio of drugs, particularly because it faces declining sales for its diabetes drug, Lantus, which has lost its patent protection. According to the company, sales of Lantus declined more than 16 percent in the first nine months of last year, based on constant exchange rates, and rivals are moving to introduce generic versions of the treatment. (Bray, 1/22)

Bloomberg: Sanofi To Buy Biogen Hemophilia Spinoff For $11.6 Billion 
Sanofi SA agreed to buy Bioverativ Inc., a spinoff from biotech giant Biogen Inc., for about $11.6 billion in a bid by France’s biggest drugmaker to gain treatments for rare blood disorders. The deal values hemophilia drugmaker Bioverativ at $105 a share, according to a statement Monday from Sanofi. That’s a 64 percent premium over Friday’s closing price. Sanofi shares fell 2.6 percent to 71.05 euros at 9:18 a.m. in Paris trading. (Sutherland, Du and Paton, 1/21)

Los Angeles Times: Healthcare Deals Fire Up As Drug Giants Face Price Pressure
The new year's healthcare deals began to snowball as Sanofi and Celgene Corp. scooped up assets that promise to offset pricing pressure for some of their top-selling drugs. ...The Monday activity sent the deals volume in U.S. biotechnology to its highest level since the third quarter of 2010, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. (Lauerman, 1/22)

Stat: Why Do Biopharma’s Elites Make The Annual Pilgrimage To Davos?
A who’s-who list of biopharma royalty is headed to the Swiss ski resort town of Davos for four days of hobnobbing this week with politicians, CEOs, and one-percenters from around the globe. There will be big names like Pfizer’s COO Albert Bourla, Novartis’s incoming CEO Vasant Narasimhan, Roche Chairman Christoph Franz, Illumina’s executive chairman Jay Flatley, and Medtronic’s CEO Omar Ishrak. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb will be there, as will the director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins. (Robbins, 1/22)

Modern Healthcare: Providers' Solution For High Drug Prices: Make Them Ourselves
Four not-for-profit health systems last week announced they were taking on big pharma by creating their own generic-drug company. But experts caution it'll take years of navigating red tape and substantial investment before the operation stands a chance at lowering drug prices and alleviating shortages—if it does at all. In fact, previous attempts have fallen short. "There are no new entrants to the market because it is so difficult to get into," said Michael Rea, CEO of Rx Savings Solutions, a company that sells software to health insurers and self-insured employers to help them lower their drug costs. "But having the capital source of hospitals is a great start—now they need to execute on the plan." (Kacik and Bannow, 1/20)

Kaiser Health News: States Face Costly Conundrum: How To Treat Inmates With Hepatitis C
In a corner of Jymie Jimerson's house in the town of Sparta, in southwest Missouri, she has set up a kind of shrine. It has Native American art representing her Cherokee heritage alongside Willie Nelson albums, books and photos in remembrance of her late husband. There's a copy of Willie's mid-'70s LP Red Headed Stranger. "When Steve was young, he had red hair and a red beard, so he always really identified with Willie's Red Headed Stranger," Jimerson says. "I try to keep it up there as a reminder of better days." (Smith, 1/19)

Stat: When The Well Runs Dry, Where Will Unicorns — And Biotech — Go?
Biotech is developing a unicorn problem .Drug developers have grown their horns thanks to a recent boom in venture capital, a virtuous cycle in which investors poured millions into months-old startups with the promise of lucrative initial public offerings or big-ticket buyouts. But for many, going public at a multibillion-dollar valuation just isn’t feasible in the short term. And returning to the well of venture capital would likely require selling new shares at a price below the last ones, a prospect investors dread. (Garde, 1/18)

The Associated Press: Health Coalition Pushes Ban On Brand-Name Drug Price Gouging
Brand-name medication and specialty drugs would be protected from price gouging under a proposal by a Maryland health care coalition. The Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition on Tuesday in Annapolis announced its intention to make prescription drugs more affordable, building off the success of a 2017 price gouging law.Last year, that law became the first in the nation to prohibit price gouging of generic and off-patent drugs. (Whooley, 1/16)

Stat: Roche And Novartis Lose A Key Battle Over Antitrust Fines In Italy
An arrangement between Roche (RHHBY) and Novartis (NVS) to channel demand to an expensive drug for treating a serious vision problem breached European Union competition rules, the E.U. Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday. And while this is not the final step in the litigation, the decision is likely to provide encouragement to European governments struggling to contain health care costs. (Silverman, 1/23)

Stat: Price Controls Would Stifle Innovation In The Pharmaceutical Industry
Little pharmaceutical innovation occurs in price-control jurisdictions. The United States has always, by a large margin, led the world as a source of new drugs, and that lead has widened as Japan and Germany have imposed price controls over the past few decades. All major international pharmaceutical companies, without exception, have instituted R&D and commercial operations in the U.S. to take advantage of its pricing environment. (Robert J. Easton, 1/22)

The Hill: The Creates Act: Lower Drug Costs Without Price Controls
Some American politicians—including, it seems, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump—want to reduce the high cost of prescription drugs by imposing government price controls. But there’s a problem: price controls kill. (Dean Clancy, 1/18)

Bloomberg: Johnson & Johnson Earnings: Don't Expect An Investment Surge
Johnson & Johnson kicked off Big Pharma's earnings/what-will-you-do with-your-tax-cut-proceeds season Monday morning. It managed to disappoint on both fronts. The company met or beat analyst expectations for both fourth-quarter earnings and 2018 guidance. But there were enough areas of concern within the results that shares fell 2 percent Tuesday morning. And J&J's detail-light promise to use its tax windfall to invest more in "innovation" is likely to frustrate as well. (Max Nisen, 1/23)

Forbes: How To Prevent Drug Price Shenanigans
Last year, Marathon Pharmaceuticals acquired a European muscular dystrophy drug, secured FDA approval, and jacked up the price 60-fold. Now, another biotech appears poised to use the same strategy. What can – or should – be done to stop it? Superficially, this may look like a no-brainer, with a fairly obvious path forward: close the loopholes that allow this to occur, and punish future perpetrators. But although many drug pricing scandals get lumped together in the lay press, this particular example shows that the differences between them are important if we want to develop effective policies to improve drug access and affordability. (Frank David, 1/21)

The Hill: Purdue Is Benefiting At The Expense Of Vulnerable Patients And Taxpayers
H.P. Lovecraft’s aphorism, “From even the greatest of horrors, irony is seldom absent,” applies to the full-page advertising campaign that pharmaceutical giant Purdue Pharma ran in many of the nation’s major newspapers late last year. Purdue manufactures the popular and long-acting opioid OxyContin, on which many patients rely for relief from chronic and severe pain. In the 1990s, numerous clinical studies showed patients were needlessly suffering because drug laws and social stigma discouraged physicians from treating pain with highly effective opioids like OxyContin. (Jeffrey A. Singer, 1/23)

Forbes: Sanofi And Celgene Are The Latest To Acquire Promising Biotechs
Last year, Todd Hagopian told us he expected promising biotechs to be acquired by pharmaceutical companies with expiring patents and empty pipelines. By investing in the right biotech companies before they became acquisition targets, Todd’s HIBEV fund returned more than 30% last year. On Monday, Sanofi and Celgene announced multibillion-dollar biotech acquisitions showing that this investment strategy continues to have legs. (Ken Kam, 1/23)

Bloomberg: Celgene-Juno Deal: Bluebird Bio Shouldn't Be Blue
Celgene Corp.'s $9 billion purchase of Juno Therapeutics Inc. might have Bluebird Bio Inc. feeling like a third wheel. The deal announced on Monday means Bluebird -- which, like Juno, is working on so-called cell therapies that train human immune cells to hunt cancer -- likely loses its most obvious potential deal suitor. And Celgene has since 2016 been licensing a Bluebird treatment for multiple myeloma. Juno has a similar research program, and now Celgene has a rather awkward overlap. (Max Nisen, 1/22)

Bloomberg: Celgene-Juno, Sanofi-Bioverativ Deals May Disappoint
It's BioMerger Monday! Celgene Corp.'s $9 billion buyout of Juno Therapeutics Inc. and Sanofi's $11.6 billion deal for Bioverativ Inc. made Monday one of the most exciting biotech deal days in recent memory. But both firms may have let external pressure drive them into iffy deals. (Max Nisen, 1/22)

Forbes: After Another Merger Monday In Health Care, CVS Is Still The Company To Watch In 2018
The health care sector rallied yesterday on another “Merger Monday” with the announcement of Sanofi’s (SNY) purchase of Bioverativ (BIVV) for $11.6 billion, and Celgene’s (CELG) $9 billion purchase of 90 percent of Juno Therapeutics (JUNO). But there’s still one transformative merger that will define and reshape the U.S. health care market in 2018: the CVS/AETNA $69 billion deal announced last December. CVS is best known for its 9,700 retail pharmacies and 1,100 walk-in clinics, but its most significant profit driver is its pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) enterprise—a middleman between pharmaceutical manufacturers and dispensers like drugstores. The company generated $177.5 billion in net revenue in 2016. (Leah Binder, 1/23)

Los Angeles Times: Republicans Fund Children's Health Insurance Program, But Leave Their Local Health Centers In The Lurch
Congressional Democrats and Republicans alike are congratulating themselves for finally passing new funding for the Childrens Health Insurance Program — and for another six years yet! The funding, which was part of the continuing resolution to end the three-day government shutdown, brought to a close the despicable failure to restore the authorization of CHIP, which ran out last Sept. 30. The delay threatened to take health coverage from 9 million low-income children and pregnant women. (Michael Hiltzik, 1/23)

Bloomberg: Gene Scientists Don't Fear The Latest Crispr Snag
It can feel shocking when someone disparages a golden person, thing or technology -- and in recent years, no emerging technology has glittered as brightly as the gene-altering technique known as Crispr. So some investors were apparently jolted earlier this month when MIT Technology Review ran a news item headlined “Uh-Oh -- Crispr Might Not Work in People.” Any technology that’s never been tested in clinical trials runs that risk. With Crispr, there has yet to be a single human experiment in the U.S. or Europe. Human experiments are just beginning in China, but American researchers say they don’t have complete information on how those are turning out. Crispr still promises to transform agriculture, manufacturing and other endeavors, but making it “work” in people -- presumably by treating diseases -- presents a different challenge, since human lives are on the line. (Faye Flam, 1/23)

Los Angeles Times: When Your Insurer Denies A Valid Claim Because Of 'Lack Of Medical Necessity'
We learned last week that roughly 3.2 million more Americans were uninsured in 2017 — hard data attesting to how Republicans' cold-hearted obsession with overturning Obamacare is playing out in the real world. According to the Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, the U.S. uninsured rate rose to 12.2% last year after plunging to a low of 10.9% by the end of 2016. Prior to Obamacare, the uninsured rate nationwide was as high as 18%. (David Lazarus, 1/23)

Stat: To Thwart Flu Pandemics, We Need To Decode The Human Immune System
In the not-too-distant future, we predict that researchers will be able to harness the human immune system to prevent and control disease in ways previously considered unimaginable: one-shot vaccines that offer lifelong protection in everyone; a universal influenza vaccine that protects against seasonal and pandemic outbreaks of flu; vaccines against currently intractable infectious diseases; and, one day, vaccines against noninfectious chronic diseases, everything from cancer to heart disease and Alzheimer’s disease. (Wayne C. Koff, Peter C. Doherty and Margaret A. Hamburg, 1/23)

USA Today: Soda Taxes: If They're Good For Us, Why Are Americans Still Obese?
Once again, government meddling might be leading to unintended consequences. At the beginning of this year, Seattle’s new soda tax — 1.75 cents per ounce of soda — went into effect. At Costco, a now-taxed case of Coca Cola was $7.35 more than a same-size case of Diet Coke. ... While diet soda obviously beats regular soda on a caloric level, it’s not clear that it’s actually healthier. Ultimately, Seattle’s push might change buying habits — without making local residents any healthier. (Katrina Trinko, 1/23)

Des Moines Register: Tiny Suicide Prevention Bill Could Save Iowa Teenagers' Lives
A young person commits suicide in the United States at the rate of one per hour and four minutes. It’s the second leading cause of death for people age 15 to 24. Four out of five teenagers who attempt suicide exhibit clear warning signs, according to the Justin Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to suicide prevention. ... Yet nothing in Iowa law requires that teachers and other educators be capable of recognizing these danger signals and getting appropriate help. That may change this year, as a result of legislation currently seeing bipartisan cooperation at the Iowa Statehouse. (Kathie Obradovich, 1/23)

Kansas City Star: Gov. Eric Greitens' Budget Priorities: Slash Spending For Higher Education And The Poor
Missourians who have followed Gov. Eric Greitens for the past year will not be surprised by the governor’s new budget, revealed to the state Monday. Greitens — who frequently reminds voters of his courage and his service as a Navy SEAL — has decided to slash at two of the most politically defenseless groups in the state, students and the poor. The governor, for example, wants to save $40 million “through Medicaid cost containment initiatives” in the state’s social services budget. When asked to explain what those initiatives might be, the administration blinked, promising to come up with something eventually. (1/23)

Detroit Free Press: How To Achieve 'One Detroit' For All
How do you measure the progress of a city? Civic actors in government, media, philanthropy and academia measure Detroit’s progress through data and reports. Percentages, indicators and evolving rates serve as the lens through which we mark our march through time. As the numbers rise and fall, especially in this period of transition, we increasingly ask ourselves will we ever see “one Detroit for all of us?” Unless we acknowledge the deep trauma that many Detroit residents have experienced, and continue to experience, the answer is no. Behind the numbers representing violent crime, poverty, foreclosure, eviction, infant mortality and addiction are real people who suffer — often in silence. (Chase L. Cantrell, 1/24)

Lexington Herald Leader: Time For Prayers, And Gun Laws
Tuesday morning, two families sent their young teens off to another day of high school in Marshall County. It turned out to be their last. ... Healing should also include crafting laws that will allow other students to live out their natural lives, save their families and communities from this suffering. (1/23)