The New York Times: Trump Issues Appeal For Unity In First State Of The Union
President Trump challenged Democrats on Tuesday night to join him in overhauling immigration policies and in rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure in his first State of the Union address. Speaking to a joint session of Congress, Mr. Trump hailed what he called the “extraordinary success” of his administration’s first year, and largely steered clear of the nationalist rhetoric, political attacks and confrontational tone that have been his calling cards both as a candidate and as a commander in chief. (Hirschfeld Davis and Shear, 1/30)

The New York Times: 2018 State Of The Union Fact-Check
Reporters from The New York Times checked the facts, falsehoods and statements in need of context from President Trump’s first State of the Union address. Watch a replay along with real time analysis here and an annotated transcript of the speech. (1/30)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump On Obama's Health Care Law
Congress did repeal the unpopular requirement that most Americans carry insurance or risk a tax penalty but that takes effect next year. It's a far cry from what Trump and the GOP-led Congress set out to do last year, which was to scrap most of the sweeping Obama-era health law and replace it with a Republican alternative. The GOP blueprint would have left millions more Americans uninsured, making it even more unpopular than "Obamacare." (1/30)

The Wall Street Journal: In State Of The Union, Trump Vows Optimism As More Fights Loom
[Trump] squeezed in remarks on a handful of specific other issues including health care, which had dominated his first year in office, when he applauded Republicans’ repeal of the requirement that most Americans obtain health insurance or pay a penalty as removing “the core” of the Affordable Care Act. (Nicholas, Radnofsky and Hughes, 1/31)

The Hill: Trump Makes No Calls For ObamaCare Repeal In State Of The Union 
President Trump made no mention of repealing or replacing ObamaCare during his first State of the Union address on Tuesday, cementing how far the issue has fallen off of the GOP’s agenda. Republicans on Capitol Hill have largely moved away from gutting former President Obama’s signature health-care law, and Trump wasn’t expected to speak about repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in his speech Tuesday. (Roubein, 1/30)

The Associated Press Fact Check: Trump On Opioid Epidemic
According to the U.S. Centers on Disease Control and Prevention, about 40 percent of the opioid deaths in 2016 involved prescription painkillers. Those drugs are made by pharmaceutical companies. Some are abused by the people who have prescriptions; others are stolen and sold on the black market. The flow of heroin into the U.S. from Mexico is a major problem, but drugs that are brought from other countries don't all come over land borders. (1/30)

Politico: Trump State Of The Union 2018 Transcript: Live Analysis & Fact Check
Trump pledged repeatedly to halt the opioid epidemic, vowing in October to “liberate” Americans from the “scourge of addiction.” But neither the administration nor Congress has taken the major steps public health experts say are necessary fight the crisis – namely, pouring far more money into the effort. Trump in October decided against a national emergency that would have freed up new federal resources, opting inside to settle for declaring a “public health emergency” that only allowed the redirection of existing resources. Since then, he’s yet to propose any new plan for tackling the epidemic and left key health and drug jobs vacant – prompting experts to conclude that not much of consequence is being done. (1/30)

Stat: In State Of The Union, Trump Endorses 'Right To Try' For Terminally Ill Patients
In a wide-ranging State of the Union address Tuesday evening, President Trump endorsed Congress’s efforts to pass a bill allowing access to experimental treatments for patients with terminal conditions. So-called “right-to-try” legislation was passed by the Senate last fall, but the effort has since stalled in the House. Vice President Mike Pence has endorsed a right-to-try bill. In February Trump gave his support to the legislation but he had not spoken publicly about the issue prior to Tuesday’s address. (Swetlitz, 1/30)

Politico: Trump's Top Health Official Traded Tobacco Stock While Leading Anti-Smoking Efforts
The Trump administration’s top public health official bought shares in a tobacco company one month into her leadership of the agency charged with reducing tobacco use — the leading cause of preventable disease and death and an issue she had long championed. The stock was one of about a dozen new investments that Brenda Fitzgerald, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made after she took over the agency’s top job, according to documents obtained by POLITICO. Fitzgerald has since come under congressional scrutiny for slow walking divestment from older holdings that government officials said posed potential conflicts of interest. (Karlin-Smith and Ehley, 1/30)

In other news from health agencies —

The Hill: FDA Faces New Lawsuits Over E-Cigarette Rule 
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is facing a new wave of legal challenges over its rules for electronic cigarettes. The Pacific Legal Foundation filed lawsuits on behalf of vaping businesses in district courts in the District of Columbia, Minnesota and Texas on Tuesday. (Wheeler, 1/30)

Modern Healthcare: GOP House Oversight Chair Blasts HHS Dysfunction 
HHS Secretary Alex Azar received a scathing note from a GOP lawmaker on his first day on the job, and was given one week to respond to House oversight committee information requests on the Puerto Rico public health crisis, opioids, Medicare and more. In a letter addressed to Azar on Monday, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) blasted HHS for its "posture of nonchalance" that he dates back to October 2016 in the department's responses to the committee's special inquiries. (Luthi, 1/30)

The Hill: Oversight Chairman Threatens To Subpoena HHS For Withholding Information 
"Rather than work in good faith to accommodate the committee's oversight and investigative requirements and constitutional prerogatives, and despite the committee's effort to accommodate HHS's legitimate interests, the department has missed mutually-agreed deadlines, produced meager and incomplete sets of information (much of which is available publicly), and taken a posture of nonchalance with respect to the committee's requests," Gowdy wrote. "The department's pattern of nonresponsiveness and wanton disregard for the committee's requests for information undermines our ability to perform our oversight duties of the department and its programs. (Hellmann, 1/30)

Meanwhile —

The Hill: Trump Health Chief Faces An Early Test On Enforcing ObamaCare 
President Trump’s new health secretary, Alex Azar, is facing an early test of his willingness to enforce the Affordable Care Act. The governor of Idaho moved last week to allow insurers in the state to sell plans that do not meet several ObamaCare requirements, including ones that deal with pre-existing conditions. (Sullivan, 1/31)

The New York Times: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway And JPMorgan Team Up To Try To Disrupt Health Care
Three corporate behemoths — Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase — announced on Tuesday that they would form an independent health care company for their employees in the United States. The alliance was a sign of just how frustrated American businesses are with the state of the nation’s health care system and the rapidly spiraling cost of medical treatment. It also caused further turmoil in an industry reeling from attempts by new players to attack a notoriously inefficient, intractable web of doctors, hospitals, insurers and pharmaceutical companies. (Wingfield, Thomas and Abelson, 1/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan Join Forces To Pare Health-Care Costs
“The ballooning costs of health care act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy,” Berkshire Chief Executive Warren Buffett said in prepared remarks. “Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable. ”The new company will focus on technological solutions that can provide simplified and transparent health care for the three companies’ U.S. employees at a lower cost. (Lombardo, Stevens and Friedman, 1/30)

Los Angeles Times: Amazon, JPMorgan And Berkshire Hathaway Team Up To Lower Healthcare Costs For Their Workers — And Maybe Everyone
Although the companies said their focus mainly would be on providing improved healthcare for their own U.S. workers, which total nearly 1 million, the move immediately triggered speculation that any solutions they develop could spread throughout the industry. (Peltz, Puzzanghera and Levey, 1/30)

Stat: Amazon Pleges To 'Disrupt' The Health Care Industry. Experts Doubt It
When news broke Tuesday morning that Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase are forming an independent health care company for their employees, headlines hailed the idea as a way to “disrupt” health care. ...But many health care experts were far more skeptical — noting both the near-total absence of details in the announcement and the fact that the history of the health care industry is littered with examples of players who have pledged to disrupt the field but ultimately failed. (Thielking, 1/30)

Politico: Amazon's New Health Care Business Could Shake Up Industry After Others Have Failed
Skepticism appears warranted, however, about the prospects for Amazon and its new partners achieving significant changes in a sector that’s proven largely impervious to major reform efforts over decades. “We’ve seen these deals before,” said Sam Glick, a partner in the health and life sciences division at Oliver Wyman. He cited Walmart and Intel as two companies that have sought to provide health care for employees while cutting out the insurance middleman. “It’s not news that jumbo employers are frustrated with escalating costs and lousy experiences in the health care system.” (Demko, 1/30)

Kaiser Health News: Expert Advice For The Corporate Titans Taking On Health Care
[So] what does all of this mean and how can it be successful when so many other initiatives have fallen short? KHN asked a variety of health policy experts their thoughts on this venture, and what advice they would offer these CEOs as they go forward. Some of the advice has been edited for clarity and length. (1/31)

Bloomberg: Buffett-Bezos Health Plan Will Hinge On Buying Power, Technology 
Prices for prescription drugs, which move through a complex chain of pharmacy-benefit managers and wholesalers before reaching patients, are especially hard to understand. Even big employers often have to travel to secure rooms in the offices of pharmacy-benefit managers to learn the secret discounts they are getting on brand-name medications. The new joint venture could make pricing information more accessible--and drive down profit margins for drug-plan managers such as Express Scripts Holding Co. and CVS Health Corp., and wholesalers including AmerisourceBergen Corp. and McKesson Corp. (Langreth and Tracer, 1/30)

Bloomberg: Amazon Health-Care Move May Be Next ‘Home Run’ Like Cloud Services
Amazon.com Inc.’s foray into health care won’t be the first time it has disrupted an entire industry by starting with an effort inside the company. Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos is teaming up with fellow billionaires Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon to revamp health care for the 2.4 million workers and dependents of the companies they run. The move fostered widespread speculation the trio will eventually make their approach to medical care available to companies far and wide. (Soper, 1/31)

Bloomberg: Who Could Lead A New Health-Care Company For Three Billionaires? 
Wanted: Chief executive for health-care startup. Must be able to reinvent an industry, reduce spiraling costs and improve care for one million people -- and possibly the entire nation. Reply to: Three billionaires. Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are teaming up to try to solve the seemingly insurmountable mess that’s the U.S. health-care system. Their venture raises a crucial question of who could run such an enterprise. (Melin and Abelson, 1/30)

The New York Times: ‘Dr. Alexa, I’ve Been Sneezing And My Throat Is Sore’
The fledgling plan from Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to create an independent health care system for their American employees is just as bare-bones as it is bold. The companies, all titans in their respective industries, gave few details Tuesday when they announced the joint effort. The group said its strategy will focus first on technology as a way to provide simplified, affordable access to medical services. (Hsu, 1/30)

The New York Times: How Amazon Rattles Other Companies
Amazon’s ambitions have few limits, and the mere specter of its entry into a particular industry can shape markets. When the company has appeared interested in expanding into a new business, it has spooked investors in potential competitors, leading to large sell-offs. (Russell and Wingfield, 1/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Health Care ‘Tapeworm’ Faces New Threat
Tuesday’s health-care stock jolt might not last for long, but the reckoning that the industry has feared is starting to seem a little less hazy. Amazon.com, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase plan to start their own nonprofit company in a bid to reduce health-care spending for their hundreds of thousands of U.S. employees. Express Scripts Holding, CVS Health and UnitedHealth Group fell sharply on Tuesday before rebounding. (Grant, 1/30)

Nashville Tennessean: How Does An Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway Healthcare Focus Impact Nashville?
As Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase announced they would together seek to tackle the high-cost health care industry for their employees, the Nashville health care community reacted with intrigue. While the three global companies did not specify what their independent company will do in the health care space, their track records were enough to move markets on Tuesday. UnitedHealth Group, Aetna, Anthem and CVS Health Corp. shares fell by more than 3 percent. (McGee, 1/30)

Modern Healthcare: Amazon, JPMorgan And Berkshire Hathaway Unveil New Company In Bid To Lower Healthcare Costs 
Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase are teaming up to form a healthcare company to serve their U.S. workers in yet another example of large employers taking employee healthcare matters into their own hands to reduce costs. Details on the new venture were sparse, but the companies said early Tuesday that they will leverage their combined scale and expertise to develop technology solutions to provide employees and their families "simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost." (Kacik and Livingston, 1/30)

The Washington Post: FDA Wants To Curb Abuse Of Imodium, 'The Poor Man's Methadone'
The Food and Drug Administration is asking manufacturers of over-the-counter anti-diarrhea treatments to change the way they package their products to curb abuse by people with drug addictions. Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement Tuesday that the agency was taking the “novel” action because of growing concerns that abuse of Imodium A-D and similar medications was adding to the death toll of the nation's opioid epidemic. (McGinley, 1/30)

Bloomberg: Diarrhea Drug Imodium Swept Up In Opioid Crisis Under FDA Rules
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called the agency request “fairly unprecedented” in a statement on Tuesday and said those restrictions could constitute a two-day supply, or a maximum of eight two-milligram pills. J&J was noncommittal. The steps to limit Imodium are part of a broader FDA effort to stem the tide of overdose deaths. More than 42,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses in 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Edney, 1/30)

The Associated Press: US Officials Seek Packaging Fix For Diarrhea-Drug Abuse
The key ingredient in anti-diarrhea medications like Imodium is part of the opioid family, an addictive drug class that includes morphine and oxycodone. At low doses, the medicine, known generically as loperamide, helps control diarrhea. But recent statistics show a rise in abuse of the drug, including massive doses that can cause heart problems and death. (1/30)

Stat: To Replace Opioids, Biopharma Bets On Pain Drugs With A Checkered Past
Now, after years of research and perseverance, a handful of biopharma companies believe they’ve found a safe way to relieve pain with NGF treatments, pressing through late-stage trials that will determine whether the old drugs can finally pass FDA muster and provide a much-needed alternative to opioids. ...Regeneron, which is studying its drug in osteoarthritis and chronic lower back pain, expects to disclose results of a late-stage trial this year. Pfizer and Eli Lilly, which have partnered on an NGF drug, plan to release data in osteoarthritis on the same timetable. (Garde, 1/31)

The Hill: Sessions: DEA To Target Pharmacies, Prescribers In Crackdown 
The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) plans to target the nation's pharmacies and prescribers in a nationwide crackdown against opioid abuse, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Tuesday. Sessions told agents in Louisville, Ky., that over the next six weeks the DEA will begin a nationwide investigation of pharmacies and drug prescribers that are issuing "unusual or disproportionate" numbers of opioid prescriptions. (Bowden, 1/30)

The Hill: Senators Urge New Rule To Combat Opioid Crisis In Rural Areas
Three senators are urging the Trump administration to quickly issue a new rule that would aim to increase access to opioid addiction treatment in rural areas. Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Alaska’s two Republican senators — Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan — are requesting the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issue a new regulation that would let certain health-care providers obtain a special registration letting them use telemedicine to prescribe medication for an opioid addiction. (Roubein, 1/30)

The Hill: House Panel To Begin Hearings On Bills To Fight Opioid Crisis 
The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced Tuesday that it will begin holding legislative hearings on measures to fight the opioid crisis the week of Feb. 26, a step forward in addressing the epidemic. The panel said that there will be multiple hearings to consider legislation aimed at fighting opioid abuse, an issue that has received bipartisan attention amid a rising number of deaths. (Sullivan, 1/30)

The Hill: Drug Distributors Shipped 20M Pain Pills To Town Of 3,000 People In West Virginia
Drug distributors poured 20.8 million pain pills into a West Virginia town of 3,000 people over a 10-year period, according to information released Tuesday as part of a congressional probe into the opioid crisis. The out-of-state companies shipped the painkillers to two pharmacies four blocks apart in Williamson, W.Va., from 2006 to 2016. (Hellmann, 1/30)

WBUR: Drug Distributors Shipped 20.8 Million Painkillers To West Virginia Town Of 3,000
Williamson, W.Va., sits right across the Tug Fork river from Kentucky.  ...But despite its small size, drug wholesalers sent more than 20.8 million prescription painkillers to the town from 2008 and 2015, according to an investigation by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. (Wamsley, 1/30)

Columbus Dispatch: Franklin County Officially Sues Opioid Makers, Distributors
Franklin County officially joined a national lawsuit Tuesday that accuses prescription opioid makers and distributors of being a public nuisance by improperly fueling the national epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose deaths. The suit accuses dozens of opioid manufacturers and distributors, including Dublin-based Cardinal Health, of being hazards to public health by flooding the market with painkillers and other opioids that have fueled the deadly epidemic. (Perry, 1/30)

The New York Times: Binge Eating At Night? Your Hormones May Be To Blame
Most dieters know the hard truth: Sticking to a weight loss regimen gets more difficult as the day wears on. But while those who give in to food cravings and binge at night may blame flagging willpower, a new study suggests the problem could lie in the complex orchestra of hormones that drive hunger and signal feelings of satiety, or fullness. (Rabin, 1/30)

The Washington Post: Canadian Couple Contracts Hookworms After Vacation In Punta Cana
It started with an itch after a stroll on a Caribbean beach, but in just a few days it had morphed into a gut-churning travel nightmare. In mid-January Eddie Zytner and Katie Stephens, a couple from Windsor, Ontario, went on a vacation to Punta Cana, a resort town on the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic. At some point, they assumed they had been bitten by bugs during one of their walks because their feet wouldn't stop itching. (Wootson, 1/30)

The New York Times: Like Fevers, The Number Of Flu Patients Is Rising
Student absences. Contagious colleagues at work. Time-draining hospital visits. Thousands of Americans nationwide are grappling with what officials say is turning out to be the worst flu season in nearly a decade. And New Yorkers are falling ill, too. On the third week of January, there were 7,779 confirmed influenza cases and 1,759 people hospitalized in New York, the highest weekly numbers since the state began reporting them in 2004, according to the New York State Department of Health. (Ferre-Sadurni, 1/30)

The Washington Post: A Woman Tried To Board A Plane With An 'Emotional Support Peacock.' United Airlines Wouldn't Let It Fly.
K-9s, felines . . . and peacocks. Airlines that have begun talking about tightening restrictions on a proliferating array of “emotional support” animals on commercial flights may have found their case bolstered this week after a picture of a peacock that was reportedly denied a seat aboard a United Airlines flight traveled far and wide. (Bever and Rosenberg, 1/30)

USA Today: Ohio Medical Board Investigates Cleveland Clinic Doctor Accused Of Rape
The Ohio Board of Medicine is investigating two alleged rapes by a former Cleveland Clinic colorectal surgeon following a Jan. 5 USA TODAY article and has subpoenaed Cleveland Clinic medical records for other procedures done by the surgeon in the same time period, USA TODAY has learned. Surgeon Tomislav Mihaljevic, who started as Cleveland Clinic’s CEO Jan. 1, is also now chair of a “conduct review” committee established after the article was published to review “serious incidents of harassment and misconduct to ensure appropriate action is taken.”  New committees are also developing policies on how to assess physicians’ conduct and govern the use of chaperones. (O'Donnell, 1/30)

The Star Tribune: New Minn. Health Dept. Leader Pledges To Make Fight Vs. Elder Abuse A Priority 
Gov. Mark Dayton has appointed former Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm to lead the state Health Department, following highly publicized breakdowns in senior home regulation that led to the resignation of the agency’s previous leader. Malcolm, a veteran health care executive with a national reputation in health policy, led the department under Gov. Jesse Ventura from 1999 to 2003. (Serres, 1/30)

Pioneer Press: Meet The Woman Gov. Mark Dayton Hired To Fix Minnesota’s Health Department 
Minnesota has a new health commissioner and her top priority is to make sure the state’s most vulnerable people are safe. Gov. Mark Dayton appointed Jan Malcolm on Tuesday to lead the state Department of Health and address the state’s backlog of investigations into allegations of elder abuse. Malcolm replaces Dr. Ed Ehlinger, who resigned last month amid the fallout of the state’s failure to address maltreatment complaints. (Magan, 1/30)

Sacramento Bee: Deadline Is Wednesday To Sign Up For Health Insurance Through Covered California
Still need health coverage for 2018? You’re got until 11:59:59 Wednesday night to enroll in insurance policies offered through the Covered California marketplace. While the federal marketplace closed enrollment in dozens of other states on Dec. 15 this year, California maintained the Jan. 31 deadline. (Anderson, 1/30)

KCUR: Why Are Death Rates Rising Among White Rural Missourians? 
In the last few decades, rates of premature death have been decreasing throughout the industrialized world largely because of improvements in public health. But there’s a striking exception. Young adult and middle-aged non-Hispanic whites in the rural United States have been dying in increasing numbers since 2000. (Smith, 1/31)

Georgia Health News: Telemedicine Spreading In Georgia, But There’s Still Much Room To Grow
Telemedicine is expanding in Georgia, yet there’s still ‘’a long way to go’’ before it reaches its full potential, the state’s Public Health commissioner said Tuesday. Dr. Patrick O’Neal said access to health care in rural Georgia ‘’is a challenge for all of us.” But telemedicine, he said, is often the only way for many rural patients to get access to specialist care. (Miller, 1/30)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Bill To Give Doctors Way Out Of Providing Medically Unethical Treatment Passes First Committee
A bill that would create a process by which a physician can cease treatment they deem to be medically unnecessary or inappropriate for a patient passed its first committee hurdle Tuesday. ... Oftentimes these situations arise over end-of-life treatment, when a physician determines the treatment is medically or ethically inappropriate, contrary to the request of the patient or their family. (O'Connor, 1/30)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Urges State To Expand Definition Of 'Gravely Disabled'
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion Tuesday that asks California lawmakers to change the way the state defines "grave disability" in order to give officials more power to forcibly treat mentally ill homeless people. The motion comes amid concern about the growing number of deaths of the homeless in L.A. County. According to data from the Los Angeles County coroner's office, 831 homeless people died in 2017, compared with 458 in 2013. (Etehad, 1/30)

Texas Tribune: Despite Sunny Economy, Texas Budget Forecast Is Dreary
The Texas economy is growing healthily, but that doesn’t mean state budget writers will have more money at their disposal next year, state officials said Tuesday. In fact, though unemployment is low and tax revenue is on the rise, big bills coming due for the state’s highways and health care programs are giving Texas lawmakers reason for concern. (Walters, 1/30)

The Associated Press: Army Vet Shot By Police At VA Clinic Faces Charges
An Army veteran who was shot during a confrontation inside a Veterans Affairs clinic in Oregon where he went to seek help for mental problems was in jail Tuesday, charged with attempted assault, unlawful use of a weapon, menacing and other crimes. (1/30)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Care Advantage Acquires A Northern Virginia Personal Care Services Business
Chesterfield County-based home health care agency Care Advantage has continued its run of acquisitions — this time expanding into Northern Virginia. The company announced Tuesday that it had acquired Ready Hands, an Alexandria-based company that provides personal care services to elderly and disabled people. (Smith, 1/30)

WBUR: ER Use Goes Down As Hospital Program Pays Homeless People's Rent
For the last two years, the University of Illinois has been trying an unconventional treatment for homeless "super-user" patients at emergency rooms: it finds them a place to live. (Bryan, 1/30)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Ruling Against Doctor And Home Health Care Provider Found Guilty In Medicare Fraud Scheme Reversed: Appeals Court 
The fifth circuit court of appeals reversed a decision in a March 2016 Medicare fraud case where the owner of a New Orleans' home health service and its medical director of health care fraud where charged with conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. The conviction against Dr. Pramela Ganji, 67, and Elaine Davis, 61, the owner of Christian Home Health, Inc. was reversed on Tuesday (Jan. 30) citing "insufficient evidence" to show that the women had "knowingly executed a scheme to defraud Medicare." (Clark, 1/30)

San Jose Mercury News: Walgreens Settles Suit Alleging It Sold Expired Baby Food
Walgreens Co. will pay $2.25 million to resolve a consumer protection lawsuit brought by Bay Area prosecutors alleging that the company sold expired baby food, infant formula and over-the-counter drugs. The suit also alleged that Walgreens violated state law by charging more than the lowest posted or advertised price for items. (Green, 1/30)

Wyoming Public Radio: Lawmakers Push For Stronger Guidelines For Transportation And Special Education
During the upcoming budget session, lawmakers want to take a closer look at transportation and special education funding, as a part of a larger effort to reform and possibly reduce spending in the K-12 finance model. Most of what school districts spend on education is covered in a block grant they receive from the state. (Watson, 1/30)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Barrett's Nominee For Interim Health Boss Has Been Paid $556,000 By City Since 2008
Mayor Tom Barrett's pick to serve as interim director of the troubled city Health Department has been paid more than $556,000 by that agency since 2008, says a report released Tuesday. Paul Nannis, who previously served as city health commissioner in the 1990s, has been awarded seven consulting contracts totaling nearly $515,000 through his firm, Strategic Healthcare Solutions, over the past decade. (Bice and Spicuzza, 1/30)

Sacramento Bee: California's Treasurer And Attorney General Move On Plan To Create Public Bank For Pot Businesses
Because of the federal prohibition on marijuana, banks generally will not provide accounts to cannabis companies, forcing them to pay taxes and other expenses in cash. The resulting safety problems and accounting complications have been brought to the fore by the Jan. 1 start of legal recreational pot sales in California. (Branan, 1/30)

Stat: Among Those Who Want To Lower Drug Prices, Cacophony, Not Consensus
Last year, the American Medical Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, and the American Hospital Association together spent more than $45 million lobbying Congress, almost twice what the drugmakers’ group, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, spent in the same time period. Instead, congressional efforts to lower drug prices are at a total standstill. In interviews with STAT, lobbyists, lawmakers, and congressional staffers, Republicans and Democrats alike, said the most powerful health industry players conspicuously disagree about exactly how to move forward. Every group pushes its own priorities and strategies — a cacophony that makes it unlikely that crushing drug prices will change any time soon. (Mershon, 1/26)

Bloomberg: Trump Threats On Drug Prices Leave Investors Unfazed These Days
In January 2017, Donald Trump, then president-elect, sank pharmaceutical and biotechnology stocks when he said companies are “getting away with murder” with high drug prices. On Monday, the shares quickly rebounded from a hiccup, after the president at a swearing-in ceremony for his new health secretary pledged to bring prescription prices “way down.” The contrast highlights a year of threats that have so far resulted in little action. The administration hasn’t passed any policy that would directly curb drug prices, and the prospect of price negotiating by the government -- one of the industry’s biggest fears -- has faded away. Pressure on the industry was relieved last June, when several reports said the administration was working on an executive order that would have been more friendly than punitive to the pharmaceutical industry, which sent stocks up. (Daurat and Chen, 1/29)

Bloomberg: Biotech Investors Fear Bezos More Than Trump As Costs Targeted
Investors in biotech may take little notice of the president’s criticisms of drug prices these days, but there are at least three men the industry still fears. Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., said that they were teaming up to lower health-care costs for their employees Tuesday, sending shares of many drugmakers sinking. The Nasdaq Biotechnology Index fell as much as 2.1 percent, the largest drop on an intraday basis since Nov. 14. The day prior, the index rebounded quickly after President Donald Trump pledged to bring prices “way down” and closed positively for the day. (Spalding, 1/30)

FiercePharma: Roche's Pricey New Hemophilia Drug Hemlibra Gets A Rare Blessing From U.S. Cost Watchdogs
As the market for hemophilia treatments gets more and more crowded, Roche could use all the help it can get generating enthusiasm among doctors and patients for its new entry, Hemlibra. It just scored a big thumbs-up that could do just that.will no doubt give the company a lift as it takes on that marketing challenge—and as it faces analysts' questions during its fourth-quarter earnings release on Thursday. The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) issued a report concluding that Hemlibra is cost effective, despite its price of $482,000 for the first year and $448,000 after that. (Weintraub, 1/30)

Stat: Drug Makers Are Offering Bigger Discounts Than Ever Before
When it comes to the cost of pharmaceuticals, companies like to play the blame game. Drug makers carp that they must pay steep discounts to pharmacy benefit managers in order to win favorable coverage and ensure their medicines are prescribed. Pharmacy benefit managers deny pocketing unfair shares of the discounts, and argue drug makers offer discounts simply to boost sales — and could turn off the discount spigot at will. Patients, meanwhile, are caught in the middle. (Silverman, 1/24)

Forbes: Sanofi CEO: $16 Billion Deal Binge Does Not Represent A Change In Strategy
Biotech stocks are soaring because of a boom in mergers-and-acquisition deals, with established acquirers spending more than $26 billion to buy promising upstarts. More than half that sum -- $16 billion -- has been spent buy one buyer, Paris-based Sanofi. Could the French drug giant be getting reckless, or worse, desperate, as it faces approaching generic competition for its $5 billion long-acting insulin, Lantus? "We're not buying aggressively," says Olivier Brandicourt, who took over as Sanofi's chief executive in 2015. "We have exactly the same financial discipline we had initially." (Herper, 1/29)

Stat: The Ablynx Deal Is Another Big Bet By Sanofi To Remake Itself
Under pressure to appease investors, Sanofi (SNY) has twice in the past week agreed to pay hefty amounts of money to buy a pair of companies that specialize in treating blood disorders. In doing so, the drug maker is scrambling to remake itself as its key diabetes franchise struggles under pricing pressure. (Silverman, 1/29)

FiercePharma: Influential Celgene Chairman Bob Hugin Says Goodbye Amid Talk Of A New Jersey Senate Run
Celgene Executive Chairman Bob Hugin handed the CEO baton to Mark Alles in 2016, but he retained serious influence at the company—and in the biotech industry overall. Now, he's bidding goodbye to the company he joined 19 years ago as CFO. Many a chief has exited a Big Biotech for other roles in biopharma. The fact that Hugin is leaving as of Monday, Feb. 5—just a week from today—lends credence to the idea that he has another plan cooking. Celgene announced the move via email late Monday morning. (Staton, 1/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Medical Miracles From FDA Inefficiency
You’ve probably never heard of biallelic RPE65 mutation—and count yourself lucky. It’s a genetic defect that causes a form of retinal dystrophy. People born with it gradually lose their vision, often while still children, until they go totally blind. But they are now fortunate: In December the Food and Drug Administration approved a new gene therapy called Luxturna that corrects the mutation and reverses the course of the disease. ... The disease is very rare, afflicting only a few thousand Americans—and therein lies our tale. Spark Therapeutics , which developed Luxturna, charges $850,000 for a course. Even at that high price, a drug with such a small market might not have been economical to develop as recently as a decade ago. This medical miracle was helped along by a federal law enacted in 2007 with bipartisan support—a rare governmental success, for which economist David Ridley deserves much of the credit. (Allysia Finley, 1/26)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Needs A Drug Manufacturer Steeped In The Industry's Mission
Hospitals have long been bedeviled by shortages and price spikes for the generic drugs that are essential to their day-to-day operations. Earlier this month, a coalition of U.S. hospital systems launched a business venture that offers the most promising approach yet for solving these twin problems. Intermountain Healthcare, Ascension, SSM Health and Trinity Health formed a not-for-profit company that by the end of 2019 plans to begin producing affordable generics that are chronically in short supply. Critical commodities like injectable antibiotics and sodium bicarbonate are likely first targets. (Merrill Goozner, 1/27)

Forbes: Should The Federal Government Negotiate Drug Prices?
One perennial proposal to reduce health care costs has been to have the federal government negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical manufacturers. Various types of negotiation proposals have emerged over the years, from both Democrats and Republicans (but more often Democrats) and covering various portions of the health care sector, ranging from federal purchases to Medicare to the entire nation’s pharmaceutical use. (Robert Book, 1/24)

Bloomberg: Abbvie's Roll May Not Survive Post-Humira World
An exceptionally low tax forecast and the strength of its flagship inflammation medicine Humira helped AbbVie Inc. produce a 2018 forecast on Friday bullish enough to send its shares into the stratosphere. The firm expects 2018 sales to approach $32 billion and its effective tax rate to be just 9 percent. Humira is an extraordinarily successful medicine that is now even more profitable. (Max Nisen, 1/26)

Forbes: Chasing Biotech Buyouts? Beware!
Fans of biotech stocks have certainly gotten a boost from the string of big-dollar deals by big drug makers. Earlier today, Sanofi announced the $4.8 billion purchase of Belgian biotech Ablynx, marking the French pharmaceutical giant’s second deal this month, following its $11 billion acquisition of the hemophilia drug maker Bioverativ. Although it is a far smaller deal, it has added to the belief that 2018 will be a big year for deal making as large, cash-rich companies look to juice their pipelines and offset sales pressure on older medications. (Johanna Bennett, 1/29)

Bloomberg: Sanofi-Ablynx Deal: Novo Nordisk Is Behind The Times
If Novo Nordisk A/S is bargain-hunting, its timing is bad. Sanofi on Monday said it would pay $4.8 billion to buy Belgian biotech Ablynx NV, outbidding Novo Nordisk so badly that the Danish pharma giant scrapped plans to raise a lowball $3.1 billion initial bid and conceded defeat.  (Max Nisen, 1/29)

Los Angeles Times: Universal Coverage, Courtesy Of The Corporate World? It's Possible
Took 'em long enough. After decades of government leaders fumbling efforts to introduce some rational thinking to the over $3-trillion U.S. healthcare system, the corporate world has finally stepped in with an initiative that, in the best of all possible worlds, could provide a breakthrough that shows the way to universal coverage. (David Lazarus, 1/30)

The New York Times: Can Amazon And Friends Handle Health Care? There’s Reason For Doubt
The announcement on Tuesday that Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway would be joining forces to create a health care company moved stock markets and prompted optimistic predictions of major reform in a notoriously complex industry. But while the three companies bring successful management, technological expertise and substantial capital to the venture, many health industry experts expressed doubts about whether their results would match their ambition. (Margot Sanger-Katz and Reed Abelson, 1/30)

Bloomberg: Can Amazon Transform Health Care? It's Not A Crazy Idea
While the initial focus will be on technology, and the efforts will initially be aimed only at employees of the three firms, one suspects that the ambitions are slightly bigger: building a business that can somehow tamp down the pressures that drive health-care costs ever upward. In remaking the market for health-care services, they might even divert some small fraction of that gross national spending into their own pockets. (Megan McArdle, 1/30)

Bloomberg: Amazon/Berkshire/JPMorgan Health Venture: Incumbents Should Fear
The great and oft-heralded Amazon.com Inc. foray into health care is here, and it's not what we expected. The company isn't diving headlong into drug distribution or becoming a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM). Along with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Berkshire Hathaway Inc., it announced a more interesting idea Tuesday -- a new company aimed at lowering the cost of employee health coverage. Though no one sector will face the full wrath of Bezos, this joint venture is a potential competitive threat to all of health care's many middlemen. (Max Nisen, 1/30)

Bloomberg: JPMorgan Health Venture Poses A Hazard To Its Deal Fees 
The disruptive venture creates a conflict that may be hard to ignore for key executives at companies like UnitedHealth Group Inc., Humana Inc. and Express Scripts Holding Co., who may ice out JPMorgan's bankers when it comes to seeking future transaction or capital markets advice. After all, why pad the profits of a firm whose actions have the ability to potentially shave billions of dollars from respective market values? (Gillian Tan, 1/30)

Bloomberg: Make This Year's Flu A Cure For Complacency
This year's flu epidemic arrived early, spread widely, and brought extraordinary suffering expected to continue for months. The question is whether it will be enough to jolt the medical world and its funders from their complacency about influenza's persistent power. Much more investment is needed to get hospitals better prepared for future outbreaks, and to improve seasonal flu shots and treatments. Also lacking is a lasting, universal vaccine. (1/30)

Boston Globe: Mounting A Ground War Against Anti-Vaxxers
"Fox & Friends" cohost Brian Kilmeade is no doctor – he doesn’t even play one on TV. That’s why it was nothing short of journalistic malpractice when he told his estimated 1.6 million viewers this week that they can “build up their immunity” by not getting a flu shot. His claim is politically driven and patently false. It’s also irresponsible. The H3N2 flu circulating this year is the most widespread outbreak since officials started keeping records 13 years ago. Nationwide, 37 children have died and nearly 12,000 have been hospitalized since the season started, Oct. 1, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (1/31)

Bloomberg: Trump's State Of The Union Speech Exposed GOP's Lack Of Ideas
Some conservatives are unhappy that Trump said that he had stripped out the core of Obamacare by ending the individual mandate. They think it amounts to surrendering the cause of repeal of the whole law. But here, too, we can’t take the speech as a guide. If Republican senators announced a breakthrough on health-policy talks, there’s no reason to think Trump would feel compelled to put the issue on the back burner because he did so when addressing Congress. (Ramesh Ponnuru, 1/31)

JAMA: Are Medicaid Work Requirements Legal?
On January 12, 2018, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved a waiver allowing Kentucky to impose a work requirement on some nondisabled Medicaid beneficiaries. Similar waivers are sure to follow. Supporters see work requirements as a spur to force the idle poor to work; opponents see the requirements as a covert means of withholding medical care from vulnerable people. Setting the policy debate aside, however, are work requirements legal? The answer will hinge on whether a state’s waiver is a genuine “experimental, pilot, or demonstration project” that is “likely to assist in promoting the objectives” of the Medicaid program. (Nicholas Bagley, 1/30)

Miami Herald: Florida Should Adopt A Medicare-For-All Health Care Plan
Together, we are introducing HB1383 and SB1872 creating the “Healthy Florida Program.” This program will place Florida at the forefront in terms of health care policy and will require the state to adopt a Medicare-for-All healthcare system. (David Richardson, 1/30)

Stat: Pay For Performance: A Dangerous Health Policy Fad That Won't Die
Subjecting doctors and hospitals to carrots and sticks hasn’t worked for several reasons. The most fundamental one: Clinician skill is not the only factor that determines the quality of care. Consider one widely used performance measure: the percent of patients diagnosed with high blood pressure whose blood pressure is brought under control. Doctors who treat older, sicker, and poorer patients with high blood pressure will inevitably score worse on this so-called quality measure than doctors who treat healthier and higher-income patients. (Kip Sullivan and Stephen Soumerai, 1/30)

JAMA: Does Medicine Overemphasize IQ?
Everyone wants the best physician. Patients want their physician to know medical information by heart, to possess diagnostic acumen, and to be well-versed in the latest tests and treatments. Finding the best physicians often involves looking for resumes with stellar attributes, such as having graduated at the top of a collegiate class, attended the best medical schools, completed internships and residency training at the nation’s most prestigious hospitals, and been awarded the most competitive fellowships. Many medical schools, likewise, want only the smartest students, as assessed by the highest grade point averages and MCAT scores. This selection process has persisted for decades. But is it misguided? Do the smartest students, as measured by science grades and standardized test results, truly make the best physicians? (Ezekiel J. Emanuel and Emily Gudbranson, 1/29)

Stat: The Pharmaceutical Industry Is No Stranger To Fake News
Accusations of “fake news” are all the rage now, with people often throwing around the term when they read an article that tells them something they don’t want to hear. But an entire industry called “product defense,” created years ago by the tobacco industry, uses falsehoods and misdirection to protect companies from bad media and regulatory scrutiny. The pharmaceutical industry is no stranger to these tactics. Document archives have revealed how tobacco companies helped create and hone product defense strategies. In my years as a reporter and during a stint as an investigator for the U.S. Senate, I’ve seen them deployed by a range of industries. (Paul D. Thacker, 1/30)