General
FDA panel endorses wider use of fish-oil drug to protect against heart problems
Lenny Bernstein, The Washington Post
A panel of experts unanimously recommended Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration allow wider use of a fish oil-based drug to treat people at high risk for heart attacks and strokes even when they are taking cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Michigan Moderates Sense Jitters on Medicare for All
Stephanie Armour and Joshua Jamerson, The Wall Street Journal
Polls show swing-state voters are more resistant to Warren and Sanders’s Medicare for All plan.
U.S. Vaping-Related Deaths Rise to 42, Cases of Illness to 2,172
Manas Mishra and Saumya Sibi Joseph, Reuters
U.S. health officials on Thursday reported 2,172 confirmed and probable cases and 3 more deaths from a mysterious respiratory illness tied to vaping, taking the death toll to 42, so far this year.
While impeachment swirls, Chuck Grassley focused on drug prices
James Q. Lynch, The Gazette
Senator pushing compromise bill that would cap prescription price increases.
Surgeon General’s Marijuana Warning Omits Crucial Context
Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News
Speaking about a recent federal advisory on marijuana, Dr. Jerome Adams, the surgeon general, put a new spin on long-standing admonitions about the drug.
Deval Patrick’s Ties to Health-Care Industry Could be a Liability
Gabriel T. Rubin, The Wall Street Journal
Other Democratic presidential candidates are likely to attack newcomer to field; the Pentagon embeds fewer journalists with troops in Afghanistan.
Ohio lawmakers proposed a total ban on abortion. Judges have blocked similar laws.
Michael Brice-Saddler and Hannah Knowles, The Washington Post
A new bill sponsored by two Republican Ohio lawmakers would completely end the practice of abortion in the state — a sweeping measure one local abortion rights advocate said “would strip every person who can get pregnant of their bodily autonomy.”
New EPA Rules Aim to Reduce Toxic Emissions. But Many “Cancer Alley” Chemical Plants Won’t Have to Change.
Mark Schleifstein, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate
The proposed rules reducing emissions across the country would not apply to many of Louisiana’s chemical plants. These facilities release tons of dangerous, cancer-causing chemicals like ethylene oxide, and more plants are on the way.
Welcome to Molar City, Mexico, The Dental Mecca America’s Health Care Costs Built
Jeffrey Young, HuffPost
A tiny border town is home to hundreds of dentists and is a major destination for Americans seeking big savings on dental care.
U.S. Stock Futures Edge Higher, Treasuries Decline: Markets Wrap
Samuel Potter, Bloomberg
U.S. equity-index futures climbed with Asian stocks after a senior American official signaled progress on a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies. European shares erased gains and Treasuries slipped.
Payers
Florida’s refusal to expand Medicaid cost 2,800 deaths, report says
Miami Herald
According to a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Florida likely suffered the second-highest total of deaths in that time period — 2,776 — attributed to not expanding Medicaid, trailing only Texas.
Providers
Nursing Home Safety Violations Put Residents At Risk, Report Finds
Barbara Feder Ostrov, Kaiser Health News
As huge swaths of California burned last fall, federal health officials descended on 20 California nursing homes to determine whether they were prepared to protect their vulnerable residents from fires, earthquakes and other disasters.
In a ‘Wild West’ environment, hospitals differ sharply in what patient data they give Google
Casey Ross, Stat News
In deals struck across the U.S., hospital systems appear to be adopting starkly different protocols for sharing personal health information with Google, fueling broad concerns about the ability of patients to control the use of their data.
CMS’ star quality ratings might not serve patient interests, experts warn
Michael Brady, Modern Healthcare
The CMS is considering several changes to the methodology it uses to determine hospital star ratings, but some healthcare experts are concerned that the proposed changes don’t really account for patient needs
Pharma, Biotech and Devices
FDA slams Dollar Tree for purchasing drugs from suppliers with checkered safety records
Ed Silverman, Stat News
Amid growing concerns over the pharmaceutical supply chain, regulators sternly warned the Dollar Tree, which runs a vast network of stores serving mostly low-income communities, for selling over-the-counter medicines made by companies that failed to ensure the drugs were safely manufactured and tested.
China’s BeiGene gets FDA approval for drug to treat rare form of lymphoma
Tamara Mathias and Manojna Maddipatla, Reuters
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved BeiGene Ltd’s lymphoma treatment, validating the China-based drugmaker’s strategy of largely using data from trials held outside the United States to file for approval.
Health IT
Ascension, Google blowback hints at providers’ next tech hurdle
Jessica Kim Cohen, Modern Healthcare
A partnership between Ascension and Google has sparked public pushback and a federal probe into whether the companies followed federal privacy laws before releasing patient data. But healthcare experts say the reaction to the deal likely has less to do with Ascension sharing patient data, and more to do with the partner they chose.
Pinterest Has a New Plan to Address Self-Harm
Arielle Pardes, Wired
The company has gotten better at removing distressing content. Now it wants to help users feel better.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
Smoothing Medicare Beneficiaries’ Out-of-Pocket Drug Costs
Marc Boutin and Sue Peschin, Morning Consult
In 2003, the Medicare Modernization Act was signed into law to add the Part D prescription drug benefit to Medicare for our nation’s older adults and people with disabilities. While the program has been a huge success in its 15-year existence, much has changed over that time.
Working with ICER, or around it, on cost-effectiveness estimates
Shea McCarthy, Stat News
As the national debate over prescription drug pricing reaches a fever pitch, drug manufacturers bringing new products to market face unique challenges.
Research Reports
How Much Can Pharma Lose? A Comparison of Returns Between Pharmaceutical and Other Industries
Sean Dickson and Jeromie Ballreich, West Health Policy Center
Whenever policymakers consider approaches to reduce drug spending, the pharmaceutical industry sings a familiar refrain — any reduction in drug manufacturer revenues will cause investment to wither, depriving manufacturers of the resources needed to research and develop future treatments. The empirical validity of this argument has not, to our knowledge, been analyzed.
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