• Reps. Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) and Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) introduced a new bill that would attempt to lower Medicare spending by moving more hospital care into the home, though some health economists are not sure the strategy will work. (Politico) Meanwhile, Eli Lilly & Co. and Novo Nordisk AS are lobbying Congress to get Medicare to cover the companies’ blockbuster drugs to treat weight loss and diabetes, opening up a significant market opportunity. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Chief executives from Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi SA will testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in a May 10 hearing on lowering insulin costs for patients, Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said in a statement. The companies, which control 90% of the global insulin market, will be joined by executives from top pharmacy benefit managers CVS Health Corp., Cigna Group’s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s OptumRx. (CNBC)
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said that while the agency has made improvements after being criticized for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, more work still needs to be done. The agency, which is in the process of an overhaul to better prepare for future crises, needs more funding and authority from Congress to implement changes, such as having more power to collect health data from states, Walensky said during an event. (Axios)
• In his dissent to the Supreme Court’s decision to temporarily pause restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone, Justice Samuel Alito questioned whether the Biden administration would have followed a ruling from the high court had it upheld an appeals court decision to limit access to the medication. Alito wrote that the government has not “dispelled legitimate doubts that it would even obey an unfavorable order in these cases, much less that it would choose to take enforcement actions to which it has strong objections.” (The Hill)

Worth watching today:

• Washington Post Live event: “Vaccines for Children,” featuring Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF. The event will discuss new UNICEF data that shows a decline of immunization rates and public trust for children’s vaccinations across a list of countries.

Medicaid redetermination leaves Pacific Islanders vulnerable

Axios

Q&A: Chronicling the failures of the U.S. response to Covid

Helen Branswell, Stat News

A new book on the U.S. response to the Covid-19 pandemic paints a picture of a country ill-prepared to cope with a dangerous biological foe, riven by partisan politics, and led by people who saw little political gain in taking ownership of managing the crisis.

 

Chinese Censorship Is Quietly Rewriting the Covid-19 Story

Mara Hvistendahl and Benjamin Mueller, The New York Times

Under government pressure, Chinese scientists have retracted studies and withheld or deleted data. The censorship has stymied efforts to understand the virus.

 

They endured covid. But some health-care workers mistrust the future.

Dudley M. Brooks and Sandra M. Stevenson, The Washington Post

Many health care workers cite staffing problems and burnout, despite being buoyed by their mission.

 

Tracking health threats, one sewage sample at a time

Pien Huang and Meredith Rizzo, NPR News

Researchers in Virginia Beach, Va., show how they test wastewater for signs of COVID-19, and how they’re preparing to look for other health threats.

 

New theories of possible link between Covid vaccines and tinnitus are emerging

Erika Edwards, NBC News

Thousands of people say they’ve developed tinnitus after they were vaccinated against Covid. While there is no proof yet that the vaccines caused the condition, theories for a possible link have surfaced among researchers.

 

‘Death by paperwork’: Why COVID long haulers face barriers to disability benefits

Larry Buhl, Capital & Main

Although the federal government has said that long COVID can be considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the health care system doesn’t have a clear way to diagnose it. There is no single test to identify long COVID, and not having a positive test of the initial COVID infection can be a barrier to qualifying for disability, long haulers say.

The Supreme Court Isn’t Done With Abortion. Not by a Long Shot

Greg Stohr, Bloomberg

Brewing debates over travel restrictions, emergency hospital procedures and mail delivery of drugs threaten to make abortion a recurring part of the court’s docket.

 

Supreme Court’s Abortion Pill Call Leaves FDA in Line of Fire

Celine Castronuovo and Ian Lopez, Bloomberg Law

The FDA faces a long road of litigation ahead in the abortion pill case that attorneys say threatens to upend the agency’s drug approval process.

 

Sacklers Gave Millions to Institution That Advises on Opioid Policy

Christina Jewett, The New York Times

Even as the nation’s drug crisis mounted, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine continued to accept funds from some members of the Sackler family, including those involved with Purdue Pharma.

 

Billionaire Brin Sold Tesla Near Its Peak for New Giving Vehicle

Ben Steverman and Biz Carson, Bloomberg

Google co-founder Sergey Brin is setting up a new half-billion-dollar nonprofit focused on health and climate change, and filings show the majority of funding so far comes from Tesla Inc. shares.

 

In Jails and Prisons, the White House Sees a Chance to Curtail Opioid Overdoses

Noah Weiland, The New York Times

The Biden administration is asking states to use Medicaid funds to cover opioid addiction treatment in correctional facilities, where many people suffer intense cravings and withdrawal.

 

Scientists identify thousands of unknown viruses in babies’ diapers

Erin Blakemore, The Washington Post

Research involving Danish babies has yielded a great deal about previously unknown viruses — and the best view yet of the makeup of the infant gut microbiome.

 

US Officials Want to End the HIV Epidemic by 2030. Many Stakeholders Think They Won’t.

Daniel Chang and Sam Whitehead, KFF Health News

The federal government’s ambitious plan to end the HIV epidemic, launched in 2019, has generated new ways to reach at-risk populations in targeted communities across the South. But health officials, advocates, and people living with HIV worry significant headwinds will keep the program from reaching its goals.

 

The new face of Alzheimer’s: Early stage patients who refuse to surrender

Laurie McGinley, The Washington Post

For years, doctors and patients thought there was little to do when dementia was diagnosed, even at an early stage. Now, potentially sweeping changes loom.

 

Pill restrictions would upend nascent telehealth abortion industry

Ruth Reader, Politico

A decision upholding the most recent ruling, by the 5th Circuit Court, would leave abortion patients choosing between the convenience and privacy of virtual care, versus the more effective medication regimen that would remain available at clinics and doctors’ offices, at least in states where abortion is still legal.

Pain, Hope, and Science Collide as Athletes Turn to Magic Mushrooms

Markian Hawryluk and Kevin Van Valkenburg, ESPN and KFF Health News

A group of former professional athletes traveled to Jamaica to try psychedelics as a way to help cope with the aftereffects of concussions and a career of body-pounding injuries. Will this still largely untested treatment work?

 

Health care access for trans youth is crumbling — and not just in red states

Megan Messerly, Politico

The impact of gender-affirming care bans — inflamed by the rhetoric on the right about “child grooming” — is rippling beyond Republican-controlled states.

 

Many States Are Trying to Restrict Gender Treatments for Adults, Too

Azeen Ghorayshi, The New York Times

Missouri has imposed sweeping rules to limit health care for trans adults. Other states have banned Medicaid coverage or introduced bills outlawing care for young adults.

 

Dying patients protest looming telehealth crackdown

Jonel Aleccia, The Associated Press

Online prescribing rules for controlled drugs were relaxed three years ago under emergency waivers to ensure critical medications remained available during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

How do you get equal health care for all? A huge new database holds clues

Nurith Aizenman, NPR News

Billed as the world’s most comprehensive collection of statistics on the topic, the Health Inequality Data Repository allows users to compare how people of differing incomes, ages, genders and rural-versus-urban settings compare on more than 2,000 measures of health, ranging from access to key health services to child mortality rates – and even upload and analyze their own data.

Transgender Medicaid Coverage Drives Widening Partisan Gap Between States

Stephanie Armour, The Wall Street Journal

Depending on the state, some Americans are being denied access to gender-related treatments while others are seeing the availability of such care expand.

 

CMS’ Jonathan Blum – Redeterminations will make Medicaid stronger

Nona Tepper, Modern Healthcare

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is sharpening its focus, and has recently taken several steps to make state Medicaid programs stronger, increase its oversight of Medicaid Advantage programs and boost health equity efforts.

What’s next on the No Surprises Act

Arielle Dreher and Victoria Knight, Axios

The No Surprises Act may have shielded patients from unexpected medical bills, but it’s left a bureaucratic mess, with providers and insurers fighting over who’ll cover the costs and Congress weighing whether to step back in.

 

How a small hospital in Nebraska has thrived through the pandemic

Bob Herman, Stat News

Great Plains Health is a small hospital system in a part of Nebraska surrounded by agriculture, railroads, and retail distribution. But that doesn’t mean it’s powerless — in fact, the system is a highly profitable, influential mainstay in the area.

 

U.S. abortion providers relieved but wary as Supreme Court preserves pill access

Sharon Bernstein, Reuters

Abortion rights supporters expressed relief on Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court preserved access to a widely used abortion pill but warned of a long fight ahead as a legal challenge to the medication continues.

 

Pandemic-era Medicare pay bump not enough to cover hospitals’ 17.5% expense growth, AHA argues

Dave Muoio, Fierce Healthcare

Hospitals underscored their push for greater federal financial support this week with a new report highlighting a 17.5% increase in hospital expenses from 2019 to 2022 that more than doubled the period’s 7.5% rise in Medicare reimbursement.

Eli Lilly to sell low blood sugar drug to Amphastar

Reuters

Eli Lilly and Co will sell its low blood sugar drug Baqsimi to Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth up to $1.08 billion, the two companies said on Monday.

 

J&J Consumer-Health IPO Process to Kick Off Key Test for Moribund New-Issue Market

Corrie Driebusch and Peter Loftus, The Wall Street Journal

Johnson & Johnson  is poised to begin a roadshow to pitch shares of its consumer-healthcare business, the producer of household names such as Tylenol, in a test for an IPO market that has been in the doldrums for the past year.

 

‘A tug of war’: Europe braces for new legislation with far-reaching impacts on pharma and patients

Ed Silverman  and Andrew Joseph, Stat News

After more than two years of planning, the European Commission on Wednesday will release long-awaited draft legislation poised to transform the way medicines are brought to market and accessed across much of Europe.

 

Lilly pits Mounjaro against Novo’s Wegovy in new obesity trial

Angus Liu, Fierce Pharma

The trial aims to enroll 700 participants from 61 sites in the U.S., Canada, South America and several European countries, according to the post. The study is currently expected to officially start next Friday and last for about 78 weeks, with an estimated primary completion date in February 2025.

 

‘It totally backfired’: The pitfalls of Alzheimer’s genetic testing

Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters

Testing for the APOE4 gene variant among Americans being treated for Alzheimer’s has more than doubled from a year ago, an exclusive analysis of medical records for Reuters by health data firm Truveta found. The increase was driven by the new treatments that promise to slow the progression of the disease, but also carry risks, especially for people like Nelson carrying two copies of APOE4.

 

Shockwave Medical Draws Interest From Boston Scientific

Michelle F. Davis et al., Bloomberg

Boston Scientific has been exploring a potential deal for Shockwave to boost its portfolio of cardiovascular devices, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private.

VA announces indefinite pause on $16B Oracle Cerner EHR rollout

Dave Muoio, Fierce Healthcare

The beleaguered effort involves a $16 billion contract with Oracle Cerner, which inherited the project last June when Oracle acquired Cerner for nearly $30 billion. Executives had vowed to get the rollout “back on track” amid lawmaker scrutiny that has persisted into 2023.

 

‘Hurtling into the future’: The potential and thorny ethics of generative AI in healthcare

Rebecca Pifer, Healthcare Dive

Generative AI has roared onto the tech scene through GPT-4, and is already being deployed in hospitals. Should healthcare be taking a pause?