Top Stories

  • Court testimony from Jack Stoddard, chief operating officer of the joint health care venture created by Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., shows that the venture is seeking to redesign health insurance, make insurance “intelligible” and look into drug costs and medication adherence. Stoddard, who was summoned to testify in a lawsuit led by UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s Optum health-services unit, noted that while the venture will study pharmacy operations, it will not compete with pharmacy benefit managers. (Stat News)
  • Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he is speaking with President Donald Trump about creating a program to import drugs from Canada in an effort to curb health costs. DeSantis said enacting such a program is possible under the federal Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, but given the safety hazards associated with importation, the Trump administration will have to grant approval first. (South Florida Sun Sentinel)
  • The Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission have subpoenaed Johnson & Johnson as the company faces thousands of lawsuits alleging that asbestos contamination in the company’s talc-based products has caused cancer in consumers. The drugmaker said it is cooperating with the investigation and intends to share documents regarding the safety of its products. (The Wall Street Journal)

Chart Review

Events Calendar (All Times Local)

02/21/2019
AEI event featuring Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller discussing cigarette regulation, teens and trade-offs 2:00 pm
02/22/2019
Johns Hopkins Guest Lecture: Homer Venters to Discuss the Health Risks of Incarceration 12:00 pm
02/27/2019
Navigating the evolving opioid crisis: A conversation with House Committee on Energy and Commerce Republican Leader Greg Walden (R-OR) 10:45 am
View full calendar

The State of the Democratic Primary

On a daily basis, Morning Consult is surveying over 5,000 registered voters across the United States on the 2020 presidential election. Each week, we’ll update this page with the latest survey data, offering an in-depth guide to how the race for the Democratic nomination is shaping up.

General

House lawmakers to investigate measles outbreak
Susannah Luthi, Modern Healthcare

Congress is wading into the debate over the controversial “philosophical exemption” to immunization, with a key House committee investigation into the recent measles outbreaks that have hit at least 67 people across four states. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight panel will hold a bipartisan hearing on the outbreak and response efforts next Wednesday, Feb. 27.

Spending forecast offers ammunition — and some alarm — for Democrats pushing Medicare expansion
Amy Goldstein, The Washington Post

Aging baby boomers will consume an ever-larger share of the nation’s health-care spending over the coming decade, regardless of the success of Democrats running for president with ambitious plans to broaden Medicare. The number of people covered through Medicare — and spending on the federal insurance program for older and disabled Americans — is expected to grow more rapidly than private insurance or Medicaid, eating up a larger chunk of health spending, according to a yearly forecast of U.S. health-care expenditures released Wednesday

Pinterest cracks down on anti-vaxxers, pressuring Facebook to follow
Christina Farr, CNBC

Social network Pinterest has taken a big step to stop the spread of false content that is damaging people’s health, which could put pressure on competitors to follow. False health information can have very real consequences, public health officials have found.

Veterans groups ask VA secretary to keep GI benefits out of the hands of predatory colleges
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, The Washington Post

Three dozen advocacy groups are calling on Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie to intensify monitoring of college programs that enroll veterans after an audit found lax oversight could result in $2.3 billion in tuition benefits going to predatory schools during the next five years. Education funding earned by men and women who serve in the U.S. military has become a stable source of revenue for many colleges.

Bill aims to protect pre-existing conditions from ‘catastrophic’ Obamacare repeal
Ron Hurtibise, South Florida Sun Sentinel

If Congress or the Supreme Court kills the Affordable Care Act, one of the act’s key provisions — that people with pre-existing conditions have access to health insurance — could be preserved for Florida consumers under a bill advanced by a state Senate committee Tuesday. How beneficial that access would be without cost controls is not yet known

Nonprofits Grow Uneasy With Philanthropy Tainted by Opioid Proceeds
Jared S. Hopkins, The Wall Street Journal

Two prominent institutions, the New York Academy of Sciences and Columbia University, are joining the list of universities, museums and nonprofits currently reviewing their philanthropic relationships with members of the Sackler family, owners of pain-pill maker Purdue Pharma LP.  Forbes ranked the Sacklers the 19th-richest family in America in 2016 at $13 billion. While a total assessment of the family’s philanthropy is unclear, millions have been given away by family entities

California lawmakers propose soda tax, outlawing super-size sugary drinks
Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times

California restaurants and stores would be prohibited from selling “Big Gulp”-style sodas and consumers would face taxes on sugar-sweetened soft drinks under bills announced Wednesday by five state lawmakers to address a “public health crisis” of obesity in the Golden State. The proposals include a ban on the sale of unsealed “sugar-sweetened beverage” portions larger than 16 ounces at food-service businesses, including restaurants with self-service soda fountains, stores such as 7-Eleven, and sports arenas.

Connecticut governor pitches statewide soda tax
Reid Wilson, The Hill

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) wants his state to become the first to levy an extra tax on sugary drinks and sodas. In a budget proposal rolled out Wednesday, Lamont asked legislators to impose a new 1.5 cents per ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. The tax would generate about $163 million in new revenue for the next fiscal year, Lamont’s office estimated.

FDA chief: Federal government might step in if states don’t change lax vaccine laws
Elizabeth Cohen and John Bonifield, CNN

The head of the US Food and Drug Administration says that if states don’t require more schoolchildren to get vaccinated, the federal government might have to step in. Nearly all states allow children to attend school even if their parents opt out of vaccines. These vaccine exemptions are especially popular in Washington state, where a measles outbreak started last month that has now sickened at least 67 people in four states.

Some anti-vaccination parents cite religious exemptions. Measles outbreaks could change that.
Sarah Pulliam Bailey, The Washington Post

Recent measles outbreaks in states such as Washington, New York and New Jersey have cast a spotlight on a group of Americans who receive exemptions from immunizing their children on the grounds that the vaccines violate their religious freedoms. Now the states that suffered outbreaks are taking aim at those exemptions. In recent weeks, lawmakers in the New Jersey, New York, Iowa, Maine and Vermont state legislatures have proposed eliminating religious exemptions for vaccines

U.S. Stock Futures Drop as Treasuries Yields Climb: Markets Wrap
Samuel Potter, Bloomberg

U.S. equity futures declined alongside European stocks and Asian shares rose on Thursday as investors grappled with the latest developments global trade. Treasuries stayed lower and the dollar was steady as American factory data disappointed.

Payers

Industry, analysts clash over scope of balance billing legislation
Susannah Luthi, Modern Healthcare

The healthcare policy and industry worlds are poised for a clash over the forthcoming bill to end all surprise medical bills.  The tension over the expected legislation lies in its potential scope as a catch-all for widespread frustration over healthcare costs.

Providers

Is It Time for a Better Hospital ID Bracelet?
Lucette Lagnado, The Wall Street Journal

The pesky but essential hospital ID bracelet is getting a makeover. At hospitals across the country, the wristband bearing a patient’s name and date of birth is going high tech or super sleek. And if some doctors have their druthers, it will disappear altogether.

Pharma, Biotech and Devices

WHO Reacts to Chinese Gene-Edited Twins With Plan for Global Guidelines
Preetika Rana, The Wall Street Journal

The World Health Organization established a new committee to set guidelines for scientists editing human DNA, just months after the controversial births of the world’s first gene-edited babies in China. The WHO’s 18-member committee of scientific experts, which includes a Chinese bioethicist, will meet in Geneva next month to “examine the scientific, ethical, social and legal challenges associated” with editing human genes and it will make recommendations, the organization said in a statement.

More States Say Doctors Must Offer Overdose Reversal Drug Along With Opioids
Barbara Feder Ostrov, California Healthline

In a growing number of states, patients who get opioids for serious pain may leave their doctors’ offices with a second prescription — for naloxone, a drug that can save their lives if they overdose on the powerful painkillers. New state laws and regulations in California, Virginia, Arizona, Ohio, Washington, Vermont and Rhode Island require physicians to “co-prescribe” or at least offer naloxone prescriptions when prescribing opioids to patients considered at high risk of overdosing.

Canadian shelves ‘would run dry’ if U.S. imports drugs
Sarah Owermohle and Alexander Panetta, Politico

Importing prescription drugs from Canada has long been seen as an easy solution to skyrocketing drug prices for U.S. patients. But now that President Donald Trump and Democrats are pushing to make those cross-border sales legal, Canadian health experts are issuing a dire warning: It could destroy Canada’s drug market.

How Drug Company Ads Downplay Risks
Niro Sivanathan and Hemant Kakkar, Scientific American

Across six experiments, comprising of over 3000 US participants, we reliably find that when drug commercials include all side effects (both major and minor), in line with the FDA’s regulations, consumers’ judged the overall severity of drug side effects to be lower than when exposed to only major side effects. This lowered assessment of severity led consumers to prefer the drug more—and made them willing to pay more for the drug.

The fighter, the saint, and the odd man out: the executives who will defend pharma before Congress
Damian Garde and Nicholas Florko, Stat News

Meet pharma’s new Gang of Seven, a disparate group of executives about to face congressional questions on what they have in common: Their companies sell drugs, and drugs keep getting more expensive. On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will poke, prod, and pry the leaders of Merck, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, AbbVie, Sanofi, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Florida GOP governor working with Trump to import cheaper drugs from Canada
Peter Sullivan, The Hill

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday proposed importing cheaper prescription drugs from Canada into the state and said that President Trump had given his support to the idea. The announcement from DeSantis at a press conference Wednesday represents a potentially major step in bringing down the cost of drugs and one usually associated with Democrats.

Health IT

What’s Covered Under Medicare? A New App May Leave You Still Wondering
Rachel Bluth, Kaiser Health News

The “What’s Covered” app from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services aims to provide yes-or-no answers about what services are covered under traditional Medicare.

The Medical Tech that Helps You When Your Doctor Can’t
Eric Ravenscraft, The New York Times

You (or your employer) pay for health insurance every month. In exchange, you assume that if you have any health-related needs, they’ll be covered. Yet there are gaps in the system that your provider may not want to pay for.

Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives

Women Are Setting the Health Care Agenda
Winnie Wong, Morning Consult

Our country is in a moral crisis — and it extends to money and health care. No issue so baldly exposes the hollowness of public proclamations of democracy, freedom and justice than when people die because they cannot afford health care.

What cancer taught me about the US-UK healthcare debate
Joshua Chaffin, Financial Times

That Americans should be dissatisfied with their health system is not surprising. The US spent $10,224 per person on healthcare in 2017, double the average spent by other wealthy nations and compared with just $4,246 in the UK, according to the Peterson-Kaiser Health System Tracker.

Research Reports

Rural Hospital Sustainability: New Analysis Shows Worsening Situation for Rural Hospitals, Residents
David Mosley and Daniel DeBehnke, Navigant

Rural hospitals are essential to the health of the 60 million Americans who live in rural communities. Beyond providing care, they’re also economic engines, often the largest employers and drivers of additional businesses and jobs to communities. But for close to three decades, rural population growth has been significantly lower than urban areas,2 a factor contributing to the closing of 95 rural hospitals across 26 states since 2010.

Morning Consult