• The Trump administration proposed raising Affordable Care Act premiums by approximately 1 percent next year in order to more accurately calculate premium subsidies, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The administration predicted about 100,000 Americans would drop their plans and that the government would retain about $900 million annually in cost-savings on subsidies. (The Associated Press)

• An over-the-counter version of the opioid-overdose reversal drug naloxone may soon come to market, as the Food and Drug Administration expedites the labeling process so drugmakers can create cheaper alternatives to the prescription drug that can be sold easily in pharmacies at an affordable price. The agency is distributing model labels for a nasal spray and auto-injector for the industry to work from, and FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said he encourages companies to “take notice of this pathway” and bring forward applications as quickly as they can. (CNBC)

• In a 48-47 vote, the Senate voted against a measure imposing a permanent ban on federal funding of abortion, with Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) joining the Democrats in opposing the legislation and Democratic Sens. Bob Casey (Pa.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.) breaking from their party. Government health programs are already prohibited from using taxpayer dollars to fund most abortions under the Hyde amendment, but the bill would have made the amendment permanent and blocked federal subsidies for private plans that include abortion coverage sold on the Affordable Care Act exchange. (Politico)

FDA directs dwindling resources toward reviewing new drugs
Laurie McGinley, The Washington Post

The Food and Drug Administration plans to furlough more people and suspend lower-priority tasks to preserve money for drug reviews, including for new treatments for depression, diabetes and several types of cancer. With money for drug reviews rapidly diminishing as the government shutdown drags into its fourth week, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in an interview Thursday that he plans to curtail “discretionary activities” and call for additional furloughs in areas in which workloads have been reduced due to the shutdown.

VA security staff compromised safety and Shulkin violated ethics rules, oversight report says
Katie Mettler and Lisa Rein, The Washington Post

Members of the security detail tasked with protecting senior leaders at the Department of Veterans Affairs followed questionable procedures that put officials’ safety at risk, abused rules governing overtime pay, and acted as chauffeur for former Secretary David Shulkin’s wife, according to a new investigation.

Researchers see possible link between opioids, birth defect
Mike Stobbe, The Associated Press

Health officials are looking into a possible link between prescription opioids and a horrific birth defect. When a baby is born with its intestines hanging outside the stomach, due to a hole in the abdominal wall, it’s called gastroschisis.

Compare Democrats’ many Medicare-for-All proposals with this chart
Philip Moeller, PBS News Hour

Now that Democrats have taken control of the U.S. House of Representatives, they have promised to hold hearings on proposals to move the U.S. toward the type of universal health care found in other industrialized nations, including our northern neighbors in Canada. These proposals range from extending the current Medicare program to people age 55 and older, to a single-payer system that does away with insurance companies and employer-based health insurance altogether.

Healthcare groups, hospitals tell president, Congress to end shutdown
Susannah Luthi, Modern Healthcare

Hundreds of groups including the major healthcare industry associations and hospitals sent letters Thursday to Congress and President Donald Trump urging an end to the partial government shutdown, citing health consequences from the lapsed funding. The shutdown that has stopped funding for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Indian Health Service (IHS), EPA and other major agencies is now the longest government shutdown on record.

Court Rules Texas Can Bar Planned Parenthood From Medicaid
The Associated Press

A federal appeals court panel on Thursday lifted a lower-court ban that prohibited Texas from eliminating Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid program. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans issued the ruling that removes the preliminary injunction U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks of Austin imposed on the state of Texas in February 2017.

Women’s March plans ‘Medicare for All’ day of lobbying in DC
Emily Birnbaum, The Hill

The Women’s March and other progressive organizations are planning to lobby for “Medicare for All” legislation on the eve of the annual Women’s March in Washington, D.C., this weekend. Members of the groups are planning to storm Capitol Hill on Friday for a “lobby day” to kick off a weekend of events surrounding the annual march through downtown Washington.

Providers sue Pa. over state Medicaid abortion restrictions
Torsten Ove, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Fifteen of the 17 abortion providers in Pennsylvania have sued the state Department of Human Services over the state’s ban on abortion coverage through the Medicaid program. The suit, filed Wednesday in Commonwealth Court by the Allegheny Reproductive Health Center, Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Women’s Center and other providers, claims that the ban violates the Equal Rights Amendment and equal protection provisions of the state Constitution.

Federal Shutdown Has Meant Steep Health Bills For Some Families
Julie Appleby, NPR News

Joseph Daskalakis’ son Oliver was born on New Year’s Eve, a little over a week into the current government shutdown, and about 10 weeks before he was expected. The prematurely born baby ended up in a specialized neonatal intensive care unit, the only one near the family’s home in Lakeville, Minn., that could care for him.

Global Stocks, Oil Advance as Risk Rally Pushes On: Markets Wrap
Todd White, Bloomberg

The risk-on tone in global markets extended through Friday, propelling stocks higher amid further optimism for U.S.-China trade talks and stable borrowing costs. Haven assets declined, from Treasuries and bunds to gold and the yen.

CMS wants to cut ACA exchange fees, end silver-loading
Shelby Livingston, Modern Healthcare

The CMS issued a proposed rule on Thursday that would cut Affordable Care Act user fees and laid the groundwork to eliminate “silver-loading.” In its proposed notice of benefit and payment parameters for ACA exchanges in 2020, the agency proposed reducing the exchange user fee that is charged to health insurers to fund the health insurance exchanges.

MedPAC recommends boosting long-term care hospital payments in 2020
Robert King, Modern Healthcare

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission decided to recommend Congress make a 2% payment hike for long-term care hospitals because there were concerns over whether the current payment rates are adequate. If Congress followed the recommendation, which passed unanimously during the commission’s January meeting on Thursday in Washington, it would increase the base payment rate by 2% compared to current levels in fiscal 2019.

Ballooning costs, government mandates were hospitals’ biggest challenges in 2018
Tara Bannow, Modern Healthcare

Financial challenges, government mandates, patient safety and quality and personnel shortages topped hospital executives’ concerns in 2018, according to an annual survey from the American College of Healthcare Executives. The top four spots have stayed the same since at least 2015. This year’s respondents were directed to rank 11 challenges in order of how pressing they are.

FDA rejects Immunomedics breast cancer drug, extending long regulatory drought
Adam Feuerstein, Stat News

Immunomedics (IMMU), the biotech founded in 1982, was informed by the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday night that its lead drug, an antibody drug conjugate to treat women with an aggressive form of breast cancer, could not be approved at this time. The problem: unresolved manufacturing issues related to the drug, called sacituzumab govitecan.

Secretive ‘Rebate Trap’ Keeps Generic Drugs For Diabetes And Other Ills Out Of Reach
Jay Hancock and Sydney Lupkin, Kaiser Health News

Lisa Crook was lucky. She saved $800 last year after her insurance company started covering a new, less expensive insulin called Basaglar that was virtually identical to the brand she had used for years.

Drugmakers Raise Prices Amid Shortages, Recalls
Peter Loftus, The Wall Street Journal

Drugmakers have sharply boosted prices of some older, low-cost prescription medicines amid supply shortages and recalls—in some cases, by threefold and more. At least three sellers of a widely used blood-pressure medication, valsartan, have raised prices since a series of safety-related recalls of the drug by other manufacturers began in the summer of 2018.

Groups opposing Medicare Part D talks are criticized for failing to disclose industry ties
Ed Silverman, Stat News

Earlier this week, the National Osteoporosis Foundation wrote members of Congress on behalf of more than 200 organizations to express concern over efforts that would allow Medicare to negotiate prices for the Part D drug program. Specifically, the letter objected to eliminating what is known as the non-interference clause, which prevents the government from negotiating drug prices for Part D.

Eli Lilly arranged for surprise purchase of Loxo, as the biotech pressed potential of its experimental drug
Matthew Herper, Stat News

Loxo Oncology (LOXO) chief executive Dr. Joshua Bilenker negotiated the $8 billion sale of his company to Eli Lilly (LLY) in little more than two weeks, and did not approach any other suitors or engage in a bidding war. According to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Loxo believed that its most valuable asset was not its approved medicine, Vitrakvi, but an experimental one, the RET inhibitor LOXO-292.

F.D.A. Panel Splits on Whether to Approve New Diabetes Drug
Katie Thomas, The New York Times

The advisory committee voted 8-8 on approving the drug, to be called Zynquista, which would be the first oral medication for people with Type 1 diabetes.

Former Google exec Vic Gundotra has stepped down as CEO of AliveCor, a health-tracking start-up
Christina Farr, CNBC

Vic Gundotra has stepped down from his role as CEO of AliveCor for personal reasons, the executive told CNBC. “I’m leaving the company in a position of strength,” he said.

Cut Consumer Health Care Costs
Donna Christensen, Morning Consult

As the courts and lawmakers continue to argue about the future of America’s health care system, one thing is for sure: More people today are covered by health insurance than ever before. But what that coverage includes is an entirely different story.

Trump’s Medicare rule change threatens to reignite AIDS epidemic
Jesse Milan Jr., The Hill

There are more than a million people living with HIV in the United States today. The fact that we have so many people living and thriving with HIV — as opposed to the million who die globally each year — is a testament to the biomedical and policy advances made over the past four decades.

Analysis Of The Impacts Of The Aca’s Tax On Health Insurance In Year 2020 And Later — Addendum: 2019 Medicare Advantage Premiums And The 2019 Moratorium On The Aca Health Insurance Tax
Chris Carlson and Glenn Giese, Oliver Wyman Actuarial Consulting

UnitedHealth Group has requested that Oliver Wyman Actuarial Consulting, Inc. (“Oliver Wyman”) estimate what the changes in MA member premiums would have been if the moratorium on ACA Insurance Tax was not in place for 2019 and MAOs were not able to make other adjustments in pricing to offset the ACA Insurance Tax.