AJMC Staff

WellCare Health Plans will expand its government-sponsored health plans by purchasing Meridian; the Virginia Senate appears to have enough votes Wednesday to expand Medicaid to 400,000 low-income residents; Planned Parenthood will stop providing medication abortions in Arkansas after the Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to a state law.

Whole-genome sequencing, which looks at a bigger genetic picture than targeted gene panels, is offering new hope for the 3% of infants born with rare genetic diseases; there are a growing number of patients taking specialty drugs being hit with sticker shock as they find their expensive medications are no longer shielded by co-pay assistance programs; veterans groups are praising the nomination of Robert Wilkie to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as a stabilizing next step for the troubled agency.

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As the Congo grapples with a new outbreak of the Ebola virus, HHS Secretary Alex Azar has promised to provide aid if the outbreak spreads; providing workers with free e-cigarettes did not help them quit smoking any more than the usual smoking cessation methods did; hospitals in California that haven’t met targets for safety and quality could be excluded from the state’s insurance exchanges health plans.

The “right-to-try” bill heads to President Trump’s desk for signing after passing the House of Representatives; the FDA said certain gene therapies in development can qualify for quicker review, starting with hemophilia; brand-name drug makers have raised prices by double-digit percentages since 2012, with 47 drugs costing Medicare and Medicaid nearly $12 billion in 2016.

Clues to cancer treatments are buried in inaccessible patient records; the Virginia Senate reconvenes Tuesday to discuss a budget plan proposed by Republican leaders that expands Medicaid; California introduces a Senate bill to offer full health coverage to undocumented adults.

President Donald Trump named Robert Wilkie, a veteran GOP aide and acting secretary of the Veterans Affairs (VA), to lead the VA; with the power of a pen, HHS Secretary Alex Azar is eager to play the role of a “joyful regulator;” patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are finding they are caught between hope, expectations, and insurers that won’t pay for a $145,000 intravenous drug.

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FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, expressed concerns about a version of a "right-to-try” bill in the House of Representatives; the Trump administration Friday is set to reinstate rules prohibiting clinics that receive federal funding from providing abortions or referring patients to places that do; the National Institutes of Health has frozen a highly criticized, $100 million, 10-year study of moderate drinking backed by the alcoholic beverage industry.

A new law in Vermont would allow the state to import drugs from Canada, but it needs to be certified by HHS; the House passes a bill to expand veterans' access to private care; the FDA has approved the first nonopioid to treat opioid withdrawal symptoms.

The Trump administration confirms it will not approve state requests to impose lifetime limits on Medicaid benefits; a significant number of young adults are providing long-term care for older loved ones and are more likely to be stressed by the caregiving than older counterparts; 5 more states file lawsuit against Purdue Pharma for its alleged role in the opioid epidemic, and Florida files lawsuit against multiple painkiller makers and drug distributors.

Democrats are eager to run on healthcare in the 2018 midterm elections; the Virginia State Senate convened for a procedural move that put the state budget bill before the finance committee as a battle over Medicaid expansion continued; in separate letters sent to HHS Secretary Alex Azar, more than 200 Democratic lawmakers from the House and Senate warned against making changes to a federal family planning program for low-income Americans,

Vermont healthcare organization OneCare Vermont is being closely watched because it was within 1% of meeting its financial target in its first year; scientists are turning to drug repurposing to methodically build upon previous research to find new drug candidates while saving time and expense; 2 organizations are investigating why so many American mothers die or nearly die in childbirth.

Tennessee has become the second state to pass a law allowing pharmaceutical companies to market their products for off-label uses; a House panel advanced legislation that would expand access to private sector care outside of the Veterans Affairs (VA) health system; and nearly half of oncologists recommend medical marijuana to their patients.

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Geisinger Health System will begin to integrate DNA sequencing as part of routine preventive care; a review of evidence confirms that HPV vaccinations protect women against cervical cancer; and new research has found that you may be breathing in tobacco residue in spaces that people haven't smoked in for years.

In an attempt to distance itself from the controversy it faced over steep drug price increases, Valeant Pharmaceuticals will change its name to Bausch Health Companies; medical bills are dragging down some people's credit scores; Minnesota governor warns Republican state lawmakers against trying to block expansion of MinnesotaCare.

The Trump administration is proposing to ask Congress for spending cuts that include about $7 billion from the Children's Health Insurance Program; lawmakers are set to question opioid distributors about the role they may have played in the nation’s substance use disorder epidemic; the House is proposing a provision in its farm bill that would allow cheaper but less comprehensive health insurance.

President Trump is expected to give a speech Tuesday about his plan to lower drug prices, and it has the industry on edge; despite the president telling crowds that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is deceased, many pieces of it are alive and angering business groups; Idaho officials are still hoping to allow insurers to sell plans that don't comply with the ACA and are negotiating with federal officials over risk pools, risk adjustment programs, essential health benefits, and other issues.

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FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, took aim at the federal antikickback law that protects the legal status of rebates paid by drug companies to insurers and pharmacy benefit managers; high-deductible health plans are deterring women from getting care for breast cancer; a California state audit found that health regulators have allowed substandard care to spread at nursing homes.

Ohio proposes safety checkpoints for patients with chronic pain when their painkiller dose is increased; Sandoz's proposed rituximab biosimilar is rejected by the FDA; the White House is vetting 3 potential nominees with stronger political backgrounds for secretary of the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

The chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy tisagenlecleucel has been approved for a second type of blood cancer; the National Institutes of Health has started recruiting individuals for a database that will include data on more than 1 million people; Kansas’ request to impose a 3-year lifetime limit on Medicaid benefits is testing just how open the Trump administration is to allowing states flexibility.

The pay of the new CDC director, Robert R. Redfield, MD, will be cut from $375,000, after reports that he was being paid considerably more than previous directors; supporters of Maine’s Medicaid expansion law are suing the state to force it to begin implementing the program approved by voters in November; prisons are embracing telemedicine, using video conferencing to allow inmates to see specialists without ever leaving the facilities.

Bill Gates is offering $12 million in a push for a universal flu vaccine; the number of people sick from the E. coli outbreak rises to 98; and a Representative is proposing automatically enrolling eligible individuals in Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid plans.

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Copayment assistance groups are being probed by federal authorities for possibly skewing the cost of healthcare to favor drug companies; the FDA is encouraging the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare; investigators revealed they made the arrest of one of California’s most notorious serial killers by using an as yet-unnamed commercial genealogy website, raising privacy concerns.

After various accusations about his work, Ronny Jackson, MD, has withdrawn from consideration to run the Department of Veterans Affairs; a new online shopping tool would help doctors find cheaper medications for patients based on the patient’s insurance plan information; hospitals have found a new revenue opportunity in self-management courses that teach patients how to prevent or delay complications of disease.

Takeda Pharmaceutical has increased its bid to purchase Shire Plc to $64 billion; a process for reviewing drug patents has been ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States; at the University of California, Los Angeles, an “unspoken taboo” against reusing transplanted kidneys is being challenged.

The partnership will aid patients in an era of high-deductible health plans, which call on patients to make more of their own healthcare decisions.