AJMC Staff

The confirmation hearing for the president's new pick to run the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is being postponed; hospital profits are at 10-year low; new recommendations re-imagine postpartum care.

The company has previously received breakthrough therapy designation for the treatment.

HHS will shift federal funding aimed at reducing teen pregnancy rates to focus on programs that teach abstinence; relying on data about doctor-diagnosed arthritis alone may miss almost half of cases in middle aged adults; the Trump administration is seeking to reverse an Obama administration decision preventing healthcare discriminating against transgender patients.

An FDA panel recommended approval of a marijuana-derived medicine for the treatment of severe seizures in children with epilepsy; prescriptions for opioid painkillers continued to fall while the number of new monthly prescriptions for medications that treat opioid use disorder nearly doubled over the past 2 years; GOP candidates in midterm races this fall are retreating from calls to further dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

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A group of Democrats unveil a bill to set up a new public health insurance option; a look at the health challenges that persist in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria; married people are more likely to get diagnosed early and be treated in a timely fashion for melanoma.

Virginia's House of Delegates passes Medicaid expansion and sends bill to Republican-controlled Senate; the president's pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) states he opposes privatizing veterans' healthcare; in New York City, some mice carry bacteria that are resistant to 3 common antibiotics.

A Virginia Republican-led House Appropriations Committee agreed to expand enrollment in the state’s Medicaid program, imposing tougher work requirements on recipients in an attempt at gaining acceptance in the state Senate; there’s a growing industry that makes money by coaxing women into having surgery to remove their vaginal mesh implants, sometimes unnecessarily; HHS Secretary Alex Azar was admitted to a hospital after suffering "a minor infection."

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Senator Orrin Hatch and Senator Kamala Harris ask Attorney General Jeff Sessions to get the DEA to allow medical marijuana research; current and former executives of pharmaceutical distributors are scheduled to testify before Congress May 8 about their role in the opioid epidemic; 14 patients on Vieques, a Puerto Rican island just east of the main island, are flying 3 times a week for lifesaving dialysis more than 6 months after Hurricane Maria.

House Speaker Paul Ryan is leaving Congress at the end of the year without success on spending cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security; the FDA is conducting a criminal investigation into research by a Southern Illinois University professor who injected people with his unauthorized herpes vaccine; the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is "aggressively" looking into reports that it solicited funding from the alcohol industry for a study on the benefits of moderate drinking.

President Trump signed an executive order aimed at forcing low-income recipients of food assistance, Medicaid, and low-income housing subsidies to get jobs or lose benefits; in the midst of a debate over dysfunction at the VA, there are tens of thousands of full- and part-time vacancies nationwide; a privately-run, family-owned hospital in rural Bowie, Texas, doesn't accept commercial insurance, has drawn attention of state health inspectors, and charges unusually high rates with an "out-of-network" model.

New legislation in Congress would prohibit limiting what pharmacists can tell patients about the cheapest way to pay for their prescriptions; drug companies, researchers, and health officials are trying to develop an overdose-reversal treatment that is more successful than naloxone against synthetic opioids; a Texas lawsuit seeking to strike down the Affordable Care Act is being opposed by 16 Democratic attorneys general.

Ronny L. Jackson, MD, would give up $1 million in retirement income to head the Department of Veterans Affairs and work in the Trump administration; mega healthcare deals endanger independent practices of primary care providers; Novartis is buying a gene therapy firm focused on spinal muscular atrophy.

The PARP inhibitor had previously been approved to treat active ovarian cancer in women who received at least 2 lines of chemotherapy.

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JPMorgan CEO gives more details about the healthcare venture with Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway; a White House report on insurers comes under scrutiny; a database tracks pharmaceutical donations to patient groups.

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, calls on social media sites and internet providers to crack down on illegal online opioid sales; Ohio will require pharmacy benefit managers and insurers to inform patients of the lowest price for a drug; a court is weighing if a hospital is responsible for a discharged patient with schizophrenia who committed murder.

Enrollment for 2018 in Affordable Care Act plans is only slightly below figures from 2017; a rare breed of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is spreading in hospitals; a new company will develop off-the-shelf CAR T-cell therapies that do not need to be personalized to the patient.

The governor of Iowa signed a law allowing health plans that are not compliant with the Affordable Care Act; custom medically designed meals keep patients healthier, a study found; the CDC is probing a teen suicide outbreak in an Ohio county.

The National Institutes of Health's alcohol chief told an industry official in an email he would stop research about marketing to teens; California sues Sutter Heath, alleging antitrust violations; whether the Department of Veterans Affairs chief resigned or not could have broader implications for the agency.

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Walmart is in talks to buy insurer Humana; new CDC Director Robert Redfield told his staff he thinks an end to AIDS is possible wiithin the next 7 years; a New York agency for the dying created directives for those with dementia allowing them to withhold food and water if they wish.

Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, MD, is out and will be replaced by the White House personal physician; Iowa's governor will sign a bill allowing insurers to sell plans that don't comply with the Affordable Care Act; death certificates missing data lead to an undercounting of opioid overdose deaths.

California accidentally signed up nearly half a million potentially ineligible people for Medicaid when the program expanded; Medicare's proposed opioid crackdown draws blowback from patients and providers; Aetna will also pass on drug rebates to consumers starting in 2019.

Aetna's CEO envisions CVS deal helping it lead the way on social determinants of health (SDOH); the Senate health chair releases 2 draft bills on opioids; the medical community criticizes former Senator Rick Santorum, R-Pennsylvania, for suggesting student activitists learn CPR instead of advocating for gun control.

Democrats and Republicans trade blame after insurance stabilization package fails; Aetna Foundation and US News & World Report create new list of healthiest places; Gallup finds that 55% of respondents worry about the cost and affordability of healthcare.

Eight years ago today, the Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama. In honor of the anniversary, we took a look at search trends of Affordable Care Act vs Obamacare over time, search interest for healthcare.gov by state, and search interest in repeal and replace over time

A healthcare tracking poll finds unhappiness aimed at the drug industry for high drug prices while more Americans are warming up to the idea of a national health plan; a study says opioid overdose deaths are undercounted by as much as 35%; whole-genome sequencing may not drive up downstream medical costs, but questions about its use remain.

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