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Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan Chase tap Atul Gawande. Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase have appointed Dr. Atul Gawande, a renowned author and surgeon, as the CEO of their newly formed healthcare company. Gawande, who specializes in general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and teaches at Harvard, will take the reins at the Boston company July 9. As a contributor to the New Yorker, Gawande has focused a lot on healthcare costs, and his 2009 story about McAllen, Texas (an economically poor town with among the most expensive healthcare in the country), was touted by President Barack Obama, who made it required reading for White House staffers during the healthcare debate. With deep pockets and wide resources behind him, Gawande will be given a chance to put some of his theories about containing costs to the test. In a statement, the doctor said he was “thrilled” at being named to lead the healthcare venture. “I have devoted my public health career to building scalable solutions for better healthcare delivery that are saving lives, reducing suffering and eliminating wasteful spending both in the US and across the world,” he said. “Now I have the backing of these remarkable organizations to pursue this mission with even greater impact for more than a million people, and in doing so incubate better models of care for all. This work will take time but must be done. The system is broken, and better is possible.” Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, said the companies were confident Gawande would “get this important job done.” “We said at the outset that the degree of difficulty is high and success is going to require an expert’s knowledge, a beginner’s mind, and a long-term orientation,” Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, said in a statement. “Atul embodies all three, and we’re starting strong as we move forward in this challenging and worthwhile endeavor.”

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Governors, conservative groups to press for new Obamacare replacement. Former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., is scheduled to hold a press conference Wednesday at 3 p.m. with members of the health policy group behind a new effort to replace Obamacare. The conference in Washington will feature remarks from Republican Govs. Phil Bryant of Mississippi and Matt Bevin of Kentucky. The proposal would convert Obamacare’s funding for the Medicaid expansion and premium subsidies into block grants for states. But it leaves several key details such as the specifics of the funding formula up to Congress. A protest scheduled by Obamacare allies is set for the same time outside of the press conference.

Republicans don’t seem to be warming up to the new proposal, though. After a policy group supported by the Heritage Foundation and Galen Institute released the plan, Democrats piled on statements criticizing the move as another attack on healthcare. But Senate Republicans were mostly silent on the new plan, a nod to the difficulty the GOP faces in getting an Obamacare replacement through this year. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told the Washington Examiner Tuesday that he hadn’t seen the plan but remains opposed to block grants. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who led his own block grant proposal with Sen. Bill Cassidy that collapsed last year, praised the effort but said he hadn’t seen it. “I am generally very supportive of the idea of returning power to the states,” he said. Graham is working on his own effort to “regroup” on Obamacare. He hasn’t spoken to centrist GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine or Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to defeat an Obamacare replacement bill last July.

Exclusive: Super PAC launches ad blitz blasting Republicans on latest Obamacare plan, tax cut vote. A liberal super PAC is looking to tie vulnerable House Republicans to a new plan to replace Obamacare in a series of digital ads. The super PAC American Bridge on Thursday will roll out a series of digital ads targeting six House Republicans for their record on healthcare. The ads will come a few days after outside groups announced a new plan to replace Obamacare this year. The ads outline the members’ prior votes for tax reform as a “massive giveaway to the rich.” They also say “new efforts are underway to end coverage for pre-existing conditions and cut Medicaid.” The ads attempt to highlight a recent Medicare/Social Security trustee report that warns tax reform passed last year is undercutting both entitlement programs.

Abortion rights groups seek to undo Virginia restrictions. Reproductive rights groups have filed a lawsuit asking a court to undo dozens of abortion restrictions in Virginia, just less than a week after taking similar actions in Texas. Some of the restrictions go back decades, and they include requirements for patients to undergo an ultrasound and a ban on allowing certain healthcare workers to provide abortions. “There comes a time when enough is enough,” Rosemary Codding, founder and director of the Falls Church Healthcare Center, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said in a call with reporters Wednesday. She called the restrictions “draconian” and said abortion providers had been singled out for “regulations not applied to other medical providers for their services.” Defenders of the restrictions say they are intended to protect women during their pregnancies and ensure safer abortions, but critics charge they do not serve a medical purpose and instead cause clinics to shut down. The groups say they have been bolstered by the Supreme Court’s 2016 decision that undid restrictions in Texas.

Democrats demand hearing on well-being of children separated from parents. A hearing is needed to review the well-being of illegal immigrant children who are being separated from their parents and placed into the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the Department of Health and Human Services, Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee said in a letter to Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Health Subcommittee Chairman Michael Burgess. “The president’s policy is inhumane and should be reversed as soon as possible,” the Democrats wrote. “In the meantime, we must ensure that ORR is properly caring for these children until they can be reunited with their parents.” Democrats said they were concerned that children would face harm and trauma, and asked GOP leaders to bring in testimony from officials and pediatric healthcare experts.   

Doctors to Trump administration: Block CVS-Aetna deal. The Trump administration and states should block the planned $69 billion merger between CVS Health and Aetna, says the nation’s largest doctor group. The American Medical Association said it was concerned that the deal to combine CVS Health, a large pharmacy chain, with Aetna, a health insurance giant, would result in premium price increases, reduced quality of health insurance, and higher out-of-pocket costs for patients when they pay for drugs. If the merger is allowed to continue, the AMA said, it would have anti-competitive effects on Medicare Part D, which is Medicare’s prescription drug program. Erin Britt, director of corporate communications for CVS Health, said the vision for the merger was to create a system that was simpler and improved patients’ healthcare experience. The deal, she said, would not “further concentrate the healthcare sector” but “reconfigures it to bring together disparate parts of the healthcare system that today lead to inefficient, ineffective and more costly care.”

House passes 18 opioid bills with more up today. The House passed via a voice vote a collection of 18 bills aimed at combating the opioid crisis, the latest in a push to move more than 70 bills. The bills are not controversial. Measures include a bill to require state Children’s Health Insurance Programs to cover mental health benefits. Several bills require the federal government to conduct studies or develop best practices, like a bill to require Health and Human Services to establish an action plan for handling the crisis. Another bill requires Medicaid providers to check a prescription drug monitoring program before prescribing an opioid, encouraging use of the state-run databases that track prescriptions of controlled substances. The House is expected to take up more bills this week and package most of them together in a single legislative vehicle to send to the Senate.

AHIP remains concerned about association health plans. America’s Health Insurance Plans, which represents insurers, remains concerned about the impact that the plans would have on the Obamacare exchanges. The organization also said, however, that the final rule “provides some important protections by ensuring consumers, including those with pre-existing conditions, do not face discrimination as new association plans are created, and by preserving state authority” to regulate the plans. It concluded that “Ultimately, the rule could result in fewer insured Americans and may put consumers at greater risk of fraudulent actors entering this market.”

CMS a ‘poor steward’ of Medicaid, says GOP senator. Medicaid, which initially cost $222 per user, has soared to $7,973, a 3,491 percent increase, found an investigation by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs chairman. Overall cost to taxpayers for the program is $554 billion. And, according to the report, a major reason is fraud, overpayments and poor oversight by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. “Medicaid fraud is rampant,” said the report provided in advance to the Washington Examiner. Medicaid overpayments to healthcare providers total $37 billion, hundreds of thousands of users aren’t even eligible for Medicaid, many “dead” people are receiving benefits, 20,000 fraud investigations are ongoing, and several providers are reporting “spectacular profits.” Another driver in the surging costs for Medicaid is Obamacare. “The ACA worsened the problem of Medicaid fraud and overpayments by giving states incentives to declare people newly eligible to receive 100 percent federal reimbursement during the Medicaid expansion’s first three years,” it said.

Amount of prescription opioids declines: Study. The amount of prescription opioids sold across the U.S. fell by 11 percent in 2017 from 2016, according to a study by Avalere Health. States that passed laws restricting how many pills could be prescribed in 2016 had steeper declines than the national average. Maine, which passed such a law in 2016, had the largest decline at nearly 25 percent. All states other than Idaho reduced prescriptions.

Canada votes to legalize recreational marijuana. With the final stamp of approval from the Crown, recreational marijuana will become legal in Canada after the Canadian Senate voted 52-29 in favor of legalization Tuesday. The Cannabis Act, which still needs royal assent from Gov. Gen. Julie Payette, passed the final step in becoming a law after a yearlong debate in the country’s House and Senate. Payette is expected to approve the bill as soon as Wednesday, according to CTV News. Once approved, it’s likely to take effect in September, giving provinces, territories, and other stakeholders time to decide how they will regulate and govern in accordance with the new nationwide law. The act makes Canada the first G-7 country to legalize recreational marijuana nationwide.

Oversight Democrats press HHS for answers on ‘gag rule.’ All Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are demanding Health and Human Services turn over information on a proposal to curtail healthcare providers from giving abortion referrals. The Democrats wrote a letter on Wednesday to HHS Secretary Alex Azar that they are furious with a proposed rule issued June 1 on family planning grants under Title X. Democrats charge the proposal prevents healthcare providers from “fully informing women about their healthcare options or referring them to other qualified healthcare providers for abortions.” The proposed rule also restricts family planning grants for facilities that perform abortions. Democrats charge that the restriction isn’t necessary as federal funding cannot be used for abortion. The letter from 18 Democrats calls for Azar to provide “all documents and communications” related to the drafting of the proposed rule. It also wants details on meetings and communications surrounding the proposal.

RUNDOWN

STAT News Facebook to redirect users searching for opioids to federal crisis helpline

The Hill Key Obamacare groups in limbo as they await funding

New York Times New York City will end marijuana arrests for most people

NPR A new wave of meth overloads communities struggling with opioid crisis

CNBC Walgreens and Humana are partnering to create senior health hubs

Reuters WHO says Ebola outbreak in Congo is largely contained

Kaiser Health News ‘Holy cow’ moment changes how Montana’s state health plan does business

USA Today Feds oppose public reporting of hospital infections