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The Senate’s long, hot Supreme Court battle starts today. The unveiling of President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee today will immediately shift the focus of the Senate to confirming that pick in a few short months, and create a frenzy as GOP and Democratic senators try to steal a handful of votes in the middle that will determine the outcome. Since 2005, all Supreme Court Justices have been confirmed in less than three months, and Republicans are hoping to stick to that schedule so Trump’s nominee is seated for the new Supreme Court term in October. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told the Washington Examiner such a time frame is “a reasonable parameter” for the next nominee. To get there, Trump’s nominee is expected to quickly start making the rounds to Senate offices for individual interviews. That will be followed later this summer by a yet-to-be-scheduled confirmation hearing that will include written questionnaires from each of the 21 lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee. But the most important part of the process will be the cajoling of a handful of senators on each side who could either rescue of sink the nominee. With Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., not voting, Republicans hold a 50-49 advantage in the Senate, which means they need to steal a Democrat for every Republican who decides to vote against Trump’s pick.

The shortlist: The president vowed to choose his Supreme Court nominee from a list of 25, but four contenders, all federal appeals court judges, reportedly remain the top candidates: Judges Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Thomas Hardiman, and Raymond Kethledge.

Welcome to Philip Klein’s Daily on Healthcare, compiled by Washington Examiner Managing Editor Philip Klein (@philipaklein), Senior Healthcare Writer Kimberly Leonard (@LeonardKL) and Healthcare Reporter Robert King (@rking_19).  Email [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list.

Trump’s outside adviser for judicial nominations ‘very confident’ Senate ‘can get anybody confirmed’ to Supreme Court. President Trump’s top outside adviser for judicial nominations indicated Sunday he believes the president’s Supreme Court nominee will be confirmed by the November midterm elections. “I’m very confident with this president’s enthusiasm and with [Senate Majority] Leader [Mitch] McConnell’s enthusiasm that they can get anybody confirmed,” Leonard Leo, the president’s outside adviser, told ABC News. Leo rebuked the notion that those named to Trump’s list of candidates would definitely vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. The future of Roe and the Affordable Care Act are the focal points of Senate Democrats’ argument as to why the president’s nominee should be opposed. “Nobody really knows,” Leo said of how the president’s possible nominees would vote on Roe. “We’ve been talking about this for 36 years, going all the way back to the nomination of Sandra [Day] O’Connor. And after that 36-year period, we only have a single individual on the court who has expressly said he would overturn Roe. I think it’s a bit of a scare tactic and rank speculation more than anything else.”

Winners and losers from CMS’ decision to end risk adjustment payments. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ decision to put on hold $10.4 billion risk adjustment payments will have major ramifications for Obamacare insurers, but some may wind up in better shape than others. The risk adjustment program requires Obamacare insurers that get a certain amount of profits to pay into the program to cover insurers that have a certain amount of losses. CMS decided to end the program after a federal judge decided back in February to invalidate the formula used to determine what insurers paid what. So now that the payments are on hold, which insurers are going to be happy the payments are kaput?  Major insurer Anthem was expected to get risk adjustment payments, about $400 million to $500 million for 2017, according to a research note from JP Morgan. But smaller insurers Molina and Centene will be pretty happy as they would have had to pay out $1 billion each in risk adjustment payments for 2017, according to a note from the financial news site Seeking Alpha.

Insurer group warns move will raise premiums for Obamacare. The top insurance industry group in D.C. bashed the move to halt payments. “We are very discouraged by the new market disruption brought about by the decision to freeze risk adjustment payments,” according to a statement from America’s Health Insurance Plans. “This decision comes at a critical time when insurance providers are developing premiums for 2019 and states are reviewing rates.” AHIP said that the hold on payments will “increase premiums for many health plans.” This will cause more federal spending as the cost of tax credits to lower insurance premiums rises with any premium hikes.

Senate Democrats say ‘Orwellian’ HHS isn’t providing answers about separated immigrant children. Senate Democrats were livid Friday after a conference call with Health and Human Services officials about the thousands of immigrant children who remain separated from their parents, calling the Trump administration’s conduct “Orwellian.” HHS Secretary Alex Azar was on the call but took no questions.

Medical device makers roll out ads ahead of anticipated House vote to repeal tax. Digital ads in support of permanently repealing the 2.3 percent medical device tax will appear on news websites such as USA Today, McClatchy, CNN and Fox News, AdvaMed said Monday. The ads, which tout advances in the medical industry and job creation, will also run on bus stops and on social media. The latest push is in anticipation of the House taking up a stand-alone bill to repeal the tax later this month. The effort is being pushed by Rep. Erik Paulsen, R-Minn., and has 43 Democrats among its 269 co-sponsors. As it stands currently, the tax has been delayed for two years.

FDA changes guidance on testing blood donations for Zika. Blood banks no longer need to test individual donations for the Zika virus, the Food and Drug Administration said Friday.

FDA is instead recommending screening pooled donation, and said that testing individual samples may be necessary in parts of the world where Zika may be a particular concern. Pooled blood can now be tested with new screening tools that the FDA approved in May.

“The latest evidence shows that pooled donations can effectively reduce transmission of Zika in blood,” FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on Twitter. “It is also usually more cost effective and less burdensome for blood establishments.” The agency cited the decrease in Zika cases in the U.S. and its territories as the reason for changing its recommendation, which has been in place since August 2016.

Black men have better health outcomes when treated by black doctors, new study finds. A new study found that black men are more likely to talk with a black doctor about their health problems. The study seeks to learn why black men have the lowest life expectancy of any major demographic group in the U.S. In the study, researchers randomized black men to black or non-black male medical doctors and gave incentives for getting the flu vaccine. The study looked at what 1,300 black men thought about cardiovascular screenings and the flu vaccine before and after meeting with the doctor. The study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research said that men are “more likely to talk with a black doctor about their health problems and black doctors are more likely to write additional notes about the subjects.” The findings suggest that doctors could help reduce heart deaths by 16 deaths per 100,000 per year, leading to a 19 percent reduction in the gap between black and white males in cardiovascular mortality, the study found.

Patient group aims to pressure drug maker to lower price of cystic fibrosis drugs. An advocacy group delivered a 9,000-signature petition to Vertex clamoring for it to lower the cystic fibrosis drugs. The petition from the group Patients for Affordable Drugs comes on the heels of an analysis from the drug-pricing watchdog ICER that found three cystic fibrosis drugs were overpriced by more than 400 percent. The group said that charitable donations from groups like the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation created the foundational science behind the drugs Kalydeco, Symdeko and Orkambi. Kalydeco costs $384,000, Symdeko costs $350,000 and Orkambi a price tag of $327,000.

Class action lawsuits alleges union and Washington state conspired to rip off caregivers. A class action lawsuit filed against Washington state and the Service Employees International Union seeks damages on behalf of potentially thousands of state-subsidized in-home caregivers, arguing that the state and the union conspired to divert subsidy money from caregivers who had no intention of joining SEIU. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday and comes in the wake of a Supreme Court’s ruling last week in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees that found that compelling public sector workers to join unions was unconstitutional. The lawsuit was filed by the free market Freedom Foundation on behalf of four caregivers but seeks class certification to represent all people who were part of the state’s subsidy program and had a 3.2 percent deduction placed on their checks, ostensibly to pay for collective bargaining by SEIU Local 775, which the state made the workers’ sole representative. The workers could opt out of making the payment, but the burden to do it was on them, and the lawsuit alleges that the state and union purposefully obscured this requirement.

US opposes breastfeeding resolution at World Health Assembly. To the surprise of members of the United Nations World Health Assembly, health officials from the U.S. pushed to get rid of language that urges different countries to “protect, promote and support” breastfeeding, a resolution introduced by Ecuador. The U.S. government threatened Ecuador with trade sanctions and threatened to remove military aid if the resolution wasn’t changed. HHS said this took place because officials worried about women being stigmatized if they are unable to breastfeed. New York Times report suggested the U.S. took this position instead to advocate on behalf of companies that make infant formula. Russia instead introduced the resolution, and it passed with removal of language that asked the World Health Organization to help states looking to end “inappropriate promotion of foods for infants and young children.”

Health officials contain Ebola’s spread in the Congo. Health officials have finished tracking down every person in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who was at risk for becoming infected with Ebola, the World Health Organization announced Friday. Medical teams in the Congo followed up with more than 20,000 people as of June 27 to make sure they safely made it out of the 21-day incubation period without developing symptoms of the illness. The last confirmed patient with Ebola was discharged June 12 after he or she no longer tested positive for the virus. Officials cannot declare the outbreak over until 42 days, or two incubation periods, have passed without anymore people testing positive for Ebola. Still, WHO said the latest outcomes show that the Ebola outbreak “has largely been contained.” Health officials vaccinated 3,300 people using an experimental medicine. During the outbreak, 29 of the 53 people who became infected with Ebola died, including two healthcare workers.

RUNDOWN

New York Times U.S. opposition to breastfeeding resolution stuns world health officials

NBC More dogs being poisoned by marijuana, vets say

STAT News As Atul Gawande steps into a risky CEO role, here are five challenges he faces

Kaiser Health News State prisons fail to offer cure to 144,000 inmates with deadly hepatitis C

Wall Street Journal When three brothers with a blood disorder lost their jobs, the EEOC sued.

Boston Globe Addicted people often end up in jail and that can be deadly for them

Axios Where the national opioids lawsuits could be headed

Bloomberg Amazon is already undercutting prices on over-the-counter pills