SIGN UP! If you’d like to continue receiving Washington Examiner’s Daily on Healthcare newsletter, SUBSCRIBE HERE: http://newsletters.washingtonexaminer.com/newsletter/daily-on-healthcare/

Democrats back parts of Trump’s drug pricing agenda. Democrats support some of the measures to lower drug prices that President Trump outlined in his recent blueprint, said Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. During a hearing with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar this morning, Murray noted Democrats had introduced bills that were similar to proposals the president had made, such as requiring drug companies to post their list prices in ads and requiring drug middlemen known as pharmacy benefits managers to pass savings onto patients. She asked Republican senators whether they would support those types of measures, and Azar said he believed the blueprint contained opportunities for bipartisan consensus. Overall, however, Murray said the plan must be more far-reaching. “There are policies in the blueprint with which Democrats agree, but make no mistake those are targeted changes that come nowhere close to solving this problem,” she said. Trump’s plan to lower drug prices leaves “more questions than answers,” is a “nothingburger” and fails to include a proposal that would allow the Medicare program to directly set drug prices. “As a candidate, President Trump talked a big game on lowering drug prices, but after 500 days the only healthcare price he has dropped is his former secretary,” she said. Similar sentiments were echoed by Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Tina Brown of Minnesota in a letter to the Trump administration.

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.

Join the Washington Examiner for our ‘Examining Opioids’ event June 14. We’ll be speaking with Surgeon General Jerome Adams, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden and Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. Breakfast will be served at 7 a.m. RSVP here.

Azar: Congress needs to act to help the Trump administration carry out its drug pricing plan. HHS has some authority to ask drug companies to post their list prices on TV ads, but the department would like Congress to act because a legal challenge from drug companies is likely, Azar said. Congress should remove the 100 percent cap on rebates, end the “gaming” of generic companies of 180-day exclusivity period that prevent cheaper drugs from entering the market, and ban “gag clauses” on pharmacists that prevent them from telling patients about cheaper options, Azar said.

FDA asks drug companies to disclose quality of their meds. The Trump administration has asked drug and medical device companies, as well as companies who make drug reimbursement decisions, to disclose more information with insurers and payers, such as Medicare, about how well a medicine or product works. Often a drug will be approved for coverage over another one that might work better, or a drug might work best against a condition for which it hasn’t been approved. Properly prescribed medications can lower healthcare costs overall, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday. “We recognize that a real market for drugs requires improvements in open, responsible communication between drug companies and those who make drug reimbursement decisions,” Azar said when announcing the news during the HELP Committee hearing. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said, “The ultimate goal is to help facilitate a market that is more competitive, based on the outcomes that matter most – the benefit to patients.”

House will vote on opioid bills this week and next. The House is setting in motion a plan to vote on dozens of opioids-related legislation during the next two weeks. Certain measures are expected to make it into a final package that will be sent to the Senate, said a source in the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

More seniors buy supplemental insurance under Medicare. More than one in three people on Medicare had supplemental health insurance, known as Medigap, in 2016, according to a report from America’s Health Insurance Plans. The plans help pay for out-of-pocket costs that Medicare doesn’t cover. Roughly 36 percent of enrollees have combined incomes with their spouses of less than $30,000. From December 2015 to December 2016, enrollment in the plans rose from 12.3 million to 13.1 million.  

American Medical Association opens door to supporting medically assisted suicide. The American Medical Association, the nation’s largest doctor group, will begin more closely studying medically assisted suicide, a practice that has become legal in a growing number of states. The organization’s actions open the door to possibly supporting the practice, known by advocates as “aid in dying.” The organization voted against the recommendation of its Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, which recommended the AMA continue its longstanding opposition of the practice. Groups such as the Patient Rights Action Fund, which opposes the practice, said they worried about the policy putting vulnerable patients at risk for coercion, mistakes and abuse. “A referral back to CEJA is a lost opportunity and a failure to stand against a policy that has grave consequences for everyone, but especially persons living with illness, disabilities, or socio-economic disadvantage. Assisted suicide is not medical care,” said Matt Valliere, executive director for the group.

Azar’s home targeted by protesters with disabilities. Protesters with physical disabilities showed up Sunday at Azar’s home to demonstrate against what they said was his agency’s ignoring a special needs facility that shocks its patients as punishment. Members of ADAPT, a nonprofit that promotes rights for people with disabilities, went to Azar’s home in Meridian Hills, Ind., to chant and hold up signs outside, according to the Indianapolis Star. The group says that staff at Judge Rotenberg Educational Center, a special needs facility in Massachusetts, uses tools to shock patients for misbehavior. “This morning, uninvited protesters refused to leave private property when asked by local police. They did not have a permit to protest at this private residence,” HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley, said in a statement to the paper. “The department meets with advocacy organizations, on a multitude of topics, via the appropriate channels.”

Winning the war against opioids: A military family’s personal struggle. Retired Adm. James “Sandy” Winnefeld had barely left the CBS News studio in New York last November when his phone started to blow up. As a contributor to the network, the retired four-star often appeared to talk about military and homeland security issues. But this time was different. He had shared a deeply personal, recent tragedy and told viewers about a nonprofit that he and his wife, Mary, founded together. The reaction from viewers was immediate. People cheered him on, others wanted to know how to get involved. Emails poured in from people asking him for help. Winnefeld had revealed what happened to his son Jonathan, who dealt with anxiety and depression for years and developed an addiction. Jonathan successfully moved into recovery, then died from an accidental opioid overdose in his dorm room at 19. The details of Jonathan’s life appeared in an essay Winnefeld wrote for The Atlantic. “He knew what he wanted to do,” Winnefeld said of Jonathan in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “He wanted to live. He wanted to help other people and now he can’t. And that’s not fair.” Read more in the Washington Examiner magazine, which hits newsstands today.

RUNDOWN

The Hill Trump officials meet with drug companies to push for voluntary price cuts

The Atlantic Being black in America can be hazardous to your health

Modern Healthcare ‘If we had to drive to Albuquerque
 or Las Vegas, 
she might not have made it.’

Stat News Lobotomies were once used to treat this gut disease, part of a shameful medical history

New York Times Lasik’s risks are coming into sharper focus

Kaiser Health News The ‘perfect storm’: Redirecting family planning funds could undercut STD fight

FierceHealthcare CMS urges states to better utilize Medicaid to treat opioid-addicted infants