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Grassley calls for more transparency on drug pricing. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that he didn’t want to point the finger only at drug companies for the high prices of medicines, even while acknowledging they could do more to lower list prices. “Yes,” he said of whether drug companies could do more, adding, “but I don’t want to point the finger just at them, because we’ve got a lot of other players in the game.” He noted that the committee would next be holding hearings with pharmaceutical benefit managers, the middlement that negotiate the ultimate cost of drugs, and that have been accused of not passing on savings to patients. “There’s too much secrecy in price fixing,” Grassley concluded. “We need more transparency and I think with more transparency the marketplace will work better. I think the whole idea is to take some of the secrecy out of it. I think we’re going to have some legislation,” he said, adding that the committee would also be supportive of actions by the Trump administration.  

OPINION: How the ghost of Obamacare is haunting Nancy Pelosi’s speakership.

Welcome to Philip Klein’s Daily on Healthcare, compiled by Washington Examiner Executive Editor Philip Klein (@philipaklein), Senior Healthcare Writer Kimberly Leonard (@LeonardKL), and healthcare reporter Cassidy Morrison (@CassMorrison94). 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.

Short-term plans are attractive to older customers: Survey. Older customers are more likely to consider short-term health insurance as an affordable alternative to Obamacare plans, shows a survey out this morning by eHealth. In all, 70 percent of respondents who were between the ages of 55 to 64 said that affordability was their top reason for choosing a short-term plan, compared with 53 percent of adults ages 18 to 24 who reported affordability as the main reason. The Trump administration allows people to have the plans for up to three years. They do not cover the same range of medical care as Obamacare plans and are allowed to turn down customers with pre-existing illnesses. Under Obamacare, health insurance companies are allowed to charge older customers as much as three times what they charge younger customers. Obamacare also allows people to remain on a parents’ plan until age 26.

Kentucky governor says it’s ‘insane’ to have to ask feds to make changes to Medicaid. Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin on Friday decried  that states have to ask the federal government for permission to make changes to the Medicaid program that covers poor and disabled people. “The idea that you even have to go to [the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services], that you have to do ‘Mother may I?’ to get waivers and exceptions … that you come up with a good idea, and you have to go beg and ask permission to be able to try a good idea at the local level, is insane to me,” said Bevin, a Republican, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md. Bevin also pushed back on critics of Kentucky’s upcoming work requirements in Medicaid, noting, as he has before, that he had grown up poor and without any access to healthcare. He concluded the 20-hour-a-week requirement was “not too much to ask.” “I am not coming at this from sympathy, it’s from empathy,” he said. “I understand that world and I understand this: There is dignity in work, there is dignity in doing for oneself and there is dignity in being given that opportunity and the expectation that we seize that opportunity in order to make our own versions of the American dream come true. The liberals who look down on people like I was, and so many are still, I consider that a level of bigotry that’s not acceptable.”

Kellyanne Conway stresses destigmatizing opioid addiction. Senior White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway stressed the need to take shame out of seeking recovery from opiate addiction Thursday at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. Conway said that the influx of opiates in the United States is not only a public health emergency, but an attack on kids and families. “Well first, you’re not alone. We see you. We hear you. And we’re with you,” Conway says to families and victims of addiction. “The best thing you can do is break through the stigma and the silence… This is a bigger killer now than cancer.” President Trump, Conway said, is fully dedicated to stemming the flow of drugs into communities nationwide and assisting those who need those resources.

E+C leaders demand justification for Title X ‘gag rule.’ Democratic leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are demanding justification for Trump’s Title X gag rule in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. “We have serious concerns regarding the final rule’s compliance with the Title X statute, the public health implications of this action, and the administration’s rationale for these changes,” they wrote. “Additionally, we have questions about the Department’s expansive claim of authority under this rule, HHS’s failure to account for the significant costs created as a result of the final rule, and the internal regulatory process used by the Department to review and finalize this rule,” they continued. The Trump administration made new rules in February on Title X, which provides grants to family planning. The rules would block doctors from referring for abortions for the purpose of family planning and would obligate clinics to keep abortion services in a separate building from other family planning services.

RUNDOWN

Kaiser Health News An epidemic of nursing home closures in rural areas leaves vulnerable residents with few options

The Wall Street Journal As more military women seek health care, VA pursues improvements

Modern Healthcare Cost control ideas, some controversial, sent to Senate HELP chairman

The New York Times The opioid dilemma: saving lives in the long run can take lives in the short run

The Baltimore Sun Maryland made a plan to help people leaving prison get drug treatment — but it never used it

Reuters U.S. seeks to cut dialysis costs with more home care versus clinics