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

Kavanaugh confirmation hits turbulence. At this time last week, Brett Kavanaugh seemed like he was on a glide path to confirmation by the end of the month, but Republican plans for a Thursday vote on the Senate Judiciary Committee were upended on Sunday when Christine Blasey Ford, now a California-based clinical psychology professor, came out publicly and said that when she was 15 and Kavanaugh was 17 he drunkenly pinned her on her back, molested her, and tried to pull her bathing suit off. When she attempted to scream he covered her mouth with his hand, and she was able to get away when a friend tumbled on top of them, Ford claims. Kavanaugh said that the event she describes never took place and has offered to appear again before the committee. Through her lawyer, Ford also said she’s willing to testify publicly. Several Republicans are showing a reluctance to move ahead with a committee vote on Kavanaugh this week until hearing more about the allegations. GOP Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona both called for a delay to the vote scheduled for this week until more can be heard of the allegations. Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would clearly want to avoid a repeat of the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings just over a month before the election, but it’s inevitable that at a minimum, members are going to hear more from Ford and Kavanaugh behind closed doors.

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.

Abortion rights groups highlight sexual assault allegation to derail Kavanaugh confirmation. Organizations that support abortion rights have been working to derail Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court out of fear that he would cast a deciding vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. In statements released throughout the weekend they are pointing to the latest allegations of sexaul assault to underscore their message. “Kavanaugh’s record of undermining women’s health and constitutional rights should already prevent his confirmation from moving forward,” said Dawn Laguens, executive vice president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. “These serious allegations raise even more questions about what we don’t know about Judge Kavanaugh.” Fatima Goss, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, said If the charges were true, Kavanaugh’s behavior ‘makes clear that he is not fit for a seat on the Supreme Court, or any court.”

Take 2: Following hurricane break Senate prepares to take up opioid legislation. The Senate had planned to take up major legislation late last week to combat the opioid epidemic. But the impending landfall of Hurricane Florence caused the Senate to only be in for one day last week before leaving town. So now the Senate is expected to vote today on the package. The Opioid Response Act combines 70 measures aimed at attacking the opioid crisis. Some of the measures include legislation to stem the tide of illicit fentanyl from overseas and putting limits on opioid packaging to prevent overuse.

Fewer people began using heroin in 2017, amid continued overdoses and deaths. The number of people who began using heroin for the first time decreased by more than 50 percent from 2016 to 2017, according to government data released Friday. An estimated 81,000 people started using heroin for the first time in 2017, compared to more than 170,000 people in 2016. The data are part of an annual survey on drug use from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The survey examines drug use for people in the U.S. that are 12 years and older. The latest figures could signal progress in the opioid crisis if the downward trend were to continue. But a similar reduction occurred from 2014 to 2015, when the number of people who started using heroin fell from 212,000 to 135,000, before climbing back up again in 2016. “Caution is advised in interpreting the fluctuations in the numbers of heroin initiates in single years because the relatively small numbers of recent initiates per year can contribute to these fluctuations,” authors of the report wrote. Among the 2.1 million people in the U.S. who are addicted to opioids, 652,000 of them are dependent on heroin and the rest are dependent on prescription painkillers, according to the survey.

Pressure intensifies on top drug lobbyist to fix ‘doughnut hole’ issue. The pharmaceutical industry was dealt a significant blow Thursday when legislators working on a bill to fund the Department of Health and Human Services left out a key provision that would have lessened drug manufacturers obligations under Medicare.

Drug companies rarely lose in Washington, and the latest defeat will intensify pressure on the industry’s top lobbying group at a time when the White House is fighting to reduce treatment costs. Drugmakers were seeking to reverse a provision in February’s government funding bill that will effectively increase the portion of the cost of a brand-name drug that manufacturers must cover in Medicare Part D. The industry was furious about the February measure — specifically that its top lobbying group was unaware the clause would be added — and put intense pressure on the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America to fix it, sources tell the Washington Examiner.

The measure could still be added to a year-end funding bill in December. If it isn’t, the lobbying group may seek to overhaul its operations, four sources say. “There’s a severe amount of consternation that all of PhRMA’s muscle and dollars can’t get this oversight fixed,” one lobbyist said. “If there isn’t a fix, some guys are getting fired, for sure.”

HHS watchdog slams oversight of delivering psych drugs to kids in foster care. A new report found that children in foster care in five states getting psychotropic medications weren’t getting proper care. The report issued Monday from Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General looked at five states. It found that one in three children in foster care getting psychotropic medications to treat conditions like bipolar disorder or depression did not receive treatment planning or medication monitoring which is required by the states. It calls on HHS to develop a “comprehensive strategy to improve states’ compliance with requirements for treatment planning and medication monitoring for psychotropic medications.”

SBA List announces six-figure campaign in support of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. Women Speak Out PAC, a partner with the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List has rolled out a six-figure ad campaign with The Family Leader to help re-elect Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. Her opponent, Fred Hubbell, was a board member at Planned Parenthood, while Reynolds signed a bill into law to ban abortion after the point at which a heartbeat could be detected inside the womb, or roughly six weeks into a pregnancy. A judge prevented the law from going into effect. “Kim Reynolds is a courageous pro-life champion,” said SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “Kim showed principled leadership in signing legislation to protect unborn children beginning at their first heartbeats.”

Congressmen give Paul Manafort donations to hospital, pregnancy center. The two members of Congress who received campaign contributions from convicted Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort have selected charities to receive the funds, their spokespeople tell the Washington Examiner. Reps. Andy Harris, R-Md., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., are the only current members of Congress to receive contributions from Manafort, who pleaded guilty to foreign lobbying and witness tampering crimes Friday after being convicted of tax and bank fraud last month. Harris, who received $500 during his first campaign for Congress in 2008, will give the funds to the Pregnancy Center North, campaign coordinator Nicole Beus said. The Baltimore-based center says on its website that it provides “free life-affirming services for women and their families in unexpected pregnancies.” Harris lost the 2008 election, but won in a second try in 2010 and has been re-elected repeatedly since then. Rohrabacher received two contributions from Manafort totaling $2,000. The funds were donated to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County Children’s Foundation, Rohrabacher campaign spokesman Dale Neugebauer said.

Calls mount for regulation of sex robots.  Experts and activists say it’s time to consider regulations on sex robots to protect consumer safety and public health. The opening push for regulation is an effort to ban sex robots that resemble children. With little discussion, House lawmakers unanimously passed the CREEPER Act by Rep. Dan Donovan, R-N.Y., in June to ban sales of “any child sex doll,” though the Senate has not acted. The proposed ban would change criminal law, but regulators also have a potential role in consumer safety and public health. The Consumer Product Safety Commission enforces standards for some parts that may go into robots, but has no apparent rules for sexbots as a whole, spokeswoman Patty Davis said. The Food and Drug Administration, meanwhile, would be able to regulate sexbots as medical devices if sellers claimed the bots “treat, prevent, cure, mitigate or diagnose a disease or condition,” such as sexual dysfunction. But businesses can side-step risk with careful wording.

RUNDOWN

Reuters Baby aspirin risks overwhelm benefits in healthy elderly

The Hill New Cramer add pushes back on healthcare attacks

New York Times No. 1 aim of Democratic campaign ads: Protect pre-existing conditions

Star Tribune Minnesota seniors brace for seismic Medicare shift

Associated Press To avoid overdoses, some test their heroin before taking it

CNBC Mark Zuckerberg is selling up to $13 billion of Facebook stock to fund an ambitious project to end disease

Kaiser Health News New Medicare Advantage tool to lower drug prices puts crimp in patients’ choice