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House grapples with fetal tissue research. The House is debating the necessity of fetal tissue research in a hearing this morning that is occurring as the Department of Health and Human Services is evaluating its current processes on the matter. The National Institutes of Health is under fire by anti-abortion groups who say that government funding should not go toward research that uses cells or tissue from aborted fetuses. Tara Sander Lee, an associate scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, said other types of tissue were more effective and ethical. “We do not need fetal body parts from aborted babies to achieve future scientific and medical advancements,” she said. “Very little research is actually being done that currently relies on abortion-derived fetal tissues.” The institute is the research branch of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List. Supporters of using fetal tissue say it is necessary for medical research, being used in studies on Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and HIV/AIDs. “Fetal cells and tissue have unique properties that cannot always be replicated by other cell types,” Sally Temple, the former president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, said at the hearing. “This tissue would be discarded if not donated for crucial biomedical research.” The hearing is being held jointly with the subcommittees on Government Operations and Healthcare, Benefits, and Administrative Rules.

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Big Pharma’s likely defeat on ‘donut hole’ foreshadows treacherous 2019. Drugmakers are unlikely to convince Congress to use an upcoming spending package to fix a so-called “donut hole” in healthcare coverage that’s poised to erode profits, people familiar with the legislation told the Washington Examiner, a stinging defeat and one that weakens the industry’s clout. Since February, pharmaceutical companies have mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign against a provision included in an earlier funding bill that raised the portion of a treatment’s cost that companies must cover under the Medicare Part D program. Starting in 2019, manufacturers must provide an increased 70 percent discount on drugs offered to customers in the program’s donut hole, or individuals not at the catastrophic coverage level. The odds are against the industry. The White House has signaled it would oppose a fix to the “donut hole,” and neither Democrats nor most Republicans are looking to give drugmakers a victory amid the intense focus in Washington on high treatment costs, sources say.

Arkansas alters Medicaid work requirement after more than 12,000 drop out. Arkansas officials will start letting people on Medicaid report their work requirements by phone, saying they wanted to see more people participate in the program. Previously the department of human services allowed people only to log their hours online, a provision that critics said was a barrier to people who didn’t have Internet access. The program, which adds work requirements to Medicaid in Arkansas, kicked off six months ago, and since then more than 12,000 people in the state are no longer enrolled in Medicaid. “We are six months into this new Medicaid demonstration program, but wanted take the time now to access what areas we need to shore up or improve,” Cindy Gillespie, director of the human services department, said in a statement.  To increase the number of people who abide by the rules, staff from the agency will start calling people who have not logged enough hours to meet the 80-hour-a-month requirement to work, volunteer, or take classes as a condition of staying enrolled in the program. The human services agency will launch an ad campaign to talk about the program and how people can meet the requirements. The phone line will go into effect beginning Dec. 19 and will be open every day from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Enrollees can still also report their hours by having a friend do it for them, someone trained on how to operate the website, or by reporting the hours to the health insurance company that contracts with Medicaid.

Planned Parenthood argues in court that family planning faces harm under Trump. Planned Parenthood argued in federal court Wednesday that it has the right to challenge guidelines from the Trump administration threatening to cut them off from receiving grants on avoiding unplanned pregnancies. Planned Parenthood was in court to appeal a district court decision in July that allowed the administration’s guidelines about the program, called Title X, to stand. “This isn’t about grant matters, it’s about dangers to the system,” said Paul Wolfson, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, including Planned Parenthood affiliates and the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, represented by the ACLU. The groups oppose the Trump administration’s announcement in February indicating it may prioritize federal family planning grants to groups that rely on the abstinence-only education or other natural methods to avoid conception. The Trump administration, appearing before a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, did not directly address the guidelines it put out, but argued that grants are reviewed every year, and that changes to who receives grants are always possible. “They will always make changes to how they review applications,” said Department of Justice lawyer Jaynie Lilley.

House sends farm bill to Trump without food stamp work requirements. The House on Wednesday passed a $867 billion farm bill without any Republican language that would have expanded work requirements for food stamp recipients. The bill, which passed the Senate Tuesday by a vote of 87-13, now heads to the president’s desk for signature. The House approved it overwhelmingly, 369-47, after it was stripped of significant reforms to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, that had been included in the House version. The final bill is a bipartisan compromise between the House and Senate, where Democratic opposition to SNAP reforms forced lawmakers to strip out those reforms. Elsewhere, the bill would legalize industrial hemp production, a provision favored by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., whose state is a producer. Trump is expected to sign the bill.

VA senior adviser forced to resign after months of getting paid to do no work. A senior adviser and former acting secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Peter O’Rourke, has resigned under pressure after White House officials were informed he was getting paid to do little to no work, according to the The Washington Post. Four sources told the Post that before leaving the job on Friday, O’Rourke rarely came to work. White House officials started to express concern about the adviser’s work schedule last week. O’Rourke’s salary at the department was reportedly as high as $161,000. In an interview with the Post, O’Rourke said he was “available for anything the [VA] secretary asked me to do.” However, he added, “there were times I didn’t have a lot to do.” O’Rourke has held the senior adviser role since August. Previously, he was the acting secretary of the VA for two months and a former campaign aide for President Trump.

Nearly 1/3 of American adults are obese: Study. The number of obese American adults is creeping up. An annual analysis revealed nearly one-third are obese, the highest ever in the 29 years the rate has been tracked. The 31.3 percent of obese adults this year is up 5 percent from last year when the amount of obese adults was at 29.9 percent, according to America’s Health Ranking annual report. Obesity leads and contributes to several additional health issues such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer, and it can cause a stroke, among other issues. The 2018 study also revealed that adults with college degrees were less likely to be obese than those without a college education.

WHO: Nearly 30 million babies are ill. The babies are born too soon, too small, or need specialized care to survive, according to a new report by a global health coalition that includes the World Health Organization. The babies have a brain injury during childbirth, bacteria infections, jaundice, or other conditions, putting them at risk of dying or becoming disabled. n 2017, about 2.5 million newborns died, mostly from preventable causes. Almost two-thirds of babies who die were born premature.

RUNDOWN

Politico Telemedicine demand spurs rural broadband push in Texas

Wall Street Journal Walmart, Express Scripts extend prescription-services agreement

CNBC Apple now has dozens of doctors on staff, showing it’s serious about health tech

New York Post Judge seems likely to block CVS-Aetna Merger  

New York Times