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BILLS TO WATCH ADDRESS TOBACCO AND MATERNAL HEALTH: The House Energy and Commerce Committee is holding markups of four bipartisan healthcare bills this morning. While the markup may not get the same amount of attention as the first day of public impeachment hearings, it’s worth taking a look of the bills under discussion that may advance out of the committee this afternoon.
The most closely-watched bill will undoubtedly be Chairman Frank Pallone’s Reversing the Youth Tobacco Epidemic Act. The bill, cosponsored by Democrat Donna Shalala, aims to raise the minimum tobacco purchasing age to 21 and eliminate the vaping flavors that have helped lift teen use above 4 million.
Last month, the House got closer to limiting availability of nicotine vaping products to teens when it passed the Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act, which would require adults to sign for deliveries from e-cigarette makers upon delivery to the customer’s home. It also mandated that companies like Juul improve age verification measures online. It’s very easy to say you’re at least 21 when accessing the Juul site. All people have to do is select the state in which they live and check a box that says: “I am 21+ and agree to be age verified.” Most often, further age verification is not required.
Reversing the teen vaping epidemic is an issue that crosses party lines. Still, Pallone’s bill only has one GOP cosponsor: Peter King of New York. Despite its general skepticism of regulation, the Trump administration is debating on how far it must go to crackdown on e-cigarette manufacturers.
Maternal mortality rates in the U.S. are higher than those in much of Europe. The committee will debate a bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to improve maternal health outcomes. The bill includes several measures to improve maternal health, including establishing an obstetrics care grant program to bring better healthcare for expectant or new mothers to rural areas that may not have the option of seeing an obstetrician as often as they should.
Energy and Commerce Democrat Robin Kelly, who has drafted several pieces of legislation addressing maternal mortality, told Cassidy Wednesday morning that, while many bills like this one “go to [the Senate] to die,” she believes that “the work we’ve done to have finally bipartisan support in the House, I think that’ll help us.” Kelly said the bill was part of a larger effort to enact legislation to decrease maternal mortality rates, which, in the U.S., amount to about 24 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births. She also said Texas Republican and obstetrician Michael Burgess would introduce an amendment calling for a Government Accountability Office report on postpartum health data.
The third bill is the MOMS Act, which would give states the option of expanding Medicaid benefits for pregnant women or those who plan to become pregnant. The last is the STOP GAMES Act, a bill to curb the number of petitions sent to the Food and Drug Administration that aim to delay approval of biosimilars and generic drugs without any scientific backing.
You can livestream the markup here.
Good morning and welcome to the Washington Examiner’s Daily on Healthcare! This newsletter is written by senior healthcare reporter Kimberly Leonard (@LeonardKL) and healthcare reporter Cassidy Morrison (@CassMorrison94). You can reach us with tips, calendar items, or suggestions at [email protected]. If someone forwarded you this email and you’d like to receive it regularly, you can subscribe here.
GOOGLE STIRS UP DEBATE ABOUT MEDICAL DATA PRIVACY: Google’s collaboration with Ascension health systems to transfer classified medical records to Google Cloud — an operation they say is legal — has spurred both confusion and anger from patients and providers who say it violates HIPAA privacy laws and could expose private information. People on social media, the healthcare industry, tech experts, and even some Ascension employees are concerned that a partnership to transfer data electronically would render data insecure and welcome health data breaches.
For instance, former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today Dr. Robert Epstein tweeted Tuesday: “Just revealed: #Google is secretly collecting health data on millions of Americans from hospitals nationwide without patients or doctors knowing – WITH patient names – including, maybe, YOURS. You can’t make this sh*t up. #BeAfraid.” Walt Mossberg, a former tech columnist at the Wall Street Journal, tweeted: “This is why (a) we need a federal privacy law and (b) @google can’t be trusted and (c) neither can some giant hospital networks. Note that patients’ were in the dark and consent wasn’t obtained.”
Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights has opened a probe into the collaboration to ensure that Google is indeed compliant with HIPAA provisions, according to the Wall Street Journal. Roger Severino, the office’s director, told the publication that the probe “will seek to learn more information about this mass collection of individuals’ medical records to ensure that HIPAA protections were fully implemented.” Google released a new statement that said: “We believe Google’s work with Ascension adheres to industry-wide regulations (including HIPAA) regarding patient data, and comes with strict guidance on data privacy, security, and usage.”
Separately, medical data already at risk: Healthcare providers say medical data has always been vulnerable to data breaches. WCVB in Boston warned Tuesday that private health data is constantly at risk of exposure. “Medical device data that’s transmitted through the hospitals is typically not transmitted securely or in an encrypted fashion,” said Dr. Julian Goldman of Massachusetts General Hospital’s Cybersecurity Lab: WCVB also reported that medical providers have reported 343 data breaches this year alone.
CORNYN PRESSES SCHUMER ON BIPARTISAN ‘PATENT THICKET’ BILL: Texas Senator John Cornyn pressed Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor Tuesday regarding his (Cornyn’s) bipartisan bill aimed at preventing pharmaceutical companies from gaming the patent system. Schumer reportedly has placed a hold on the bill while the Senate works on broader drug pricing legislation.
“If the Democratic leader is going to block the bill… I want them to see him do it and to hold him accountable for his misguided politics,” Cornyn said.
The bill in question, co-sponsored by Democrat Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, would allow the Federal Trade Commission to sue pharmaceutical companies for “product hopping,” or making minor formulation changes to the same prescription drugs under the same patent and “patent thicketing,” or filing multiple patents for the same drug in an effort to prevent biosimilars and thus competition in the drug market.
PLANNED PARENTHOOD LAUNCHES ‘ABORTION CARE FINDER’ APP: Planned Parenthood launched an app to refer women to personalized abortions. For example, when you log onto the web platform of the app, you are prompted to enter your age, zip code, and the date of your last period. Cassidy tested the app, entering 23 years, 36571 (Mobile, Alabama), and Sept. 14. The closest abortion provider was in West Mobile. The second closest was in Birmingham, 200 miles away, followed by the Tallahassee Health Center in Florida. Several states recently have shut down abortion clinics or sought to effectively ban abortions.
The Rundown
Kaiser Health News Medicaid tweak might offer means to improve U.S. maternal health
VTDigger Vermont Medicaid sees sixfold increase in spending on urine drug testing
Omaha World-Herald ‘Health care delayed is health care denied’: Speakers oppose two-tier Medicaid plan at hearing
The New York Times ‘Emboldened’ N.F.L. players value health over paychecks
CNN 13% of Americans say they know someone who died after they couldn’t afford health care, survey says
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | Nov. 13
8 a.m. 1001 16th Street NW. Politico event “Fixing Kidney Care” to discuss challenges and developments emerging in U.S. kidney care. Details.
8 a.m. 1099 14th Street NW. Axios event on “Healthcare in 2020” including Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. Details.
10 a.m. Rayburn 2123 House Energy and Commerce’s Health Subcommittee to markup legislation on tobacco, maternal mortality, and FDA citizen petitions. Details.
THURSDAY | Nov. 14
10 a.m. 1100 Longworth House Ways and Means Committee hosts hearing on caring for aging Americans. Details.
