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/

White House doctor nominated to lead VA. President Trump said Wednesday he will nominate White House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson, a Navy rear admiral, to serve as secretary of Veterans Affairs. If confirmed, Jackson, a career military officer with no administrative experience, would replace David Shulkin, the sole Obama administration holdover in Trump’s Cabinet, as the head of the VA, the federal government’s second-largest bureaucracy with a budget of $186 billion and 360,000 employees. Shulkin ran afoul of travel rules when he took his wife with him on an official trip to Europe, and had to reimburse the government several thousand dollars. When asked who would take Jackson’s place, a White House official told the Washington Examiner that Jackson will stay on for now. Robert Wilkie, the current undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, will serve as acting secretary of Veterans Affairs until Jackson is confirmed. Jackson, a native of Levelland, Texas, has served as the White House physician for former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and now Trump. He joined the Navy after graduating from Texas A&M University in 1991 and the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1995. In January, Jackson oversaw Trump’s first medical exam as president and proclaimed he is in “excellent health.” During a lengthy White House press briefing announcing the results of the exam, Jackson said the president insisted on taking a cognitive assessment and scored a 30/30 on the test.

Shulkin blames privatization for ouster. In an op-ed in this morning’s New York Times, Shulkin cast his firing as more about the internal debate about the desire by some in the Trump White House to turn over much of the VA’s healthcare mission to the private sector. “They saw me as an obstacle to privatization who had to be removed. That is because I am convinced that privatization is a political issue aimed at rewarding select people and companies with profits, even if it undermines care for veterans,” Shulkin wrote. “As many of you know, I am a physician, not a politician. I came to government with an understanding that Washington can be ugly, but I assumed that I could avoid all of the ugliness by staying true to my values. I have been falsely accused of things by people who wanted me out of the way. But despite these politically based attacks on me and my family’s character, I am proud of my record and know that I acted with the utmost integrity. Unfortunately, none of that mattered,” Shulkin said, ending with this parting shot: “As I prepare to leave government, I am struck by a recurring thought: It should not be this hard to serve your country.”

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.

Veterans group ‘deeply concerned’ about Trump’s VA overhaul. American Veterans, a veterans service organization, is worried about Trump’s decision to nominate Jackson as secretary of Veterans Affairs. “I am deeply concerned about the nominee. Veterans’ lives depend on this decision, and the Trump administration need to substantiate that this active-duty Navy officer is qualified to run a $200 billion bureaucracy, the second largest agency in the government,” AMVETS Executive Director Joe Chenelly said Wednesday. The AMVETS’ statement bemoaned the high turnover at VA over the past four years. The group, which says it has more than 250,000 members nationwide, also said it was uncertain whether Jackson has the right experience and leadership to lead the agency.

House panel announces final hearing on opioid bills. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold its final legislative hearing on legislation to battle opioid addiction on April 11. The health subcommittee is expected to consider more than one dozen bills regarding payment and coverage issues linked to the opioid epidemic that killed more than 64,000 Americans in 2016. The panel held a two-day hearing March 21 and 22 to consider 25 bills aimed at prevention and public health solutions. It also held a hearing on another eight bills to improve safety and bolster enforcement efforts. Lawmakers hope to get all of the bills through the House by the Memorial Day recess.

Drug middlemen clash with FDA over blame for high drug prices. Drug middlemen are lashing out at Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb for saying Wednesday that they have a role in a practice in which brand-name drug companies use the FDA’s safety rules to deny generic companies access to copies of their products. The comments were the latest attack from the Trump administration on the way insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, which oversee drug plans for employer-sponsored health plans, negotiate with drugmakers for rebates. “We see the branded companies doing a lot of things — sometimes in cahoots with the supply chain and the distributors and [pharmacy benefit managers] — to block the ability of to generic companies to get access to the physical doses they need,” Gottlieb said. Pharmacy benefit managers took umbrage. “Contrary to today’s remarks, pharmacy benefit managers have long been strong supporters of bipartisan legislation that would prevent brand drug manufacturer abuses of [the FDA’s] risk evaluation and mitigation strategies that block generic competition,” according to a statement from the PBM group Pharmaceutical Care Management Association.

Democrats call for opioid crisis to be treated like AIDS epidemic. A pair of Democrats implored Congress to treat the opioid crisis the same as the HIV/AIDS epidemic nearly 30 years ago, and are pushing new legislation to give states more power and funding. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said in an op-ed in USA Today Thursday that Congress should pass legislation that is similar to what was passed in 1990 that created the largest federally funded program for people struggling with HIV and AIDS. The lawmakers say the legislation is needed to fight an epidemic that has ravaged the country. “America has addressed this kind of public health emergency before, and we call on Congress to do so now,” the lawmakers wrote. The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resource Emergency Act sent funding directly to areas of the country that needed it the most and gave states and affected communities the ability to decide how dollars should be spent. The two lawmakers intend to introduce legislation to establish a new system for funding and local decision-making.

Democrats ask GAO to review administrative costs for Medicaid requirements. Top-ranking Democrats have asked the government’s top oversight body to study the costs associated with setting up Medicaid work requirements for certain beneficiaries. The requirements have been approved by the Trump administration in Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas, and several other states have applied to implement similar measures. They stipulate that as a condition of being enrolled in the program, someone must work, take classes, or volunteer for at least 20 hours a week, but tend to contain exemptions for caregivers, people with addictions, pregnant women, children, and people with disabilities. Critics argue the programs will carry costly administrative burdens for government workers to check on the work status of enrollees. The letter to the Government Accountability Office, from Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J., tasks the agency with assessing those costs. It specifies that Democrats also want to receive information on other Medicaid provisions, including lockout periods and checking on premium payments.

Biden surprises 17-year-old cancer patient with video call. Former Vice President Joe Biden surprised a 17-year-old teenager fighting leukemia on Tuesday, placing a video call and offering her words of encouragement. Biden spoke with Cierra Shaffer, a senior at Fruitland High School, via FaceTime after nurses at St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital in Boise, Idaho, wrote to the Biden Foundation inviting the former vice president to attend Shaffer’s high school graduation, according to CNN. A spokesman for the former vice president said he wouldn’t be able to make it to Iowa in May, when she graduates from high school, but would be happy to FaceTime with Shaffer. On Tuesday, Shaffer’s teacher and nurses wearing Biden masks arrived in her hospital room and gave Shaffer a phone with Biden on the line. “You’re going to beat this thing because you’ve got to come see me in Washington. We’ve got to show you around,” he told her. “Then you’ve got to invite me back to Idaho, one of the most beautiful states in America.”

RUNDOWN

NPR Fentanyl-laced cocaine becoming a deadly problem among drug users

Axios It only feels like we are paying more for healthcare

The Hill Democrats seek to flank Trump on high drug prices

Politico Trump’s FDA presses Obama-era nutrition policy

STAT News The government wants to free your healthcare data. Will that lead to innovation?

Governing Despite Idaho’s failed plan to dodge Obamacare, another state tries

Kaiser Health News Scrutinizing Medicare coverage for physical, occupational and speech therapy

Associated Press Nebraska on pace to pass budget targeting abortion providers