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House panel takes on eight opioid bills this Wednesday. The House Energy & Commerce Committee plans to hold a hearing Wednesday on eight bills aimed at tackling the opioid epidemic. The committee’s health subpanel will mark up the bills and are expected to send them to the final committee for consideration. Some of the bills aim to boost training for pharmacists, doctors and healthcare providers on how a prescription is fraudulent. Other bills hope to crack down on the proliferation of synthetic opioids like fentanyl and requiring training as a condition of registering to prescribe or dispense painkillers.  

Azar pitches access to medication-assisted treatment to curb opioid overdoses. The Department of Health and Human Services is going to expand access to medication-assisted treatments like buprenorphine and methadone, HHS Secretary Alex Azar told the National Governors Association Saturday. The drugs help ease withdrawal symptoms, and is used by about a third of people who have addictions. Azar said he wants to see that share rise, saying, “it will be nigh impossible to turn the tide on this epidemic without doing so.” “We know that there is sometimes stigma associated with MAT—especially with long term therapy,” he said. But someone on MAT, even one who requires long-term treatment, is not an addict. They need medicine to return to work; re-engage with their families; and regain the dignity that comes with being in control of their lives. These outcomes are literally the opposite of how we define addiction.” The Food and Drug Administration will be releasing guidance about medication assisted treatment to help spur the developments of new drugs. HHS also plans to prioritize the gathering of data collection regarding opioid-overdose deaths, to provide grants for non opioid painkillers through the National Institutes of Health, and more distribution of naloxone, an opioid overdose-reversal drug.

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Pediatricians call for teen depression tests, ‘safety plan’ to keep guns, drugs away from those at risk. The American Academy of Pediatrics is encouraging primary care doctors to screen everyone between the ages of 12 and 21 for depression as part of their annual wellness visit, a move that could involve doctors making recommendations to restrict access to guns in the home. While screening teens for depression was already recommended by the group, this is the first time in a decade the group’s guidelines have been updated, and they give doctors more details about how to treat the condition and when they should consult with mental health providers. If doctors determine that teens are at risk of harming or killing themselves, the guidelines advise them to come up with a “safety plan” that includes a discussion about removing potentially lethal objects that parents keep in the house, including guns or medications that can cause a fatal overdose. The pediatrics group encourages doctors to talk to the teen alone, given that they may be more comfortable opening up without a parent or guardian in the room, though it also encourages adults to also have a discussion with doctors to talk about symptoms they have observed.

Trump ‘jokes’ about introducing the death penalty for drug offenses: Report. President Trump talks privately about instituting the death penalty for drug offenses similar to the way Singapore does as a way to drive down consumption of illicit substances, according to a report. “He says that a lot,” a source told Axios in an interview published Sunday. “He says, ‘When I ask the prime minister of Singapore do they have a drug problem [the prime minister replies,] ‘No. Death penalty’.” Another senior aide told the news outlet Trump “often jokes about killing drug dealers.” “He’ll say, ‘You know the Chinese and Filipinos don’t have a drug problem. They just kill them,'” the official said. Trump also compares drug dealers to serial killers, five sources told Axios. However, Trump reportedly understands such a policy would probably not be politically feasible, per Axios. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, who is spearheading the Trump administration’s efforts to combat the opioid overdose epidemic, said Trump’s statements are in reference to high-volume dealers who may kill more people than a one-time murderer. “The president makes a distinction between those that are languishing in prison for low-level drug offenses and the kingpins hauling thousands of lethal doses of fentanyl into communities, that are responsible for many casualties in a single weekend,” Conway told Axios, using fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, as an example. Earlier in February, the White House proposed in its budget request $5 billion in federal money be spent tackling the opioid epidemic, funding medical research on addiction, and overdose-reversal drugs.

HHS announces long-delayed family planning grants. The Trump administration will provide $260 million in family planning grants to clinics after a months-long delay. The Department of Health and Human Services announced on Friday the application process for grants administered through the Title X family planning program. The grants go to clinics and other organizations that administer services such as contraception, fertility and preconception care. Valerie Huber, acting deputy assistant secretary for population affairs, told reporters Friday that the grants will be awarded in September, but some clinics are expected to run out of funding before then. A major reason is a delay in the funding announcement, which was supposed to be posted by Nov. 1, 2017, with a deadline to get applications by Jan. 3. The grants were supposed to have been awarded by April 1, instead of September as HHS now plans to do. Some Title X grant recipients will see funding run out in March, according to a letter from Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to HHS last month. HHS wants to avoid any lapse in funding and is communicating with grant recipients on that issue, Huber said. “We recognize that we didn’t meet the estimated deadline that we had posted earlier,” she said. “I will say this is a program that is important to the administration and we think it is important we make some meaningful changes to expand and extend the coverage of this program.” Huber said that women’s health and abortion provider Planned Parenthood is welcome to apply for the funding if it meets the criteria. “We will be reviewing those [applications] and an independent review panel will also be reviewing those,” she said.

Virginia’s governor open to ‘carrot approach rather than a stick approach’ on Medicaid. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signaled Friday that he was open to some flexibility for how the state might expand Medicaid under Obamacare, though he continues to oppose the possibility of requiring beneficiaries to work as a condition of staying enrolled. Without offering specifics, he suggested a willingness to hear about policies on Medicaid that might help people find work or become healthier, without being coercive. “I would look at taking a carrot approach rather than a stick approach,” Northam said. “We want to make sure we help people get back into the workforce but not penalize them. We also want to incentivize good health, so I think we can put that into our discussions as well.” Northam, who became governor of Virginia in January, ran his campaign on the promise to expand Medicaid under Obamacare. The commonwealth’s House has attached Medicaid expansion language to its budget, though the Senate hasn’t agreed to it. The provision would need to be passed by both chambers and then receive Northam’s signature. If it were to pass, roughly 400,000 Virginians would join Medicaid rolls. “We are working on our negotiations right now,” Northam said. “But as a general rule we want to help people, we certainly don’t want to penalize individuals. So if we can help people get back into the workforce that’s what I’d like to do.”

Chris Murphy: It’s a ‘false contract’ to choose between strengthening gun laws or mental health system. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said it’s a “false contract” to say lawmakers have to choose to either strengthening the nation’s gun laws or working on the mental health system. Murphy, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” said the debate on gun control often sets up as either strengthening gun laws or making it harder for mentally ill people to get guns. He said lawmakers need to do both. “There’s this false contract that’s created: Either you have to work on mental health or you have to focus on strengthening our gun laws. That’s not true. You need to do all of it,” he said. “We need to be working to identify kids like Adam Lanza earlier in getting them help, you need to acknowledge that those kids with that profile exist in every single country around the world. It’s only here that those kids turn to a weapon of mass destruction in order to deal with their demons. So you have to do both.”

RUNDOWN

The Hill Opioid deaths mounting, lawmakers hit gas on new legislative push

Axios Warren Buffet says new healthcare venture won’t be easy

New York Times FDA to expand medication assisted therapy for opioid addicts

STAT News CDC requests funds to build new maximum security laboratory

Kaiser Health News Trump’s perfect score on brain tests spawn DIY cognitive exam

Wall Street Journal At the doctor’s office, expect better, more reliable flu tests

Des Moines Register Legislation would allow Farm Bureau, Wellmark to skirt Obamacare requirements