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Oklahoma steps forward on Medicaid-like expansion. Oklahoma lawmakers in committee on Tuesday advanced legislation that would expand healthcare coverage to people who would be eligible for Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. Instead of taking on the expansion itself, however, the bill would have the Oklahoma Health Care Authority set up a premium assistance program to help people get private health insurance. Oklahoma does not contract with private plans to administer Medicaid now, and instead operates as fee-for-service program. State officials plan to ask the federal government to front 90 percent of costs as it would under the traditional Medicaid expansion, which would amount to roughly $1.2 billion in federal dollars. They hope, as well, to add an 80-hour-a-month work requirement. Carly Putnam, policy director at the Oklahoma Policy Institute, said that the bill was still in the early planning stages and that several aspects could change, but added: “Some kind of coverage expansion has a chance.”

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All seven pharma companies asked to testify at Senate committee have accepted. Executives will testify before the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, Feb. 26, in a hearing titled “Drug Pricing in America: A Prescription for Change.” Committee members will hear testimonies from Richard Gonzalez, CEO of AbbVie Inc.; Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca; Dr. Giovanni Caforio, CEO of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.; Jennifer Taubert, executive vice president of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, part of Johnson & Johnson; Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck & Co.; Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer; and Dr. Olivier Brandicourt, CEO of Sanofi.

Supreme Court declines abortion clinic suit to get lobbying documents from Texas bishops. The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a lawsuit aimed at forcing Catholic bishops to release internal documents that would show whether they planned to front the costs associated with providing funeral services for aborted fetuses. The case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Texas Catholic of Bishops, stemmed from a defunct 2017 Texas law requiring hospitals and clinics to bury or cremate fetal remains that resulted from an abortion. U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra, who was nominated by former President Ronald Reagan, blocked the law from taking effect. Abortion clinics have said that providing burials and cremations is burdensome to facilities, which would have to cover the cost of the proceedings by passing the expenses to patients. The Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops, however, said that it would cover all costs associated with burial or cremation. In response, Whole Woman’s Health, a clinic chain which provides abortions in Texas, sued to have the bishops release internal documents about the feasibility and logistics of the offer to check the veracity of their claims. In June, a trial judge ordered the bishops to hand over the communications, and they in turn appealed the case to the 5th Circuit. The 5th Circuit overruled the judge and refused to hear the case on appeal, so it was then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Supreme Court won’t hear Maryland price gouging case. The justices on Tuesday declined to hear a case about a Maryland law meant to prevent price gouging of prescription generics, meaning the law will not go into effect in the state because it was nullified by an appeals court. The law would have given the state attorney general authority to challenge drug companies when they have significantly raised the prices of a generic drug to an “unconscionable” level or one that is “excessive” and “not justified.” Opponents, including generic drugmakers, said that prescription drug prices are not set by states and that the power to regulate interstate commerce belongs to the federal government.

Anti-’Medicare for all’ group releases ad slamming lack of patient choice in Democratic proposals. The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a group representing healthcare industry groups, released an online ad Tuesday hitting Democratic proposals that would expand Medicare to everyone in the U.S. as well as proposals that would let people buy into Medicare or provide a public insurance options to compete against private plans. The group plans to promote the video, called “More Problems” on social media, stressing that the proposals would increase taxes, decrease healthcare quality, and reduce patient choice. “Medicare for All is a one-size-fits-all proposal for every American,” the ad says. “Supporters don’t talk about the trillions in higher taxes it’ll cost working families. Or how it will move health care decisions from doctors and patients to politicians and bureaucrats. They don’t want anyone to notice that it’ll remove patient choice, while increasing wait times. On top of that, it won’t even address the biggest problem our health care system faces – out-of-control costs.”

Kamala Harris says ‘Medicare for all’ isn’t socialism. While on a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who is running for the Democratic nomination for president, said the Medicare for All Act does not constitute socialism. “It’s about understanding that access to affordable healthcare should not be a privilege, it should be a right,” she told NBC. “It’s about understanding that in a democracy, and the  way we have constructed our democracy, we at least in concept have said that your access to public education, public health or public safety should not be a function of how much money you have. But in America today, that’s not the case.”

The FDA warns against unapproved ‘young blood’ transfusions. The Food and Drug Administration warned Tuesday that a number of businesses are offering plasma transfusions from young donors, adding that there is no proven benefit to such transfusions and that the procedures could be risky. People have turned to plasma transfusions to try to slow or reverse aging and to remedy diseases like dementia and multiple sclerosis, as well as for other purposes, the FDA said. Yet, none of those treatments have gone through the FDA’s testing and research. The FDA officials maintained that some businesses are preying upon patients with wild claims that plasma treatments can solve any ailment and warned that they could crack down on clinics that abuse patients or falsely advertise cures.

CMS launches ‘Beyond the Policy’ podcast showing agency changes. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has launched a new podcast called “CMS: Beyond the Policy” to highlight changes to the agency’s policies and programs. “The new ‘Beyond the Policy’ podcast demonstrates our commitment to transparency and outreach by presenting CMS-related policies, updates, and innovations on as many platforms as possible,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement. The first episode of the podcast will be about explaining how Medicare bills for medical services. New episodes will be released periodically, and will feature various subject-matter experts, stakeholders, and Verma. The first episode will launch on iTunes and Google Play in the coming days.

Bernie Sanders pushes lie that people will be able to keep their doctors under his healthcare plan. While Sanders concedes that people will lose their private coverage under his plan, he insists that it won’t affect their choice of doctors or hospitals. “What happens to the 180 million people in the private insurance market?” CBS’s John Dickerson askedSanders as he announced he was running for president in 2020. “They will continue to go to the doctors they want, the hospitals they want,” Sanders responded. “The color of their insurance card will change.” Sanders likes to cite a study by the libertarian Mercatus Center as proving his point that his plan would save trillions of dollars. However, that number is based on an assumption that his plan would slash payment rates to doctors and hospitals by 40 percent relative to private insurance, which the study notes would bring payments, “to levels that are lower on average than providers’ current costs of providing care.” The study warns, “It cannot be known how much providers will react to these losses by reducing the availability of existing health services, the quality of such services, or both.”

Under the current system, doctors who accept Medicare and Medicaid are able to earn more money by shifting costs onto those paying privately. Eliminate private insurers, as Sanders would do, and it’s a whole new ballgame.

RUNDOWN

New York Times On healthcare, 2020 Democrats find their first real fault lines
Modern Healthcare Silver loading complicates CSR lawsuits

Los Angeles Times Newsom’s budget proposes $3 million for Alzheimer’s research, brain task force

The Hill Patients, health data experts accuse Facebook of exposing personal info

Stat Seema Verma: Americans have the right to know their health care and hospital costs

Miami Herald Proposed expansion of needle exchange programs advances in committee