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Senators warn pharma companies against pointing fingers as they prepare to grill them on high prices. Senate Finance Committee Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, issued a warning shot last night to the seven drug companies who are testifying before the committee, saying he hoped they wouldn’t simply try to shift blame over the issue. At the hearing this morning, he said the hearing was “not about scapegoating” and brought attention to patients who ration their drugs or who are unable to purchase them at all because of high costs. In arguing for setting high list prices, drug companies often stress the list prices are less important than what people actually pay, but Grassley anticipated that argument in his remarks, noting that people have high deductible plans and that many drugs have no competition. “Without a doubt, drug pricing is a complex issue,” Grassley said. “But I think we should all be asking: Should it be so complex?” Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Committee, skewered drug companies in his opening remarks, calling a system in which patients are priced out of affording drugs “morally repugnant.” “It’s not a result of the system too complicated for Americans to understand,” he said. “Drug prices are astronomically high because that’s where pharmaceutical companies and their investors want them.” Wyden went down the row to each CEO, specifically citing examples of how each company had hiked prices. “They are always trying to point the finger elsewhere,” he said of pharmaceutical companies.

Highlights of what drug companies plan to propose. None of the testimonies submitted Tuesday included an offer to lower drugs’ list prices. Instead, Abbvie, Astrazeneca, Johnson and Johnson, and Pfizer proposed a cap in out-of-pocket expenses on Medicare Part D, the part of Medicare that is run by private insurance companies and helps pay for drugs. Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Pfizer blamed pharmacy benefit managers, which negotiate the price of drugs, for not passing on savings they receive to patients. Nearly all said they wanted to shift to a value-based system, in which the price of a medicine is set based on how much value it brings to the healthcare system. Sanofi, for instance, pointed out that taking medications could help people manage chronic illnesses and keep them out of the hospital.

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New Republican bill would retain and retool Obamacare. A Republican congressman is taking another swing at overhauling Obamacare even as most members of the party have set their sights on tackling healthcare costs. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., will be introducing a bill Tuesday that pulls from different healthcare bills that lawmakers have weighed in the last two years, from the failed GOP “repeal and replace” bill to the foundered Senate bipartisan Obamacare stabilization package. It also keeps a good portion of Obamacare in place and codifies healthcare provisions the Trump administration has authorized through rulemaking. The details of the bill, known as the Fair Care Act, suggest that Westerman is trying to grapple with the reality that Obamacare is unlikely to be repealed and looking at ways to make it more conservative. Westerman said he hopes he can bring more Republicans on board. “Healthcare is still a huge issue,” said Westerman, who started working on the Fair Care Act one week after the Senate failed to repeal Obamacare in a dramatic late-night vote in 2017. “Just because our healthcare bill fell in that infamous vote in the Senate doesn’t mean the healthcare issue has gone away.” Westerman said that he doesn’t want to place a label on his bill — it’s not Obama “repeal and replace,” nor is it an “Obamacare fix.” “It’s a fair approach to healthcare, and if it keeps portions of the Affordable Care Act that are good, I’m good with that,” he said, using the formal name for Obamacare.

Washington to sue Trump over rule stripping Planned Parenthood funding. Washington state is set to sue the Trump administration over new rules that will cause healthcare clinics providing abortions and receiving federal family planning grants to close and that will block medical providers from telling patients where they can get an abortion. Washington state will sue the Trump administration in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington as soon as the rule is published. Washington will also file for a preliminary injunction that would block the rule from going into effect, which would otherwise occur 60 days after it is posted. “I don’t file lawsuits unless I’m certain we’re going to prevail,” Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a press conference Monday. “We’ll be prepared to go before the United States Supreme Court if that’s necessary.” Clare Coleman, president and CEO of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, also was present at the press conference, which took place in Seattle, to announce that the organization would be filing its own lawsuit when the rule is published. The cases are likely to be merged together as they make their way through the courts.

Groups that sue face long odds because a similar rule was allowed before. The Trump administration rule is similar to a 1988 policy instituted by President Ronald Reagan, which required family planning services to have a “physical separation” and “separate personnel” from abortion providers. Planned Parenthood and other groups challenged the Reagan-era rule in court. The Supreme Court allowed the policy to move forward, but it was never carried out completely. Then-President Bill Clinton rolled back the rules in 1994.

Democrats block bill to require care for babies who survive attempted abortions. Senate Democrats on Monday defeated a GOP attempt to advance legislation that would clarify that babies who survive attempted abortions must receive medical care. Republicans and anti-abortion advocates pushed for the bill, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, to receive a vote so that they could put individual senators on the spot regarding the issue of third-trimester abortion. GOP senators have been aiming to pressure Democrats to state whether they believe any limits should be placed on abortion after controversial comments appearing to indicate otherwise from Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam. The legislation fell short of the 60 votes it needed to advance in a procedural maneuver, 53 to 44. Democrats Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, and Doug Jones of Alabama joined all Republicans present in voting in favor. “I don’t always follow the Democrats,” Jones told the Washington Examiner of his decision to support the bill. “Having studied the bill I think it’s the right vote.” Republicans and Democrats largely talked past each other about the bill’s purpose during floor debate ahead of the vote. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who introduced the bill, said it would stop doctors from letting a baby die who survived a botched abortion. Democrats countered that the bill would limit what doctors could do after the birth of a baby who had a grave medical condition, and as a result either wouldn’t live past birth or wouldn’t survive long. During his floor speech ahead of the vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the bill would “target, intimidate and shut down reproductive doctors across this country” and “impose requirements on what types of care doctors must provide.”

Trump blasts Dems for “extreme position” that “executing babies” is okay after birth. “Senate Democrats just voted against legislation to prevent the killing of newborn infant children,” the president tweeted Monday night. “The Democrat position on abortion is now so extreme that they don’t mind executing babies AFTER birth. This will be remembered as one of the most shocking votes in the history of Congress. If there is one thing we should all agree on, it’s protecting the lives of innocent babies.”

#MeToo hits healthcare. State lawmakers are taking action to prevent healthcare workers from sexually assaulting patients following high-profile cases in which doctors abused patients under the guise of medical treatment or took advantage of disabled adults. Lawmakers are reacting to shocking reports of abuse by those in the medical profession, including Larry Nassar, who was was convicted of sexually assaulting young girls as a sports doctor for the Olympics and Michigan State University.

House passes bipartisan bill to have poison control centers help with opioid crisis. The House on Monday passed the bipartisan Poison Center Network Enhancement Act to give the network more leeway to help with the opioid crisis. The bill funds the poison control network phone number and would also give people the ability to text the network. “The bill is a critical piece of the puzzle because it allows the national network of poison control centers to help people who are struggling with addiction by offering free, confidential and expert medical advice at all hours, every day of the year,” Rep. Susan Brooks, R-Ind., said in a statement. “Their data is used to identify hot spots for opioid abuse and misuse, and with this reauthorization, will be able to continue combating the opioid epidemic and save lives.”

Hospitals to study effects of climate change on industry, patients. America’s Essential Hospitals has embarked on a research project to understand how hospitals respond to the burden of climate change on vulnerable people. The project, funded by The Kresge Foundation, will examine what support essential hospitals need to achieve climate resiliency — making hospitals and communities better able to adapt to climate change — and the challenges they face reaching that goal. As part of this work, the Institute also will explore how hospitals are reducing the carbon footprint of the nation’s healthcare industry, which accounted for nearly 10 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2013, according to research. “Essential hospitals have a long experience making the lived environment better in communities that face the greatest environmental threats to good health,” said Kalpana Ramiah, Institute director and the association’s vice president of innovation. “Identifying the most effective strategies among our members will help all hospitals replicate these successes in other communities.”

WHO pleads for more funding to defeat Ebola. The World Health Organization pleaded with its donors on Tuesday to fund $148 million in medical care to end the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. WHO is far from meeting its goal: Only $10 million has been pledged. So far, more than 80,000 people have received an experimental vaccine and 400 have received treatment, but combatting the illness has been difficult because healthcare staff are working in a war-torn region. “We have a shared responsibility to end this outbreak,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “No country or partner can face this deadly virus alone. The impact on public health and the economic ramifications can expand far beyond one country or continent. We promise we won’t relent until we’ve stopped this outbreak. But beating Ebola, wherever it may be, is expensive. It requires all of us to work together.”

Grassley re-opens investigation into whether tax-exempt hospitals are meeting requirements to help communities. Grassley on Monday continued his years-long effort to ensure tax-exempt hospitals are fulfilling the standards for serving communities and low-income patients as required by law. In a letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, Grassley pressed for data on how many hospitals are in compliance with the requirements for tax exempt status and the status of IRS examinations of those not in compliance. “As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I oversaw an investigation into the billing practices of the Mosaic Life Care hospital,” he wrote. “That investigation resulted in debt relief of almost $17 million for thousands of low-income patients.  This issue is still just as important to me now that I am chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.”

Fox News’ Chris Wallace corners Kirsten Gillibrand on Pfizer fundraiser. Fox News anchor Chris Wallace grilled Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York on Monday over holding fundraising events with steep ticket prices. Wallace pressed Gillibrand on whether access to political candidates was for sale after Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., pledged earlier in the day to nix exclusive fundraisers from her campaign strategy. Meanwhile, a Pfizer executive prepares to host a private Gillibrand event next month where entry costs between $1,000 and $2,700. “No, but I think you do need to get money out of politics,” Gillibrand said. “The most important thing we have to do is upend the way our Democracy functions. Today, the wealthiest, most powerful lobbyists and special interest groups get to write bills in the dead of night.”

Honduran migrant delivers stillborn baby in Texas. A Honduran migrant who was apprehended at the border in Texas and was set to be released last week delivered a stillborn baby late last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Monday. ICE and CBP said in a joint statement that the 24-year-old woman was apprehended on Feb. 18 near Hidalgo, Texas. The agencies said the woman initially reported she was six months pregnant. “She went into premature labor, at 27 weeks pregnant, and delivered an unresponsive male infant,” they added. “IHSC initiated CPR and EMS transported them both to the Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen, Texas, where the infant was later pronounced dead.”

RUNDOWN

CQ Roll Call Eli Lilly chief executive escapes drug prices hearing

Modern Healthcare CMS OKs Colorado’s waiver for Medicaid value-based purchasing

The Washington Post Drug industry defense for high prices: Blame insurance companies

Politico Trump appointee under scrutiny for handling of child separations

CNN These states have been hit the hardest by America’s opioid epidemic

The New York Times CBD Is everywhere, but scientists still don’t know much about it