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Groups face deadline for Trump’s drug pricing blueprint. The deadline for submitting comments to the Trump administration on its drug blueprint plan is today. The Biotechnology Innovation Organization has said that it supports banning “gag clauses” that block pharmacists from letting patients know about less expensive drugs, but opposes a proposal that would limit which drugs can be covered by Medicare Part D. 

PBM group says eliminating rebates will drive up Medicare Part D costs. Getting rid of rebates for drugs covered under Medicare Part D will increase premiums by more than 50 percent, according to a group representing drug middlemen called pharmacy benefit managers. The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association released the research on Monday as the Trump administration is considering eliminating rebates for drugs covered under Medicare Part D, the prescription drug program. The administration is considering replacing rebates with fixed price discounts so that consumers would get more benefits from any cuts. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has criticized rebates negotiated between PBMs, insurers and the drug maker, as PBMs and insurers take too much of a cut from rebates. The analysis from PCMA said that plan-negotiated manufacturer rebates resulted in $34.9 billion in beneficiary primary savings from 2014 to 2018. The analysis though did not look into the benefits from a fixed price discount compared to losing a rebate.

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Obamacare insurers ask for 6 percent average premium increase in Colorado.  Health insurance companies in Colorado have asked to increase premiums by an average of 5.94 percent for 2019 in the Obamacare market, according to rate filings. No insurers are leaving the exchange, and every county will have at least one health insurer offering coverage. The requested average premium increase for individual gold plans is 6.85 percent, and 12.3 percent for silver plans. For bronze plans, the requested average premium increase is 0.9 percent. Anthem’s filings requested a decrease in premium rates. “I’m very pleased to see that we kept the same seven companies selling on-exchange plans,” interim Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway said in a statement. “Last year we worked hard to keep them in Colorado and I think that work is reflected in their decisions for 2019.”

AHIP adds four new members. The biggest insurance trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans announced the addition of four smaller members, a shift in the overall composition of the organization months after major insurance giants abandoned the group. The group announced on Monday that CalOptima, CareOregon, Health Plan of San Joaquin and Priority Health. The insurers are either smaller nonprofits or community-based insurers that primarily provide care for low-income residents. Back in January, Humana became the third largest insurers in three years to leave the group. In January 2016, major insurer Aetna left AHIP and UnitedHealthGroup left the year before.  

Obamacare ‘navigators’ up against the wall after deep Trump cuts. Obamacare nonprofits tasked with signing up new insurance customers are up against the wall now that the Trump administration has cut funding by 70 percent. Nonprofits called “navigators” are debating how to continue outreach under the cuts announced earlier this week. The administration will provide $10 million in navigator funding for the 2019 coverage year, compared to $34 million for 2018.

Disabled community criticizes Starbucks for ditching plastic straws. The disabled community is pushing back on Starbucks’ decision to ditch plastic straws and replace them with sippy cup-like plastic tops, claiming that straws are the only way for some disabled individuals to consume food and drink. “Plastic straws are an accessible way for people with certain disabilities to consume food and drinks, and it seems the blanket bans are not taking into account that they need straws and also that plastic straw replacements are not accessible to people,” Katherine Carroll, a policy analyst at the Center for Disability Rights, told Time magazine. Advocates for the disabled community say Starbucks could have opted for straws made from biodegradable paper, or ones made from metal that could be reused when cleaned. But even then, sometimes those options may not be suitable for people with certain disabilities, according to founder of the One in Five disabled rights campaign Jamie Szymkowiak.

Federal judge blasts HHS’ plan to reunify children at border. A federal judge criticized the Trump administration’s plan to reunify children who were separated at the border from their families, according to a report in the Associated Press. HHS said on Friday that it could not reunify the more than 2,500 by a court-mandated deadline of July 26. “Our interpretation of the court’s order is that HHS must make a determination of parentage, fitness, and safety before reunifying families, but that HHS need not undertake the fuller process of vetting for children’s safety that HHS would ordinarily conduct in its operations,” agency spokeswoman Evelyn Stauffer said. But Judge Dana Sabraw said on Saturday that safe reunification could occur by July 26. “It is clear from Mr. Meekins’s declaration that HHS either does not understand the court’s orders or is acting in defiance of them,” Associated Press reported from the judge’s ruling.

FDA approves first smallpox treatment. A treatment for smallpox, a highly contagious illness that causes pus-filled sores, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Though global health officials declared the illness eradicated in 1980, officials have long been concerned that it could be used as a biochemical weapon. The new drug is known as tecovirimat, or TPOXX, and was the first drug to be approved under the FDA’s Material Treat Medical Countermeasure Priority Review Voucher that addresses bioterrorist threats. TPOXX used animal studies for testing its efficacy, and side effects were headache, nausea and abdominal pain. HHS said the goal was to develop a second treatment as well as a vaccine.

More than 7,000 Arkansans didn’t meet Medicaid work rules. There were 7,464 Arkansas residents that did not meet the state’s new work requirements, the state’s insurance regulator said.  The residents did not satisfy the reporting requirements under the new work requirement program. The release on Monday comes after a federal judge blocked Kentucky’s work requirement rule a few weeks ago.  The state notified 27,140 Medicaid enrollees in May that they were subject to the new requirement to complete a certain number of hours working, taking classes or volunteering. There were 7,464 people who didn’t satisfy the reporting requirement, 2,395 who reported an exemption since getting the notice and 445 that satisfied the reporting requirement, the state said. There are more than 200,000 people who got Medicaid coverage under Obamacare’s expansion. Overall there are nearly 1 million people in the state who are on Medicaid or covered under the Childrens’ Health Insurance Program.

RUNDOWN

The Hill Dems launch pressure campaign over migrant families

STAT News In prescription drug business, will Amazon partner with PBMs, or seek to conquer them?

McClatchy Ted Cruz’s plan to finish off Obamacare

Washington Post Obamacare, once a GOP target, is now a midterm rallying cry for Democrats

Politico State abortion ballots prepare for post-Roe world

Oregonian Insurers blast federal freeze of Obamacare program

Kaiser Health News In Florida, midterm elections hold faint hope for Medicaid expansion

NPR To improve treatments, researchers want to hunt for clues in medical records