Be more of an insider. Get the Washington Examiner Magazine, Digital Edition now.
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/
Record number of generics approved in first year of Trump’s presidency. The Trump administration approved a record number of generic drugs during the president’s first year in office, according to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services. The Food and Drug Administration approved 1,027 medicines in a single year. The total is higher than the record-setting 800 generic drug approvals in 2016. Scott Gottlieb, FDA commissioner, has been working to allow drugs to make it to market faster as a way to lower costs and bring about more options for patients. Other initiatives cited in the report included $800 million in funding to communities to combat the opioid crisis and the withdrawal of 70 regulations. The opioid funding went toward prevention and treatment, overdose reversing drugs, and funding medical research on pain and addiction. The Trump administration has said will be adding to these efforts when funds are appropriated from Congress. “In 2017, HHS took bold action to advance its mission to protect and enhance the health and well-being of the American people,” said Caitlin Oakley, HHS press secretary. “From a newly aggressive approach to combat the opioid crisis to round-the-clock responses to three major hurricanes, the men and women of HHS did extraordinary work this past year to foster healthier Americans, stronger communities and a safer country.” Not mentioned in the report is that the agency also faced a setback in 2017 after its former secretary, Tom Price, resigned when it was discovered he had been using government-funded charter jets for travel. Alex Azar was confirmed to the role this week by the Senate. The Trump administration-backed healthcare bills, which would have repealed or overhauled parts of Obamacare, also failed to pass. Democrats repeatedly accused the agency of trying to “sabotage” Obamacare in the way it carried out the law. But the agency touted its handling of Obamacare’s open enrollment, the time during which customers who buy their own health insurance can sign up for coverage. “Ending in December, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services conducted a successful, consumer-friendly open enrollment period at significantly lower cost than in previous years, attracting similar levels of enrollment with more focused investments in marketing,” officials said in the document.
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.
Planned Parenthood confirms Cecile Richards stepping down. Cecile Richards will depart Planned Parenthood after 12 years, the women’s health and abortion provider confirmed Friday. The statement confirms a report earlier this week that Richards would step down as president of Planned Parenthood. “Planned Parenthood has been a trusted resource in this country for more than a century, and I will be leaving the organization well-positioned to serve and fight for our patients for a century more,” Richards said in a statement. Supporters said Richards grew Planned Parenthood’s membership, activists, and donor rolls. “As an organizer, activist, and leader, Cecile has helped launch a nationwide movement to defend and advance women’s rights, and in doing so, she has inspired countless women to march, vote, run, and win,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement. Anti-abortion groups slammed Richards’ tenure after reports of her departure trickled out earlier this week. “Under the leadership of Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood has grown to push one agenda — abortion above all else — while throwing aside any inkling of actual medical care,” said Penny Nance, CEO and president of Concerned Women for America. “Cancer screenings and STD testing have all declined under her reign.”
Most don’t realize Obamacare’s individual mandate was repealed: Poll. Just over a third of the public knows that people will no longer have to pay a fine for not having health insurance under Obamacare, according to a poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The poll found that 36 percent of the public knows the penalties will no longer apply while 46 percent incorrectly say that the requirement has not been repealed. The rest aren’t sure. The results are similar even when they are asked of people who would be directly affected by the individual mandate, including people who are uninsured and people who buy medical coverage on their own, whether directly from an insurer or through the Obamacare exchanges. Among this group, 37 percent are aware the individual mandate has been repealed, while 44 percent incorrectly say it has not been repealed and 19 percent are unsure. The poll found that healthcare now ranks among the top issues that voters want candidates to talk about during their campaigns, alongside the economy. When asked how important a series of issues are for 2018 congressional candidates to talk about, 29 percent of registered voters said healthcare and 27 percent cited the economy and jobs are “the most important issue.” Other issues of importance to voters were immigration and the situation in North Korea, both at 24 percent. But the percentages shifted when the same question was asked in voters with competitive House, Senate or gubernatorial campaigns. When those voters were asked about their priorities, 34 percent said they wanted to hear most about the economy and jobs, while 23 percent prioritized the situation in North Korea and 22 percent prioritized immigration. A smaller group, 21 percent, prioritized healthcare.
GOP looks to increase Democratic support for 20-week abortion ban. Republican senators are looking to build support among Democrats and some of their GOP colleagues for a vote next week on a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks. The vote, scheduled for Monday, is expected to fail, since it is highly unlikely it will reach the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster. However, anti-abortion groups plan to single out vulnerable senators up for re-election this year who vote against the ban. “Clearly, we need more votes, but at some point when you start to get closer and senators in vulnerable states start to feel the heat, then it starts to look very optimistic,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List, said on a call with reporters Thursday. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., the bill’s main sponsor, said on the call he hopes to drum up more Democratic support than the last time the ban was brought up for an unsuccessful vote in 2015. He said Democrats will feel pressure because more states — now 20 — ban abortion after 20 weeks. In 2015, the Senate defeated a 20-week abortion ban by a vote of 54-42, with three Democrats voting for it and two Republicans voting against it. Democratic Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, and Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted for the ban. All three have committed to voting for it again, according to multiple reports. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and former Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, who lost re-election in 2016 to Tammy Duckworth, voted against it. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was 1 of 4 senators who did not vote on the ban in 2015. Murkowski and Collins told the Washington Examiner Thursday that they have concerns about the language surrounding the exemption for women. “I support a ban on late-term abortions, but I’m very troubled by some of the language that is in the bill,” Collins said. “I have suggested some changes, and we’ll see what happens.”
CDC finds more birth defects in areas affected by Zika. Areas with the Zika virus had a higher rate of birth defects in the last half of 2016 than in the first half, but it is too soon to tell if the spike is caused by the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC found that areas with local transmission of the mosquito-borne virus — southern Florida, a part of southern Texas and Puerto Rico — saw a 21 percent increase in births with outcomes linked to Zika in the last half of 2016 from the first half of 2016. Zika is linked to birth defects including microcephaly, which causes babies to be born with abnormally small heads and brain damage. “It is not known if this increase is due to local transmission of Zika virus alone, or if there are other contributing factors,” the CDC said. The agency looked at 1 million births in 2016 in 15 states and territories. It found that about three out of every 1,000 babies born in the areas that year had a birth defect associated with Zika.
Elizabeth Warren: ‘Time for us to go on offense’ on healthcare. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday declared it is “time for us go on the offense” on healthcare as she presented incremental changes to Obamacare. “We will defend Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act with everything we have. We will defend it, all the way,” said the Massachusetts Democrat, using the formal name for Obamacare. “We need to do more than play defense … I believe it is time for us to go on offense.” Warren, who is considered a potential candidate to challenge President Trump in the 2020 election, was speaking at a conference for Families USA, a pro-Obamacare group. She praised the strides that Obamacare had made but noted that 28 million people are still uninsured. She offered more government restrictions on what private health insurance companies can do. They would include prohibiting insurers from providing narrow networks of doctors who patients can see, dropping coverage for a prescription in the middle of the year, or leaving the Obamacare exchanges.
Senators criticize lack of ‘urgency’ in keeping opioids from the U.S. Several senators on Thursday lambasted federal agencies for their lack of “urgency” in preventing shipments of the powerful drug fentanyl from entering the U.S. “I don’t think we’ve had the urgency,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee investigations subcommittee during a hearing. “If we have an attitude that this doesn’t matter, then we are going to continue to get this poison coming through our mail system.” Portman’s comments comes a day after the subcommittee released a report that found it was shockingly easy to buy fentanyl over the Internet. Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin, and overdose deaths from the painkiller have spiked dramatically in recent years. A major issue is the lack of electronic data from other countries on what is included in international shipments. The committee’s report found that the Postal Service only received advance electronic data on 36 percent of nearly 500 million international packages that came in to the country last year. Portman noted that the 36 percent was the same amount as the previous year. “We are not coordinating well. We are not doing what we should be doing,” he said. Other senators pointed to a need to work better with China, where the majority of fentanyl originates. “This administration should commit at a higher level to tackle this urgent public health crisis,” said Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware, the subcommittee’s top Democrat.
Troops suing Trump over transgender ban ask judge to rule. Plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit against Trump have asked a Washington state district court to expedite a ruling and permanently stop the military from instituting a ban on transgender troops. The request for summary judgment in the Karnoski v. Trump on Thursday comes after federal judges recently granted injunctions to transgender plaintiffs in that lawsuit and three others, temporarily blocking any ban while the cases are heard. The injunctions led to the military’s first transgender applicants filling out their enlistment paperwork this month despite an uncertain future for their service. A summary judgment could bring the first round of that legal battle to a close but any ruling would almost certainly be appealed. “Every single federal court to look at President Trump’s policy has already found that it reeks of undisguised and unlawful discrimination against qualified transgender people willing and able to serve our country, and it’s time to put the nail in the coffin for that policy,” said Peter Renn, a senior attorney with the Lambda Legal rights group that is sponsoring the Karnoski lawsuit. Active-duty transgender troops and prospective recruits are battling the Justice Department in four federal court districts as Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is set to unveil his transgender personnel policy recommendations to Trump on Feb. 21. The cases are now moving into the discovery and deposition phases. The Justice Department has argued the lawsuits are premature because no new military policy has been set. It has attempted to delay at least one of the federal lawsuits from moving ahead until Mattis completes his work.
U.S. border officers find 47,063 opioid pills in major bust. Customs and Border Protection officers uncovered 47,063 suspected Oxycodone pills valued at $1.8 million during a standard border checkpoint examination of a vehicle passing from Mexico into Texas, the agency announced late Thursday. Officers at the Laredo Port of Entry’s Juarez-Lincoln Bridge said they found a total of $2.2 million of drugs in the 2010 Chevy Captiva headed north of the border into the United States. The driver was arrested. The canine team and nonintrusive imaging unit also led officers to more than 18 pounds of what is believed to be heroin, valued at $420,000. Oxycodone is the active ingredient in Oxycontin, a major painkiller. The suspect is a 33-year-old Mexican man from Nuevo Laredo, which is located directly over the border. He was taken into custody along with the narcotics, which will be tested to confirm chemical identity of the substances.
RUNDOWN
STAT News At Davos, pharma gets a seat at a table at private dinner with Trump.
Axios Errors in Medicare doctor networks are getting worse.
The Hill Poison groups issue ‘high alert’ after spike in teens eating Tide pods.
Bloomberg Workplace wellness programs really don’t work, study finds.
Washington Post Healthcare is still a top issue for voters in 2018. But Republicans lack a script.
Kaiser Health News As doctors drop opposition, aid-in-dying advocates target next battleground states.
Reuters Medicaid work rules face tough legal challenges, experts say.
NPR FDA panel gives qualified support to claims for ‘safer’ smoking device.
Calendar
FRIDAY | Jan. 26
Jan. 25-26. Ronald Reagan Building. 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission’s January meeting. Details.
Jan. 25-27. Hyatt Regency. Families USA Health Action Conference. Details.
TUESDAY | Jan. 30
9 p.m. President Trump’s State of the Union address.
WEDNESDAY | Jan. 31
8:30 a.m. Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health. 700 Second St. NE. AARP policy forum on “Social Isolation: An Important Health and Public Health Issue and a Significant Cost to Medicare.” Details.
