AJMC Staff

Maine wants to take more control over its Affordable Care Act marketplace; Surgeon General Jerome Adams, MD, MPH, has issued an advisory against marijuana use in young people and pregnant people; the FDA is warning of rare occurrences of serious liver injury from use of 3 hepatitis C virus (HCV) drugs.

A new government analysis revealed that despite a previous warning, CMS failed to take steps to ensure that Medicare Part D does not also pay for drugs that should be covered under the Part A hospice benefit; with studies of antidepressants’ safety and efficacy only following patients for a few years and with more people taking antidepressants for longer periods of time, health professionals are concerned that some people taking the drugs for extended periods shouldn’t be and are thus subjecting themselves to side effects and potential health risks; Medicaid advocates in Nebraska have filed a lawsuit to try and force the state to implement Medicaid expansion no later than November 17, 2019.

The authors said their finding that preventive medications for migraine might be underutilized surprised them, given that guidelines for migraine prevention exist in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Purdue Pharma is offering up to $12 billion to settle lawsuits over its role in the opioid epidemic; the US Preventive Services Task Force is aiming to expand its hepatitis C virus (HCV) screening recommendations to include all adults aged 18 to 79 years; the majority of Democratic voters would be more likely to support a candidate that backs a single-payer health system like Medicare for All.

Johnson & Johnson is ordered to pay $572 million for its role in Oklahoma's opioid epidemic; President Trump eliminates protection of sick immigrants to remain in the United States; a federal judge is expected to rule on the Missouri law banning abortion after 8 weeks today.

CDC continues to investigate growing cases of lung illnesses for possible correlations to vape usage; a study suggests steroid inhaler use in patients with mild asthma may be ineffective; Oklahoma judge set to decide opioid lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson today.

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Health insurers are planning to expand their Affordable Care Act (ACA) plan offerings next year; a 4-in-1 pill can cut the risk of heart attacks and strokes; employers can see substantial savings with biosimilars if they implement a targeted effort to ecourage biosimilar use.

Gilead Sciences is challenging US government patents on the HIV prevention pill Truvada; states that expanded Medicaid saw bigger increases in prescriptions for opioid addiction treatment; the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will soon begin to share the genetic analyses of nearly 200,000 people who have participated in the “All of Us” precision medicine project.

Cigna is seeking to sell its group benefits insurance business, which could be valued at $6 billion; migrants in US border detention centers will not receive the flu vaccine; 2 federal scientists tried to warn health officials and the public about the opioid crisis in 2006.

Planned Parenthood decides to withdraw from the Title X program after bid to halt Trump administration plan is rejected by courts; measles outbreaks are increasing, threatening to remove elimination status in the United States; a study finds that premature babies are not receiving necessary vaccinations.

Planned Parenthood's efforts to halt the Trump administraion's "gag rule" have been denied by a federal appeals court; e-cigarette usage is being probed by the CDC for links to reported cases of lung illnesses; public health experts warn that Trump's new administration plan will lead to ailing immigrants.

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Blood clots, or venous thromboembolism, remains a leading causes of death and healthcare spending in patients with cancer.

Researchers said taking genetic variability into account in the future will be helpful not only to understand the course of Parkinson disease but also to minimize heterogeneity in clinical trials.

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Generic drug makers are being accused of blocking a Congressional probe into their pricing practices; Illinois has become the first state to require insurance companies to pay for EpiPens for kids in cases of severe allergic reactions; Tufts Health Plan and Harvard Pilgrim Health will merge to create a new company covering 2.4 million people across New England.

Planned Parenthood plans to withdraw from Title X program, amid looming Trump Administration rule changes; a new cure accepted by the FDA for a deadly strain of tuberculosis has been found to have a 90% success rate in a patient trial; opioid distribution to patients has began to change amongst doctors with new recommendations based around set prescribing levels.

The US Preventive Services Task Force is recommending screening all adults for illicit drug use; Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is asking the FDA to perform more unannounced inspections of foreign drug manufacturing facilities; 5 years after Congress passed a law to reduce unneccessary diagnostic imaging tests, the law has yet to be implemented.

A 28% reduction in hospital admissions leads to a broader agreement, the physicians' group and payer say.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the World Health Organization, and the Congolese government announced that 2 experimental antibody-based treatments for Ebola are working so well that they will now be offered to all patients in the Democratic Republic of Congo; enrollment in insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act remains stable for people with lower incomes who received subsidies, but premium increases caused a 24% decline for people who did not qualify for assistance; scientists are repurposing old drugs or combining them with traditional antibiotics in an effort to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

A class-action trial begins Monday in Hartford, Connecticut seeking to end Medicare regulations around something called “observation care” in the hospital; California hospitals are providing significantly less free and discounted care to low-income patients because the Affordable Care Act reduced the number of uninsured patients; The American Academy of Pediatrics released its first policy statement about how racism affects the health and development of children and adolescents.

A recent review of biomarkers of subclinical atherosclerosis in patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) showed more severe atherosclerotic disease compared with patients who have only psoriasis.

The FDA ordered 4 companies to stop selling 44 of their flavored e-liquid and hookah tobacco products that lack the required approval for sale; CMS has yet to implement a 2014 law preventing unnecessary, expensive screening tests (magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomagraphy scans and other tests) that could harm patients and waste resources; Amarin, which is seeking FDA approval for an expansion of Vascepa labeling to include data that showed a 25% reduction in the risk of heart attacks and strokes, said the FDA has scheduled an advisory committee meeting for November 14.

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On Wednesday, CVS announced strong second-quarter profits; DBV Technologies has submitted its Biologics License Application to the FDA for its treatment for peanut allergy; doctors, health organizations, and students are pushing for medical education to include climate change.

Novartis hid manipulated data about its $2 million gene therapy Zolgensma from the FDA; US District Judge Kristine Baker granted a preliminary injunction preventing Arkansas from enforcing 3 abortion restrictions; a federal judge in Ohio expressed support for a plan by attorneys representing cities and counties suing US opioid manufacturers and distributors that would bring every US community into their settlement talks despite objections from most states.

Home visits can be an important best practice for delivering care to patients with chronic conditions, and a new partnership between Anthem Blue Cross, CareMore Health, and River City Medical Group will launch a new model of care providing comprehensive, home-based services for Medicaid patients in the Sacramento area.

Federal regulators have caught on to a growing trend of clinical trials asking participants to pay to enroll; Canada's main pharmaceutical lobby group is asking the government to respond to US drug importation plans before Canada experiences drug shortages; with more HIV incidence than any other region, the South is turning to telemedicine to treat people living with the infection.

Authorized generics, released by brand-pharmaceutical companies as a way to deal with competition, can be as profitable as, if not more profitable than, brand-name drugs; an increasing reliance on fundraising appeals for healthcare needs can widen existing disparities and distort markets, particularly for prescription drugs; the Trump administration is considering releasing a healthcare plan in the fall.