A trio of courtroom actions present information for this week’s “What the Health?’” panel.
A federal appeals courtroom this week handed hospitals a setback of their effort to cease the Trump administration from slicing funding for a program that gives deep reductions on medicine. Physicians sued well being insurer Anthem for its coverage of retroactively declaring some emergency division claims to not be an emergency. And the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld town of Philadelphia’s controversial tax on sweetened drinks.
Also this week, an interview with Jeff Goldsmith, well being care futurist and marketing consultant.
This week’s panelists for KHN’s “What the Health?” are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Erin Mershon of STAT News.
Among the takeaways:
The struggle over the “340B” hospital drug low cost program largely pits pharmaceutical makers, who’re required by regulation to present reductions to well being amenities that serve low-income sufferers, towards the hospitals and clinics that get the reductions. The courtroom dominated that the hospitals’ problem to the proposed cuts was untimely, and hospitals have vowed to refile their lawsuit. But the struggle has spawned an enormous promoting effort geared toward policymakers in Washington, together with bus cease posters from this system’s supporters that includes a unicorn. Anthem has been closely criticized for its coverage of not paying emergency room payments if the sufferers ought to have identified that they didn’t want emergency care. But it seems that the insurer has quietly pulled again from implementing the coverage a lot of the time. That nonetheless didn’t cease emergency room docs from suing Anthem this week in Georgia, nonetheless. Could the Trump administration’s latest motion to drag down some well being care materials from company web sites recommend that officers plan to make adjustments in some sexual discrimination laws? FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb shocked a Washington viewers this week when he mentioned officers are trying into whether or not drinks manufactured from crops, akin to almonds and soy, may be labeled milk beneath FDA tips that say milk should come from animals that lactate. But maybe that cow is already out of the barn.
Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest their favourite well being tales of the week they assume it’s best to learn, too:
Julie Rovner: The Atlantic’s “Illegal Abortion Will Mean Abortion By Mail,” by Olga Khazan
Joanne Kenen: Politico’s “Trump Promised Them Better, Cheaper Health Care. It’s Not Happening,” by Adam Cancryn
Erin Mershon: NPR and the Center for Public Integrity’s “Investigation: Patients’ Drug Options Under Medicaid Heavily Influenced By Drugmakers,” by Liz Essley Whyte, Joe Yerardi and Alison Kodjak
Margot Sanger-Katz: NPR and ProfessionalPublica’s “Health Insurers Are Vacuuming Up Details About You — And It Could Raise Your Rates,” by Marshall Allen
To hear all our podcasts, click here.
And subscribe to What the Health? on iTunes, Stitcher or Google Play.
Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a nationwide well being coverage information service. It is an editorially unbiased program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which isn’t affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
We encourage organizations to republish our content material, freed from cost. Here’s what we ask:
You should credit score us as the unique writer, with a hyperlink to our khn.org website. If doable, please embody the unique writer(s) and “Kaiser Health News” within the byline. Please protect the hyperlinks within the story.
It’s necessary to notice, not every little thing on khn.org is accessible for republishing. If a narrative is labeled “All Rights Reserved,” we can’t grant permission to republish that merchandise.
Have questions? Let us know at [email protected]”>[email protected]
