STAT+: AstraZeneca sues to immediately stop Medicare drug price negotiation program
WASHINGTON — AstraZeneca is the sixth drug maker to pile on a legal challenge to…
Category: policy
Kellogg’s is going to war over Mexico’s nutrition label rules. A similar fight is coming to the U.S.
MEXICO CITY — Kellogg’s is waging a war here over Tigre Toño and Sam el…
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STAT+: Blue Shield of California overhauls drug pricing operation — by adding more vendors
Blue Shield of California, a health insurance company that covers almost 5 million people, is…
STAT+: Genentech weighs slow-walking ovarian cancer therapy to make more money under drug pricing reform
WASHINGTON — Plenty of pharmaceutical executives have decried Democrats’ new drug pricing law as detrimental…
‘Underwhelming’: NIH trials fail to test meaningful long Covid treatments — after 2.5 years and $1 billion
More than 2.5 years after the National Institutes of Health received a $1 billion mandate…
Senators push IRS to launch nonprofit hospital probe
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators wants federal tax regulators to probe nonprofit hospitals’…
STAT+: More regulation could be coming for drug ads
WASHINGTON — Government regulators may soon decide whether to crack down on distracting visuals in…
STAT+: Medicare slashes safety net hospital payments on estimate that more people have insurance
The federal government will pay hospitals that treat poor and uninsured patients almost $1 billion…
‘Shocking’ heat waves persist through August as federal officials warn of far-ranging health risks
WASHINGTON — An already record-setting summer heat wave will continue through August and will put…
STAT+: White House drug shortage task force held rare in-person meeting with industry
WASHINGTON — A new White House task force on drug shortages held a rare in-person…
STAT+: Pharma industry showers House GOP doctor with campaign cash
WASHINGTON — The pharmaceutical industry has been flooding the campaign coffers of Rep. Larry Bucshon, a…
Infectious disease expert Jeanne Marrazzo assumes Fauci role at NIH
WASHINGTON – University of Alabama infectious disease director Jeanne Marrazzo will be the National Institutes…
Cannabis industry scales back its lobbying in Washington
WASHINGTON – The cannabis industry is dramatically scaling back its presence in Washington. Curaleaf, one…
STAT+: Medicare wants to improve Alzheimer’s care, but sidesteps drug prices
WASHINGTON — Medicare announced today a pilot program aimed at improving dementia care and reducing…
National panel will explore requiring free Covid tests
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force will discuss recommending Covid-19 screening, the first…
STAT+: Gene therapy is in crisis. For nine hours, the field’s leading minds looked for a solution
WASHINGTON — Jennifer Puck has successfully treated 10 children with a gene therapy for a…
STAT+: House GOP offers new plan to stem drug shortages, including cancer drug shortages
WASHINGTON — House Republicans have drafted drug-shortage legislation that differs significantly from the approach Democrats…
Mental illness, drug addiction go hand in glove, Biden’s drug czar tells lawmakers
WASHINGTON — At a House oversight hearing Thursday, the Biden administration’s top drug policy official emphasized…
Lawmakers circle parents’ rights in gender-affirming care hearing
WASHINGTON — Republicans on Thursday sought to turn around transgender advocates’ arguments that gender-affirming care…
STAT+: Key Republicans nix idea to give FDA new power to regulate CBD
WASHINGTON – The Food and Drug Administration says it needs Congress to give it more…
STAT+: HCA says smaller share of spending going to labor
The chief executive of the country’s biggest hospital chain said Thursday that labor costs are…
STAT+: Senate panel advances PBM reform — but sidesteps anything controversial
WASHINGTON — Senators on the Finance Committee on Wednesday nearly unanimously passed a bill to…
STAT+: UHS finance chief said company favors patients whose insurance pays more
The country’s largest private psychiatric hospital operator cherry picks patients whose insurance will pay more,…
STAT+: Democrats decry a new health package as too easy on private equity
WASHINGTON — A rift between Democrats and Republicans over health care transparency was on full display…
STAT+: Democrats already want to expand Medicare’s drug price negotiation
WASHINGTON — It’s drug pricing déjà vu: Just as they did in 2019, House Democrats…
STAT+: Congress’s PBM reforms won’t end America’s drug pricing woes. Here’s what they would do
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in Congress generally agree that there’s something very broken with the way America…
White House unveils plan to make insurers cover mental health care
The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a proposal meant to force health insurers to cover…
STAT+: Key House panel proposes lowering out-of-pocket drug costs in Medicare
WASHINGTON — A key House committee announced their own plans to increase health care transparency…
STAT+: Lawsuit says Cigna illegally denies claims in bulk, sticking patients with unexpected bills
A new lawsuit accuses Cigna of using an algorithm to automatically deny claims in bulk…
STAT+: A new lobby shop looks to remind Congress about NIH’s translational research arm
WASHINGTON — Christopher Austin was the first director of a then-tiny National Institutes of Health…
STAT+: Lobbying spending dropped for companies that departed PhRMA
WASHINGTON — The three companies that recently left PhRMA all spent less on lobbying following…
STAT+: White House launches permanent pandemic office
WASHINGTON – The White House on Friday launched its pandemic preparedness office, half a year…
STAT+: FDA official pushes for a dedicated emerging pathogens team to prepare for the next pandemic
WASHINGTON — A top Food and Drug Administration official wants Congress to dedicate full-time staff…
Providers still hesitate to prescribe buprenorphine for addiction, despite ‘X-waiver’ removal
Significant challenges remain before most American clinicians feel comfortable treating patients with buprenorphine, according to…
STAT+: Extensive review finds private equity owners jack up the cost of medical care
Private equity firms are rapidly buying their way into the U.S. health care system, and…
STAT+: Bernie Sanders wants to replace drug patents with prizes for breakthrough medicines
WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will finally get a study of his proposal to…
STAT+: DOJ, FTC primed for more aggressive scrutiny of health care mergers
Health care companies trying to merge can expect tougher policing from the top federal antitrust…
Key lawmaker blasts Congress’ efforts on addiction: ‘Shame on us’
A Democratic congressman on Wednesday blasted a bipartisan set of proposals focused on addiction, arguing…
STAT+: Bernie Sanders adds three drug shortage policies to pandemic preparedness bill
WASHINGTON — Senate health committee Chair Bernie Sanders added three drug shortage measures to a…
STAT+: Johnson & Johnson sues to stop Medicare negotiation
WASHINGTON — Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday became the third drugmaker to sue the…
STAT+: Key House panel plots a new health care package — complicating the chamber’s agenda
WASHINGTON — It’s two weeks until Congress leaves town in August, and a prominent House panel…
STAT+: Europe issues maximum antitrust fine of $475 million to Illumina over Grail deal
LONDON — The European Union on Wednesday issued an antitrust fine of $475 million to…
STAT+: NIH fellows, weighing a union, want a pay raise. Will that mean less money for grants?
Several thousand research fellows at the National Institutes of Health want to unionize, in large…
Biden’s NIH nominee is languishing in Congress — alarming public health advocates
WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders’ rare move to delay President Biden’s health care nominees has…
STAT+: Medicare wants to send $9 billion to 340B hospitals — coupled with cuts
WASHINGTON — Medicare is planning to send $9 billion in lump sum payments to more…
STAT+: Home health providers sue Medicare over payment cuts, despite near record profits
The National Association of Home Care and Hospice sued the Biden administration to halt the…
STAT+: House panel expected to mark up pandemic-preparedness bill next week
WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee will next week mark up a package of public health…
Biden launches a new push to limit health care costs hoping to show he can save money for families
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Biden on Friday rolled out a new set of initiatives to…
STAT+: Bright Health sells Medicare Advantage plans to Molina for $600 million
Bright Health Group has agreed to sell its Medicare Advantage plans to its publicly traded…
STAT+: Medicare details the structure of its new drug price negotiation program
WASHINGTON — Medicare on Friday released new details about how its new drug price negotiation…