STAT+: Pharma executives flood Bill Cassidy with campaign cash
WASHINGTON — Sen. Bill Cassidy’s new perch as the top Republican on the Senate health…
Category: Politics
STAT+: Another powerful congressional committee is ready to take on PBMs
WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer plans to hold a hearing on the…
STAT+: Medicare official insists drug price negotiation will consider value of drugs
WASHINGTON — When Medicare starts negotiating drug prices, it will take into account how important…
STAT+: Sens. Bernie Sanders, Bill Cassidy reach deal on PBM, generic reform
WASHINGTON — Senate health committee leaders Bernie Sanders and Bill Cassidy on Tuesday announced an agreement…
STAT+: Maryland pushes first-of-its-kind bill to promote alternatives to animals in biomedical research
Amid a push to use fewer animals in medical research, Maryland is on the verge…
Opinion: How journalists can cover RFK Jr.’s antivax presidential run responsibly
Of course it was news when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that he is running…
Dying patients protest looming telehealth crackdown
At age 93, struggling with the effects of a stroke, heart failure and recurrent cancer,…
Supreme Court maintains access to abortion pill mifepristone, at least for now
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled 7-2 that a commonly used abortion…
Key senators make a big pivot on bipartisan insulin cost proposal
WASHINGTON — Amid a scramble to assemble a health care policy package in the Senate,…
Biden to tap head of National Cancer Institute to lead NIH
President Biden will nominate oncologist Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Cancer Institute, to lead…
STAT+: Powerful Senate duo drops a bipartisan PBM reform plan
WASHINGTON — The chair and ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee on Thursday unveiled…
The NIH has poured $1 billion into long Covid research — with little to show for it
WASHINGTON — The federal government has burned through more than $1 billion to study long…
STAT+: FDA’s Califf talks cell and gene therapies, abortion pill, Alzheimer’s drugs
WASHINGTON — Senators grilled FDA Commissioner Rob Califf Wednesday on everything from the agency’s stance…
STAT+: Senate still hasn’t made hard decisions on lowering insulin costs
WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats are trying to cap insulin costs for every American, but they…
Supreme Court delays ruling on abortion pill restrictions
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday extended a stay on limits to a federally approved…
STAT+: PhRMA execs paint grim picture of industry under Medicare drug price negotiation
WASHINGTON — Executives for the brand drug industry’s biggest lobbying group painted a grim picture…
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In a town plagued by an environmental crisis, a local abortion debate consumes public attention
BRISTOL, Tenn. — Zoe Poplin cupped her hands around her 17-month-old’s head, as if her…
Supreme Court pauses new limits on abortion pill, pending further review next week
Access to the abortion pill mifepristone will remain unchanged until next Wednesday, after a U.S….
The Biden administration will hang on to some Covid pandemic emergency powers
WASHINGTON — Even though the Biden administration is ending its highest-profile Covid-19 emergency declaration next…
STAT+: Congress is launching a tobacco harm reduction caucus. Its biggest supporter so far? Philip Morris
WASHINGTON — There’s a new caucus brewing on Capitol Hill focused on the potential health…
STAT+: Medicare advisers endorse reforms to lower drug spending
In the latest move to address prescription drug pricing, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission unanimously…
STAT+: Federal group studying surprise ambulance bills will finally meet — five months late
The federal committee in charge of finding ways to stop surprise billing from ground ambulances…
STAT+: Senate hashing out policy details on generics, PBMs, insulin
WASHINGTON — Senators are slightly delaying their latest legislative push on health care, but as they…
White House designates xylazine, better known as ‘tranq,’ as an emerging drug threat
The White House on Wednesday issued an unprecedented warning about xylazine, the veterinary tranquilizer increasingly…
STAT+: Sanders plans to haul insulin executives to testify in Senate
WASHINGTON — Sen. Bernie Sanders plans to call the chief executives of the country’s largest…
White House plots strategy to counter abortion pill ruling
WASHINGTON — White House officials warned on Wednesday that access to nearly any medication is…
A controversial hire at Arnold Ventures raises questions about the donor’s stance on addiction
A philanthropic giant’s recent hire of a researcher with controversial theories on naloxone access is…
STAT+: Just how big of a pay bump do hospitals need from Medicare next year?
The federal government is proposing to give hospitals a 2.8% raise in their Medicare payments…
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6 burning questions about how the FDA will handle conflicting abortion pill decisions
A dueling pair of federal court decisions has thrown the fate of the abortion pill…
Where is PhRMA in the mifepristone debate?
WASHINGTON — A judge’s decision to suspend the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of an…
Competing abortion pill rulings sow broad alarm, confusion
Emma Hernandez is defiant even if she fears what may come in the latest stage…
Federal judge suspends FDA approval of abortion pill
In a case that could reshape pregnancy in America, a federal judge on Friday sided…
STAT+: Wall Street embraces health insurers after scoring Medicare Advantage payment win
Health insurance companies that participate in Medicare Advantage will retain billions of extra taxpayer dollars…
Where is the White House’s new pandemic response office?
WASHINGTON — In the wake of a pandemic that claimed more than 1 million American lives,…
STAT+: Medicare Advantage plans will have to stop denying required care, federal officials say
The Biden administration is moving forward with proposals that would crack down on Medicare Advantage…
‘If we don’t, others will’: White House Covid adviser calls on doctors to combat a vacuum of medical information
WALTHAM, Mass. — The coordinator of the Biden administration’s Covid-19 response team called on doctors…
STAT+: Biden administration goes easy on Medicare Advantage insurers after intense industry lobbying
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration backed off some of its plans to rein in billions…
STAT+: Drug middlemen switch tactics, but the outcome is the same: high prices
WASHINGTON — Prescription drug middlemen are shifting away from rebates that have been blamed in…
Texas judge strikes down major Obamacare provision protecting birth control, PrEP coverage
WASHINGTON — A federal judge Thursday reversed a major Obamacare provision requiring plans to cover…
STAT+: Is there $21 billion left for Covid response, or $5 billion? The White House is using fuzzy math
WASHINGTON — How much money does the federal government still have set aside for the…
Republicans press Becerra on gender-affirming care, reproductive rights
WASHINGTON — Republicans hammered the health secretary in hearings Tuesday, previewing a line of health-…
STAT+: Could a fight over cost-effectiveness upend Medicare drug price negotiation before it’s begun?
WASHINGTON — As Medicare drug price negotiation looms, congressional Republicans are scrambling to push through…
STAT+: Key senators blast Medicare Advantage insurers for ‘exorbitant salaries,’ ‘massive payouts’ to execs
WASHINGTON — Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) slammed seven different Medicare Advantage…
Former surgeon general Jerome Adams tries to outrun the shadow of the president he served
ST. LOUIS — Anesthesiologist and former U.S. surgeon general Jerome Adams has emerged as a…
STAT+: Senators interrogate health secretary Becerra on Alzheimer’s drug coverage
WASHINGTON — The future of Alzheimer’s treatments and coverage hung heavily over lawmakers’ Wednesday hearing…
Stéphane Bancel, Bernie Sanders spar over what Moderna owes the federal government
WASHINGTON — Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel and Senate health committee Chair Bernie Sanders shook hands…
STAT+: A new Medicare ruling could give virtual reality companies an easier path to payment
The path to payment for virtual reality companies working in health care just became slightly…
STAT+: 8 burning questions Bernie Sanders and other senators should ask Moderna’s Stéphane Bancel
WASHINGTON — Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel has some explaining to do. Bancel will appear alone…
Arizona plans to dramatically increase hepatitis C testing and treatment in prisons
WASHINGTON — The Arizona Department of Corrections is promising a federal judge that it will…
STAT+: Hospitals are not crumbling, Medicare experts tell Congress
Hospitals’ financial situations are not nearly as dire as industry groups are making them out…