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In The News is a concise digest of health care news in Vermont and the nation. VMS is not responsible for the content of the articles.
VERMONT NEWS
VTDIGGER: Senate endorses open meetings for OneCare
The Vermont Senate has endorsed S.4, the bill that would require the board of directors for the state’s largest health care organization to hold open meetings. The bill largely affects OneCare Vermont, which is owned by the University of Vermont Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. OneCare is in the process of merging with a similar, smaller accountable care organization. OneCare’s board of directors will be required to hold open meetings whenever they are making a binding decision. More »
VPR: Bernie Sanders to introduce single-payer health care bill in U.S. Senate
Less than 24 hours after the disintegration of a Republican effort to repeal and replace the federal Affordable Care Act, Sen. Bernie Sanders told constituents at a town hall meeting in Hardwick Saturday that he’ll introduce a single-payer health care bill in Congress “within a couple of weeks.” The announcement drew thunderous applause from the approximately 1,000 people in the Hazen Union High School gymnasium, where Sanders shared a stage with Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch. Sanders told the audience that the defeat of the Republican health care bill demonstrates widespread dissatisfaction among Americans with GOP health care policies. And he says he thinks his “Medicare for all” bill will have strong appeal even among the red-state voters that put President Donald Trump in the White House. More »
NATIONAL NEWS
NY TIMES: Some lawmakers now look to bipartisanship on health care
The sudden death of legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act has created an opening for voices from both parties to press for fixes to the acknowledged problems in President Barack Obama’s signature health law, as lawmakers and some senior White House officials appealed for bipartisanship. In the wake of the Republican failure to make good on the seven-year-old promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Trump and congressional leaders find themselves at a political crossroads. They could sabotage the Affordable Care Act’s insurance markets, betting that Democrats would be blamed for collapsing coverage choices and spikes in insurance premiums and would then come to the negotiating table ready to toss the law and start fresh. Or they could work with Democratic lawmakers and moderate Republicans, who for years have discussed improvements to the Affordable Care Act, which, unlike many social welfare programs, has not been significantly updated or revised. More »
NY TIMES: Cholesterol-slashing drug can protect high-risk heart patients, study finds
The first rigorous test of an expensive new drug that radically lowers cholesterol levels found that it significantly reduced the chance that a high-risk patient would have a heart attack or stroke. These were men and women who had exhausted all other options. The results of the study, which cost about $1 billion and was paid for by Amgen, the maker of the drug, were published on Friday in The New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology. More »
NY TIMES: Popular prostate cancer therapy is short, intense and unproven
The rise of short-course radiation is an example of the evidentiary blind spots that bedevil the treatment of prostate cancer. It is second only to lung cancer in men, striking 180,000 patients a year. But treatments for lung cancer, and for other common cancers like those of the breast and colon, have been evaluated in randomized clinical trials more often than those for prostate cancer. More »
MODERN HEALTHCARE: CMS delays expansion of bundled payment programs
The CMS has delayed the expansion of a major bundled payment pilot, Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement, and the implementation of its bundled payment initiatives for cardiac care from July 1 to Oct. 1, 2017, according to an interim final rule posted to the Federal Register. It also delayed, for a second time, the effective date of a final rule laying out the implementation of CJR and other bundled payment programs, from March 21 to May 20, 2017. The agency also delayed its Cardiac Rehabilitation Incentive Payment Model and is also weighing whether to push back implementation of all bundled payment initiatives even further, until 2018. More »
WASHINGTON POST: In new report, doctors urge more exercise for pregnant women
Old health advice often dies hard. This is particularly true — perhaps dangerously so — of historic advice for pregnant women, according to a new Viewpoint published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Most adults remember the traditional guidelines for expectant mothers. Get as much rest as possible during your pregnancy, even prolonged bed rest if complications arise. At the same time, “eat for two” — you and your developing child. According to the new report, however, “these misguided recommendations” have “evolved into a major contributor to the worldwide obesity epidemic.” More »
KAISER HEALTH NEWS: Trump’s promise to rein in drug prices could open floodgate to importation laws
With prescription drug prices soaring and President Donald Trump vowing to take action, an old idea is gaining fresh traction: allowing Americans to buy medicines from foreign pharmacies at far lower prices. A new bill in Congress to allow the practice would modify previous safety standards and remove a barrier that proved insurmountable in past attempts to enable progress. More »
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