Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Big Tech's Push Into Health Care Is So Last Year. Now It's Big Retail That's Making Waves.
Move aside, Big Tech. If 2017 was the year technology giants like Apple set their sights on the $3.5 trillion U.S. health care market, 2020 is shaping up to be the year in which a new set of entrants join the race. Retail and telecom giants including AT&T, Best Buy, and Walmart are turning key assets like wireless networks, mobile workers, and foot traffic into health care tools. (Brodwin, 2/6)
A New Jersey state jury on Thursday ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $750 million in punitive damages to four people who said their use of the company鈥檚 talcum powders caused a rare cancer, the latest legal loss for the health-care giant. The judge presiding over the trial, Ana C. Viscomi of New Jersey Superior Court, citing state law, said she planned to reduce the punitive award to $186.5 million, or about five times the $37.3 million in compensatory damages awarded by a separate jury in the first phase of the case last year. (Loftus, 2/6)
The number of workers with intellectual and developmental disabilities integrated into the workforce has largely plateaued in the past year, and the national turnover rate for those聽providing direct support for such people is nearing 45 percent, according to a Thursday report from the ANCOR Foundation and United Cerebral Palsy (UCP). (Budryk, 2/6)
As state lawmakers consider giving advanced practice practitioners more autonomy, some physicians are digging in to defend their turf. Legislatures in Ohio, Kansas and other states are reviewing bills that would remove the requirement that doctors must sign off on prescriptions before advanced practice registered nurses prescribe them to patients. The American Medical Association has continued to oppose expanding APPs' scope of practice, claiming that APPs cannot match physicians' education, training and expertise. (Kacik, 2/6)
Cook County Health, which also includes John H. Stroger Hospital鈥檚 much smaller sister hospital, Provident, spent $377 million in uncompensated charitable care in 2019. It鈥檚 projecting that number will rise to $409 million this year. That can鈥檛 continue, Cook County Health鈥檚 interim CEO Debra Carey said in an interview in her office on a dreary, drizzly morning last month. 鈥淭here will be a limit when we won鈥檛 be able to provide the same levels of care with the dollars we bring in,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e pretty much already reached that limit.鈥 (Ollove, 2/7)
Kaiser Health News: Patients Stuck With Bills After Insurers Don鈥檛 Pay As Promised
The more than $34,000 in medical bills that contributed to Darla and Andy Markley鈥檚 bankruptcy and loss of their home in Beloit, Wisconsin, grew out of what felt like a broken promise. Darla Markley, 53, said her insurer had sent her a letter preapproving her to have a battery of tests at the Mayo Clinic in neighboring Minnesota after she came down with transverse myelitis, a rare, paralyzing illness that had kept her hospitalized for over a month. (Weber, 2/7)
Kaiser Health News: Women Shouldn鈥檛 Get A Bill For An IUD 鈥 But Sometimes They Do
After a few months on daily contraceptive pills, Erica M. wanted something more reliable. She wanted an intrauterine device, a form of long-acting reversible contraception that doctors call one of the most effective forms of birth control. (Erica鈥檚 last name has been withheld due to privacy concerns.) It shouldn鈥檛 have been a problem. Erica, 23 at the time, had insurance through work. Under the Affordable Care Act, most health plans must cover all methods of birth control without any cost sharing. In fact, the birth control pills she was using were fully covered 鈥 she paid nothing out-of-pocket. (Luthra, 2/7)
