Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
White House Cautions Lawmakers Against Raising Spending Caps To Accommodate Popular Veterans Health Program
Inviting more stopgap spending, the White House has fired off an official warning against congressional efforts to blow through budget limits. Top Trump administration officials sent a letter Monday cautioning lawmakers against raising spending caps to accommodate shifts in funding for a popular veterans health program, though they stopped short of threatening a veto. (Ferris and Scholtes, 7/16)
The Department of Veterans Affairs will replace the acting head of its health care system with a temporary appointee on Wednesday, the VA鈥檚 acting secretary said Tuesday, though the department still hasn鈥檛 settled on a permanent replacement to lead the sprawling division. Dr. Richard Stone will take over the Veterans Health Administration, the VA鈥檚 acting secretary, Peter O鈥橰ourke, told reporters.聽The health administration is one of the three main branches of the VA and comprises more than 1,500 health-care facilities, thousands of physicians and nurses and a budget of about $70 billion to treat some nine million veterans. (Kesling, 7/17)
The Kansas medical board has revoked the license of an Emporia doctor for having a sexual relationship with a vulnerable patient who tried to commit suicide using pills he prescribed her. ...In a revocation order issued last week, the Kansas Board of Healing Arts wrote that Stone 鈥渨as in a position of significant power鈥 over the unnamed female patient 鈥渁nd he abused that power.鈥 (Marso, 7/18)