OVERNIGHT HEALTH: Advocates launch campaigns to fight Medicaid cuts

Several advocacy groups are launching campaigns aimed at preventing deep cuts to Medicaid as lawmakers and the administration explore ways to restart debt-ceiling talks. The White House says it has put $1 trillion in cuts to domestic programs on the table, but only if Republicans agree to revenue raisers.

The Partnership for Medicaid, a nonpartisan coalition of doctors, hospitals and other healthcare interests, will launch an ad campaign Tuesday in conjunction with a lunch briefing on Capitol Hill. Separately, the children’s advocacy group First Focus is also planning a campaign.

Already Monday, a broad array of hospital groups had launched a multi-week national ad campaign against healthcare cuts made up of radio, television and print spots. Healthwatch has the details.

Abortion fight flares in Kansas: Planned Parenthood is asking a federal court to block Kansas from cutting off its federal funding after winning a similar injunction Friday in Indiana. Healthwatch’s Sam Baker has more.

SGR push: The American Medical Association said Monday that a deal to raise the debt ceiling should include a permanent fix to the formula that Medicare uses to pay doctors.

Although Republicans have said they don’t want to deal with the formula in debt negotiations, the AMA said dealing with the problem now is the best way to keep it from continuing to get more expensive. Read the Healthwatch story.

Effective drugs: France is debating a massive overhaul of its pharmaceutical industry that would lead to more oversight and fewer drug approvals, a trade-off facing U.S. regulators as they seek to foster more effective medicines.

At the heart of the French proposal is the idea of requiring new medicines to prove that they’re more effective than existing drugs rather than comparing them to placebos, which is the current standard. Consumer advocacy groups in the U.S. have called for similar policies to be adopted here as the Food and Drug Administration debates reauthorization of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act that expires next year. Healthwatch’s Julian Pecquet has the story.

{mosads}Waiver delays: The Health and Human Services Department is taking an extra month to make a decision on two states’ requests for an adjustment to part of the healthcare reform law. Healthwatch’s Sam Baker has more.

Brown tackles imports: Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is again pressing the
Food and Drug Administration to ensure that imported drugs are safe.
Roughly 80 percent of drugs’ active ingredients are imported. Brown
linked that statistic to the 2008 outbreak of tainted heparin, traced to a contaminated facility in China.

Brown posed several questions about imports and drug safety to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg in a letter on Monday.

“When drug companies outsource pharmaceutical ingredients, they also
outsource drug safety standards,” Brown said in a statement. “It’s
simply unacceptable to allow drug companies to skirt existing
regulations by importing ingredients from countries with lax safety
standards.”

Safe summer: The Food and Drug Administration shares tips on how to keep food safe during barbecue season.

AIDS testing: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius touts the administration’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy on National HIV Testing Day.

Tuesday’s agenda:

Rationing by regulators? The Food and Drug Administration defends its decision to revoke approval of Avastin for late-stage breast cancer at the start of a two-day appeal. The decision has prompted allegations of rationing based on cost, notably from Sen. David Vitter (R-La.).

Consumer and industry groups fighting the decision have scheduled a 1:30 press conference in the Capitol.

Painkiller abuse: More than 100 pain physicians descend on Capitol Hill to lobby on four bills aimed at reducing the epidemic of painkiller abuse. One of their top priorities is to require mandatory training for doctors who prescribe the medications.

The bills are: 

• The National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Reauthorization Act of 2011 [Reps. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), Ben Chandler (D-Ky.) and Frank Pallone (D-N.J.)]; 

• The Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 2011 [Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.)]; and

• The Ryan Creedon Act of 2011 [(Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.)].

The lawmakers scheduled to speak in the Russell Senate Building’s Kennedy Caucus Room include: Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.), 8 a.m.; Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), 8:15 a.m.; Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), 9 a.m.; Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), 9:15 a.m.; Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), 9:30 a.m.; Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.), 9:45 a.m.; Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), 10 a.m.; Rep. Chandler (D-Ky.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), 10:20 a.m.; Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), 10:30 a.m.; Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), 10:45 a.m.; Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), 11:30 a.m.; and Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), 11:45 a.m.

Defending MA: The Heritage Foundation hosts a breakfast briefing on Medicare Advantage and quality of care.

Also in the morning, the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis holds a Capitol Hill briefing on transforming Medicare into a funded program, “so that each generation pays its own way.”

Lobbying registrations:

Brown Rudnick / Revival Home Health Care

{mosads}Roberti White / American College of Radiology; Council on Radionuclides and Radiopharmaceuticals; Coalition for the Advancement of Brachytherapy; Medical Imaging Contrast Agent Association; Coalition Opposed to a Federal Insurance Regulator

Foley Hoag / Medtronic (regulation of humanitarian medical devices)

Reading list: 

Indiana’s Planned Parenthood defunding law is causing hospitals to stop offering abortions for high-risk patients whose fetuses have no chance of survival, the Indianapolis Star reports.

Doctors and hospitals object to a Massachusetts bill that would give patients the right to video record their surgery, writes American Medical News.

The AP reports on the Texas legislature’s vote to defund Planned Parenthood in the state.

Comments / complaints / suggestions? Please let us know:

Julian Pecquet: jpecquet@digital-stage.thehill.com / 202-628-8527

Sam Baker: sbaker@digital-stage.thehill.com / 202-628-8351

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