cannabis
Medical marijuana companies take a page from pharma's book
EROS DERVISHI FOR STAT
The largest medical marijuana companies have taken to hiring teams of sales reps and patient advocates to promote their products to doctors, even offering physicians personalized swag and Topgolf parties. Sound familiar?
But the issue with the medical marijuana industry is that it isn't regulated by the federal government, my colleague Nick Florko writes in a new investigation. Gifts from pharma companies to physicians are closely tracked, and the industry can't advertise medical benefits that aren't backed up with data. That's not necessarily the case with medical marijuana, which is left to often ill-equipped states instead.
Nick's full story is worth your time, including some juicy fact-checks of companies' claims (including one that a smokable cannabis product would clear out your lungs), dishy details about the gifts companies dole out to docs, and eye-popping details about dripping water and insulation issues in cultivation facilities.
the hill
Congress refills its Medicare piggy bank
Usually, there's not much health care policy in the National Defense Authorization Act. This year is different.
Lawmakers are facing down a Jan. 19 deadline to renew a variety of expiring health care programs, so they just tucked away an extra $1.8 billion in a Medicare reserve fund in the NDAA, a Senate aide confirmed. They achieved the savings by extending the Medicare sequester's end date, and then used some of the funds to pay for World Trade Center Health Program policies to support 9/11 survivors and first responders.
The additional savings went to the Medicare piggy bank, formally known as the Medicare Improvement Fund, referred to in wonky circles as the MIF. Lawmakers will be able to pull from the MIF early next year as they weigh how to fund community health centers and stave off pay cuts to safety-net hospitals. It's not a fortune, but it's also nothing to sneeze at, given hospitals are panicked about the prospect of a payment policy passing that would save the federal government $3.7 billion over the next decade. It also gives them some wiggle room if they need to do another short-term extension of the programs.
drug pricing
Schumer's 2024 insulin resolution
Groundhog Day isn't until February, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was already back on Wednesday with another promise to extend a $35 monthly insulin copay cap to the commercial market next year.
For those of us old enough to remember when he promised to hold a floor vote on the issue shortly after Easter recess in 2022, the schtick is tired.
He describes "large progress" as being made "in a bipartisan way" on the proposal and other issues. However, he still has made no public indication what legislative language he actually supports amid disagreement in his own caucus. And the outlook isn't much better in the House, where a key committee chair has panned the idea.
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