Opioids

Federal Medicare advisers grappled Thursday (Jan. 17) with how CMS could better track opioid use in hospitals and encourage non-opioid alternatives, and it must report to Congress on those issues by March due to a mandate in last year’s landmark opioid bill.

After six months and over 250 applications, FDA finally announced the eight winners of an innovation challenge in which medical device developers submitted to the agency their best ideas for preventing and treating opioid addiction.

Kaleo CEO Spencer Williamson offered to lower the $4,100 price of the opioid overdose reversal drug Evzio as long as insurers give patients greater access to it, during his appearance on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday.

CMS will give states more leeway to cover inpatient treatment for serious mental illnesses, just as the agency has been doing for inpatient treatment of substance use disorders, HHS Secretary Alex Azar announced Tuesday (Nov. 13).

With Democrats taking control of the House, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) is highly expected to chair the powerful Energy & Commerce Committee, and, although he comes from a pharmaceutical-heavy district, he told Inside Health Policy prior to the election results that tackling high drug prices would be a top priority as would overseeing the administration's health care agenda.

With a Democratic takeover of the House, the powerful Energy & Commerce Committee will experience leadership and priority shifts. A former congressional aide told Inside Health Policy that Democrats may use the opportunity to push the Creating and Restoring Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act, seek funding options for opioid-related initiatives, focus more on cosmetics legislation and revisit laboratory-developed test (LDT) legislation.

FDA’s psychopharmacologic drugs and drug safety advisory committees, in a joint meeting on Thursday (Nov. 1). voted against approval of a proposed new opioid combination drug indicated to treat major depressive disorder.

CMS told states they do not need to defray the costs of new benefits that may be included in a revised essential health benefit (EHB) benchmark plan unless the coverage has been legislatively mandated, and encouraged states to implement revisions that would better address the opioid epidemic.

Two California men have pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud Affordable Care Act plans in at least 12 states by enrolling people in coverage and transporting them to expensive drug treatment facilities in California that paid referral and other fees, the Department of Justice announced.