Health Headlines for Thursday, April 19
New data: Americans filling far fewer opioid prescriptions
AP News
The number of prescriptions for opioid painkillers filled in the U.S. fell dramatically last year, showing their biggest drop in 25 years and continuing a decline amid increasing legal restrictions and public awareness of the dangers of addiction, new data show.
Trump regulations fuel fire between Albany, insurer
Politico Pro(Subscription Required)
Recent regulations from the Trump administration have fueled a legal fire between UnitedHealthcare of New York and the Cuomo administration.
Hospital Association top lobbying client in 2017, JCOPE finds
Politico Pro(Subscription Required)
More than $240 million was spent on lobbying New York’s state and local governments in 2017, according to numbers released Wednesday by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, a decrease from the roughly $243 million spent in each of the prior two years.
US regulators float ideas for boosting medical device safety
AP News
U.S. health officials on Tuesday proposed steps to improve the government’s system for overseeing medical devices, which has been criticized for years for failing to catch problems with risky implants and medical instruments.
The Health 202: Medicare is the name in Democrats’ health-care game
Washington Post
If you want to sell Americans a bill expanding the government’s role in health care, be sure to include “Medicare” in the title.
If you’re lucky, this retirement expense will just be $280K
CNBC
When planning for health-care costs in retirement, it pays to factor in a particular worst-case scenario: an earlier-than-anticipated workforce exit.
As Opioid Prescriptions Fall, Prescriptions for Drugs to Treat Addiction Rise
New York Times
The number of new monthly prescriptions for medications that treat opioid addiction nearly doubled over the past two years, according to new data, while prescriptions for opioid painkillers continued to decline.