Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Although Potential Opioid Settlements Are Compared To Big Tobacco Reckoning, They'll Likely Be On Much Smaller Scale
An Oklahoma case, the first of more than 1,600 lawsuits filed by U.S. state and local governments against opioid makers to go to trial, could serve as a key benchmark for governments hoping to recoup costs associated with the public health crisis. However, verdicts and legal settlements resulting from the litigation are likely to be smaller than the 1998 global settlement with tobacco companies and won’t significantly affect government budgets, according to Fitch Ratings. (Braun, 6/19)
Oklahoma’s chief medical examiner shared tragic details about the opioid-related deaths of about three dozen residents during testimony in the state’s lawsuit alleging drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and some of its subsidiaries contributed to the epidemic. Dr. Eric Pfeifer testified Tuesday that the tragic narratives represent only a small portion of the autopsies his office has performed in recent years as overdose deaths skyrocketed. Attorney General Mike Hunter, who filed the case in 2017, has said curbing and ending the opioid epidemic in Oklahoma could cost billions of dollars. (6/19)
Federal bankruptcy watchdogs turned a cold shoulder to states and cities battling the opioid epidemic, denying them seats on the official committee representing creditors of drugmaker Insys Therapeutics Inc. Lawyers for states and towns across the U.S. were sent packing Wednesday at a meeting in Wilmington, where a bankruptcy overseer from the Justice Department was picking which creditors would have the loudest voice in the first chapter 11 filing stemming from the opioid crisis. (Brickley, 6/19)
The World Health Organization notified U.S. lawmakers Wednesday that it will discontinue two publications on prescribing opioid painkillers in response to allegations that the pharmaceutical industry influenced the reports. The pledge to remove the guidelines comes a month after U.S. Reps. Katherine Clark and Hal Rogers accused the WHO of being influenced by Purdue Pharma, the American manufacturer of the potent painkiller OxyContin. (6/19)
An Ohio hospital system has reached nearly $4.5 million in settlements so far over the deaths of patients who allegedly received excessive painkiller doses ordered by a doctor now charged with murder. Over two dozen wrongful-death lawsuits have been filed against the Columbus-area Mount Carmel Health System and now-fired intensive care doctor William Husel.
It's a vicious cycle for the addicted and their families, one that has safety, financial and other consequences for the rest of society. But since May, health care providers at the Hamilton County jail have been using medicine to help break the connection. Fifty-two inmates now are receiving bupenorphine, an FDA-approved medication that is to temper cravings. They represent about 3 percent of the jail's daily population. (DeMio, 6/19)
The longtime medical director of Minnesota’s Medicaid program is out at the Department of Human Services, and his colleagues say his departure could impair the state’s opioid response efforts. Dr. Jeff Schiff said he was told earlier this month that the position he held for 13 years had been eliminated. Schiff, described by his colleagues as the brains behind the state Opioid Prescribing Work Group, said the move was sudden and done without clear explanation. (Faircloth, 6/19)
