Month: December 2016

by Meg Wingerter, KHI News Service

Medicaid expansion will get hearings in the Kansas House during the upcoming legislative session, the chairman of its health committee said, and leadership assignments suggest the issue may have a more receptive audience than in the past.

Rep. Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican who also headed the House Health and Human Services Committee in 2016, said he remains opposed to expanding Medicaid to some low-income non-disabled adults, but his committee will debate the issue.

House Speaker-elect Ron Ryckman Jr., an Olathe Republican, has said the House will tackle the issue this year, Hawkins said, although Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer has said expansion will be “dead” under President-elect Donald Trump.

Committee assignments also indicate opposition to Medicaid expansion may be softening. Ryckman, an Olathe Republican, appointed Rep. Susan Concannon, a Beloit Republican who has supported expansion, to the committee as its vice chairwoman.

Hawkins said he expects Concannon to take a leading role in the expansion debate.

“My vice chairman will probably very instrumental in how that’s handled in the committee,” he said.

Concannon, who had served in that position in 2015, was one of three members removed from the committee before the 2016 session because they supported Medicaid expansion.

Hawkins also noted the Kansas Hospital Association and other health organizations have mounted a campaign encouraging legislators to come up with a Kansas-specific expansion plan. Some states, including Indiana, have approved modified plans.

“They’re not slowing down,” he said.

Hawkins said he also expects 2017 could be the year when Kansas legalizes hemp oil for certain medical conditions.

A bill last session would have legalized cannabidiol, or CBD oil, which is made from the hemp plant but doesn’t produce the euphoria that recreational marijuana users seek.

Some research suggests that the oil could help people who have seizures that resist other treatments, but advocates said the formulation in the bill was too weak to reduce seizures.The bill died in conference committee.

This year could be different, because the Food and Drug Administration may soon approve a CBD product to treat epilepsy, Hawkins said. If you do have a medical condition that has been reported to be helped by CBD you can buy CBD oil from CTFO.

The House health committee also will work bills related to palliative care, licensing of emergency medical responders and telemedicine across state lines.

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– See more at http://www.khi.org/news/article/chairman-says-house-health-committee-will-debate-medicaid-expansion

Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt last week filed a federal lawsuit accusing six generic drug-making companies of illegally conspiring to drive up prices of two generic drugs.

The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Connecticut, accuses Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Auribindo Pharma USA, Inc., Citron Pharma, LLC, Mayne Pharma (USA), Inc., Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. of entering into numerous illegal conspiracies to unreasonably restrain trade, artificially inflate and manipulate prices and reduce competition for two drugs. The drugs are doxycycline hyclate delayed release, an antibiotic, and glyburide, an oral diabetes medication.

“The ongoing investigation already has produced strong evidence that these companies engaged in extensive misconduct to drive up the price of generic drugs at the expense of consumers and taxpayers,” Schmidt said. “We’re working together with other states to hold the defendants accountable.”

In 2015, generic drug sales in the United States were estimated at $74.5 billion. Currently, the generic pharmaceutical industry accounts for approximately 88 percent of all prescriptions written in the United States.

Kansas has joined with 19 other states to investigate the reasons behind suspicious price increases of certain generic pharmaceuticals. The investigation, which is still ongoing as to a number of additional generic drugs, uncovered evidence of a broad, well-coordinated and long-running series of conspiracies to fix prices and allocate markets for a number of generic pharmaceuticals in the United States. In their lawsuit, the states allege that the misconduct was conceived and carried out by senior drug company executives and their subordinate marketing and sales executives.

The complaint further alleges that the defendants routinely coordinated their schemes through direct interaction with their competitors at industry trade shows, customer conferences and other events, as well as through direct email, phone and text message communications. The anticompetitive conduct – including efforts to fix and maintain prices, allocate markets and otherwise thwart competition – violated antitrust law and caused significant, harmful and continuing effects in the country’s healthcare system, the states allege.

The states allege that the drug companies knew their conduct was illegal and made efforts to avoid communicating with each other in writing or, in some instances, to delete written communications after becoming aware of the investigation. The states allege that the companies’ conduct violated the federal Sherman Act and are asking the court to enjoin the companies from engaging in illegal, anticompetitive behavior and for equitable relief, including damages, to address the violations of law and restore competition.

In addition to Kansas, the plaintiff states in this lawsuit are Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and Washington.