Robert Redfield Jr., the new head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is being paid almost twice the amount his predecessor earned and far more than previous directors, per the AP.
By the numbers: Redfield is getting $375,000, while former chief Brenda Fitzgerald, who before who resigned in January, had an annual salary of $197,300. Redfield is also making more than his boss, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, who earns $199,700, the AP reports.
George Yancopoulos, the president and top scientist at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, took home approximately $268 million in 2017, based on calculations of his actual realized stock gains disclosed in a new federal filing.
The big picture: That's the largest pay package of any health care executive from 2017 so far. Yancopoulos, who is the main inventor of Regeneron's prescription drugs like Eylea and Praluent, made almost three times as much as Regeneron's CEO, Leonard Schleifer, who made $95 million last year.
More U.S. hospital systems are building new facilities or investing in consulting services in other countries, especially places like China where the population and health care spending is rising, the WSJ's Melanie Evans reports.
The big picture: Hospitals are doing this "to diversify revenue as pressure intensifies from U.S. consumers and policymakers to cut medical spending," writes Evans. However, international markets also "offer more attractive margins or more favorable payment models.
President Trump's upcoming speech on drug prices will probably stick to small-ball ideas. But small-ball doesn't necessarily mean no impact.
Reality check: There are a lot of legitimate ways to bring down drug costs; there are also a lot of empty gestures masquerading as real change. Here's a guide to the kinds of ideas and the odds that they'll actually happen.
Some liberal lawmakers want to add more punitive action — like fines and heavy industry regulation — to Congress' response to the opioid epidemic.
Between the lines: This congress isn't going to pass anything like the bill that Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced last week. But liberal support for such a measure could grow as the industry players who pushed and profited from opioid sales continue to go undisciplined by Congress.
The Trump administration has plans to reverse Obama-era health care rules that currently protect transgender individuals from discrimination and decades-old exemptions that shelter Native Americans from certain burdensome federal health requirements.
Why it matters: These health moves would target two of the nation's most underrepresented and vulnerable communities.
