Beyond the chicken pox and flu, viruses are increasingly believed to play a role in other serious diseases, like cancer and brain diseases.
Case in point: Researchers announced today in Neuron that they found more live herpes viruses in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease than in those without the disorder. This doesn't prove the virus causes the fatal neurodegenerative disease 5.7 million Americans currently live with, but it suggests it plays a role in Alzheimer's pathology and may inform treatment.
The supply of prescription opioids is falling in almost every state, but Congress and the private sector still have a lot more to do to stem the tide of a still-growing epidemic.
Between the lines: States with laws limiting opioid prescriptions have seen the steepest declines in supply, suggesting that intervention can work. That's good news for both Congress and a coalition of health industry players responding to the crisis.
The U.S. pays the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, and up to one in five prescriptions go unfilled because Americans can’t afford them.
Why it matters: When it comes to drug pricing, there is no incentive for any one part of the U.S. health care system to change. So it will take a dramatic shift for patients to see lower drug prices any time soon.
CareZone, an online service that delivers prescriptions to people's homes, is suing Express Scripts for allegedly engaging in anticompetitive behavior by locking out mail-order firms.
The bottom line: This dispute shines another light on how pharmacy benefit managers like Express Scripts profit from the drug supply chain — in this case, how it is more beneficial for PBMs to prefer their own mail-order pharmacies over others. Express Scripts denies CareZone's allegations.
Verscend Technologies is buying Cotiviti in a deal worth $4.9 billion, including debt. Verscend analyzes health care data, and Cotiviti audits providers to make sure payments are correct.
Why it matters: Private equity firms back both companies (Veritas Capital for Verscend and Advent International for Cotiviti), showing their desire for Cotiviti's very profitable niche industry. And that industry only exists because of the immense waste within the U.S. health care system.
A group of conservative policy advocates has released another proposal to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, which has been in the works now for a few months.
The details: Policy-wise, it’s basically the same as the Graham-Cassidy repeal bill, but without dramatic cuts to traditional Medicaid. It would eliminate most of the ACA’s consumer protections/benefit mandates and convert federal subsidy funding, as well as the law’s Medicaid expansion, into block grants to the states.
Rural counties — particularly in the Midwest and Northeast of the U.S. — are losing people due to higher death rates than birth rates and more people moving away than moving in.
The outlook: The 2020 census is likely to show the extent of this drastic trend. "Barring a significant reversal in the next few years," Richard Fry of the Pew Research Center tells Axios, "the share of the population living in rural counties will be less than it was in 2010 ... Rural clout in Congress and the electoral college will be diminished."
