Axios

New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art announced on Wednesday after months of consideration that the institution will no longer accept gifts from members of the Sackler family — the dynasty behind Purdue Pharma, the New York Times reports.

Why it matters: This action cuts ties between "one of the world's most prestigious museums and one of its most prolific philanthropic dynasties," the Times points out. In 1996, Purdue introduced the market to the opioid OxyContin, one of the painkillers seen as responsible for the opioid crisis. The Met's affiliation with the Sacklers extends back decades with millions of donated dollars to show for it.

Wednesday morning, Axios hosted a conversation on health care's biggest challenges, including the opioid crisis, and how to tackle them. We spoke with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.), chief medical officer at HHS Vanila Singh and Huntington, West Virginia, Mayor Steve Williams.

A lawsuit filed yesterday by AIDS activists and unions alleges that Gilead conspired with other drug companies to block generic competition in the HIV market, Stat News reports.

Backdrop: "Combination cocktails" are often used to treat HIV, and they consist of fixed doses of medications made by different drugmakers.

The Democratic and Republican leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday released draft legislation to protect patients from surprise hospital bills.

The bottom line: For emergency services, patients would only be responsible for what they would pay for in-network care.

The U.S. is facing a series of potentially devastating health care threats — some within the next decade, and some that have already manifested as a part of everyday life. 

Between the lines: As Washington struggles with staggering hospital bills and prescription drug costs, society also faces even more difficult problems fueled by the aging population, the economics of health care and the rise of drug-resistant infections.

Civica Rx, the hospital-funded generic drug company, has signed an agreement with drugmaker Xellia Pharmaceuticals to make and supply the IV antibiotics vancomycin and daptomycin.

Why it matters: Civica is taking its first concrete step toward addressing drug shortages and high-priced generics, which will benefit patients within the 900 hospitals that are part of the nonprofit company as well as patients within the VA, which is partnering with Civica.

Democratic House committee chairs have written new letters to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and Attorney General Bill Barr demanding information on the administration's decisions about the latest Affordable Care Act lawsuit.

Why it matters: The Department of Justice last year announced that it would no longer defend the ACA against a lawsuit brought by GOP attorneys general alleging that the 2017 tax law made the health care law unconstitutional.

The White House is reviewing a 2020 payment rule for Medicare outpatient services, and companies that make devices for a procedure that serves as a substitute for opioids are trying to persuade Medicare to create a new payment model.

Driving the news: Earlier this month, lobbyists with Smiths Medical and InfuSystems pushed federal officials for a new, separate medical code for "continuous peripheral nerve block," according to federal lobbying records.