Surprise in the swamp; Drug prices go primetime

VIEW IN BROWSER | SUBSCRIBE FRI, MAY 10, 2019 EDITOR'S NOTE Think a friend or colleague should be getting this newsletter? Share this link with them to sign up. Surprise! Washington is actually getting something done. It's going to be great for campaign speeches, but not so much for health-care industry. The Trump administration threw more daggers at the industry this week, this time at hospitals, Big Pharma and doctors in a two-pronged attack on surprise medical bills and, again, prescription drug prices. Walmart piled on to Big Tobacco, adopting its own T21 policy after the FDA publicly shamed it for illegally selling to minors. We're about a week away from the second Healthy Returns event, back for its second year in NYC on May 21. Meg Tirrell will start the program in a conversation with one of the most influential FDA commissioners, Scott Gottlieb. Jim Cramer will talk the big-pharma view with Novartis CEO Vasant Narasimhan. Melissa Lee will examine the ultimate innovation in health care with United Therapeutics CEO Martine Rothblatt. Plus, much more. Don't miss it. Angelica LaVito @ANGELICALAVITO White House joins surprise bill push The White House is putting its muscle behind the push to end surprise medical bills. The president urged Congress to pass legislation to protect Americans from big hospital charges when they unexpectedly receive out-of-network emergency room or surgical care. A bipartisan group of Senators has been working on it, but says they're still months away from having a bill. -Bertha Coombs Drug prices on TV If you thought drug commercials couldn't get any longer, think again. The Trump administration announced this week it will require pharmaceutical companies to disclose the price of their prescription medicines in TV ads beginning this summer. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the administration is intending to shame drug makers into lowering their prices. Until now, drug makers only needed to disclose major side effects of their product in ads. -Berkeley Lovelace Jr. Walmart hops on the 21 bandwagon The country's largest retailer will hike its tobacco buying age to 21 starting July 1, joining Walgreens and Rite Aid. It will also stop selling fruity and dessert-flavored e-cigarettes, only a partial solution in former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb's mind. While still in his post, Gottlieb called out Walmart and about a dozen other retailers earlier this year for illegally selling tobacco products to minors. -Angelica LaVito Hope in fighting the opioid crisis The volume of prescribed opioids declined last year by 17% in the U.S., the largest drop on record and a step, researchers say, in the right direction. The data, from industry researcher IQVIA, also show an uptick in medication-assisted treatment, though its availability varied widely across states. But the epidemic is now being driven by illicit drugs like fentanyl — so while the new data is encouraging, there's still more work to be done. -Meg Tirrell Buffett tamps expectations for Haven With all the news coming out of Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett's comments around his buzzy health-care venture went largely unnoticed. In an interview with CNBC's Becky Quick on Monday, Buffett said it's going to be a "long, tough pull" to change the U.S. health-care system and there's "no guarantee" Haven will succeed. -Angelica LaVito More young adults – especially black men – are dying from heart failure Despite advancements in medicine that led to decades of declines in the number of heart failure-related deaths, more Americans are now dying from the condition, according to a new study. The increase in heart failure deaths was especially high in young adults, particularly in young black men who were more than twice as likely to die from the condition than young white men. The study says the decline in heart health is likely attributable to an increase in diabetes and obesity and that there needs to be a greater emphasis on preventative care. -Ashley Turner JOIN US Coming Up: Healthy Returns 2019 CNBC presents a unique health care event that brings together top CEOs, investors and technologists to explore the innovations that will drive better outcomes, clinically and financially. We'll examine AI and data, M&A and IPOs, the promise of CRISPR and the ethics of genome editing, and the most investable opportunities in both the public and private markets. Featured Speakers Include: Mark Bertolini, Fmr CEO, Aetna Jorge Conde, General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz Scarlet Shore Clifton, Product Manager, Verily Paul Dabrowski, CEO, Synthego Dr. Edward Ellison, Co-CEO & Executive Medical Director, The Permanente Federation LLC; Chairman, Southern California Permanente Medical Group Dr. Scott Gottlieb, Commissioner, FDA Alex Gorsky, Chairman & CEO, Johnson & Johnson Dr. Marc Harrison, President & CEO, Intermountain Health Dr. Ashish Jha, Harvard Global Health Director, Physician and health policy researcher Daphne Koller, Founder and CEO, insito Dr. Samarth Kulkarni, CEO, CRISPR Therapeutics Dr. Vasant Narasimhan, CEO, Novartis Peter Orszag, Head of N.A. M&A and Global Co-Head of Health Care, Lazard Dr. John Rogers, Professor, Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery, Northwestern Martine Rothblatt, Founder and CEO, United Therapeutics Dr. Jennifer Schneider, President, Livongo Christi Shaw, President, Bio-Medicines, Eli Lilly Andy Slavitt, General Partner, Town Hall Ventures; Former commissioner, CMS Alethia Young, Large Cap Biotech Analyst, Head of Healthcare Research, Cantor Fitzgerald Healthy Returns May 21, 2019 New York City REGISTER NOW CONTRIBUTORS Bertha Coombs @berthacoombs Christina Farr @chrissyfarr Meg Tirrell @megtirrell Berkeley Lovelace Jr. @BerkeleyJr Unsubscribe Manage Newsletters Terms of Service Join the CNBC Panel   Digital Products Feedback Privacy Policy CNBC Events   © 2019 CNBC LLC. All rights reserved. A property of NBCUniversal. 900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. 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