OVERNIGHT HEALTH: The CLASS clash continues

About that jobs bill: One of the major healthcare proposals in President Obama’s jobs bill would actually lead to substantial job losses, according to former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin. His think tank, the American Action Forum, put out a new report Monday saying the pharmaceutical industry could lose up to 238,000 jobs if Democrats succeed in extending Medicaid drug rebates to Medicare.

Read the Healthwatch post.

Innovators: HHS on Monday announced its “Innovation Advisors” program, through which it will select as many as 200 experts to work with doctors and other providers on ways to improve the healthcare delivery system. Healthwatch has more.

{mosads}Oversight gaps: CMS needs to do a better job monitoring long-term-care hospitals, the Government Accountability Office said Monday. A new GAO report says CMS has incomplete records about the quality of long-term-care hospitals and needs to bolster its oversight. The report is here.

Tuesday’s agenda
America’s Health Insurance Plans will hold a daylong conference on shared accountability, featuring speakers from several state and regional healthcare organizations that have worked to better coordinate services.

Several big names in healthcare will join up for a new campaign urging the supercommittee to tackle waste, fraud and abuse before cutting into Medicare benefits. The group includes AARP, former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) and Billy Tauzin, formerly the president of the pharmaceutical industry’s leading trade group.

The Senate Health Committee holds a hearing on the recession and older Americans.

And the Republican presidential candidates debate yet again.

State by state
Opponents of an anti-healthcare-reform ballot initiative in Ohio are forming a new political action committee.

Alabama has the least competitive insurance market in the country, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield has proposed a nearly 10 percent rate increase.

Bill tracker
House Energy and Commerce Republicans made good on last week’s promise to drop several Food and Drug Administration reform bills following recent medical device hearings designed to “lay the foundation to strengthen the review and approval process”:

• Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) introduced a bill making it easier for medical device makers to seek “de novo” classification (H.R. 3203);

• Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) has legislation “to ensure public participation in the drafting and issuance” in FDA guidance documents (H.R. 3204);

• Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) introduced a bill changing the outside review and inspection process for medical devices (H.R. 3205);

• Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Texas) has bills to allow experts to sit on FDA advisory committees despite their financial ties to regulated companies (H.R. 3206) and to create a pathway for pre-market notification and review of laboratory-developed tests (H.R. 3207);

• Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) would require the HHS secretary to establish a schedule and issue regulations under the Safe Medical Devices Act of 1990(H.R. 3208) and to amend the FDA’s medical device pre-market review process (H.R. 3209);

• Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.) has a bill “to improve humanitarian device regulation” (H.R. 3211);

• Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-Wash.) has legislation directing the FDA to enter into agreements with certain countries regarding methods and approaches to harmonizing regulatory requirements for medical devices (H.R. 3230).

• Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) has legislation “to amend the Food and Drug Administration’s mission” (H.R. 3214).

Fraud fight
The former director of the Louisiana governor’s abstinence program was convicted of mail fraud.

A grand jury indicted 14 people in a Los Angeles-based OxyContin ring that allegedly distributed more than 1 million pills.

The owners of a fraudulent Florida physical therapy company were sentenced to more than three years in prison for defrauding Medicare.

Lobbying registrations
Foley Hoag / Dovetail Health

Foley Hoag / Johnson and Johnson

American Capitol Group / National Coalition of Healthcare Providers

Polsinelli Shughart / EveryLife Foundation for Rare Diseases

Robert White / Novartis

Williams and Jensen, PLLC / American Veterinary Medical Association

Reading list
John McDonough — who helped craft the healthcare reform law and now leads Harvard’s Center for Public Health Leadership — talks to NPR about the differences between former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s healthcare plan and President Obama’s.

Consumers say they actually like HMOs, according to Time.

CMS Administrator Don Berwick said doctors have to take the lead in overhauling the country’s healthcare delivery system, the Boston Globe reports.

CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo interviews Cleveland Clinic cardiologist Steve Nissen about healthcare innovation.

What you might have missed on Healthwatch

News bites: Public health on supercommittee chopping block

Week ahead: HHS faces fallout after ending controversial healthcare program

Tommy Thompson to address stem cell conference at Vatican

Budget office gives Republicans cover to repeal health reform program

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Julian Pecquet: jpecquet@digital-release.thehill.com / 202-628-8527

Sam Baker: sbaker@digital-release.thehill.com / 202-628-8351

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