Friday Five: Top 5 healthcare business news items from the MCOL Weekend edition

Every business day, MCOL posts feature stories making news on the business of health care. Here are five we think are particularly important for this week:

U.S. House Republicans to vote on Obamacare repeal

Reuters reports: U.S. House Republicans moved ahead on Friday with legislation aimed at dismantling Obamacare, despite concerns about not having a replacement for the healthcare program and the potential financial cost of repealing President Barack Obama's landmark law.

Reuters

Friday, January 13, 2017

Trump’s HHS Nominee Got A Sweetheart Deal From A Foreign Biotech Firm

Kaiser Health News reports: When tiny Australian biotech firm Innate Immunotherapeutics needed to raise money last summer, it didn’t issue stock on the open market. Instead, it offered a sweetheart deal to “sophisticated U.S. investors,” company documents show.

Kaiser Health News

Friday, January 13, 2017

CVS slashes price of substitute EpiPen auto-injectors to $109.99

Stat News reports: CVS Health announced Thursday morning that it has cut the price of two-packs of epinephrine auto-injectors to $109.99 — roughly the price that brand-name EpiPen shots were selling for eight years ago, before their escalating price became a hot political issue.

Stat News

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Sylvia Burwell urges need for Medicare to have drug price negotiating power

Healthcare Finance News reports: Giving Medicare authority to negotiate drug prices is the best way to keep those spiraling costs under control for the program's recipients, departing Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Monday.

Healthcare Finance News

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

UnitedHealth Group to Buy Outpatient Surgery Chain for $2.3 Billion

The New York Times reports: UnitedHealth Group, one of the largest and most diversified health insurance companies in the United States, said on Monday that it planned to buy Surgical Care Affiliates, a chain of outpatient surgery centers, for about $2.3 billion. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2017.

NY Times

Monday, January 9, 2017

These and more weekly news items on the business of healthcare are featured in the MCOL Weekend edition, along with the MCOL Tidbits, and more, for MCOL Premium level members.