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: House Tax Bill Would Scrap Deduction For Medical Expenses The tax bill unveiled by Republicans in the House on Thursday would not, as had been rumored, eliminate the tax penalty for failure to have health insurance. But it would eliminate a decades-old deduction for people with very high medical costs. Kaiser Health News Thursday, November 2, 2017 Hospital groups to sue CMS over $1.6 billion cut to 340B program Less than an hour after the CMS released the final rule, America's Essential Hospitals, the American Hospital Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges said they believe the agency has overstepped its statutory authority by cutting 340B drug payments by $1.6 billion, or 22.5% less than the average sales price. Modern Healthcare Wednesday, November 1, 2017 Panel Recommends Opioid Solutions but Puts No Price Tag on Them President Trump’s bipartisan commission on the opioid crisis made dozens of final recommendations on Wednesday to combat a deadly addiction epidemic, ranging from creating more drug courts to vastly expanding access to medications that treat addiction, including in jails. The New York Times Wednesday, November 1, 2017 U.S. states allege broad generic drug price-fixing collusion A large group of U.S. states accused key players in the generic drug industry of a broad price-fixing conspiracy, moving on Tuesday to widen an earlier lawsuit to add many more drugmakers and medicines in an action that sent some company shares tumbling. Reuters Tuesday, October 31, 2017 Money For Health Law Navigators Slashed — Except Where It’s Not Despite all the efforts in Congress to repeal the health law this summer and fall, the Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land. People can start signing up for health insurance for 2018 starting Nov. 1. But the landscape for that law has changed a lot. Kaiser Health News Monday, October 30, 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.