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: Time Crunch Among Hurdles for Bipartisan Senate Push to Bolster ACA The leaders of a key Senate committee say they are cautiously optimistic about reaching a deal to shore up the Affordable Care Act’s individual marketplaces, but even with a bipartisan effort, it is far from certain whether they can hash out an agreement in time. Morning Consult Friday, August 18, 2017 EpiPen maker to settle on claims it overcharged taxpayers, agrees to have pricing practices reviewed Mylan will pay $465 million to settle claims that it overcharged states for its signature EpiPen, according to a Thursday Department of Justice press release. The company also signed an agreement with the federal government to enter into a review of its pricing practices. Stat News Thursday, August 17, 2017 Express Scripts to limit opioids, concerning doctors The nation’s largest pharmacy benefit manager will soon limit the number and strength of opioid drugs prescribed to first-time users as part of a wide-ranging effort to curb an epidemic affecting millions of Americans. Stat News Wednesday, August 16, 2017 Federal deficit will soar to $194 billion, premiums spike 20% if Trump nixes cost-sharing subsidies, CBO report says The federal deficit will soar by $194 billion over the next nine years and gross premiums for silver plans, the most popular, would spike 20 percent higher in 2018 and 25 percent higher by 2020 if President Trump follows through a proposal to eliminate the cost-sharing subsidies that allow low-income consumers to purchase and afford health plans on the individual ACA insurance exchanges, a report from the Congressional Budget Office said. Healthcare Finance News Tuesday, August 15, 2017 CMS cancels two mandatory pay models and scales back a third The CMS on Tuesday said it will toss two bundled payment models and cut down the number of providers required to participate in a third, citing providers' requests to have more input in the models' designs. Modern Healthcare Tuesday, August 15, 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.