Overnight Health Care — Sponsored by PCMA — DOJ move against ObamaCare sets off frenzy | Maine governor appeals Medicaid expansion order | Lawmakers target drug 'middlemen' over costs

Sponsored by Pharmaceutical Care Management Association | View in Browser     Welcome to Overnight Health Care, sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association.   We're happy it's Friday, but we're not heading out for the weekend without first bringing you up to date on the fallout and reactions to the latest ObamaCare legal battle. The Trump administration on Thursday night declined to defend ObamaCare against a lawsuit from Texas and 19 other GOP-led states that argue the law is unconstitutional. The conventional wisdom is still that the suit has little chance of success, but it set off a flurry of reactions and activity.   Dems blasted the Trump administration move as a 'stunning attack on the rule of law' "The Justice Department's refusal to defend the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) in federal court is a stunning attack on the rule of law, the stability of our health care system, and Americans' access to affordable health care," said Reps. Bobby Scott (Va.), Frank Pallone Jr. (N.J.) and Richard Neal (Mass.), the top three Democrats on the House health-care committees. Political strategy: Democrats are seeking to tie the Justice Department's actions into their argument that the Trump administration is "sabotaging" health care and driving up premiums, a key midterm message. "The administration's attempt to eliminate protections for the 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions is just the latest -- and potentially the most damaging -- example of the coordinated effort by congressional Republicans and the Trump administration to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, driving up uninsured rates and out-of-pocket costs for Americans," the Democrats said. More on their reaction here.         SPONSORED CONTENT   Pharmaceutical Care Management Association Where PBM tools are used, a new report shows net spending – including the combined impact of drug prices, generic vs. brand drug use, and the overall number of prescriptions – declined by 2.1% last year. Spending increased in 2017 through channels not managed by PBMs. Learn how PBMs are part of the solution to reducing Rx costs at DrugBenefitSolutions.com.       Health insurers also opposed the conservative states' lawsuit Health insurers are desperate to finally get some certainty in the ObamaCare markets, and this lawsuit does not help them on that front. Experts warned insurers could raise premiums due to the added uncertainty. What the health insurance lobby, America's Health Insurance Plans, is saying: "Zeroing out the individual mandate penalty should not result in striking important consumer protections, such as guaranteed issue and community rating rules that help those with pre-existing conditions," the insurers said. "Removing those provisions will result in renewed uncertainty in the individual market, create a patchwork of requirements in the states, cause rates to go even higher for older Americans and sicker patients, and make it challenging to introduce products and rates for 2019. Instead, we should focus on advancing proven solutions that ensure affordability for all consumers."   On a different front, there could be some bipartisanship on one health area: targeting drug price 'middlemen' With public outrage growing over the rising costs of prescription drugs, Congress is targeting the middlemen they say are to blame. Specifically, lawmakers are moving to ban "gag clauses" that prohibit pharmacies from telling customers they can save money on a drug if they pay with cash instead of using their health insurance. These clauses are sometimes included in contracts between pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers -- the middlemen who act as negotiators between drug companies and insurers. Legislative action to watch: A bill from Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to ban gag clauses is expected to come up for a committee vote on June 20. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) also has a bill in the House. Read more here.     Maine governor appeals court order mandating Medicaid expansion Maine Gov. Paul LePage is keeping up his resistance to Medicaid expansion even after a court ordered his administration to comply. He is now appealing the decision. Background from earlier this week: Michaela Murphy, a Maine Superior Court justice, ruled Monday afternoon that the state must submit a plan to the federal government by June 11 detailing how it plans to expand Medicaid. Maine voters approved expansion in November through a citizen-led ballot measure, but LePage has fought back at every turn. He said he wouldn't implement expansion unless state legislators found a way to pay for it without raising taxes. But expansion supporters argued the governor's estimate was too high. His administration missed the April 3 deadline to send a plan to the federal government, prompting lawsuits from the Maine Equal Justice Partners and Consumers for Affordable Health Care. Read more on the new appeal from the Portland Press Herald.   Round-up We started the week with a look at how states are defying President Trump on ObamaCare. Health advocates are also seeing momentum on Medicaid expansion. A federal judge ordered the administration to process grants for a teen pregnancy program officials are trying to restrict. A judge in Maine, meanwhile, ordered the state to take steps to implement a voter-approved Medicaid expansion. Lawmakers expressed concerns about HHS's cybersecurity readiness. Medicare trustees said the program's trust fund will run out years sooner than expected. After McConnell said he would cancel the August recess, Schumer called on him to devote the month to health care issues. Abroad, health workers found good news as the Ebola outbreak appeared to be slowing in the Congo. A report claimed Trump is planning a massive reorganization of HHS and the government's welfare programs. The White House has a new ad campaign to combat opioid addiction that is turning heads. Nancy Pelosi said Democrats should evaluate "Medicare For All" if they retake the House. Virginia's governor signed Medicaid expansion into law. And the Justice Department is arguing in court that key parts of ObamaCare are unconstitutional.         SPONSORED CONTENT   Pharmaceutical Care Management Association Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have outlined several policy solutions to ensure patients receive opioid prescriptions when safe and medically appropriate. One important solution would be requiring e-prescribing of controlled substances in Medicare (S. 2460 / H.R. 3528, the Every Prescription Conveyed Securely Act). A study by the Opioid Safety Alliance finds this could save taxpayers $13 billion over 10 years.       What we're reading Defying prevention efforts, suicide rates are climbing across the nation (The New York Times) Cancer patients pay thousands to save their fertility. New laws aim to change that (Huffington Post) What Hurricane Maria's death toll reveals about health care in Puerto Rico (Harvard Business Review)   State by state Delaware lawmakers send bill banning conversion therapy to governor (WisconsinGazette.com) Louisiana is still the worst state nationwide for children, report says (NOLA.com)         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Healthcare Newsletters     Forward Healthcare Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

Hillicon Valley: Mueller hits Manafort with more charges | DOJ targets NYT reporter in leak probe | Chinese hacker steals sensitive data from Navy contractor | House votes against reviving tech office

View in Browser     The Cyber and Tech overnights have joined forces to give you Hillicon Valley, The Hill's new comprehensive newsletter detailing all you need to know about the tech and cyber news from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley. Welcome! Follow the cyber team Morgan Chalfant (@mchalfant16) and Olivia Beavers (@olivia_beavers), and the tech team, Ali Breland (@alibreland) and Harper Neidig (@hneidig), on Twitter. Send us your scoops, tips and compliments.   TGIF. It is June 8 -- the same number the G-7 would be if President Trump and Russia had their way.   MUELLER BRINGS NEW CHARGES AGAINST PAUL MANAFORT: Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has been hit with new charges filed by special counsel Robert Mueller's office. Mueller filed a superseding indictment Friday in a D.C. court that brought two new accounts against Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, a longtime Manafort aide. The two new counts, which layer onto five previously issued charges, accuse Manafort and Kiliminik, who ran the Kiev office of Manafort's political consulting company Davis Manafort Partners, of obstructing justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Manafort and Kiliminik "knowingly and intentionally attempted to persuade" two unidentified persons with "intent to influence, delay, and prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding," according to the new court filing. Kilimnik had previously been mentioned, but not named, in court documents as a "person A" with ties to Russian intelligence. The court filings accuse Manafort, Gates, and Kilminik of engaging "in a multi-million dollar lobbying campaigning" at the direction of Viktor Yanukovych, the former Russia-aligned Ukrainian president from 2006 until 2014. The allegations concern events that took place years before Manafort joined the Trump campaign. The indictment says Manafort and his associates sought to have top European politicians "take positions favorable to Ukraine" when lobbying the U.S., "secretly" paying them for such efforts. "The plan was for the former politicians, informally called the 'Hapsburg group,' to appear to be providing their independent assessments of Ukraine's actions, when in fact the were paid lobbyists for Ukraine," the court document reads. To read more of our piece, click here.   DOJ SECRETLY SEIZES JOURNALIST'S PHONE RECORDS OVER LEAK PROBE: The Department of Justice reportedly seized a New York Times reporter's phone and email records this year in an effort to probe the leaking of classified information, the first known instance of the DOJ going after a journalist's data under President Trump. The Times reported Thursday that the DOJ seized years worth of records from journalist Ali Watkins's time as a reporter at BuzzFeed News and Politico before she joined The Times in 2017 as a federal law enforcement reporter. Watkins was alerted by a prosecutor in February that the DOJ had years of records and subscriber information from telecommunications companies such as Google and Verizon for two email accounts and a phone number belonging to her. Investigators did not receive the content of the records, according to The Times. What The Times/Some members of the media are saying: "It's always disconcerting when a journalist's telephone records are obtained by the Justice Department -- through a grand jury subpoena or other legal process," Watkin's attorney Mark MacDougall said in a statement to The Times. Background: This strategy to go after reporters started in the Obama administration. But ... Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced last year that the DOJ had tripled the number of leak investigations it was conducting compared to the Obama administration, which prosecuted more leak cases than all other administrations. FBI agents reportedly contacted Watkins about a previous three-year romantic relationship with the Senate Intelligence Committee's former director of security, James Wolfe, as part of a probe into unauthorized leaks. Wolfe is accused of lying to the FBI in December about his communications with three reporters through encrypted messaging applications. He is slated to make his first court appearance in the case on Friday at the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. To read more about the Justice Department's actions, click here. We've got more on the indictment here. A Dem senator is calling the charges "extremely troubling." More on that here.   MEANWHILE ... The House Oversight Committee may hold a hearing on the Justice Department's surveillance of the New York Times reporter, a senior member of the panel said Friday. Former Freedom Caucus Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a top President Trump ally, said he was "very nervous" to learn about the extent of the Department of Justice's (DOJ) decision to collect and scrutinize years' worth of the reporter's email and phone records. More on this here.   CHINESE HACKER STEALS SENSITIVE DATA FROM NAVY CONTRACTOR: Hackers linked to the Chinese government broke into computers belonging to a Navy contractor and stole a trove of sensitive information about a U.S. Navy project and undersea warfare, the Washington Post is reporting. The data pilfered from the contractor's computer included plans on a U.S. project to build a supersonic anti-ship missile that can be mounted on American submarines by 2020, according to the Post, which cited unnamed U.S. officials. The Chinese hackers targeted an unnamed contractor working for the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, a Navy research and development facility headquartered in Newport, R.I. They pilfered 614 gigabytes of data on a secret project known as Sea Dragon, as well as signals and sensor data, documents on electronic warfare, and other information. Some key context: Security professionals have long observed Chinese spies conducting cyberattacks against U.S. defense contractors in order to spy on military capabilities. The activity has persisted despite a landmark cyber pact between President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2015 in which both parties agreed to stop supporting cyber-enabled intellectual property theft against businesses within one another's borders. More here. To read the story from the Post, click here.   HOUSE SAYS NO TO REVIVING TECH OFFICE: The House on Friday defeated a proposal to fund the revival of the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), a nonpartisan agency that educated lawmakers on developments in tech and science. Republicans led the 217-195 vote to defeat the amendment, which would have allocated $2.5 million to reestablish the OTA. The OTA was established in 1972 in order to "provide early indications of the probable beneficial and adverse impacts of the applications of technology and to develop other coordinate information which may assist the Congress." But lawmakers decided to scrap the office in 1995 in a budget-cutting spree. Read more here.   SENATORS AIM TO INSERT 'SECURE ELECTIONS ACT' INTO DEFENSE BILL: Senators are trying to pass legislation aimed at securing U.S. election systems from cyberattacks by inserting the measure into annual defense policy legislation. Sens. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have introduced a new version of the Secure Elections Act as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which the upper chamber is poised to take up next week. The lawmakers, backed by a bipartisan group of co-sponsors, originally introduced the legislation last December amid rising fears over threats to voter registration databases and other digital systems as a result of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. According to U.S. officials, Russian hackers targeted election-related systems in 21 states as part of its plot to meddle in the 2016 vote. Since, Lankford and Klobuchar have been working with state election officials to revise the legislation. Some state officials have been wary of federal efforts to address election security, fearing a federal takeover of elections, which have historically been administered by states. The details of the latest measure: The new version of the bill no longer includes a grant program designed to help states replace aging election technology because Congress already appropriated $380 million for states for election security in a massive funding package approved in March, an aide told The Hill. The NDAA amendment also differs from past versions by expanding the Election Assistance Commission's current Technical Guidelines Development Committee and renaming it the Technical Advisory Board. This entity replaces the advisory panel originally proposed by the senators to offer states recommendations for securing their systems, which would have been housed at the Department of Homeland Security. The amendment would also create a floor requiring states conduct post-election audits of federal elections beginning in 2020, with the option for states to waive the requirement until 2022. The measure does not, however, specify how states must go about auditing the federal results. The Senate will take up the NDAA next week. It is not yet clear which amendments will go to the floor for a vote. We've got more here.   TRUMP DONOR HELPED PRUITT TAP SCIENCE ADVISERS: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt sought and acted upon a recommendation from a major Trump campaign donor for an individual to head the agency's leading science body, internal documents show. Doug Deason, a Dallas businessman and financial backer of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, gave the EPA a list of names of candidates for Pruitt's Science Advisory Board in August, after being asked by Pruitt personally for recommendations. Deason's involvement in making suggestions for the board, of which one -- Michael Honeycutt -- was appointed, was unearthed in a trove of internal EPA emails obtained by the Sierra Club through a Freedom of Information Act request and first reported on by Politico Friday.   A LIGHTER TWITTER CLICK: ALL CAPS is great to celebrate the Washington Capitals' WIN last night, but it is not so good for...   NOTABLE LINKS FROM AROUND THE WEB: U.S. officials are preparing for Chinese espionage at North Korea summit. (NBC News) The Defense Digital Service is taking action to help Army Cyber Command boost its cyber specialists. (FedScoop) 'Tech optimists' weigh in on the effects of the Cambridge Analytica fiasco. (Vox) The video game industry powers up. (Wall Street Journal) Mueller wants to inspect witnesses' encrypted messaging apps. (CNBC) How Congress is struggling to get smart on tech. (Washington Post)           Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Technology Newsletters     Forward Technology Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.

Overnight Finance: Trump wants Russia back in G-7 | Senators, US allies push back | House approves first fiscal 2019 spending bills | Dems want insider trading probe over Trump job tweet

View in your browser     Happy Friday and welcome back to Overnight Finance, where we'd love to hang out in Quebec for as long as possible. I'm Sylvan Lane, and here's your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. See something I missed? Let me know at slane@thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1NxxW2N. Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@thehill.com, vneedham@thehill.com, njagoda@thehill.com and nelis@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane, @VickofTheHill, @NJagoda and @NivElis.   THE BIG DEAL: President Trump on Friday said that Russia should be reinstated into the Group of Seven major economies, a comment that could further anger U.S. allies during what is already expected to be a tense set of meetings.  Speaking to reporters on the South Lawn before leaving for Canada to attend the G-7 summit, Trump said he has been "Russia's worst nightmare" but argued the country should be a part of the economic talks. "With that being said, Russia should be in this meeting," he said. "Why are we having a meeting without Russia being in the meeting?" Russia was ousted from the then-Group of Eight in 2014 in order to punish Moscow for annexing Crimea and supporting pro-Kremlin separatists in eastern Ukraine. "Whether you like it or not, and it may not be politically correct, but we have a world to run," Trump said. "And in the G-7, which used be the G-8, they threw Russia out. They should let Russia come back in because we should have Russia at the negotiating table."  The president's remarks stoked even more drama surrounding the G-7, where he was already expected to face a barrage of criticism over his decision to impose steep tariffs on goods produced by U.S. allies. The Hill's Jordan Fabian reports on the fallout here.   UK pushes back: The United Kingdom is rebuffing President Trump's suggestion that Russia rejoin the G-7 group of the world's top industrialized economies. "We should remind ourselves why the G8 became the G7 -- it was after Russia illegally annexed Crimea," a senior government source from the United Kingdom said.  "Since then we have seen malign activity from Russia in a whole variety of ways, including on the streets of Salisbury in the UK. Before any conversations can take place about Russia rejoining, it needs to change its approach," the source added. The summit promises to be tense. Leaders from the other six countries in attendance --Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Japan -- have harshly condemned Trump for imposing aluminum and steel tariffs on their countries, and threatening others. "We disagree with these, we think they're unjustified," British Prime Minister Theresa May said Friday morning en route to the summit. The Hill's Niv Elis has more here.   Allies fire warning shots ahead of G7: Trump maintained his calls to crack down on what he deemed unfair trade practices by key U.S. allies on Friday, as he prepared to head to Quebec for the Group of Seven Summit. In a pair of tweets, Trump railed against Canadian tariffs on dairy products, and said that even if he's unable to balance out "unfair Trade Deals" with G7 members, the U.S. would "come out even better." The tweets were the latest in a war of words between the president and key U.S. allies, particularly Canada and France, that escalated on Thursday. The Hill's Max Greenwood tells us more about that here.   Background: "Trump blasts Macron, Trudeau ahead of G-7 summit" Reactions: "This is weak. Putin is not our friend and he is not the president's buddy. He is a thug using Soviet-style aggression to wage a shadow war against America, and our leaders should act like it." -- Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.). "President Trump is turning our foreign policy into an international joke, doing lasting damage to our country, without any rhyme or reason." -- Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) "No, Russia should not be added to the G-7." -- Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). "The president has inexplicably shown our adversaries the deference and esteem that should be reserved for our closest allies." -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).   What comes next: Trump plans to cut short his visit at the Group of Seven summit in Canada on Saturday and fly directly to Singapore for his planned meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The White House did not say whether the dispute between Trump and his fellow G-7 leaders had anything to do with the decision to depart for Singapore days before his summit with Kim. LEADING THE DAY House approves first 2019 spending bills: The House on Friday approved its first three 2019 spending bills, packaged together in a "minibus."  The bills passed on a mostly party-line vote of 235-179. The three bills, Energy and Water, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, add up to $144.5 billion of the total $1.2 trillion in discretionary spending allowed by budget caps for 2019. An additional $921 million was set aside in off-budget spending in the Military Construction bill. While the minibus covers items that tend to be less controversial than those dealing with border security, health and labor, Democrats were upset by provisions in the bills they say cut funding from clean energy initiatives and expand gun rights on public land. The Hill's Niv Elis breaks it down here.   House passes Trump's plan to claw back $15 billion in spending: The House voted along party lines late Thursday to pass a White House proposal that would claw back nearly $15 billion in previously approved government funding. The House approved the measure in a vote of 210-206, with conservatives calling it a step in the right direction after they ripped into the price tag of the $1.3 trillion spending bill President Trump signed earlier this year. Trump had pushed lawmakers earlier this week to vote in favor of the clawback plan, known as the Spending Cuts to Expired and Unnecessary Programs Act, which GOP leaders have been working on for two months. Here's more on what the cuts entail from Niv and Juliegrace Brufke.    Dems want insider trading probe after Trump jobs report tweet: Three Senate Democrats on Friday called for a broad probe into whether President Trump broke federal trading laws and executive branch protocol before the release of the May jobs report last week Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Ron Wyden (Ore.) and Michael Bennet (Colo.) sent letters to the chiefs of three federal agencies and the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) regarding Trump's knowledge of the May jobs report released on June 1. The senators also asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), to investigate whether Trump or any White House staffer revealed information that led to insider trading. I explain why here.    ON TAP NEXT WEEK   Monday: The Heritage Foundation hosts an event on farm subsidy reforms featuring Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), 12 p.m.   Tuesday: Senate Banking Committee: Vote on the nominations of Richard Clarida to be vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and Michelle Bowman to be the Federal Reserve Board governor with community bank experience, 10 a.m. The Heritage Foundation hosts an event entitled "Blockchain: What It Is and How It Will Change Lives," 10:30 a.m.   Wednesday: House Financial Services Committee: Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting testifies on financial industry regulation, 10 a.m Brookings Institution hosts an event entitled "Building a More Dynamic and Competitive Economy," 1:30 House Financial Services Committee: Hearing entitled "Ensuring Effectiveness, Fairness, and Transparency in Securities Law Enforcement," 2 p.m. Senate Select Committee on Pension Solvency: Hearing entitled "Employer Perspectives on Multiemployer Pension Plans," 2 p.m.   Thursday: Senate Banking Committee: Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting testifies on the agency's work, 10 a.m. House Small Business Committee: Hearing entitled "Shrinking the Skills Gap: Solutions to the Small Business Workforce Shortage," 10 a.m.   NEXT WEEK'S NEWS, NOW President Trump's long-awaited summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un is on track to happen next Tuesday. It's hard to predict what will happen when the two sit face to face, but it could obviously profound implications for the global economy and, more specifically, the U.S. sanctions regime. Check in at The Hill this weekend as we preview the big meet. The Senate Banking Committee will vote Tuesday on the nominations of Trump's two latest Fed nominees, Richard Clarida for vice chairman and Michelle Bowman for the Fed governor spot reserved for a community banker. Both should be approved by the panel near unanimously. Read more here about their testimony before the committee and what they would bring to the Fed. Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting is scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee next week. Republicans have praised his efforts to ease Obama-era bank rules, while Democrats are likely to rip him for those efforts.   GOOD TO KNOW Senate Republicans are pressing President Trump to end talks on renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by Labor Day, fearing the trade dispute will cast a shadow on the midterm elections. The House on Friday approved a measure to require financial oversight of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Former Vice President Joe Biden on Friday criticized President Trump for suggesting that Russia be reinstated into the G7. Half of U.S. voters, 50 percent, oppose the Trump administration's recently implemented tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, according to the Quinnipiac University poll released Friday. The Treasury Department's assistant secretary for legislative affairs is expected take a job leading the top trade association for private equity, according to Politico.   ODDS AND ENDS President Trump said Friday that he will likely support a bipartisan bill to allow states to regulate marijuana without federal interference.         Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up for Finance Newsletters     Forward Finance Newsletters       Privacy Policy  |  Manage Subscriptions  |  Unsubscribe  |  Email to a friend  |  Sign Up for Other Newsletters   The Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006 ©2016 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc.