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Sierra Nevada Health Center is one of Carson City's two federally-qualified health care centers that were hoping for renewed funding at the beginning of this month, but are instead still waiting on Congress to extend the Community Health Centers Fund program that expired on Sept. 30, 2016...Nevada's six federally-qualified health care centers provide care to around 89,000 patients across the state. Sierra Nevada Health Center and Carson City School-based Health Center provide care to Carson City and Carson Valley residents and are hanging in a balance after the deadline to extend the funding passed...Nevada's health centers are among more than 1,300 community health centers across the U.S. that receive funding from the CHCF program. Today, Nevada's health centers employ more than 60 medical professionals...Earlier this month, Nevada Health Centers CEO and board chairs sent a letter to Nevada's congressional delegation to encourage action on funding for community health centers...addressed to Republican Sen. Dean Heller, Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, Republican Rep. Mark Amodei, Democratic Rep. Jacky Rosen and Democratic Rep. Ruben Kihuen, the CEO and board chairs asked for unity between political parties and a solution to health care funding...The letter encourages Nevada congressional members "to develop a long-term, fiscally responsible funding plan that ensures the success of our country's greatest public health asset."

Just one week after some of Allscripts’ services were shut down by ransomware, the EHR giant is facing a lawsuit for allegedly failing to secure its systems and data from cyberattacks...Allscripts went down on Jan. 18, after two of its data centers...fell victim to SamSam ransomware...Florida-based Surfside Non-Surgical Orthopedics is suing Allscripts on behalf of all clients impacted, as the system outage resulted in canceled appointments, care disruptions and "significant business interruption and disruption and lost revenues.”...The provider was unable to access its patient records or electronically prescribe medications, and as a result of the outage, Surfside has “expended significant time and effort resolving these issues resulting from the breach.”...Surfside alleges that Allscripts was aware of “deficiencies in its products and services [that] could result in privacy and security vulnerability or compromises and failed to take adequate measures to protect against any such event.”

Why some US cities are opening safe spaces for injecting heroin...The concept recently gained traction in Philadelphia, where officials announced this week that they intend to open such a space, known as a supervised drug consumption facility or safe injection site...The idea: While in an ideal world no one would use dangerous and potentially deadly drugs, many people do. So it's better to give these drug users a space where they can use with some sort of supervision in case something goes wrong. It's a harm reduction approach...Studies consistently show that supervised consumption facilities work. These kinds of sites have opened in Canada, Australia, and Europe, showing drops in drug overdoses, related emergency care calls, risky behaviors that lead to HIV or hepatitis C transmissions, and general public disorder and nuisance associated with drugs...the facilities remain highly controversial in the U.S...much of America's drug policy is colored by a criminalized, stigmatized approach to addiction — one that demands shunning and shutting down all drug use...Under this view, the idea of giving people a safe space to use drugs seems downright counterintuitive...Philadelphia is now angling to become the first city with a legally sanctioned safe injection site. The city is reportedly hoping to hear from potential operators of a facility. It's not clear when such a site will open...

Shares of generic-drug makers including Mylan NV and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. fell after the Justice Department’s antitrust division said it might sue them for damages in a price-fixing probe...If taxpayers were overcharged because drugmakers conspired to raise the price of drugs, the Justice Department will consider suing to seek damages, Makan Delrahim, the division’s chief, said...“To the extent that taxpayers have had to pay that bill, I think the taxpayers should recover,” he said. “We will get involved on the civil side and recover damages for the U.S. government.”...Mylan dropped as much as 3.1 percent after the comments and traded down 0.6 percent to $46.25 at 1:37 p.m. in New York. Teva’s U.S. depositary receipts dropped as much as 2.8 percent and were down 1.5 percent to $20.41 and Endo International Plc fell 5.6 percent to $6.92...The three drugmakers are among more than a dozen companies targeted by the Justice Department and state attorneys general in a multi-year investigation into generic drug price-fixing. So far, the probe has led to guilty pleas from two former executives of Heritage Pharmaceuticals...

Canadian pharmaceuticals billionaire Barry Sherman and his wife Honey, who were found hanged at their indoor swimming pool, were murdered...Detective Sergeant Susan Gomes said investigators came to the conclusion after six weeks of investigation, but declined to discuss possible motives or suspects...“We have sufficient evidence to describe this as a double homicide investigation and that both Honey and Barry Sherman were in fact targeted,”…Sherman, the founder of generic drug maker Apotex, and his wife were found dead in their mansion on December 15...Sherman was a fiercely competitive businessman, once musing that a rival might want to kill him...The 75-year-old tycoon was known for litigiousness and aggressive businesses practises as he developed Apotex, which has a global workforce of about 11,000. He conceded he made enemies in Prescription Games, a 2001 book about the industry.

Under-served patients haven’t benefited...The 340B Drug Pricing Program, a 25-year-old discount plan aimed at boosting resources for hospitals treating low-income patients, has not delivered on its promise to enhance care for the needy, according to research from Harvard Medical School and the NYU School of Medicine...The federal program was designed to provide discounted drugs to hospitals that treat many low-income patients under the premise that generating surplus revenue would give these hospitals the financial resources to improve care for their most vulnerable. However, eligible hospitals have not used the financial windfalls from the program in ways that have clearly benefited under-served patients, according to results of the study published January 24 in The New England Journal of Medicine...Researchers say their findings paint a picture of good intentions handicapped by poor policy design and lack of oversight.

Laura Joszt, assistant managing editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Republican Governor Doug Ducey...signed into law legislation intended to crack down on opioid abuse, calling it vital to combat an epidemic felt statewide and across the nation...The legislation includes new regulations that will limit initial opioid prescriptions to five days and set a maximum of 30 days for certain patients receiving highly addictive painkillers...Other measures call for $10 million to be spent treating opioid abusers who are underinsured and ineligible for Medicaid. A controversial provision holds harmless those reporting potential overdoses...Despite the unanimous final vote, some lawmakers raised concerns about the unintended consequences of the state becoming more involved in doctor-patient issues, fearing it may hurt individuals needing opioids...

Federal regulators said Wednesday that they are cracking down on marketers and distributors selling a dozen products that “illegally” claimed to treat or cure opioid addiction and withdrawal...In letters sent earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission cited products that target people desperate to find relief from their addictions. They include “Opiate Freedom 5-Pack,” “CalmSupport” and “Soothedrawal.” Most of the 12 items are marketed as dietary supplements, while two are homeopathic remedies, the FDA said...The letters are the latest effort to combat what FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called a “proliferation” of unapproved products claiming to treat opioid addiction. In a statement, Gottlieb excoriated “unscrupulous vendors who are trying to capitalize on the epidemic by taking advantage of consumers and selling products with baseless claims.”

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.