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The Nevada Dispensary Association is responding to a recent state audit that was critical of the seed-to-sale tracking system the marijuana industry uses, noting that auditors did not find cannabis was diverted to or from the black market and suggesting that confusion over new software led to reporting errors...State auditors found frequent discrepancies between the amount of sales that are logged into the seed-to-sale tracking software METRC, and those reported on state tax returns. The association, which represents numerous marijuana businesses, did not comment...but provided a statement to The Nevada Independent about the findings this week...The audit suggested that with data incongruencies between the tax returns and the software, the state could have been losing out on $500,000 in tax revenue in a six-month period...READ MORE

Two bills introduced in a Senate health committee...in the Legislature would protect health care benefits in Nevada...Senate Bill 235 would extend pre-existing condition protections created by the federal Affordable Care Act to state law...If SB235 is approved, those with chronic conditions would continue to be protected from discrimination by insurers...A second bill, SB192, introduced in the committee...would require employers to offer comprehensive health coverage that covers all of the ACA’s 10 essential health benefits, including prescription and maternity coverage, if they pay employees at the lower end of a two-tiered minimum wage system...READ MORE

The Valley Health System will welcome 26 new resident physicians in general surgery and family medicine in July as the Las Vegas-based hospital chain aims to make its mark in graduate medical education...The hospitals will enroll 10 first-year family medicine residents and 16 general surgery residents in their first and second years of residency, said Dr. Andrew Eisen...without the residencies, we’re not going to be able to retain those folks to practice here...Just over half of the physicians who complete their residency training in Nevada continue to practice in-state, according to an analysis by the Association of American Medical Colleges, compared to about 35 percent of medical students who graduate in Nevada and go on to practice in the state...READ MORE

State health officials gave legislators an overview of Nevada’s Medicaid program in an Assembly committee meeting...during which the program’s new administrator said the state program will be tackling a decrease in federal funding in coming years...“These rates are tied to the overall economy, so when the economy does better, we get a lower … rate from the federal government,” Suzanne Bierman, administrator...Department of Health and Human Services, said...The rate, called a federal medical assistance percentage, determines the share of Medicaid costs covered by the federal government. For the 2019 fiscal year, federal funds cover 65.09 percent of Medicaid costs...That number is expected to decrease to 64.17 percent in the next fiscal year...

Democratic Assemblywoman Ellen Spiegel presented two bills...that would allow patients to apply cash payments on drugs and the costs of out-of-network emergency bills to their insurance plan deductibles or annual out-of-pocket maximums...The two bills aim to reduce the financial burden of meeting high deductibles and annual out-of-pocket maximums, which have become increasingly common in recent years, by allowing patients to contribute payments made outside the scope of his or her insurance plan to them. But health insurers, at a hearing on the bills during a meeting of the Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee...expressed concerns that the requirements as written could be technically difficult to accomplish and overly burdensome...READ MORE

After taking on the pharmaceutical industry two years ago with an insulin pricing transparency bill, Democratic state Sen. Yvanna Cancela plans to continue...A suite of three bills, which Cancela plans to introduce next week, will establish a prescription drug review board, create additional pharmaceutical pricing transparency requirements and mandate that savings in the drug pricing process are passed along to patients. Like the legislation last session, the bills will address the roles that both pharmaceutical manufacturers and the middlemen in the drug pricing process, called pharmacy benefit managers, play in determining drug costs...The pharmaceutical industry has challenged a host of recent state legislation, including bills in California and Maryland, attempting to rein in drug costs by arguing that they violate the Commerce Clause, which restricts the power of states to regulate interstate commerce...READ MORE

First lady Melania Trump is asking the public to look beyond the raw numbers and to see the opioid crisis as a "human story."...Mrs. Trump says that by thinking of the faces behind the statistics "we have the potential to not just reduce, but eliminate" the tens of thousands of deaths that are attributed to opioids annually. Federal statistics show that nearly 48,000 Americans died in 2017 after overdosing on the powerful painkillers...The first lady spoke Tuesday during a town hall-style conversation in Las Vegas on the opioid epidemic. She is using the event to close a two-day, three-state tour to promote her "Be Best" initiative, which includes a focus on babies born dependent on opioids...READ MORE

Drug manufacturers earned an average of $1.58 in profit for every $1 they spent on the production and administration of diabetes drugs in 2017, according to a report released by the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services...But the diabetes drug report...found wide variations in the profitability of drugs used to treat diabetes based on data provided by manufacturers to the state. Although some drug companies reported losses, 69 percent reported of manufacturer reports indicated profits greater than the combined cost of production and administrative expenditures, including some with profits more than 20 times combined costs...The long-awaited report comes nearly two years after lawmakers passed a bill requiring manufacturers of diabetes drugs and PBMs to submit annual reports to the state detailing the costs associated with those drugs and explaining any price increases. The first report based on that information was initially slated to be released in September...READ MORE

UNLV’s School of Medicine will conduct a nationwide search to find a dean. The search will begin this July...The news of the opening position comes after current school of medicine dean, Dr. Barbara Atkinson, announced her departure from the school. She will continue as a dean until her replacement has been selected...“Serving as planning dean and staying on to formally launch the school’s academic and clinical operations has been an incredible experience,” said Atkinson in a press release. “Our students are performing remarkably well and we have achieved so much together.”..The School of Medicine welcomed its first class of students in July 2017. The 60 students, out of 900 applicants, were welcomed with full-ride, four-year, academic scholarships...READ MORE

The legislation, which GOP Assembly members Melissa Hardy and Glen Leavitt presented to the Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee on Monday, would bar pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, from stopping a pharmacist from telling patients about the availability of a less expensive, generic or more effective drug, or a less expensive manner of purchasing a drug. The proposal builds upon a pharmacy gag ban passed by the Legislature in 2017 that prevented PBMs from blocking pharmacists from sharing information about the copay or coinsurance for a prescription drug or the clinical efficacy of a less expensive alternative drug...READ MORE