Jan. 22: Pharma and medical-device giant Johnson & Johnson is set to deliver earnings for the quarter that ended in December. Expectations are that the company will report $20.79 billion in revenue, up 2% from the prior-year quarter. According to the Zacks consensus estimate, pharmaceuticals will report $10.47 billion in sales, and medical devices are expected to tally $6.75 billion. J&J continues to be embroiled in the opioid crisis. Early this month, the state of Washington levied a lawsuit against the company, alleging its practices to market pain medications violated the state’s Consumer Protection Act. It also contends the company was negligent and a public nuisance. A judge in Oklahoma last November finalized an order directing J&J to pay that state $465 million to address the opioid crisis.
Jan. 23-24: The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission holds its monthly meeting. A good chunk of the first day will focus on policies surrounding pregnant women with substance use disorder and infants with neonatal abstinence syndrome. Estimates suggest that 5% of pregnant women use one or more addictive substances, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Other data from HHS show that the rate of neonatal abstinence syndrome soared 433% between 2004 and 2014. Also on MACPAC’s agenda: caring for dual-eligibles and evaluating Section 1115 demonstrations. Our rules and regulations reporter Michael Brady will be there covering the meeting, so keep an eye out for his reports.
Jan. 24: A work group of the Health Information Technology Advisory Committee meets for the first time this year to continue debating new committee priorities for 2020. So far, the work group—officially called the Annual Report Workgroup—has mulled adding topics like price transparency, patient-generated health data and third-party access to data to the committee’s roster of activities. HITAC, a group of roughly 30 health IT heavyweights that provides policy recommendations to HHS’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, will review the work group’s recommendations in February. Watch for coverage online and in our HITS newsletter from technology reporter Jessica Kim Cohen.
