EMTALA is safe

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday that Republicans don’t want to change a law requiring hospitals to provide care to any individual experiencing a medical emergency, including immigrants without legal status.

His remarks capped off more than a week of comments from Republican politicians related to the idea of undocumented immigrants receiving medical care. Republicans claim that the Democrats’ government-funding bill would spend hundreds of billions of dollars providing "free health care for illegals." It’s one of Republicans’ most consistent arguments in the government shutdown debate.

Undocumented immigrants can’t receive federally funded health insurance, which prompted questions about whether the administration wants to deny emergency care to undocumented immigrants. The White House’s handling of those questions last week didn’t help, but Johnson’s comments on Wednesday made clear that Republicans don’t plan to change EMTALA.

drug prices

The MFN snowball

After Pfizer struck a deal with President Trump to sell drugs to Medicaid at the lower prices it charges in other rich countries, other companies are feeling the pressure to do likewise, Daniel Payne reports.

Additional drugmakers could announce deals with the White House as soon as this week, according to five drug industry Washington representatives and lobbyists.

But negotiations aren’t done and the government shutdown could contribute to delays. Read more.

the courts

Pharma is on a losing streak

Meanwhile, a federal appeals court issued a ruling that could help the Trump administration use Medicare drug price negotiation to more aggressively lower prices, including for blockbuster diabetes and weight loss products.

A panel of three judges appointed by Presidents Trump, Biden, and Bush unanimously rejected a Novo Nordisk challenge to Medicare’s drug price negotiation program. The ruling lets the government lump together products with the same ingredient for the purpose of choosing drugs for negotiation.

That allows Medicare to subject more branded drugs to price negotiation, and it could help the Trump administration with its proposal to plug a loophole that drugmakers could use to avoid Medicare price negotiation on some of their products by making minor tweaks.

supreme court

Conversion therapy ban on trial

The majority of Supreme Court justices seemed inclined to rule against a Colorado law banning licensed mental health practitioners from trying to change a young person’s sexual or gender identity, Theresa Gaffney reports.

The most obvious impact would be on the practice of “conversion therapy,” but the ruling could have broader implications for the regulation of medicine and the development of medical standards of care.

“The medical consensus is usually very reasonable, and it’s very important,” Justice Samuel Alito said. “But have there been times when the medical consensus has been politicized, has been taken over by ideology?”

fda

The doors on FDA spin round and round

Peter Marks, the former top vaccine regulator at the Food and Drug Administration, has joined Eli Lilly to oversee molecule discovery and infectious diseases at Lilly Research Laboratories, Lizzy Lawrence reports.

That move plays right into health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s criticism of the revolving door between the agency and industry.

But former FDA scientists wouldn’t need to look for jobs if Kennedy and DOGE hadn’t either fired them or pushed them out, spinning the revolving door faster. Read more.

More around STAT

Check out more exclusive coverage with a STAT+ subscription

Read premium in-depth biotech, pharma, policy, and life science coverage and analysis with all of our STAT+ articles.

What we’re reading

Opinion: What RFK Jr. gets wrong about medical school and nutrition education, STAT
Trump wants to overhaul drug sales. A company tied to his son stands to benefit, The Wall Street Journal
More people with psychosis are using cannabis. Medical professionals are worried, STAT
Six surgeons general: It’s our duty to warn the nation about RFK Jr., Washington Post

Thanks for reading! More next time,