In this week's edition of e-news...

Murphy Reviews Public Safety Concerns With CDC To Assess Threats to SWPA 
COLA, Social Security & Medicare Top Priorities At Hempfield Senior Expo
E&C Committee Names Murphy’s Generic Drug Bill ‘2012 Legislative Achievement’

Murphy Reviews Public Safety Concerns With CDC To Assess Threats to SWPA  

Following the recent outbreak of deadly fungal meningitis linked to steroid injections, Congressman Murphy had a discussion Friday afternoon with officials from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to review steps being taken to protect the public and identify future actions needed to improve the safety and accountability of compounding pharmacies.

The outbreak is a result of contaminated ‘Methylprednisolone Acetate’—a steroid injection used to treat back and joint pain—supplied to patients in 23 states by the compounding pharmacy New England Compounding Center (NECC) located in Massachusetts. So far, the outbreak has impacted 271 individuals in 23 states. Only one case has been confirmed in Pennsylvania. If you have received a steroid injection and are concerned you may be at risk, please contact your physician or visit the CDC's website to view a list of affected facilities and areas. A full list of medications produced by the facility and subsequently recalled is also available on the FDA’s website here.

Compounding pharmacies provide customized medications, making unique doses individually prescribed by a physician when a standard pre-manufactured prescription drug will not suffice. For example, compounding pharmacies can change a pill into an easily swallowed form for individuals who otherwise can't take medication in pill form. With the vast majority of orders, a licensed medical doctor will write a prescription for a patient’s specific problem, and the patient then takes it to a compounding pharmacy. These types of small orders carry far less risk.

During the discussion this afternoon with CDC officials, Murphy was assured that local compounding pharmacies pose no threat to public health. This outbreak is a result of the New England Compounding Company taking raw materials and turning it into medication without receiving specific requests from doctors and patients. Compounding on such a large scale is considered to be drug manufacturing, which is an activity regulated by the Food Drug and Administration. But NECC did not register as a manufacturer with the FDA, which would have subjected them to strict guidelines, routine inspections, and good manufacturing processes. Murphy learned that inspectors dispatched to the NECC after the outbreak was traced to the facility found it to be unclean.  Dust harboring environmental organisms had formed on ceiling tiles and other surfaces at NECC. These organisms can spread by air currents and may have contaminated medicines that should have been produced in a sterile setting.

It is important to note that medications used for pregnancy epidurals are completely unrelated to this problem and have not been found to pose any threat to public health. If you have additional questions about the outbreak, please do not hesitate to contact Murphy’s office at (202) 225-2301 or visit the CDC or FDA websites.

COLA, Social Security & Medicare Top Priorities At Hempfield Senior Expo

Tens of thousands of Southwestern Pennsylvania seniors rely on Medicare and Social Security during their retirement years for basic necessities like food, monthly electricity bills, doctor visits and prescription drugs. During Wednesday’s Senior Expo in Hempfield Township in Westmoreland County, Congressman Murphy fielded questions from countless seniors on the latest updates from Washington on these programs that will impact them here at home.

For starters, Murphy shared the news that the Social Security Administration will provide a 1.7 percent cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) next year, which translates to an adjustment of $21 per month. The Congressman expressed his belief that the current COLA model fails to take into account the rising price of healthcare, including medical procedures and prescription drugs and other cost-of-living expenses unique to seniors and those on disability. That’s why Murphy supports The Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act to establish a new rate relevant to seniors expenses instead of the population as a whole. The bill directs the Department of Labor to prepare and publish a monthly Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers (CPI-E) to calculate the changes over time in expenditures for individuals aged 62 years or older.

At the event Murphy also spoke with seniors about his efforts to shore up the Medicare and Social Security Trust funds. In the past, the federal government attempted to cover overspending by “borrowing” trillions from the Social Security Trust Fund. To stop Congress or the Administration from treating the trust funds as a piggy bank for earmarks and new programs, Murphy authored the Social Security and Medicare Protection Act (H.R. 1630). Murphy’s bill stops spending of hard-earned taxpayer dollars by ensuring that money seniors pay into the trust fund is only spent on those programs.

Another important issue impacting seniors today involves a complicated federal law called “Medicare Secondary Payer.” Imagine you suffer an injury while visiting your local grocery store. Under current law, Medicare’s bureaucracy would prevent you from collecting a settlement until the store reimbursed the Medicare Trust Fund for your medical bills. In fact, those stores, as well as insurance companies and attorneys, are trying to repay hundreds of millions of dollars owed to the Medicare Trust Fund but government bureaucracy is standing in the way. Without Congressional action, this convoluted process puts legal settlements at risk and causes some seniors to lose their Medicare coverage or have their Social Security checks garnished. Congressman Murphy introduced the ‘Strengthening Medicare and Repaying Taxpayers Act’ (SMART Act, H.R. 1063), which eliminates bureaucratic delays in the Medicare system while helping to ensure that seniors who are injured receive the proper settlement in a timely manner. After receiving unanimous support from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the SMART Act awaits a full vote on the House floor, where strong bipartisan support is expected.

Murphy also reminded seniors at the Expo that open enrollment for Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage begins Monday, October 15th and runs through December 7th, 2012. During open enrollment, all Medicare eligible individuals can join, switch, or drop a Medicare drug or Advantage plan for the upcoming year. Medicare Advantage plans are managed care offerings like Security Blue and UPMC for Life.
 
If you have questions or concerns about your Medicare plans or need assistance enrolling in a new plan, please contact Congressman Murphy’s Mt. Lebanon (412) 344-5583 or Greensburg (724) 850-7312 offices, where a member of his staff will assist you. You can also learn more about Medicare plans online by visiting www.medicare.gov.

To learn more about Murphy’s work to save and strengthen Medicare and Social Security, visit his official website.

To share your thoughts with Congressman Murphy about his work on behalf of SWPA seniors, please click here.

E&C Committee Names Murphy’s Generic Drug Bill ‘2012 Legislative Achievement’

From championing clean coal, expanding wireless broadband access to rural communities, and supporting legislation to create well-paying careers in the energy and manufacturing industry for Southwestern Pennsylvania families, the House Energy & Commerce Committee has tackled an aggressive legislative workload during the 112th Congress.

On Thursday, the Committee released its annual legislative achievement report, which recognized Congressman Murphy’s legislation – recently signed into law– to expand access to affordable, quality generic medications.

Murphy’s Generic Drug and Biosimilar User Fee Act of 2012 (H.R. 3988) was enacted this past July as part of a larger Food and Drug Administration reform measure. The law expedites approvals of generic pharmaceuticals and eliminates a 2,800 generic application backlog within the agency. Approving more generic medications quickly and safely will save money for seniors with chronic illnesses. Access to life-saving generics, which are exact replicates of name-brand drugs, senior citizens save an estimated $1,000 annually on drug costs. Murphy’s bill will add to those savings, and close a major safety gap in the global drug supply chain by forcing the FDA to inspect foreign factories with the same rigor and biennial frequency that it does with domestic plants.

Currently, the FDA is supposed to make a decision on a generic application within 16 months. But the agency is taking twice that amount of time because it lacks resources for conducting reviews and inspecting factories. The foreign inspection and application review program within Murphy’s bill is funded by $1.5 billion in user fees from generic drug makers, not taxpayers.

Also recognized in the report was the ‘Stop the War on Coal Act,’ a bill to eliminate regulatory burdens that threaten Pennsylvania's abundant coal resources and the jobs the coal industry supports. In addition to supporting this jobs bill, Murphy recently participated in a special leadership debate on the House floor to discuss the impact of new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on Southwestern Pennsylvania’s economy, which is highly dependent on mining coal and using coal to generate electricity and make steel.

H.R. 3409 stops new EPA regulations from dramatically raising energy prices on families and shutting down coal as an affordable source of energy for American factories. The bill, which passed the House in September by a bipartisan vote of 233-175, includes three proposals advanced by the Energy & Commerce Committee: the Energy Tax Prevention Act to block back-door implementation of global warming regulations; the TRAIN Act to require federal agencies undertake a cooperative review and assess the cumulative impact of new EPA regulations on jobs, energy prices, electric reliability, and America’s overall global economic competitiveness; and the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act, which empowers states to safely dispose of fly ash.

Perhaps most importantly, the bill prohibits the Secretary of the Interior from issuing new rules or regulations that adversely impact mining jobs and the economy; cause a reduction in coal revenue through regulation of coal mining; reduce the amount of coal available for domestic consumption or export; designate any area as unsuitable for surface coal mining and reclamation operations; or expose the U.S. to liability for taking the value of privately owned coal through regulation.

To read more about the Energy and Commerce Committee’s 2012 legislative achievements, take a look at the official report.

To share your thoughts with Congressman Murphy about his work on the Energy & Commerce Committee, please click here.