In Brief: Superbug Contamination Reported at UCLA Health; Bill Aimed At Reducing Prescription Drug Costs

Superbug Contamination Reported At UCLA Health 

The UCLA Health system acknowledged this week that improperly sterilized endoscopes led to dozens of patients being exposed to a “super bug” that has claimed at least two lives to date.

According to a statement issued by UCLA Health, it has “notified more than 100 patients that they may have been infected by a 'superbug' bacteria during complex endoscopic procedures that took place between October 2014 and January 2015. The patients are being offered free home testing kits that would be analyzed at UCLA.”

UCLA said the patients were potentially exosed to a bacterium known as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriacea, or CRE. There have been at least seven confirmed infections to date. 

The exposures were linked to endoscopic exams and attachments for pancreatic issues. UCLA Health said the devices were sterilized per the manufacturer's guidelines but that it “is now utilizing a decontamination process that goes above and beyond manufacturer and national standards.” 

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, the CRE may have resided in a specific cranny of the instrument that was not reached by the sterilization process. The newspaper said a Seattle hospital ordered 20 extra endoscopic instruments in order to have additional time to properly sterilize the instruments.

UCLA also said that it had notified Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and the California Department of Public Health regarding the patient exposures.

Bill Aims At Reducing Pharmaceutical Costs For Patients

A bill recently introduced in the California Legislature would focus on reducing the amount of co-payments patients would have to make to purchase pricier prescription drugs.

The bill, AB 339, authored by Assemblyman Richard Gordon, D-Los Altos, would more closely regulate the practice of health plans of placing the highest-cost drugs into the top tiers of their formularies. Specifically, it would address such placements for an entire category of drugs prescribed to treat specific medical conditions.

Gordon claimed that by putting an entire class of drugs that treat a specific illness into a top tier, it would have a discriminatory effect against people who do not have the means to obtain those drugs.

The bill also contains provisions requiring health plans to cover all medications deemed medically necessary if they do not have a therapeutic equivalent and introduce a specialty drug category that would be closely monitored by regulators such as the California Department of Managed Health Care.

The first hearings on the bill are expected to take place during the latter half of March.

The California Association of Health Plans, the state’s primary trade group for insurers, said that the costs are so high because drugs are often expensive, and that such a bill would merely shift costs to more consumers in the form of higher premiums. CAHP suggested that drug firms cut their prices instead.