• Connecticut: The Sackler family, who owns Purdue Pharma, has proposed a new $7.4 billion settlement to end its years-long opioid litigation. Previously, the Sacklers agreed to pay a total settlement of $6 billion to states, local governments, and individuals who were impacted by the opioid crisis in exchange for immunity from civil lawsuits. However, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the bankruptcy agreement last summer. Under the new settlement, the Sacklers agreed to pay up to $6.5 billion over 15 years while Purdue Pharma would pay almost $900 million. If the agreement is approved in court, the money would be used to fund opioid addiction treatment, prevention, and recovery programs across the country. "No dollar amount could ever replace what has been lost due to the opioid epidemic, but this settlement will go a long way in bolstering treatment resources and helping Pennsylvanians achieve recovery," said Pennsylvania Attorney General David Sunday (R). "This epidemic, no doubt, was fueled by Purdue Pharma's manufacturing and deceptive marketing of OxyContin, a highly potent and addictive drug." So far, states that have agreed to the deal include New York, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. (Becker, Fierce Pharma, 1/24)
• District of Columbia: On Monday, the White House Office of Management and Budget ordered a temporary freeze on federal grants and payments so that they could be reviewed to ensure they are in line with President Donald Trump's recent executive orders. The memo announcing the freeze, which was initially slated to go into effect Tuesday, stated that Medicare and Social Security benefits would not be affected. Another memo later clarified that Medicaid and direct benefit funds would also not be affected. However, at least three U.S. lawmakers reported that healthcare providers were unable to access Medicaid payment portals after the freeze was announced. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the administration was aware of the Medicaid program's portal outage and said it would be back online soon. She said no payments have been affected. So far, attorneys general from over 20 states, as well as several healthcare organizations, have filed lawsuits to halt the spending freeze. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan temporarily blocked the Trump administration's funding freeze until Feb. 3. "There is a lot of anxiety from what's to come," said Joe Stevens, a spokesperson for the Virginia Community Healthcare Association, which relies heavily on Medicaid reimbursements. "I don't know if this is over. I think it's you can breathe a sigh of relief today, but who knows what tomorrow we're going to face?" (Early, Modern Healthcare, 1/28; Reuters, 1/28; Khalid et al., NPR, 1/28; Goldman/Reed, Axios, 1/29)
• Virginia: In a new assessment, the CIA said it believes the COVID-19 virus originated from a Chinese lab rather than through natural transmission. The assessment, which was made using existing evidence and not new information, was made with low confidence. "CIA assesses with low confidence that a research-related origin of the COVID-19 pandemic is more likely than a natural origin based on the available body of reporting," an agency spokesperson said. "CIA continues to assess that both research-related and natural origin scenarios of the COVID-19 pandemic remain plausible." In response to the assessment, Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said "[i]t is extremely unlikely the pandemic was caused by a lab leak" and that "[t]his has been widely recognized by the international community, including the scientific community." Mao did not say where the COVID-19 virus originated but noted that any judgment on the virus' origins should be made by scientists. (Pandey, Axios, 1/26; Weixel/Beitsch, The Hill, 1/27)

The Trump administration on Monday issued a freeze on federal grants and payments, leading to widespread confusion over its potential impact on Medicare and Medicaid, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Connecticut, the District of Columbia, and Virginia.