Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said his department has the power to eliminate prescription drug rebates. The pharmacy benefit manager industry has contended that only Congress has the authority to do so, but Azar said that HHS can eliminate rebates because it created them. (Reuters)

States are passing legislation to prevent increases in drug prices, but the pharma industry is fighting back. States have passed 37 bills, including a California measure that requires drugmakers to give advance notice of price increases and list reasons for the hike. PhRMA has filed a lawsuit to block the law, calling it “unprecedented and unconstitutional.” (New York Times)

For 78-year-old Gretchen Liu, a 90-day supply of generic medication telmisartan comes with a co-pay of $285, even though the drug costs $40. It’s a dramatic example of a common practice: about 25% of the time, insurance co-pays cost more than the drug itself, according to a study by the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. (PBS)

California counties are sitting on huge cash reserves for treating the mentally ill, in part because of “poor oversight” from the California Department of Health Care Services, according to a state auditor. Los Angeles County, where more than a quarter of of the homeless population has a mental illness, has a reserve of nearly $900 million. (Los Angeles Times)

Michael Holick, a Boston University endocrinologist who helped to draft national vitamin D guidelines, has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the vitamin D industry, according to a Kaiser Health News investigation for The New York Times. Recent clinical research has failed to confirm many of the health benefits promoted by Holick. In 2016, doctors ordered more than 10 million lab tests for vitamin D deficiency, up 547% since 2007. (New York Times)