The Hill: Study: 4.2 Million Uninsured People Eligible For Free ObamaCare Coverage 
A new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that 4.2 million uninsured people are eligible for ObamaCare coverage at no cost at all. The study, published Tuesday, finds that those people can find an ObamaCare plan for $0 in premiums due to the financial assistance under the health-care law being high enough to completely cover the cost of the cheapest ObamaCare options, known as bronze plans. (Sulliban, 12/11)

Des Moines Register: 34,000 Iowans Could Get Free Health Insurance Under Obamacare
Nearly 34,000 Iowans who lack health insurance could get free policies under Obamacare, a new report estimates. Nearly half of all uninsured Iowans could qualify for no-premium insurance, according to the study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. But the Iowans would need to act fast: Saturday is the sign-up deadline for 2019 health insurance policies that qualify for federal subsidies. (Leys, 12/11)

The Hill: ObamaCare Signups Spike On Same Day Obama Tweeted Support
The ObamaCare signup website healthcare.gov received its highest traffic on Monday, the same day former President Obama recorded a message urging people to sign up. A spokesperson from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services did not say what drove the spike, but noted the website always sees spikes closer to the Dec. 15 deadline to sign up for insurance coverage. (Weixel, 12/11)

Arizona Republic: Arizona Enrollment In 'Obamacare' Plans Is Down As Deadline Approaches
With just days left to sign up, Arizona enrollment in Affordable Care Act health insurance plans is lagging.Arizona enrollment as of Dec. 1 was at 55,090, which is 18 percent lower than it was as of Dec. 2 last year, according to federal data. Enrollment is down nationwide, too. (Innes, 12/11)

Concord Monitor: Health Insurance Deadline Looms For Those Seeking Federal Subsidies
The shortened signup period for Affordable Care Act health insurance ends Saturday, with the number of New Hampshire residents enrolling through the federal marketplace currently about 20 percent lower than at this time last year. As of Dec. 6, a total of 15,255 state residents had enrolled through Healthcare.gov, roughly 4,000 fewer than at this time last year, according to federal data. (Brooks, 12/11)

And in other health law news —

The Hill: Judge Sides With Religious Groups In ObamaCare Birth Control Mandate Fight 
A federal judge this week sided with three religious colleges and three Christian organizations in their challenge to the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate. Judge Philip Brimmer, a George W. Bush appointee on the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, issued an order that permanently blocks the federal government from forcing the plaintiffs to cover sterilization drugs or contraception drugs devices, procedures, and related education and counseling in their health care plans. (Wheeler, 12/11)

The Hill: Incoming Dem Chairman Open To Hearing On 'Medicare For All' 
The incoming chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Richard Neal (D-Mass.), said Tuesday that he is open to holding hearings on "Medicare for all" next year. ... The comments, while not a firm commitment, are some of the most encouraging toward Medicare for all supporters from a top House Democrat to date. Democratic leaders and key committee chairmen have so far not given support to Medicare for all, despite a push from the progressive wing of the party. (Sullivan, 12/11)

Modern Healthcare: How Can We Lower Healthcare Costs? Key GOP Senator Seeks Ideas 
Senate health committee Chair Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) plans to have his panel next year work on legislation to address high healthcare costs. On Tuesday, the senator asked hospitals, insurers, patient groups, state regulators and think tanks to submit proposals for solutions by March 1, 2019. He sent a letter to the Brookings Institution, American Enterprise Institute and others he wants to hear from. (Luthi, 12/11)

CQ: Alexander Seeks Proposals For Health Costs Legislation
Alexander said he is also seeking input from the health care industry and state officials who handle health issues, which could help shape legislation next year. In the letter, Alexander asked AEI’s James Capretta and the Brookings Institution’s Paul Ginsburg to suggest specific ways Congress could “lower health care costs, incentivize care that improves the health and outcomes of patients, and increase the ability for patients to access information about their care to make informed decisions,” as well as how those would work and what Congress or the administration needs to do to implement such steps. He also asked about what shortcomings such steps could have, and why it may be worthwhile to implement them, anyway. (McIntire, 12/11)

The Hill: House Passes Bipartisan Bill Aimed At Reversing Rising Maternal Mortality Rates 
The House on Tuesday passed a bipartisan bill aimed at reversing the maternal mortality crisis in the U.S. in what supporters say is the strongest action yet that Congress has taken on the issue. The bill from Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) would support state-level efforts to track and investigate pregnancy-related deaths, and then look for ways to prevent future deaths from occurring. (Hellmann, 12/11)

Modern Healthcare: Congress Likely To Revive Earmarks, Signaling A Boon For Hospitals 
A Democratic House leader on Tuesday predicted Congress will bring back earmarks early next year, raising the prospect of a windfall in targeted funding for hospitals with not-for-profit tax designation as well as university medical centers. The policy change could be especially significant for hospitals in states that did not expand Medicaid as they look for to fill in the revenue gaps stemming from uncompensated care. HHS has traditionally scored the second-highest amount of earmarks after the Defense Department, according to a former Senate appropriations staffer who worked on Capitol Hill when earmarks were the modus operandi. (Luthi, 12/11)

Politico Pro: Juul Tries To Make Friends In Washington As Regulators Circle
The San Francisco company that’s become synonymous with vaping — “juuling” is now a verb — has hired political hands in Washington and started a political action committee that has donated to members of Congress and state attorney-general candidates.Twenty years after four big tobacco companies reached a massive settlement with 46 states over smoking-related health problems and marketing issues — which was followed by a series of tighter restrictions and led to the rapid decline of the industry in the United States — Juul is frantically trying to avoid a similar fate. (Woellert and Owemohle, 12/7)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare Groups Rip Trump Proposal Penalizing Legal Immigrants For Using Medicaid
In a rare moment of consensus, healthcare industry groups uniformly blasted the Trump administration's proposal to penalize legal immigrants for using Medicaid and other public benefit programs, warning it would have broad negative effects on the healthcare system, government budgets and public health. The Department of Homeland Security received 210,889 comments on its proposed "inadmissibility on public charge grounds" rule, issued in October, when the comment period ended Monday. Healthcare stakeholder groups, including hospitals, physicians, insurers and public health advocates, urged DHS to withdraw the rule entirely. (Meyer, 12/11)

Other health news from the administration comes from the VA and the Justice Department —

The Washington Post: Trump Loyalist At VA Forced Out After Collecting Pay But Doing Little Work
The Trump administration has forced out a senior White House political appointee at the Department of Veterans Affairs who spent months on the federal payroll doing little to no work. Peter O’Rourke’s departure marks an unceremonious fall for a Trump loyalist once seen as a rising star at VA, where he nonetheless had a rocky tenure, first leading a high-profile office handling whistleblower complaints, next as chief of staff and then, for two months, as the agency’s acting secretary. (Rein and Dawsey, 12/11)

Seattle Times: Justice Department Sues Washington State Over Law To Compensate Sick Hanford Workers 
The U.S. Justice Department sued Washington state Monday, alleging that a law approved by the Legislature to make it easier for ill Hanford workers to get compensation discriminates against the federal government and its Energy Department contractors. The lawsuit filed against the state in U.S. District Court in Eastern Washington asks a federal judge to declare the law invalid and prevent enforcement. (Bernton, 12/11)

The New York Times: How Do You Recover After Millions Have Watched You Overdose?
The first time Kelmae Hemphill watched herself overdose, she sobbed. There she was in a shaky video filmed by her own heroin dealer, sprawled out on a New Jersey road while a stranger pounded on her chest. “Come on, girl,” someone pleaded. Ms. Hemphill’s 11-year drug addiction, her criminal record, her struggles as a mother — they were now everybody’s business, splashed across the news and social media with a new genre of American horror film: the overdose video. As opioid deaths have soared in recent years, police departments and strangers with cameras have started posting raw, uncensored images of drug users passed out with needles in their arms and babies in the back seats of their cars. The videos rack up millions of views and unleash avalanches of outrage. Then some other viral moment comes along, and the country clicks away. (Seelye, Turkewitz, Healy and Blinder, 12/11)

Bloomberg: Killer Opioid Fentanyl Could Be A Weapon Of Mass Destruction 
Fentanyl has emerged as the most dangerous of a group of drugs blamed for creating a U.S. public health crisis. American deaths linked to fentanyl grew more than 50 percent to 29,406 last year, from 19,413 in 2016, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Relatively easy to manufacture, the drug is turning up more on the streets as dealers strive to meet still-enormous demand for opioids in the U.S.Fentanyl is ever-evolving as suppliers try to avoid detection and still boost the potency of the drug using what are called analogues — essentially chemical cousins. (Edney, 12/12)

Stat: Kaleo, Maker Of $4,100 Overdose Antidote, To Offer Generic For $178 
A month after the drug maker Kaleo came under fire from lawmakers and public-health advocates for charging $4,100 for a device that reverses overdoses, the company has announced it will introduce a generic version for a small fraction of the price. The company announced Wednesday it has authorized its subsidiary IJ Therapeutics to produce a largely identical version of its automated naloxone injector for a retail price of $178 for a kit, which, like the $4,100 brand-name version, contains two doses. First responder groups and health departments will be offered the brand-name product Evzio at the same price. (Facher, 12/12)

And in other news on the opioid epidemic —

The Associated Press: Meth Playing Bigger Role In US Drug Overdose Crisis
A bigger share of U.S. drug overdose deaths are being caused by methamphetamine, government health officials reported. The number of fatal overdoses involving meth more than tripled between 2011 and 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday. The percentage of overdose deaths involving meth grew from less than 5 percent to nearly 11 percent. (Stobbe, 12/12)

The Washington Post: Cocaine Deaths Increase Amid Ongoing National Opioid Crisis
Deaths from cocaine sharply increased from 2011 to 2016 across the United States, adding another dimension to a crisis of fatal overdoses that has primarily been driven by opioids, according to new data from the National Center for Health Statistics. Overdose deaths from cocaine increased by about 18 percent each year during the five-year period. The data also showed a staggering rise in the number of deaths from fentanyl, with deaths from the powerful synthetic opioid increasing about 113 percent each year from 2013 to 2016. (Zezima, 12/12)

Boston Globe: Doctor Charged With Manslaughter In Opioid Overdose Death
A Dracut physician has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the 2016 death of a woman who overdosed on opioids that he had prescribed, the first such indictment in the state, authorities announced Tuesday. Dr. Richard Miron is accused of continuing to authorize large doses of opioids and other drugs even though he knew the victim had overdosed in February 2016 on opioids he had prescribed. (Freyer, 12/11)

Los Angeles Times: Police Found Trove Of Nude Images Of Women In Ex-USC Gynecologist’s Storage Unit
Shortly after Los Angeles police launched an investigation into Dr. George Tyndall last spring, a team of detectives began surreptitiously following the former USC gynecologist. The 71-year-old passed most of his days inside a condominium he owns near Lafayette Park, but on at least two occasions, Tyndall drove to a self-storage facility and spent time inside a rental unit, police said. When investigators subsequently raided the unit, they found a trove of homemade pornography and a smaller set of photos of unclothed women in what appeared to be a medical exam room, according to LAPD Capt. Billy Hayes. (Winton, Ryan and Hamilton, 12/11)

The Associated Press: Nude Photos Linked To Ex-USC Doc In Sex-Abuse Investigation
Hundreds of current and former USC students have made allegations against Tyndall to the university, filed police reports or taken part in at least a dozen pending state lawsuits against the school. In October, USC agreed to settle a federal class-action suit on behalf of Tyndall’s patients for $215 million. Tyndall, 71, resigned last year. He has denied wrongdoing and said any photographs he took were for legitimate clinical and other medical purposes. He has not been charged with a crime. (12/11)

The Wall Street Journal: The Loneliest Generation: Americans, More Than Ever, Are Aging Alone
Danny Miner, a 66-year-old retired chemical plant supervisor, spends most days alone in his Tooele, Utah, apartment, with “Gunsmoke” reruns to keep him company and a phone that rarely rings. Old age wasn’t supposed to feel this lonely. Mr. Miner married five times, each bride bringing the promise of lifelong companionship. Three unions ended in divorce. Two wives died. Now his legs ache and his balance is faulty, and he’s stopped going to church or meeting friends at the Marine Corps League, a group for former Marines. “I get a little depressed from time to time,” he says. Baby boomers are aging alone more than any generation in U.S. history, and the resulting loneliness is a looming public health threat. (Adamy and Overberg, 12/11)

The New York Times: Is Aerobic Exercise The Key To Successful Aging?
Aerobic activities like jogging and interval training can make our cells biologically younger, according to a noteworthy new experiment. Weight training may not have the same effect, the study found, raising interesting questions about how various types of exercise affect us at a microscopic level and whether the differences should perhaps influence how we choose to move. There is mounting and rousing evidence that being physically active affects how we age, with older people who exercise typically being healthier, more fit, better muscled and less likely to develop a variety of diseases and disabilities than their sedentary peers. (Reynolds, 12/12)

Los Angeles Times: Your Aging Brain: Is It ‘Use It Or Lose It’?
Yes, your brain is like a muscle: If you don’t strengthen and stretch its capacities, it will not deliver high performance. But your brain is not like one of those forgiving muscles that lets you engage in a lifetime of indolence and then perks up willingly when you take up weight-training upon retirement. No, your brain is more like one of those muscles that will reward you for having worked it across the full length of your lifespan. (Healy, 12/11)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Poverty Among Older Philadelphians On The Rise
About 23 percent of city residents aged 60 and above lived in poverty in 2017, three percentage points above 2013 numbers, according to new data from the Philadelphia Corp. for Aging, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of older residents. The figure is just below the city’s overall poverty rate of 26 percent, the highest among the 10 most-populous U.S. cities. (Lubrano, 12/12)

Stat: Allen Institute Announces $125 Million Gift To Probe Human Immunology
This past July, philanthropist Paul Allen spent hours grilling his team about an ambitious plan they were hatching: Expanding the Allen Institute — the Seattle-based scientific research organization he founded and funded — to add a new division that would probe the mysteries of the human immune system. For Allen, the quest was personal (he had survived two cancers of the immune system) as well as intellectual (the Microsoft co-founder was fascinated with complex biological problems). Allen kept pushing his team to articulate how it was going to maximize the impact of the research, according to one of the participants in those July meetings. Finally satisfied with the plans, Allen decided to commit $125 million to fund the immunology division. (Robbins, 12/12)

Philadelphia Inquirer: When Religion Collides With Organ Donation, What Does Islam Say?
It is a concern that counselors for the Gift of Life Donor Program repeatedly hear from Muslim families during the heartbreaking moments in a hospital when a loved one is declared brain dead, and the question of organ donation is broached — moments that will increasingly arise as the region’s Muslim population, which community leaders estimate at more than 200,000, continues to grow. That has prompted the Philadelphia-based nonprofit to begin a series of eight public information seminars to answer questions about Islamic texts and offer scholars' interpretations. (Holmes, 12/12)

Stat: China's Global Reputation Shapes Public Reaction To 'CRISPR Babies'
A member of the audience shouted “shame on you” from the back of the International Human Genome Editing Summit in Hong Kong as He Jiankui presented research that he proudly claimed led to the birth of the world’s first gene-edited babies. That initial reaction two weeks ago was reinforced by official responses of a similar tenor from the Chinese government and scientific community. The Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences quickly said He had violated laws, regulations, and ethical norms, while an official with the government science ministry called his research “shocking and unacceptable.” More than 100 Chinese scientists signed a blunt letter denouncing He’s experimentation on humans as “crazy.” (Tang, 12/12)

NPR: VICTAS Study Tests Vitamins For Sepsis Treatment
Dr. Jonathan Sevransky was intrigued when he heard that a well-known physician in Virginia had reported remarkable results from a simple treatment for sepsis. Could the leading cause of death in hospitals really be treated with intravenous vitamin C, the vitamin thiamine and doses of steroids? "Hundreds of thousands of people die in the U.S. every year and millions of people in the world die of this," says Sevransky, a critical-care physician at Emory University. "So when somebody comes out with a potential treatment that is cheap and relatively easily available, it's something you want to think about." (Harris, 12/12)

Stat: Lawsuit Alleges NIH, FDA Let Clinical Trial Sponsors Off The Hook 
A former top official at the Food and Drug Administration and a longtime science journalist are suing the agency and the National Institutes of Health, saying they let clinical trial sponsors off the hook for reporting nearly a decade’s worth of important scientific data. Under a law passed in 2007, researchers involved in many clinical trials must report their results to the federal government. But the NIH and FDA only finalized a rule to ensure compliance in 2016. (Facher, 12/11)

NPR: Shingrix Vaccine Against Shingles Remains In Short Supply
If you're 50 or older, Judith Strull's story might sound familiar. Told by her doctor last month to get the shingles vaccine, Shingrix, Strull went to her local CVS in Newton, Mass., expecting a quick in-and-out procedure — like getting a flu shot. The pharmacist, however, said the store had no Shingrix left in stock. (Wasser, 12/11)

CNN: Animal Attacks Cost Us More Than $1 Billion A Year
Animal-related injuries lead to health care costs of more than $1 billion a year in the United States, according to a new study -- and they're happening more often. The rate of all animal attack injuries has increased over the past 10 years, according to Dr. Joseph Forrester, one of the authors of the study published Tuesday in the BMJ. He anticipates that it will continue to rise, partially because of climate change. (Thomas, 12/11)

Reuters: McDonald's To Curb Antibiotic Use In Its Beef Supply
McDonald's Corp said on Tuesday it plans to reduce the use of antibiotics in its global beef supply, fueling projections that other restaurants will follow suit. The move by the world's biggest fast-food chain addresses concerns that the overuse of antibiotics vital to fighting human infections in farm animals may diminish the drugs' effectiveness in people. (12/11)

The Wall Street Journal: McDonald’s To Trim Antibiotics From Its Beef
McDonald’s and many other fast-food chains already have eliminated the use of such antibiotics in chicken in the U.S., and McDonald’s is aiming to do so in other markets around the world. Reducing the use of such antibiotics in beef has been more difficult for McDonald’s, because of the company’s scale and the smaller number of suppliers that produce beef without the medicine. (Jargon, 12/11)

Chicago Tribune: McDonald’s Pledges To Reduce Antibiotics In Its Beef Supply By The End Of 2020 
“I think it’s a promising step forward to preserve antibiotics,” said Matthew Wellington, Antibiotics Program Director of U.S. PIRG and U.S. PIRG Education Fund, a public interest research group. ...Use of antibiotics in livestock to not only treat sick animals but also prevent disease has raised concerns that overuse is causing more drug-resistant disease in humans. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated, conservatively, that 23,000 Americans die each year from antibiotic resistance, but other research puts the number much higher. A recent study from researchers at Washington University Medical School in St. Louis found 150,000 deaths from antibiotic-resistant infections in the U.S. in 2010. (Elejalde-Ruiz, 12/11)

The Washington Post: Jimmy Dean: Metal-Tainted Meat Sparks Recall Of 28,000 Pounds Of Sausage, USDA Says
More than 28,000 pounds of Jimmy Dean sausage has been recalled over metal tainting fears in meat distributed to 21 states, the company said Tuesday, in a move to protect consumers from products that pose the greatest health risk under the Agriculture Department’s recall regulations. Five consumer complaints of metal-infused sausage led the agency’s food safety office to trigger the alert, the USDA said, after the sausage left a Tennessee-based facility and was distributed across the country. No health impacts have been reported as of Tuesday, the agency said. (Horton, 12/11)

Seattle Times: Inslee Unveils $675 Million Plan To Reverse Crisis In Washington’s Mental-Health System
Seeking to reverse the multitude of crises that have engulfed Washington’s mental-health system, Gov. Jay Inslee on Tuesday released a plan that would radically reshape the care of patients. Inslee’s $675 million proposal would fund hundreds of new community mental-health beds and create a partnership with the University of Washington to establish a new teaching hospital focused on behavioral health. It would boost the ranks of mental-health workers, who have been in short supply, and provide long-term housing options to ease the bed shortage. (O'Sullivan, 12/11)

ProPublica: Illinois Regulators Are Investigating A Psychiatrist Whose Research With Children Was Marred by Misconduct
Illinois regulators have launched an investigation into a prominent former University of Illinois at Chicago psychiatrist whose research into children with bipolar disorder was shut down because of her misconduct. The state Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has issued three subpoenas to UIC seeking records related to Dr. Mani Pavuluri, who resigned from the university in June amid controversy. (Cohen, 12/12)

ProPublica: Criminally Insane In Oregon Attack Twice As Many People Than Previously Known, New Data Shows
People freed by Oregon officials after being found criminally insane are charged with new felonies more often than convicted criminals released from state prison, with family members and first responders often the targets of violence, a new analysis by the Malheur Enterprise and ProPublica shows. All told, 23 percent of people freed by the state’s Psychiatric Security Review Board are charged with felonies within three years of their release, compared with 16 percent of those released from Oregon prisons. (Fraser, 12/12)

San Jose Mercury News: California Parents Trusted Their Son's Mental Health Treatment, But ‘Our System Failed Them’
It turns out that the Sovereign “step-down” house Nelson went to after release from a hospital was not licensed by the state as either a mental health facility or an addiction treatment facility. Nelson didn’t have a team of professionals overseeing his transition — he apparently didn’t even get his medications on time, according to his parents and police reports. (Sforza, 12/11)

WBUR: Survey: More Than Half Of Mass. Adults Struggle Finding Help With Mental, Substance Abuse Problems
It found that more than half of Massachusetts adults who tried finding help for mental health or substance abuse problems said they had difficulty finding anyone who would see them. More than one-third gave up seeking help entirely, and about 1 in 8 went to the emergency room for treatment. (Bebinger, 12/11)

Boston Globe: Tech Firms Enter The Business Of Campus Mental Health Care
At many college counseling centers therapists are overwhelmed and students are forced to wait weeks for an appointment, even as more of them seek help for anxiety, depression, and sleep and eating disorders. Christie Campus Health, a Lexington start-up that will be launched Wednesday, thinks it has a solution: technology. (Fernandes, 12/12)

The Washington Post: McKenzie Adams, Alabama 9-Year-Old Who Hung Herself, Faced Racist Bullying, Her Family Says
McKenzie Adams wanted to be a scientist when she grew up. The 9-year-old excelled in math. But she also liked riding her bike, playing with dolls and PlayStation 4 and recording goofy home videos with her cousins, according to media reports in Alabama, where Adams attended elementary school in the city of Demopolis. Instead of making plans to gather McKenzie and her cousins for Christmas, the child’s family is preparing to bury her on Saturday after she hung herself. Her body was discovered at their home in Linden, Ala., on Dec. 3 by her grandmother, family members told the Tuscaloosa News. (Stanley-Becker, 12/12)

The Associated Press: Florida Massacre Commission Considers School Safety Plans
There were plenty of missteps in communication, security and school policy before and during the Florida high school massacre that allowed the gunman to kill 17 people. Now, the state commission investigating the shooting will consider a long list of recommendations addressing these problems statewide. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission will consider proposals Wednesday and Thursday, including whether to arm trained, volunteer teachers; making it harder for outsiders to enter Florida’s nearly 4,000 public schools; mandating armed security on all campuses with explicit orders to confront shooters; improving communication systems on campus; and imposing more statewide uniformity in how troubled students are identified, helped and, if necessary, dealt with by police. (Spencer, 12/12)

Tampa Bay Times: Top All Children’s Executives Resign Following Times Report On Heart Surgeries
The CEO of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and two other hospital administrators have resigned following a Tampa Bay Times investigation that found dramatic increases in the hospital’s mortality rates for heart surgeries, Johns Hopkins announced Tuesday. In a statement, the health system said All Children’s CEO Dr. Jonathan Ellen, Vice President Jackie Crain and deputy director of the hospital’s Heart Institute Dr. Jeffrey Jacobs had resigned. (McGrory and Bedi, 12/11)

Houston Chronicle: Patient Confusion Is Business Model For Free-Standing Emergency Rooms 
Free-standing ERs dot the suburbs, where census data tells physician-entrepreneurs that most residents have private insurance or Medicare. Operators also like to locate where people have a lot of money and little patience for waiting.These for-profit ERs, which have no affiliations with hospitals, take advantage of the typical consumer’s ignorance of the difference between an urgent care clinic, a free-standing ER and a hospital ER. (Tomlinson, 12/11)

Boston Globe: Aetna Settles With State Over ‘Ghost Networks’
Health insurer Aetna has agreed to vastly improve information for consumers, after an investigation by the Massachusetts attorney general found that its provider directories are inaccurate and deceptive. The office filed a settlement agreement in Suffolk Superior Court Tuesday, closing its investigation into the company. (Kowalczyk, 12/11)

Boston Globe: Business Groups Aim To Curb Emergency Room Use, And Save Money, Too
On Tuesday, a coalition of business groups representing thousands of employers kicked off an ambitious new effort to reduce these potentially avoidable emergency room visits, and in the process lower health care costs by up to $100 million. Companies in the coalition will pepper their employees with fliers, memos, and meetings about alternatives to emergency rooms, such as walk-in clinics and telehealth services. (Dayal McCluskey, 12/12)

Georgia Health News: Health Care Taking Bigger Share Of Workers’ Income, Report Finds
Average premium contributions by employees are 7 percent of median income nationally. But Georgia is among 11 states where these contributions for single and family plans amounted to 8 percent of median income or more, said the report from the Commonwealth Fund, released Friday. (Miller, 12/11)

Columbus Dispatch: 'Heartbeat' Bill Might Wait, But GOP Brings Out Another Abortion Bill
An Ohio Senate committee has again delayed a vote on the anti-abortion “Heartbeat” Bill, as the chairman said Tuesday that he’s waiting for amendments he hasn’t yet seen. Some Republicans question why the bill is being voted on at this time, considering it faces a veto from Gov. John Kasich. (Siegel, 12/11)

The Associated Press: New Survey Finds 14 Percent Of Virginians Are Smokers
A new state survey shows that about 14 percent of Virginians consider themselves regular smokers. A report by the Virginia Department of Health found that Southwest Virginia had the highest rate of smoking, with smokers making up more than 18 percent of the region’s population. Smokers only make up less than 8 percent of the population of Northern Virginia. (12/12)

The Associated Press: Study: Virginia Poorly Supervises Its Foster Care Programs
A legislative study says Virginia does a poor job of supervising local foster care systems and intervening when they don’t deliver adequate services to children in their care. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Monday that the study says Virginia’s 120 local foster care programs aren’t good at recruiting foster parents, reuniting families or finding children permanent homes. It says this has led to an increased reliance on costly and often unnecessary institutional care such as group homes. (12/11)

California Healthline: Blue Shield’s Trims To Out-Of-State Coverage Give Some Californians The Blues
Denise Roberts is still coping with complications from a life-threatening bout of Valley Fever three years ago that claimed part of a lung. Roberts, who lives in Doyle, Calif., a tiny rural community near the Nevada border, typically drives to Reno for the care she needs. Specialists in her own state, she said, are too far away. But starting Jan. 1, Roberts’ insurer, Blue Shield of California, likely won’t cover the out-of-state care Roberts has come to rely on. (Feder Ostrov, 12/11)

Miami Herald: Patient Sues Nova Southeastern Over Use Of Dirty Equipment
A South Florida woman whose young daughter was an orthodontics patient at a Nova Southeastern University clinic in Davie filed a lawsuit against the school this week for potentially exposing the girl to infectious diseases, including HIV and hepatitis, from dirty equipment used by dentists at the facility. (Chang, 12/11)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Activists Speak Out Against Conditions At Cuyahoga County Jail At Council Meeting
Dozens of activists protesting conditions in the Cuyahoga County Jail demonstrated Tuesday outside county headquarters before attending a Cuyahoga County Council meeting. Twenty-six people addressed council members directly, many of whom railed against the treatment of inmates in the jail, referenced the deaths of seven inmates between June 10 and Oct. 2, and cited findings from a U.S. Marshals Service report that identified “inhumane” conditions at the jail. (Astolfi, 12/11)

San Francisco Chronicle: California’s Water Needs: A Balancing Act Sought By Feinstein, Brown
Sen. Dianne Feinstein is joining forces with House Republicans to try to extend a controversial law that provides more water for Central Valley farms, but with a sweetener for the environment: Help with protecting California’s rivers and fish. The proposed extension of the WIIN Act, or Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, would keep millions of federal dollars flowing for new dams and reservoirs across the West. (Alexander, 12/11)

Nashville Tennessean: Aspire Health Says Hacked Emails Never Opened; Ends Hunt For Hacker
A large Nashville-based healthcare company that was hacked earlier this year said Tuesday an internal investigation has revealed the stolen emails were intercepted before they were ever opened by the cyberattacker. Aspire Health, which offers in-home treatment in 25 states, has also abandoned its legal hunt for the unknown hacker that targeted them. (Kelman, 12/11)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Medical Marijuana Farming And Sales Proposed In Georgia
Georgia lawmakers are recommending that the state government pass laws next year to allow hemp farming and cannabis oil distribution. The proposals from two Republican-led committees would help provide medical marijuana to Georgia’s 6,000 registered patients and give farmers another crop to support themselves. (Niesse, 12/11)

The Associated Press: Elderly Man Evicted Over Medical Marijuana Hits Another Snag
A 78-year-old New York man who was evicted from federally subsidized housing because he uses medical marijuana for pain said Tuesday that the conflicting state and federal pot laws that left him homeless are now threatening his medical care. “The federal government has stepped in again and squashed it,” said John Flickner, who uses a wheelchair and has a doctor’s prescription for the drug. (Thompson, 12/11)

Stat: Will Democrats In Congress Keep The Door Open For Pharma — Or Slam It?
With annual revenues of roughly $450 million and an army of some 160 lobbyists, PhRMA has long been described in near mythological terms by both awed opponents and reverent allies: It’s untouchable, it never loses, it can kill a bill before the ink is dry on the first draft. Suddenly, however, the industry lobbying powerhouse looks far more vulnerable. More than a dozen current and former staffers and lobbyists connected to the drug industry told STAT that as Democrats take control of the House in January, PhRMA is struggling to preserve its clout. (Florko, 12/10)

The Hill: The Year Ahead: Drug Pricing Efforts To Test Bipartisanship
A new Democratic majority is taking over in the House next year with a number of health issues taking center stage. Democrats will use their new power to try to shore up the Affordable Care Act and rein in high health care and prescription drug costs. But the party will also face its own internal debate, while insurgents on the left keep up their push to implement Medicare for All. (Hellmann, 12/11)

Politico: Democratic Divide On Drug Pricing Likely In House
Congressional Democrats’ united front on curbing drug prices may soon change: A pair of senior lawmakers who’ve disagreed in the past on the pharmaceutical industry are in line to chair key health subcommittees in the next Congress. (Owermohle and Karlin-Smith, 12/10)

The Hill: House Passes Bill To Keep Drug Companies From Overcharging Medicaid 
The House approved a proposal Tuesday cracking down on the tactics drug companies use to charge Medicaid. The bipartisan bill, from Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), comes after the Department of Health and Human Services last year accused Mylan, the maker of EpiPen, of overcharging the Medicaid program by as much as $1.27 billion over ten years by misclassifying the drug as a generic. (Hellmann, 12/11)

Stat: Dozens Of Groups Attack Trump Plan To Peg Drug Prices To What Other Countries Pay
A controversial Trump administration plan to lower drug costs by pegging prices to what are paid by several foreign countries is getting pushback from dozens of groups. They argue the proposal would import price controls, restrict patient access, and reduce incentives for medical innovation. In a letter to House and Senate leaders, the groups maintain the proposal is misguided and would ultimately hurt millions of Medicare B beneficiaries. And so, they urged the lawmakers to end the proposed pilot program and instead consider implementing some of the ideas in a limited fashion. (Silverman, 12/10)

The New York Times: How To Cut Drug Prices: Experts Weigh In
Americans are generally uncomfortable with pharmaceutical prices — which are the highest for brand drugs among wealthy nations — and with drug companies’ profits. But if policies were adopted to reduce drug prices, could there be negative consequences? On balance, would such policies be good or bad? I asked three health policy experts to consider these questions in the context of four specific drug pricing policies. (Frakt, 12/10)

Vox: The Groundbreaking Lawsuit Over Generic Drugs
It’s the biggest lawsuit you might not know anything about: Generic drug companies stand accused of running a “cartel” that rigged the market and fixed prices, costing patients and taxpayers, according to a complaint that has been joined by almost every state’s attorney general. The scope just keeps getting bigger: The litigation started by focusing on two drugs but has since expanded to implicate 16 companies and more than 300 drugs, Connecticut assistant attorney general Joseph Nielsen, who has led the effort, told the Washington Post. “This is most likely the largest cartel in the history of the United States,” Nielsen told the Post’s Christopher Rowland. Not mincing words. (Scott, 12/10)

Stat: Pennsylvania Auditor Urges Laws To Crack Down On PBM Contracts For Medicaid
Amid rising scrutiny of pharmacy benefit manager practices, the Pennsylvania state auditor is recommending several steps that lawmakers should take to clamp down on these controversial middlemen in hopes of controlling prescription drug costs. The effort was prompted after Ohio recently ended contracts with two of the largest PBMs over pricing practices in the Medicaid program that cost the state tens of millions of dollars, a step that triggered increased interest among officials in other states over contracts and an alleged lack of transparency. (Silverman, 12/11)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio's Drug Setup Getting More Transparency In 2019
Ohio Medicaid will abandon its secretive prescription drug-pricing system in three weeks and move to a transparent system that for the first time will disclose exactly how billions in taxpayer dollars are being spent. State officials aren’t promising any savings, but the move could lead to lower costs and spur more changes in the way Medicaid pays for drugs. (Candisky, 12/10)

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Leads Way As States Take On 'Pharmacy Benefit Manager' Middlemen
Officials in states across the U.S. showed little interest for years about looking into the black box of pharmacy benefit managers, the pharmacy supply-chain middlemen who have been shrouded in secrecy as they pour billions of dollars worth of prescription drug rebates into state coffers. That setup provided states with more than $20 billion in rebates last year alone, an average of $450 million for each state that uses the so-called PBMs to help manage their Medicaid programs, a three-month national survey by The Columbus Dispatch revealed. Rebates are meant to be a price concession intended to lower drug costs. (Candisky, Sullivan and Schladen, 12/8)

Stat: An FDA Inspection Report Shows Just How Troubled A Pfizer Plant Really Is 
Yet another inspection by the Food and Drug Administration underscores the difficulties that Pfizer (PFE) is having with a key plant that has been responsible for severe shortages of injectables and other drugs. The problems at the McPherson, Kan., facility, which Pfizer inherited as part of its $16 billion acquisition of Hospira three years ago, include employees who lack training to manufacture, process, or package products; a failure to review unexplained discrepancies in batches of medicines; and inadequate procedures to prevent contamination, according to an agency inspection report last July and August and posted on the FDA web site on Thursday. (Silverman, 12/7)

Stat: Two Former Alexion Execs Launch New Company ElevateBio 
Two former Alexion executives, both of whom resigned in the middle of a scandal two years ago, are starting a new biotech company — one with ambitious goals in cell and gene therapy, according to a new slide deck obtained by STAT. The presentation provides some of the first details about the secretive new company, which its founders, including David Hallal and Vikas Sinha, are calling ElevateBio. They haven’t yet publicly discussed its existence or launched a website. (Sheridan, 12/11)

The Hill: How To Reduce Drug Costs For Over 266 Million Americans
We have been monitoring the discussion of the price of prescription drugs. It is no secret that a pillar of Donald Trump’s presidency and the newest members of the 116th Congress is the promise of lowering prescription drug prices for millions of Americans who pay far too much. Recently, HHS Secretary Alex Azar has indicated the administration might roll back the current prescription drug rebate program. However, there has not been a promise from drug companies to lower drug prices if rebates are taken away, nor has there been a promise to help patients afford their prescription medications. (Linda Goler Blount, 12/11)

Bloomberg: Gilead Needs More Than Steady Hand From New CEO Daniel O'Day
Gilead Sciences Inc. has been in leadership limbo for five uncomfortable months; replacing a CEO and chairman combination that turned the company into a giant isn’t easy. So the hiring on Monday of Roche Holding AG pharma head Daniel O’Day comes as a significant relief. It ends uncertainty, for sure. More important, O’Day is clearly qualified. He’s a veteran of one of the world’s most successful pharma firms and has deep expertise with cancer medicines, a priority for Gilead.  (Max Nisen, 12/10)

Stat: Patent Abuse Is Driving Up Drug Prices. Just Look At Lantus 
A rare point of consensus following the midterm elections is that Americans are adamant about lowering drug prices. Bipartisan pledges to seek common ground on this vexing issue suggest we might finally see action to make medicines more affordable. What should this new common ground look like? Beyond important proposals like allowing drug importation or Medicare negotiation, policymakers should take a hard look at one of the key factors affecting market competition, transparency, and affordability: patents. (Tahir Amin, 12/7)

The Hill: Better Ways Than Trump's Plan To Address Prescription Drug Prices
The Trump administration has proposed several steps to address the cost of prescription drugs. Reaction mostly ranged from unimpressed to strong opposition. Rather than relying on bureaucratic micromanaging and price controls, we need to explore market solutions that expand access and encourage pharmaceutical innovation — and some are already here.The good news is that the large majority of prescription drugs are very affordable. Generics, which are much less expensive copies of original brand-name drugs, represent nearly 90 percent of prescriptions sold in the U.S. (Merrill Matthews, 12/9)

Stat: CVS-Aetna Deal Will Save Money By Cutting Supply Chain Negotiations
With pressure mounting from the outside, the industry was left with no choice but to look within to reduce costs. Although the pricing scheme of pharmacy drugs and services is a closely guarded secret, we’ve learned that the complexity of the industry is what’s likely driving up costs. Insurance companies, pharmacy benefit managers, retail pharmacies, manufacturers, and wholesalers are all involved in the process to provide Americans with services and prescription drugs. For example, a brand-name drug is made by a manufacturer, then purchased and distributed by a wholesaler, who sells it to the pharmacy. Meanwhile, pharmacy benefit managers reimburse the pharmacy for the drug, and insurance companies reimburse the pharmacy benefit managers. With so many players involved in a single drug, it is clear to see the multiple points of pricing negotiations that take place. (Kathleen Iacocca, 12/12)

WBUR: The Trump Administration Is Still Trying To Gut Obamacare
The administration two weeks ago announced that states could allow residents to use Obamacare subsidies to buy skimpy insurance: plans that don’t cover the law’s minimum benefits or that discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions. Voters, who just elected a Democratic House largely to protect the Affordable Care Act (ACA), should tell their state leaders to keep hands off its protections. (Rich Barlow, 12/12)

The Wall Street Journal: ‘Means Tested’ Welfare Means Nothing In Practice
ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion bears most of the blame. The new law made people earning up to 138% of the federal poverty line eligible to receive Medicaid. The Medicaid marketplace it created includes no mandatory verification processes, allowing people simply to declare their income and start receiving benefits. As described in a 2013 issue brief from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services touting “simplified, real-time verification”: “Eligibility will be verified primarily through self-attestation.” Simplified indeed. (Robert Doar, 12/11)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Short-Term Health Plans May Cause More Pain Than Gain
If you’re shopping for the best health insurance plan for you, it’s important to know that the current administration recently expanded access to health insurance plans that are not compliant with the Affordable Care Act. Traditionally, short-term plans have been used to provide health coverage for a couple months, typically for those in between jobs. Now, short-term plans can be purchased for a yearlong term, with the ability to renew for up to three years of coverage. While these plans are meant to offer a cheaper alternative to the plans offered in the Health Insurance Marketplace — where plans must comply with the ACA’s consumer protections — their restrictions could be detrimental to Missourians’ health. (Tim Williams, 12/12)

Los Angeles Times: The Trump Administration Unveils A Stealth Attack On People With Preexisting Conditions
Trump administration officials apparently are prepared to go to their graves insisting that they did everything possible to protect Americans with preexisting medical conditions, even as they pull out the stops to undermine those protections. The latest example of this subterfuge came in late October, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued new rules for states contemplating alterations in the Affordable Care Act. (Michael Hiltzik, 12/11)

Miami Herald: More People Than Ever Are Dying From Opioid Overdoses. But Not In Miami-Dade.
Recent Florida Department of Law Enforcement data found that overdose deaths declined in Miami-Dade County last year, bucking a multiyear surge in local, state and national opioid mortality. Miami-Dade has a unique benefit as home to the state’s first and only needle exchange program. (Kasha Bornstein, Austin Coye and Henri Ford, 12/10)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Black Children Are Suffering Higher Rates Of Depression And Anxiety. What’s Going On?
The rates of anxiety, depression, and behavior disorders among black children doubled over the course of several decades, with prevalence rates among black Americans topping those of whites, found a recent study in the Journal of Epidemiology. Previous research examining racial differences in rates of psychiatric disorders have typically found that black Americans show lower rates than whites, despite experiencing higher rates of social adversity and stressors. The new study suggests that this may be changing for younger black Americans, at least with regard to psychiatric disorders that have their onset in childhood. (Katherine K. Dahlsgaard, 12/11)

Stat: The Military Pushed It. The FDA Went Along. Is The Newest Opioid Any Better?
In the midst of a national opioid crisis, how badly do we need another formidable painkiller? This vexing question has been widely debated since the Food and Drug Administration set off a furor last month when it approved Dsuvia, a tablet version of a decades-old intravenous painkiller that is up to 10 times more potent than the highly addictive fentanyl. Critics argued that alternatives exists and that such a powerful opioid could easily be abused by being diverted, despite a prohibition on retail pharmacy sales. But the endorsement was championed by the military, which maintains that such a medicine is needed in combat zones. (Ed Silverman, 12/11)

Stat: Your Brain Hates The Flu Shot. Get One Anyway
If humans were perfectly logical creatures, we’d all get flu shots. They are easy to find, usually free, and undeniably effective. In the 2016-2017 flu season alone, they prevented an estimated 5.3 million cases of the flu. Yet less than half of Americans get the shot, proof positive of the enduring irrationality of our species. Some of that gap is due to misinformation. But rejection of the flu shot is about more than just celebrity retweets of bad science about vaccines in general. In many ways, the flu shot violates our understanding of how medicine works in ways that tickle the irrational parts of our brains. (Matt Wallaert, 12/12)

The Washington Post: Why A Lousy Dispute Between Two Health-Care Giants Could Cost Americans
Bloomberg News reported Friday that UnitedHealthcare, the country’s biggest health insurer, is in a contract dispute with Envision Healthcare, which employs “25,000 emergency doctors, anesthesiologists and other hospital-based clinicians.” If the two companies cannot agree on a contract by the end of the year, that would make the medical group’s 25,000 hospital-based medical providers out-of-network for millions of people who receive coverage from the insurance giant. The likely result? “A flood of surprise medical bills” for all too many Americans in early 2019. And Happy New Year to you, too! (Helaine Olen, 12/11)

The Washington Post: When It Comes To Helping Our Soldiers, Talk Is Cheap
“Wouldn’t it have been nice if we got Osama bin Laden a lot sooner?” President Trump mused last month. With that conjecture about the leadership of Admiral William McRaven, whom he succinctly dismissed as a “Hillary Clinton fan” and “Obama backer,” Trump provoked yet another scandal about presidential comportment. Of course, it’s hardly news that Trump criticized someone seemingly unassailable; indeed, his swipe at Chief Justice John Roberts three days later largely displaced the McRaven story. (Rebecca A. Adelman, 12/11)

The New York Times: Reading Tea Leaves On Abortion Rights
When the Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear cases brought by Louisiana and Kansas attempting to exclude Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from their Medicaid programs, legal soothsayers were out in full force opining about what it means for the future of abortion rights under the newly constituted court. (Louise Melling, 12/11)

The Washington Post: Support The Forgotten Adolescents Who ‘Age Out’ Of Foster Care
Being removed from a family home and placed in foster care is one of the most wrenching events a child can experience, even when it’s absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, the number of children in foster care in the United States grew by 10 percent between fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2016, reaching more than 437,000 in the latter year, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. This rate of increase exceeded overall population growth for the period. A main factor, according to officials, is parental drug abuse due to the opioid epidemic. (12/11)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Virginia Is Failing Its Foster Care Children
The study of the Virginia Department of Social Services’ foster care and adoption services essentially charges the state with failing to properly monitor its 120 local foster care programs and to adhere to federal and state requirements. As result, the safety and well-being of children in its care are at risk. (12/11)

Tampa Bay Times: Johns Hopkins All Children’s Resignations First Step Toward Restoring Trust
The resignations of the CEO of Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and two other hospital administrators Tuesday is the first meaningful step toward restoring the community’s trust in the venerable institution. The next step should be a thorough public accounting of the factors that contributed to a surge in the death rate of patients in the St. Petersburg hospital’s pediatric heart surgery unit -- and of why the safety concerns were not addressed in a more aggressive, transparent manner. (12/11)