First Edition: April 17, 2015

Kaiser Health News: EEOC Proposal On Wellness Program Earns Business Praise, Consumer Concerns
Business groups praised a proposed new rule from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission clarifying how employers can construct wellness programs, but consumers advocates said the new policy could harm workers. The EEOC published the long-awaited rule Thursday. (Andrews, 4/17)

Kaiser Health News: There May Still Be Time To Save On Health Law’s Tax Penalties
Even though the April 15 tax filing deadline has passed, you might be eligible for some health law-related changes that may save you money down the road. (Andrews, 4/17)

The Associated Press: Financial Incentives OK'd For Workplace Wellness Programs
In a victory for business, federal regulators said Thursday that employers can continue to use financial penalties and rewards to nudge staff to participate in fast-growing workplace wellness programs. But the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — which enforces laws against discrimination — also proposed some safeguards for employees. Those include limits on the size of financial incentives, confidentiality of employee medical information and prohibitions against firing workers who decline to participate or denying them access to the company health plan. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: EEOC Issues Proposal For Wellness Programs
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Thursday released a long-awaited preliminary rule to help companies design their employee-wellness programs. The agency will accept public comments until June 19, and then issue a final regulation. The EEOC suggests in its proposal that employers can offer incentives — or, conversely, penalties — amounting to no more than 30% of the total cost of an employee-only health plan to participate in their wellness plans. If a worker is on a family plan that costs $12,000, for example, but the individual plan costs $6,000, the incentives or penalties must max out at $1,800. (Weber, 4/16)

USA Today/Louisville Courier-Journal: 'Obamacare' Takes Root In Remote Appalachia To Mixed Reviews
Obamacare flooded into these remote Appalachian hills last year like the War on Poverty had a half-century earlier — another government program promising to save some of America's most vulnerable citizens. Since then, it has given many of the poor and sick a key to long-neglected health care. It's also brought skepticism and fear, and some business owners argue it's stunting their growth in a region that can't afford another economic blow. (Ungar and Kenning, 4/17)

NPR: Study: Insurers Fail To Cover All Prescribed Contraceptives
Some women may be paying hefty fees for birth control pills, vaginal rings and emergency contraception, despite a federal requirement that insurers pay their full cost. And some women only have coverage for a less effective type of emergency contraception, according to a report released Thursday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The analysis looked at 20 health insurers in five states and found companies that provided limited or no coverage for some forms contraception. In some cases, the insurers imposed copays or required women to pay the full cost of a drug. (Kelto, 4/16)

Los Angeles Times: Teen Use Of E-Cigarettes Continues To Soar, Alarming Many Experts
The use of electronic cigarettes by high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014 — a surprising boom that threatens to wipe out hard-won gains in the fight against teen smoking, a new government report says. The percentage of American high school students who smoked traditional cigarettes on a regular basis dropped from 15.8% in 2011 to 9.2% in 2014, according to a study by a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But that drop has been more than offset by increases in e-cigarette use, which increased from 1.5% of high school students in 2011 to 13.4% in 2014, the study says. (Kaplan and Brown, 4/16)

The New York Times: Use of E-Cigarettes Rises Sharply Among Teenagers, Report Says
E-cigarettes have arrived in the life of the American teenager. Use of the devices among middle- and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014, according to federal data released on Thursday, bringing the share of high school students who use them to 13 percent — more than smoke traditional cigarettes. The sharp rise, together with a substantial increase in the use of hookah pipes, led to 400,000 additional young people using a tobacco product in 2014, the first increase in years, though researchers pointed out it fell within the margin of error. (Tavernise, 4/16)

NPR: Use Of E-Cigarettes Triples Among U.S. Teens
A national survey confirms earlier indications that e-cigarettes are now more popular among teenage students than traditional cigarettes and other forms of tobacco, federal health officials reported Thursday. The findings prompted strong warnings from Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about the effects of any form of nicotine on young people. "We want parents to know that nicotine is dangerous for kids at any age," Frieden said. (Stein, 4/16)

The Washington Post: E-Cigarette Use Triples Among Middle And High School Students, Study Says
Not everyone sees such cause for alarm in the new numbers. “The CDC should really be jumping for joy at the fact that smoking rates are declining. This is a huge success,” said Michael Siegel, a professor and tobacco-control specialist at Boston University’s School of Public Health. “Instead, they are using this as another opportunity to demonize e-cigarettes.” Siegel said he agrees that minors shouldn’t have access to any tobacco product. But he said the CDC numbers suggest that rather than serving as a gateway to cigarette smoking, e-cigarettes actually might be diverting teens from traditional cigarettes. (Dennis, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: E-Cigarette, Hookah Use Rises Among U.S. Teens As Cigarette Use Falls
Electronic cigarette use tripled and hookah use doubled among U.S. teenagers in 2014, even as fewer of them light up traditional cigarettes, according to a government survey published Thursday. For the first time, more high-school students puffed on e-cigarettes last year—13.4%—than regular smokes—9.2%. They also tried hookahs, or water pipes, as often as traditional cigarettes for the first time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Esterl, 4/16)

USA Today: Teen E-Cigarette Use Tripled In The Past Year
About one in four teens use tobacco in some form, from pipes to cigars to smokeless tobacco. Among high school students, 9.4% use a hookah, a tobacco pipe with a long tube that draws smoke through water. (Szabo, 4/16)

The New York Times: Florida Governor to Sue Obama Administration Over Medicaid Expansion
A standoff over expanding Medicaid in Florida escalated on Thursday after Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, said he planned to sue the Obama administration for using what he called “coercion tactics” to try to pressure the state into adopting the program, a centerpiece of the president’s contentious Affordable Care Act. In a letter this week, the federal government made clear that unless the Republican-controlled state legislature moved forward with Medicaid expansion, it could lose as much as $2.1 billion in federal dollars to help hospitals care for the uninsured. The federal aid is scheduled to expire June 30. (Alvarez, 4/16)

The Associated Press: Florida Governor Says He'll Sue Obama Over Hospital Money
Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday he is suing the Obama administration for withholding federal money for hospitals that serve the poor, saying they are doing so because the state won't expand Medicaid. The announcement is another twist in what has been a gritty yearlong battle with the feds over roughly $1 billion in funds for Florida hospitals. The fight has come to a head as the state Legislature works to finalize a state budget before May 1. (Kennedy and Fineout, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: Florida Plans Legal Action Over Health Fund
A spat between Florida officials and the Obama administration about the future of a fund providing more than $1 billion a year for hospitals escalated Thursday when Republican Gov. Rick Scott said he would take legal action. ... Federal officials say they have concerns over the structure and management of Florida’s fund and want the state to make changes to it before agreeing to continue funding it. Mr. Scott has accused Washington of trying to withhold the money to force the state to expand Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act. (Radnofsky, 4/16)

Reuters: Florida Governor Fights Obama Administration Over Healthcare Funding
Scott singled out a letter in which federal officials acknowledged this week a connection between Medicaid expansion and negotiations over the state's "Low Income Pool." Florida stands to lose about $1 billion annually in federal funding to pay hospitals for treating needy patients. The Democratic president is "crossing the line into a coercion tactic" in violation of a 2012 Supreme Court ruling allowing each state to decide on expansion, Scott contended. (Cotterell and Stein, 4/16)

Politico: Florida To Sue Over Obamacare Medicaid Expansion
The Obama administration quickly accused Scott of misconstruing that court decision because the state is not being forced to do anything. And White House spokesman Josh Earnest blasted the governor for putting politics above people. “It’s difficult to explain how somebody would think that their political situation and their political interest is somehow more important than the livelihoods of 800,000 people,” Earnest said. (Caputo and Pradhan, 4/16)

The Associated Press: Obama Signs Overhaul Of How Medicare Pays Doctors
Ending years of last-minute fixes, President Barack Obama on Thursday signed legislation permanently changing how Medicare pays doctors, a rare bipartisan achievement by Democrats and Republicans. The bill overhauls a 1997 law that aimed to slow Medicare's growth by limiting reimbursements to doctors. Instead, doctors threatened to leave the Medicare program, and that forced Congress repeatedly to block those reductions. (Kuhnhenn and Fram, 4/16)

USA Today: Obama Signs 'Doc Fix' Bill In The Rose Garden
The president praised congressional leaders from both parties for the "doc fix" bill that includes provisions for a children's health care program. He said the plan will make the health care system "smarter," without denying service. "This was a bipartisan effort, Republicans and Democrats coming together to do something that's smart and common sense," Obama said. "My hope is it becomes a habit." He declined to take questions, including one about how the bill might affect the budget deficit. (Jackson, 4/16)

The Washington Post: When Veterans Return, Their Children Also Deal With Invisible Wounds Of War
In households nationwide, hundreds of thousands of wounded parents have come home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their children are struggling to navigate the invisible wounds — traumatic brain injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder, which together afflict an estimated 30 percent of the 2.7 million former troops. The everyday toll on children is unprecedented, advocates for veterans’ families say, because their parents have complex injuries that would have ended their lives in wars past, before recent medical advances, and suffer from the psychic scars of multiple deployments. (Wax-Thibodeaux, 4/16)

USA Today: Health Problems Are Common Among 9/11 Medical Crews
Emergency medical service workers who went to Ground Zero after the World Trade Center attacks in 2001 have suffered from an usually high number of health problems, a new study shows. Previous research has documented the health problems suffered by firefighters who worked at Ground Zero, but the new study is the first to examine the health consequences of the toxic dust and emotional stress on workers such as paramedics and emergency medical technicians. (Szabo, 4/16)

The Wall Street Journal: McConnell Vows ‘Big Fights Over Funding’
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) vowed “some big fights over funding the bureaucracy,” saying his party would use spending bills now being written in the GOP-controlled Congress to extract policy concessions from President Barack Obama. ... “Whether it’s health care, whether it’s financial services—literally an assault on anybody in the country who’s making a profit, with the view that if you’re making a profit you must be up to no good,” Mr. McConnell said about federal regulations in an interview this week with The Wall Street Journal after the completion of his first 100 days running the Senate. (Hughes and Peterson, 4/16)

Politico: Rubio-Backed Insurance Market Covers 80 People
In 2008, while Democrats were declaring that the time was right for national health care reform, Marco Rubio, the speaker of the Florida House, had a ready response: Florida should build a market-based system that would help contain the cost of insurance and make it more available. ... Florida Health Choices, which finally opened last year, now covers 80 people. Obamacare, which Rubio wants to repeal, covers 1.6 million in Florida alone. And 93 percent of them are subsidized. ... Rubio spokeswoman Brooke Sammon said the senator continues to support a “true free-market exchange,” and she blamed Obamacare’s subsidies for luring buyers away from Florida Health Choices. (Pradhan, 4/17)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. Spends $100 Million A Year On Homelessness, City Report Finds
Los Angeles spends more than $100 million a year coping with homelessness, including as much as $87 million that goes to arrests, skid row patrols and mental health interventions, according to a report released Thursday. ... Many departments rely on emergency response teams from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, a city-county agency, to respond to community complaints. But the teams, drawn from just 19 people covering the entire county and supported by $330,000 in city general fund money, are ill-equipped to respond adequately, the report said. (Holland, 4/16)