Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: April 30, 2015
Kaiser Health News: More Evidence That Health Plans Stint On Mandated Birth Control Coverage
Women’s health advocates were thrilled when the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010, because it required insurance companies to cover a broad array of women’s health services at no additional out-of-pocket cost beyond premiums. Five years later, however, that requirement is not being enforced, according to two new studies. Health insurance plans around the country are failing to provide many of those legally-mandated services including birth control and cancer screenings.(Rovner, 4/30)
Kaiser Health News: An Obamacare Payment Reform Success Story – One Health System, Two Procedures
To understand how the health law is supposed to fix the mediocre, overpriced, absurd medical system, you could read wonky research papers on bundled payments and accountable care organizations. Or you could look at what’s going on at Baptist Health System in San Antonio. ... Baptist made money doing what used to be industry heresy: reducing patients’ use of the medical system. The hospital group made a deal with Medicare, the huge government program for seniors, as part of an ambitious array of experiments authorized by the Affordable Care Act. (Hancock, 4/30)
Politico: GOP Warms To Obamacare — If Americans Work For It
In nearly a dozen Republican-dominated states, either the governor or conservative legislators are seeking to add work requirements to Obamacare Medicaid expansion, much like an earlier generation pushed for welfare to work. The move presents a politically acceptable way for conservative states to accept the billions of federal dollars available under Obamacare, bringing health care coverage to millions of low-income people. But to the Obama administration, a work requirement is a non-starter, an unacceptable ideological shift in the 50-year-old Medicaid program and a break with the Affordable Care Act’s mission of expanding health care coverage to all Americans. The Health and Human Services Department has rejected all requests by states to tie Medicaid to work. (Wheaton, 4/30)
The Associated Press: GOP Divided As Supreme Court Ruling On Health Care Law Nears
Congressional Republicans are divided over how to respond to an approaching Supreme Court decision on President Barack Obama's health care law, even as growing numbers concede that their long-sought goal of repealing the statute will have to wait. Should the plaintiffs prevail in the GOP-backed lawsuit, the justices could annul one of the law's backbones: federal subsidies helping around 7.7 million people afford health insurance in more than 30 states. Republicans broadly agree that Congress should react by temporarily replacing that aid, aware that abruptly ending it would anger millions of voters before the 2016 presidential and congressional elections. (Fram, 4/30)
The Associated Press: GOP Plans For Reacting To Supreme Court Ruling On Health Law
Congressional Republicans have yet to unite behind any of the growing number of proposals for responding to a Supreme Court ruling that could void federal subsidies that millions of people use to buy coverage under President Barack Obama's health care law. The decision is expected by June. (4/30)
The New York Times: Insurers Flout Rule Covering Birth Control, Studies Find
Health insurance companies often flout a federal requirement that they cover all approved methods of birth control for women without co-payments or other charges, a major benefit of the Affordable Care Act, two new studies have found. Responding to the reports, senior Democratic members of Congress prodded the White House on Wednesday to step up enforcement of the requirement. Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the senior Democrat on the Senate health committee, said she was “extremely disappointed” by the findings, and she asked Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, to investigate the problems reported by many women. (Pear, 4/30)
The Wall Street Journal: Women’s Group Says Insurers Aren’t Meeting Health-Law Requirements
The National Women’s Law Center, a feminist group that strongly backs the health law, said Wednesday it had found violations in health-plan documents in more than a dozen states where it investigated policies sold on the law’s insurance exchanges. The center, based in Washington, D.C., also said it had received complaints on a hotline from women from every state about problems accessing the benefits, including calls from women who got health coverage through their jobs. (Radnofsky, 4/29)
The Associated Press: Insurers Skirt Law's Protections For Women
Some insurance plans offered on the health overhaul law's new marketplaces violate the law's requirements for women's health, according to a new report from a women's legal advocacy group. The National Women's Law Center analyzed plans in 15 states over two years and found some excluded dependents from maternity coverage, prohibited coverage of breast pumps or failed to cover all federally approved birth control methods. (Johnson, 4/29)
The Wall Street Journal: U.S. House And Senate Republicans Agree On Combined Budget
If it passes, the budget resolution will also unlock a procedural tool that Republicans say they will use to send the White House a repeal of Mr. Obama’s health-care law. That tool, known as “reconciliation,” allows legislation to pass Congress with a simple majority. Republicans control 54 of 100 seats in the Senate, where most bills require 60 votes to avoid procedural hurdles. (Timiraos and Peterson, 4/29)
The Washington Post: Republicans Reach Budget Deal, Take Aim At Obamacare
The Republican budget ignores Obama’s threat to veto any funding bills that lock in spending cuts for domestic programs. Instead negotiators opted for deep domestic cuts, nearly $40 billion in additional defense spending from off-book funds and a new attack on the president’s signature health-care bill. (Snell, 4/29)
The Associated Press: GOP Unveils Budget Plans In Face Of Obama Opposition
Republicans controlling Congress Wednesday unveiled a budget plan for the upcoming year and beyond, setting up a confrontation with President Barack Obama over his signature health care law and his vow to boost spending on domestic programs like transportation and education. House-Senate negotiators on the sweeping — but nonbinding — budget plan sealed agreement Wednesday. The 10-year balanced budget plan calls upon lawmakers to repeal Obama's health care law while enacting major curbs on safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps. It would cut future-year budgets for domestic agencies below already tight spending "caps" that the White House vows to dismantle. (4/29)
Politico: Corker Relents, Handing GOP A Budget Victory
Under intense pressure from his Republican colleagues, Sen. Bob Corker on Wednesday dropped objections to what he called gimmickry in a budget deal, paving the way for Congress to clear a spending blueprint for the first time in half a decade. The Tennessee Republican’s concession represents a major victory for GOP leadership, Republican moderates and defense hawks. Had Corker succeeded, appropriators say they would have had to cut several billion dollars from domestic programs when there’s precious little money to spare. (Bade, 4/29)
The Wall Street Journal: Humana Earnings Miss Expectations
Humana Inc. on Wednesday reported earnings that fell below analysts’ expectations on an operating basis, despite membership growth. The company reaffirmed its full-year earnings outlook (Wilde Mathews and Dulaney, 4/29)
The Wall Street Journal: Anthem Earnings Rise On Higher Enrollment, Lower Medical Costs
The Indianapolis-based Anthem echoed its competitors Wednesday in flagging restrained medical spending growth. Wayne S. DeVeydt, chief financial officer, said that if the second quarter continues the trend of the first quarter, “we clearly would have a bias toward the lower end” of its projected trend. (Wilde Mathews and Chen, 4/29)
Politico: Conservatives Demand Vote To Reject D.C. Abortion Law
The House will vote Friday on a resolution disapproving of a D.C. Law aimed at stopping employers from firing workers because of abortions or contraceptive use. Leadership scheduled the vote after a push from House conservatives, who say the law tramples on the religious liberties of employers. (French, 4/29)
Los Angeles Times: Almost 40% Of California Hospitals Graded C Or Lower For Patient Safety
Nearly four in 10 California hospitals received a grade of C or lower for patient safety in a new national report card aimed at prodding medical centers to do more to prevent injuries and deaths. The Leapfrog Group, an employer-backed nonprofit group focused on healthcare quality, issued its latest scores Wednesday, it said, so consumers and employers can be aware of poorly performing hospitals before using them.(Terhune and Smith, 4/29)
The New York Times: Health Problems Take Root In A West Baltimore Neighborhood That Is Sick Of Neglect
In Upton-Druid Heights in West Baltimore — one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods and, in recent days, the scene of some of its most vocal protests — the cost of long-term poverty is counted in lives. Its residents die from nearly every major disease at substantially higher rates than the city as a whole — nearly double the rate from heart disease, more than double the rate from prostate cancer, and triple the rate from AIDS. Life expectancy here is just 68 years, one notch above Pakistan. (Tavernise, 4/29)
Los Angeles Times: California's Individual Health Insurance Market Grows 64% To 2.2 Million
The number of Californians buying individual health insurance soared 64% to nearly 2.2 million as Obamacare took full effect last year, a new report shows. In California, 843,607 people joined the individual market both inside and outside the Covered California insurance exchange, as of Dec. 31, 2014. (Terhune, 429)
Los Angeles Times: Theft Of Private Data On 900 L.A. County-USC Patients Investigated
Officials are investigating a security and privacy breach affecting 900 patients who were treated at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center’s mental health facility. The breach was discovered April 3 during a search of the home of a nurse who was employed at the Augustus F. Hawkins Mental Health Center, said Michael Wilson, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services. The investigation was not related to county business, he said. (Rocha, 4/29)
Los Angeles Times: State, L.A. County Set To Overhaul Nursing Home Oversight Procedure
Los Angeles County and state officials are preparing to realign nursing home inspection and oversight duties as part of a drive to better manage a chronic backlog of investigations into complaints of abuse and neglect. But some patient advocates say the proposed changes aren’t likely to significantly improve conditions, and could make matters worse. (Sewell, 4/29)
Los Angeles Times: Sugary Drink Labeling Bill Falls Short In State Senate Panel
A measure to require health warning labels on sodas and other sugary beverages fell flat in a state Senate committee Wednesday afternoon. Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) presented the bill as a tool to combat rising obesity and diabetes rates. The measure would have required sugar-sweetened drinks, including sodas, sports drinks and energy drinks, to be adorned with a label that would read "drinking beverages with added sugars contributes to obesity, diabetes and tooth decay." (Mason, 429)
The New York Times: Hospitals Provide A Pulse In Struggling Rural Towns
This real estate to be auctioned,” reads a banner stretched across the abandoned warehouse of a store-shelving manufacturer that once employed generations living in and around this town of about 12,000. This isolated rural community has lost a lot of the energy of its heyday, when shoppers roamed downtown sidewalks, freight trains rumbled past the Big Blue River, and streets clogged at quitting time as factory workers spilled out of their plants. But it has yet to lose its economic pulse, thanks in large measure to the Beatrice Community Hospital and Health Center, housed in a sprawling new building of concrete and green glimmering windows on the outskirts of town. The hospital has become an economic anchor for the area. (Searcey, 4/29)
