First Edition: December 21, 2015

Kaiser Health News: Report: Home Care Workers Need Better Job Protections
Kaiser Health News' Anna Gorman reports: "A lack of oversight in the rapidly growing home care workforce could undermine new wage and labor gains for many of the nation’s 2 million workers, according to a report released Monday." (Gorman, 12/21)

Kaiser Health News: Single-Payer Health Care On Colorado Ballot In 2016
The group ColoradoCareYES has gathered enough signatures — more than 100,000 — to put a single-payer health system on the ballot next fall. Under the plan, Coloradans would still pick their own providers, but the new system would pick up all the bills. There would be no deductibles, and fewer and smaller copays. (Daley, 12/21)

The Washington Post: HealthCare.gov Enrollment Surges To Nearly 6 Million So Far
Nearly 6 million Americans so far have enrolled in insurance for 2016 through HealthCare.gov, President Obama announced on Friday, touting a big increase over last year that he said shows the Affordable Care Act is succeeding. (Goldstein, 12/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Federal Health-Insurance Exchanges See Nearly Six Million Apply For 2016 Coverage
Analysts had been concerned that higher premiums and deductibles might scare off new enrollees. But, according to the administration, 2.4 million of the roughly six million people who signed up as of Dec. 17 were new customers. Administration officials said that is about a third more than had signed up last year ahead of the deadline for coverage starting Jan. 1. (Armour, 12/18)

USA Today: Last-Minute Rush Boosts Obamacare Signups, Thanks To New Consumers
While retaining consumers is important, administration officials need to attract uninsured consumers to meet and hopefully exceed the modest goal they set of 10 million people insured on the exchanges at the end of 2016. (O'Donnell, 12/18)

Los Angeles Times: Big Surge In Enrollment Lifts Obamacare Marketplaces
Hundreds of thousands of additional consumers have selected plans through marketplaces operated by the remaining states, including California, New York, Connecticut and Maryland. The strong demand for Obamacare coverage in the law’s third enrollment period may further solidify the markets, which are still evolving as insurance companies and consumers continue to adapt to the new healthcare environment. (Levey, 12/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Enrollment Heats Up For New York State Health-Insurance Exchange
New York state health officials say it has been a busy few weeks for the state health-insurance exchange’s open-enrollment period as it adjusts to the collapse of the system’s only co-op and incorporates a new low-cost coverage plan. The exchange’s customer-service center answered more than 170,000 calls from Dec. 7 to 11, averaging 34,000 a day. Normally, outside of open enrollment, calls average 11,700 a day, according to the New York State Department of Health. (Ramey, 12/20)

The Washington Post: At The Democratic Debate, Only Clinton Promises No Middle Class Tax Increases
Hillary Clinton was the only one of the three Democrats on stage Saturday night willing to pledge that she wouldn’t raise taxes on those making less than $250,000 a year. ... Her chief rival Bernie Sanders said he wants to move to a “Medicare for all” health-care system under which taxes would increase for many middle-class Americans. But Sanders argued the overall cost of care would go down for most people by “thousands of dollars” because they would no longer pay premiums or co-pays. (Wagner, 12/19)

The Associated Press: FACT CHECK: Clinton's Video Claim Doesn't Hold Up
In the Democratic debate on Saturday presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders talk about rising premiums and out-of-pocket costs for the privately insured after enactment of Obama's health care law and single-payer health care systems. (12/20)

Los Angeles Times: A More Prickly Democratic Debate Erupts In Early-Voting New Hampshire
After two days of intense Democratic infighting, Bernie Sanders apologized for his staff's snooping into Hillary Clinton's campaign files at the opening of a cantankerous presidential debate Saturday that underscored sharp differences among the candidates on foreign policy, combating terrorism and raising taxes. (Decker, Halper and Memoli, 12/19)

USA Today: Analysis: Democratic Candidates Did What They Came To Do At Third Debate
The Democratic debate ranged from the battle against ISIS to the debate over health care and the Black Lives Matter movement. At the end of the evening, each of the three candidates may have achieved what they had hoped to do when they arrived. (Page, 12/20)

Los Angeles Times: President Obama Signs Massive Year-End Tax Cut And Spending Package
Congress gave final approval Friday to one of the most ambitious legislative packages in years — a $1.1-trillion funding bill, up to $680 billion in tax breaks and dozens of other substantial policy initiatives. The measure, which averts another shutdown and keeps the federal government running through September, was sent to President Obama, who signed it into law. (Mascaro, 12/18)

The Wall Street Journal: Republican Congress Sets Low Expectations For 2016 Lawmaking
In 2016, much of what happens in the two chambers will involve Republican attempts to take swipes at Obama administration policies, including the nuclear deal with Iran, an international climate accord reached in Paris, and the Affordable Care Act. (Hughes, 12/20)

The Washington Post: For Obama, Next Year Looms With Fewer Chances For Big Agenda Gains
Now that the Affordable Care Act has survived two Supreme Court challenges and has suffered only a small financial blow in this week’s spending deal, the president plans to press ahead with expanding health-care coverage. Obama noted that new ACA customers “are up one-third over last year, and the more who sign up, the stronger the system becomes.” (Eilperin, 12/18)

The Associated Press: Education, Transportation Highlight 2015 In Congress
In a chaotic year, when Republicans in the House unseated a speaker, Congress produced a significant amount of bipartisan legislation that affects every American. It enacted laws recasting federal education policy, restricting government access to bulk phone records, renewing highway and transit programs and even resolving a longstanding problem of how Medicare reimburses doctors. (Daly, 12/21)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Probes Theranos Complaints
U.S. health regulators are investigating complaints about laboratory and research practices at Theranos Inc. by two former employees of the blood-testing startup company, according to people familiar with the inquiries. (Carreyrou, 12/20)

The New York Times: Theranos Founder Faces A Test Of Technology, And Reputation
A Silicon Valley story with intoxicating appeal, Theranos by some measures has a $9 billion valuation because, in part, of its claims that its proprietary technology has the potential to disrupt the established players in health care. But an investigation published in The Wall Street Journal in October changed the narrative by raising serious concerns about whether the company’s technology actually works. (Abelson and Creswell, 12/19)

The Associated Press: Shkreli Resigns As Turing CEO After Securities Fraud Arrest
The pharmaceutical executive reviled for price-gouging resigned Friday as head of the drug-maker Turing Pharmaceuticals, a day after being arrested on charges of securities fraud related to a company he previously ran. (12/18)

The Associated Press: Bold Bid To Rein In Painkiller Prescriptions Hits Roadblocks
A bold federal effort to curb prescribing of painkillers may be faltering amid stiff resistance from drugmakers, industry-funded groups and, now, even other public health officials. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was on track to finalize new prescribing guidelines for opioid painkillers in January. The guidelines — though not binding — would be the strongest government effort yet to reverse the rise in deadly overdoses tied to drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin and Percocet. (Perrone, 12/19)

The Wall Street Journal: Employers Battle Drug Costs
Rising drug costs are forcing tough decisions on those who foot the bill for much of American health care: employers. The pinch is most acute for the many large employers that are self-insured—hiring an insurance company to administer benefits but paying the bill themselves. (Loftus, 12/18)

The Associated Press: Hospitals Pay $28M To Settle Allegations Involving Medicare
The U.S. Justice Department says 32 hospitals in 15 states have agreed to pay $28 million to settle allegations they admitted patients for certain procedures that could have been done on an outpatient basis, resulting in higher Medicare bills. (12/18)

The Associated Press: Maryland Firm To Pay $10M In False Claims Act Settlement
Federal officials say Maryland-based splint supplier Dynasplint Systems and its founder and president have agreed to pay more than $10 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act. Dynasplint, founded by George Hepburn, was accused of mischarging Medicare for splints used by patients in Medicare-certified skilled nursing facilities. (12/18)

The New York Times: Regulators Tamp Down On Mergers Of Hospitals
In the latest sign that federal regulators are uneasy about the flurry of proposed health care mergers taking place, the Federal Trade Commission said on Friday that it planned to block the combination of two large Illinois hospital groups. (Abelson, 12/18)

NPR: When Mom Has Alzheimer's, A Stranger Comes For Christmas
Some 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's, and more than 13 million family members care for them. "There are families in every town, in every state across the country that are dealing with the realities of Alzheimer's disease at this holiday season," says Ruth Drew, who runs the national phone helpline for the Alzheimer's Association. (Rancano, 12/21)