Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: December 8, 2014
Kaiser Health News: Obamacare Creates Boom For Federal Contractors
Two years ago General Dynamics, one of the biggest federal contractors, reported a quarterly loss of $2 billion. An “eye-watering” result, one analyst called it. Diminishing wars and plunging defense spending had slashed the weapons maker’s revenue and left some subsidiaries worth far less than it had paid for them. But the company was already pushing in a new direction. Soon after Congress passed the landmark Affordable Care Act, the maker of submarines and tanks decided to expand its business related to health care. (Hancock, 12/8).
Check out the related infographic: HHS’s Contracting Bonanza In 8 Charts (Hancock and Cordyack, 12/5)
Politico: Health Care Torch Passed … To Nobody
Who will be the new health care leaders for Democrats? Sens. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Ben Cardin of Maryland want more delivery system reforms. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington wants better contraceptive coverage and more doctors. All three want to beef up mental health coverage. And Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey aren’t even saying what’s on their agenda — they want the Republicans to go first. It’s all smaller bore stuff — a real comedown from the visions of the past. (Nather, 12/7)
USA Today: Pessimist's Persistence Could Pay Off Against Obamacare
A Supreme Court challenge that poses a grave threat to President Obama's health care law had its genesis precisely four years ago as a power-point presentation by a self-proclaimed pessimist from South Carolina. The idea was picked up by an Ohio law professor, given a policy and public relations push by a Washington health economist and turned into a lawsuit by an Oklahoma attorney general. Three more lawsuits followed. Nearly five years after the law was passed, their effort has reached the Supreme Court, which saved the president's signature domestic policy achievement in 2012 but now could deal Obama a significant setback. (Wolf, 12/7)
The Associated Press: Health Law Impacts Primary Care Doc Shortage
The Papas were among the 6.7 million people who gained insurance through the Affordable Care Act last year, flooding a primary care system that is struggling to keep up with demand. A survey this year by The Physicians Foundation found that 81 percent of doctors describe themselves as either over-extended or at full capacity, and 44 percent said they planned to cut back on the number of patients they see, retire, work part-time or close their practice to new patients. At the same time, insurance companies have routinely limited the number of doctors and providers on their plans as a way to cut costs. The result has further restricted some patients' ability to get appointments quickly. (Kennedy, 12/7)
USA Today: Video Visits Blocked Despite Doctor Shortage
Videoconferencing doctors from other areas could help solve the problem of hospital closings and doctor shortages that hit heavily rural states, but proponents say states move too slowly in allowing it. This practice of telemedicine has been caught in a conflict between insurers, doctors and officials reluctant to allow physicians who haven't seen a patient in person — and may never follow up — prescribe drugs or treatment. (O'Donnell, 12/7)
NPR: Delivering Health Care To The Uninsured For $15 A Pop
What happens when you break a leg and you live hundreds of miles from the nearest hospital? Or when you can't afford to get a new pair of glasses because you don't have health insurance? For many, the answer is to go without help. That's why the organization Remote Area Medical was conceived. As we've reported before, the team travels across the United States and abroad to provide health care to those in need. That's a lot of people — about 16 percent of Americans are uninsured, according to the latest Gallup poll. (Bruzek, 12/5)
The Associated Press: More Than 50,000 Enroll In Health Care In Maryland
Nearly 52,000 people have enrolled for health coverage in Maryland since the second enrollment period began last month, the state’s health care exchange said Friday. Of those enrollees, 29,543 have signed up for private insurance plans for 2015. Another 22,253 enrolled in Medicaid. The updated enrollment numbers are for Nov. 15 through Thursday. (12/5)
The Washington Post: HHS Adds New Class Of ‘Entrepreneurs-In-Residence’
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services welcomed its third group of “entrepreneurs-in-residence” — mainly private-sector tech experts and start-up founders who are spending a year advising the agency on its health IT projects. Two are working on data collection and analysis. Paula Braun, a data scientist with Charlottesville, Va.-based consulting firm Elder Research, is embedded in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to devise a better Electronic Death Registration System, so that the CDC can refine its analytics and predictive modeling. (Ravindranath, 12/7)
The Wall Street Journal: GOP Adds Veteran Legislator Bill Cassidy To Senate Tally
Senator-elect Bill Cassidy is a doctor who says he first ran for office because he was horrified by the breakdown in health care after Hurricane Katrina. ... Mr. Cassidy effectively brushed aside criticism late in the campaign from Ms. Landrieu that he had filed timesheets for working at a Louisiana state hospital on days he was also casting votes in Washington. Mr. Cassidy said he often worked in the morning to meet his part-time obligations teaching students and treating patients, then flew to Washington in the afternoon. He said he also saw enough to know that patients were struggling to afford insurance under the Affordable Care Act. “I would like to repeal and replace Obamacare with something that would actually help them,” Mr. Cassidy said in a debate on Monday. “How can we give power to the patient?” (Bauerlein, 12/7)
Politico: Bill Cassidy: Obamacare ‘Pounding The American People’
Rep. Bill Cassidy, who toppled Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu in Saturday’s runoff election, says his top priority is to tackle Obamacare. "It’s pounding the American people,” the Republican senator-elect said on “Fox News Sunday.” “People are upset about this law, and we must do something about it.” “The Supreme Court is now considering a case as to whether the administration is breaking a law in terms of how they give subsidies - and a plain reading of the law suggests that they are,” he said. “If the Supreme Court rules that the administration is breaking the law, it crashes in 30 some odd states.” (Diaz, 12/7)
The Wall Street Journal: Health And Tech Funds Step Up
Is it time to load up on health-care and technology funds? Or is it too late? Health care has delivered the strongest mutual-fund performance of any U.S.-stock sector over the past five years, with a nearly 22% average annual return, according to Morningstar Inc. data. The tech sector’s annual return of 14.5% over that stretch trails that of several other sectors. But in November, tech’s 3.5% return beat health care’s 2.9% and made tech one of the month’s strongest U.S. sectors. Looking ahead, there’s a case to be made for both sectors. (Hodges, 12/7)
The New York Times: Paid To Promote Eye Drug, And Prescribing It Widely
When the drug maker Genentech introduced a major product in 2006, it found itself in an awkward position: persuading eye doctors to start using its new more expensive drug instead of a popular cheaper version that the company already sold. (Thomas and Abrams, 12/7)
The Associated Press: Paralegal: Sanofi Fired Her For Whistleblowing
A paralegal recently fired by French drugmaker Sanofi has filed a whistleblower lawsuit, claiming she was discharged after protesting an alleged kickback scheme to increase U.S. sales of its insulin medicines. The lawsuit, filed in New Jersey Superior Court in Newark by Diane Ponte, accuses Sanofi SA, recently ousted CEO Christopher Viehbacher and more than 10 other executives of paying consultants millions to induce pharmacists to fill prescriptions for generic insulin with Sanofi’s brand-name versions, rather than those of rival Novo Nordisk A/S. (Johnson, 12/5)
The Associated Press: Hearing Scheduled On NY Health Single-Payer Health Coverage
The state Assembly is holding the second of six statewide public hearings on legislation to establish New York Health, a universal single-payer health coverage plan to replace insurance company coverage. Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried will take testimony on the bill which would provide comprehensive, universal health coverage for every New Yorker. (12/8)
The Associated Press: Planned Parenthood Drops Kansas Abortion Lawsuit
Planned Parenthood on Friday dropped a federal lawsuit challenging a requirement in Kansas for abortion providers to have a link on their websites' home pages to state materials about fetal development and terminating pregnancies. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil issued a one-page order closing the lawsuit, saying the parties had "settled" the claims, without providing details. A trial had been scheduled to begin Monday in Kansas City, Kansas. (Hanna, 12/5)
The Associated Press: New Mexico Sues Nursing Home Chain Based On New Method
New Mexico's attorney general on Friday sued one of the nation's largest nursing home chains over inadequate resident care, alleging that thin staffing made it numerically impossible to provide good care. The novel approach in the lawsuit filed by outgoing Democratic Attorney General Gary King could be applied in other states if it succeeds. It targets seven nursing homes run by Preferred Care Partners Management Group L.P. of Plano, Texas, a privately held company with operations in at least 10 states: Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. New Mexico's lawsuit relies on an industrial simulation of how long it takes to complete basic care tasks — for example, 3.5 minutes to reposition a resident in order to prevent bedsores. By calculating the total minutes required to properly care for residents and comparing them to the actual number of hours worked, the state found deficiencies in the total hours worked by nursing assistants of as much as 50 percent. (Horowitz and Montoya, 12/5)
Los Angeles Times: North Hollywood's IPC On Leading Edge Of 'Hospitalist' Specialty
In 1996, the term "hospitalist" was coined in an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that described the growing medical specialty of doctors and other healthcare professionals devoted to caring for patients in hospitals. (White, 12/7)
Los Angeles Times: UCLA-Backed M-Health Project Aids At-Risk Women Using Fitness App
Sago and 39 other young African American women at Faithful Central Bible Church recently participated in a UCLA-backed clinical trial that used a smartphone app to track their eating and activity and teach them healthful diet and exercise habits. Many such mobile health, or "m-health," programs are in their infancy. But researchers and advocates for underserved, hard-to-reach patient groups hope they soon will contribute to major advances in the treatment of diabetes, heart disease and other chronic conditions. (Brown, 12/5)
