First Edition: February 12, 2015

Kaiser Health News: Low-Income Californians More Satisfied With Their Health Care, Report Finds
Low-income Californians are increasingly satisfied with the health care they receive, underscoring the impact of changes made by clinics and providers since the Affordable Care Act went into effect, according to a report released Wednesday. More than half of low-income patients – 53 percent — rated their quality of care as excellent or very good in 2014, up five percentage points from 2011, according to the survey by the Blue Shield of California Foundation. That means that about 400,000 patients were happier with their care, the report said. (Gorman, 2/11)

Kaiser Health News: Texas Insurance Brokers Play Bigger Obamacare Role
As the health law’s second open enrollment season barrels to a close on Sunday, nearly a million Texans have purchased or applied for health insurance. This time around, insurance brokers are aggressively marketing themselves to shoppers – it’s a big change for the brokers who have had an uneasy relationship with the health law for years. (Feibel, 2/11)

The Washington Post's Wonkblog: With The Obamacare Enrollment Window Closing, HealthCare.gov Activity Picks Up
Nearly 7.75 million people have so far signed up for 2015 health plans through the 37 states using HealthCare.gov, as activity on the Web site picks up just days before the end of the Affordable Care Act's second-ever enrollment period, Obama administration officials reported Wednesday. Traffic to the federal government's health insurance Web site, which is running much more smoothly this year, was up 58 percent Wednesday morning compared to the same time last week, according to Obama administration officials overseeing the health insurance marketplaces. About 275,000 people signed up through the Web site between Jan. 31 and Feb. 6 — the most recent week of data available — making it one of the busiest enrollment weeks in the past two months. (Millman, 2/11)

The Associated Press: Sunday Deadline Driving Health Law Sign-Ups For 2015
Although enrollment centers haven’t seen the same long lines as last year, volunteers from Austin, Texas, to Columbus, Ohio, report a surge this week, not yet captured in official numbers. And the revamped HealthCare.gov website so far has avoided last year’s technology meltdown. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/11)

Los Angeles Times: Obamacare Sign-Ups Expected To Top 10 Million Amid Sizable Expansion
As the deadline for signing up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act approaches Sunday, enrollment in plans provided through the federal health law is on track to expand substantially over 2014. Nationwide, preliminary tallies from state and federal health agencies suggest sign-ups should top 10 million and will probably go even higher in the final rush this weekend. (Levey and Terhune, 2/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Thousands To Lose Health Insurance Over Residency Questions
The Obama administration is cutting off health-insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act for 200,000 people who haven’t proved they are legally residing in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services officials on Wednesday said health plans would terminate Feb. 28 for people who had signed up for coverage in 2014 and whose plans had been automatically renewed for 2015, after officials concluded those people hadn’t supplied enough information to verify their immigration or citizenship status. (Radnofsky, 2/11)

Reuters: Obama Slams Staples, Big Companies On Healthcare: 'Shame On Them'-BuzzFeed
U.S. President Barack Obama singled out office supply company Staples Inc as undercutting his healthcare reform law and said large corporations should not use the health insurance issue as an excuse for cutting wages, the news website BuzzFeed reported. "It's one thing when you've got a mom-and-pop store who can't afford to provide paid sick leave or health insurance or minimum wage to workers ... but when I hear large corporations that make billions of dollars in profits trying to blame our interest in providing health insurance as an excuse for cutting back workers’ wages, shame on them,” Obama said in an interview with BuzzFeed. (2/11)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Budget Deficit Widens Slightly In January
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects the deficit will fall to $468 billion this year, the lowest level since 2007. The agency forecasts that it will stay essentially flat until 2017, after which it begins to widen due to an aging workforce that will lower tax rolls and increase spending on Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs. (Timiraos, 2/11)

The Associated Press: US Budget Deficit Running 6.2 Percent Higher Than Last Year
The budget deficit has gradually narrowed since 2012, which was the fourth straight year in which it topped the $1 trillion mark. The improvement reflects the country’s economic recovery from recession. ... The CBO is forecasting that without any changes in government policies, the deficit will decline slightly to $467 billion in 2016 but then will start rising and top $1 trillion again in 2025 as spending balloons for Social Security and Medicare. (Crutsinger, 2/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Parties Clash Over Social Security Disability Trust Fund
The first fight between the White House and the new GOP-controlled Congress over spending on federal safety-net programs is heating up over a Social Security program used to help support disabled people. If Congress doesn’t take action, the Social Security Disability Insurance program will run out of sufficient funds by late 2016, according to the Social Security chief actuary, triggering a 19% cut in disability benefits. (Peterson, 2/11)

Politico: GOP Plea On Social Security Disability: Do Something, Obama
The battle over Social Security’s future came back to the forefront Wednesday as top Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee challenged the White House plan to shift $330 billion between the program’s trust funds to avert deep cuts in disability payments, beginning at the end of 2016. President Barack Obama’s new budget plan released last week would accomplish this transfer by temporarily adjusting the formula that distributes receipts from the 6.2 percent federal payroll tax, which workers and their employers pay to finance both the retirement and disability programs. (Rogers, 2/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Government Watchdog Says Veterans Affairs At High Risk For Fraud, Waste
The Department of Veterans Affairs health care system has been declared a “high-risk” operational area of the federal government in a report issued Wednesday by a leading government watchdog. The Government Accountability Office this year added the VA’s health care system to a list of 32 total federal programs especially vulnerable to “fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement.” The VA hasn’t fully addressed more than 100 of the accountability office’s recommendations, some stretching back more than a decade including those that have reportedly harmed veterans, according to the report. (Kesling, 2/11)

The Washington Post: Veterans’ Health, Federal IT Management Rank Among Top Government Risks
Health-care delays for veterans and poorly managed information technology are among the U.S. government’s most pressing problems, federal auditors said Wednesday. The issues showed up for the first time this year in the Government Accountability Office’s biannual high risk list, which flags federal programs especially susceptible to fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement. (Hicks, 2/12)

Politico: Despite FDA Moves, Push Continues For Congress To Act On Mobile Health
Apple, Intel and other digital health companies are winning their war against old-school medical device regulation. The industry that stands to make millions from mobile health tech has Food and Drug Administration regulations locked down, and it has the support of Congress, too. With the government’s approval, wearable monitors and health apps on iPhones are proliferating; the wearable electronic market is predicted to be valued at $11.6 billion by 2020. (Gold, 2/11)

The Associated Press: Obama To Sign Veterans Suicide Prevention Bill
President Barack Obama is joining with lawmakers and top government leaders to cast a spotlight on the issue of suicide among veterans. Obama on Thursday will sign the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act into law. First lady Michelle Obama, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald and veterans are expected to attend the White House ceremony. (2/12)

USA Today: AstraZeneca Pays $7.9M To Settle Kickback Charge
A U.S. division of British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will pay the federal government $7.9 million to settle allegations the drug manufacturer and distributor engaged in a kickback scheme to boost sales of one of its popular medications. The civil settlement, announced Wednesday by the Department of Justice, resolves charges that Delaware-based AstraZeneca LP agreed to pay millions of dollars to keep the "sole and exclusive" status of its Nexium heartburn medication held on a list of drugs eligible for coverage by government health care plans. (McCoy, 2/11)

The Wall Street Journal's Pharmalot: AstraZeneca Pays $7.9M To Settle Kickback Charges Paid To A PBM
AstraZeneca AZN.LN -0.01% has agreed to pay the federal government $7.9 million to settle allegations the drug maker paid kickbacks to a large pharmacy benefits manager to ensure that its blockbuster Nexium heartburn medication was given the best status on formularies, which are the list of drugs that received preferred coverage (Silverman, 2/11)

The Associated Press: AstraZeneca To Pay $7.9 Million Over Kickback Allegations
Pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca LP will pay $7.9 million to settle allegations that it engaged in a kickback scheme involving the heartburn medicine Nexium, U.S. Justice Department officials said Wednesday. The settlement stems from a whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2010 on behalf of the government by two former AstraZeneca executives. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Delaware, home to AstraZeneca's U.S commercial headquarters, had remained sealed until this week. (2/11)

The Associated Press: Rite Aid Spends $2B On Push Into Pharmacy Benefit Management
Rite Aid's $2 billion acquisition of a pharmacy benefits manager steers the drugstore chain toward a potentially lucrative focus for health care companies: Finding ways to tame customer costs. The nation's third-largest drugstore chain is buying EnvisionRx which, like all pharmacy benefit managers, can exercise considerable influence over how much patients pay for their medications. (2/11)

The Wall Street Journal: WellCare Earnings Drop On Severe Flu Season
WellCare Health Plans Inc. on Wednesday posted a downbeat full-year earnings guidance, after an unexpectedly severe flu season dragged on profit, leading earnings to drop 82% in the December quarter. The company now expects full-year earnings between $3.15 and $3.40 a share, below analyst estimates of $3.59 a share. (Chen, 2/11)

The Associated Press: Suit Seeks To Exempt Physicians From Assisted Suicide Law
A cancer patient and five doctors filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to exempt physicians who help terminally ill patients end their lives from a California ban on assisted suicide. Physicians who provide such assistance are not helping the patient commit suicide, but instead giving them the option of bringing about a peaceful death, according to the lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court. (2/11)

The Associated Press: NY Legislators Seek Delay In Electronic Prescriptions
New York legislators want to postpone until next year the deadline for doctors to issue only electronic drug prescriptions, saying many still lack needed federal approval. The bill has passed the state Senate and the Assembly Health Committee. Assemblyman John McDonald, sponsor and practicing pharmacist, says he expects the full Assembly to pass it in two weeks. (2/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Measles Vaccine Debate Hits Home At California School
For Jennifer Cauzza, a charter-school leader in Southern California, the measles outbreak is more than just a health and science lesson. It has become a civics lesson, too. Julian Charter School, where Ms. Cauzza serves as executive director, has a higher rate of students’ opting out of being vaccinated than the average in California, a state with a high rate of such exemptions overall and by far the most measles cases in an outbreak that began at Disneyland Resort in December and has encompassed at least 17 states. (Porter, 2/11)