First Edition: January 14, 2015

Kaiser Health News: Health-Law Test To Cut Readmissions Lacks Early Results
Kaiser Health News staff writer Jay Hancock reports: "Obama administration officials have warned that ambitious experiments run by the health law’s $10 billion innovation lab wouldn’t always be successful. Now there is evidence their caution was well placed. Only a small minority of community groups getting federal reimbursement to reduce expensive hospital readmissions produced significant results compared with those from sites that weren’t part of the $300 million program, according to partial, early results. The closely watched program is one of many tests to control costs and improve care being run by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, which was created by the Affordable Care Act." (Hancock, 1/14)

Politico: Medicaid Expansion May Contract
Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion is under renewed assault in the states even as the health law faces threats in Washington from the Supreme Court and a Republican Congress. A handful of Republican governors said that after the November elections, they’d be open to taking billions of federal dollars to cover millions of their low-income residents under the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion. Instead, Medicaid faces possible retrenchment after a Republican tide swept emboldened Obamacare foes into every level of government. (Wheaton, 1/14)

The New York Times: New Analysis Challenges Arguments For Repealing Tax On Medical Devices
A tax on medical devices, imposed by the Affordable Care Act, has become a prime target for Republicans, some Democrats and a small army of lobbyists for the industry. But a new report from the Congressional Research Service challenges economic arguments that are being made to justify repealing the tax. Critics of the tax say it is destroying jobs and encouraging manufacturers to move operations overseas. Repealing it is a priority for Republicans on Capitol Hill. (Pear, 1/13)

Los Angeles Times: New Obamacare Enrollments In California Top 217,000
California's health insurance exchange said 217,146 people have newly signed up for Obamacare coverage after nearly two months of open enrollment. The Covered California exchange said Tuesday the number of applications slowed during the holidays, but it remains confident of reaching its 2015 goal for health-law enrollment. ... During the initial rollout of the Affordable Care Act, 1.2 million people had purchased a private health plan through Covered California. State officials are trying to hold on to those existing policyholders and add about 500,000 more to finish open enrollment Feb. 15 with 1.7 million consumers. (Terhune, 1/13)

Reuters: Coming Soon To A Workplace Near You: 'Wellness Or Else'
U.S. companies are increasingly penalizing workers who decline to join "wellness" programs, embracing an element of President Barack Obama's health care law that has raised questions about fairness in the workplace. (1/13)

The Associated Press: New Tax Forms To Fill Out On Health Insurance Coverage
Be prepared for the tax man to get even more personal this year — with questions about your health insurance. For the first time, you’ll have to state whether you had health insurance, through an employer, one of the exchanges or purchased privately. And if you didn’t, you could face a penalty. (1/13)

Politico: GOP Governors Audition For Washington In Annual Speeches
Each governor who spoke Tuesday — Christie, Walker and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence — outlined a few signature policy proposals designed to lead local news coverage: Pence called for a balanced budget amendment to the state constitution, to be ratified by voters in a future election. Walker proposed merging several state agencies together that he said duplicate work. Christie pushed for mandatory treatment programs for drug offenders. ... Pence stressed that he will never accept traditional Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. “We have been saying ‘no’ to ObamaCare in Indiana, ‘no” to establishing a state-based exchange and ‘no’ to expanding a broken Medicaid system,” he said. “Medicaid is not a program we need to expand. It is a program we need to change.” (Hohmann, 1/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Gov. Christie’s State Of The State Address Touches National Themes
Mr. Christie, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, touched on themes such as tax cuts, school choice, slowing Medicaid spending and reining in benefits for public workers. He spent a significant portion of the speech discussing drug addiction treatment, an issue that some conservatives support. (Haddon and Dawsey, 1/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Digital Health Flexes Muscle At Vaunted Biotech Conference
The Colonial Room of the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco was filled beyond capacity Monday afternoon, and the offices of digital-health seed fund Rock Health were buzzing with hundreds of partygoers just a couple of hours later. Both events were connected to the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, but neither was geared toward pharmaceutical or medical-device executives looking to make deals, as has traditionally been the focus at the vaunted, 33-year-old conference. Instead, digital health software–and analytics that bring more transparency and more insight to the delivery of health care has grown from being a sideshow at the conference to being one of the main events. (Hay, 1/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Aetna Raises Membership Projection
Aetna Inc. expects to add more Medicare and public-exchange members in its current quarter than it had previously projected, as the insurer continues to benefit from the new health-care law. Ahead of a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, Aetna backed its per-share earnings outlook for the current year of at least $6.90 a share and its revenue guidance of at least $62 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters are expecting $7.15 a share in earnings on $62.5 billion in revenue. (Dulaney, 1/13)

Los Angeles Times: Health Insurance Giant Aetna To Boost Minimum Wage To $16
Beginning in 2016, the Hartford, Conn., insurer also plans to cover more of the healthcare costs of about 7,000 of its workers. Some employees could see savings of up to $4,000, the company said in a statement. "We are committed to fostering a strong and successful workplace and a resilient workforce, as well as increasing our ability to attract and retain the best talent," the company said in a statement. (Panzar, 1/13)

The Wall Street Journal's Pharmalot: Can Actavis Switch Enough Namenda Patients Before Generics Arrive?
While Actavis is busy fighting a court battle over marketing plans for a newer version of its big-selling Alzheimer’s pill, the drug maker is also working hard to convert many patients from its older version of the drug before generic rivals emerge later this year. At the moment, the newer Namenda XR accounts for about 40% of all prescriptions written for both the old and new versions of the drug. But Actavis believes Namenda XR can capture as many as 70% of prescriptions by July, when generic copycat versions of the older Namenda IR become available. (Silverman, 1/13)

USA Today/The Indianapolis Star: Ind. Bill Would Ban Abortions For Fetal Disability, Gender
An Indiana lawmaker has introduced a bill to prohibit abortions if the provider knows the procedure is being sought because of the fetus's gender or due to a genetic mental or physical disability such as Down syndrome. The bill filed by Republican state Sen. Travis Holdman would make it a felony for providers to perform abortions in those instances. (Wang, 1/13)

The New York Times: Another Round Of Appointments For Cuomo’s Second Term
The governor, a Democrat, nominated his acting health commissioner, Dr. Howard A. Zucker, to take over formally at the Health Department. Dr. Zucker stepped into the spotlight late last year after he concluded that hydraulic fracturing, a controversial form of extracting natural gas from deep underground known commonly as fracking, could not be conducted safely in the state. (Craig, 1/13)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Supervisors Vote To Move Toward Merging Health Agencies
Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to move toward consolidating three departments dealing with different aspects of public health. But they did so over the objections of mental health advocates who worry that those services will get buried in a larger health agency. The move, proposed by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, would integrate the departments of public health—responsible for controlling disease outbreaks, managing substance abuse programs and conducting health inspections—and mental health with the Department of Health Services, which runs county hospitals and clinics. (Sewell, 1/13)