First Edition: January 22, 2016

Kaiser Health News: Consumer And Research Groups Release Cancer Guides For Patients
Kaiser Health News' Mary Agnes Carey writes: For many patients, getting information on various treatment options for a medical condition isn’t hard. Finding out which ones are the best bets for the money can be more difficult. A new collaboration between the consumers group Families USA and the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), an independent nonprofit research organization, released two guides Thursday to help patients and their health care providers decide which screenings and treatments offer the best value in terms of clinical and cost effectiveness for two types of cancer." (Carey, 1/22)

Kaiser Health News: New Federal Standards For Marketplace Plans May Reduce Out-Of-Pocket Spending
Some consumers who buy coverage on the health insurance marketplaces in 2017 could see their out-of-pocket costs drop significantly under a federal proposal to create standardized plans, a recent analysis found. The government wants to create six plan options at the bronze, silver and gold metal levels, each with standard deductibles, maximum out-of-pocket spending limits and copayments or coinsurance for various services. (Andrews, 1/22)

Kaiser Health News: Democratic Candidates Debate ‘Single-Payer,’ But What Does That Mean?
Health care has emerged as one of the flash points in the Democratic presidential race. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has been a longtime supporter of a concept he calls “Medicare for All,” a health system that falls under the heading of “single-payer.” Some of the details of Sanders’ plan are still to be released. But his proposal has renewed questions about what a single-payer health care system is and how it works. Here are some quick answers. (Rovner 1/22)

Kaiser Health News: States Simplify Medicaid Sign-Ups
Getting on Medicaid has never been so easy. In the past two years, 31 states and the District of Columbia have expanded eligibility for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, but even more have simplified sign-ups and renewals, according to a 50-state survey released Thursday. (Galewitz, 1/21)

The New York Times: Republicans Say Government Mismanaged Health Care Co-Ops
Republican senators charged Thursday that the Obama administration had missed warning signs of financial distress at nonprofit health insurance cooperatives that failed last year, but a top federal official denied that the government had been negligent in its supervision. The co-ops were created with federal money under the Affordable Care Act. Democrats hoped the co-ops would increase competition in state insurance markets, creating additional choices for consumers and holding down premiums. But 12 of the 23 co-ops have shut down. (Pear, 1/21)

USA Today: Federal Officials Unsure How Much Will Be Recouped From Failed Health Co-Ops
Federal officials still don't how much they will recoup of the $1.2 billion they spent on loans and startup costs for a dozen health care cooperatives that later failed, a top regulator said Thursday. “We are working closely with the Department of Justice,’’ Andy Slavitt, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told the Senate Finance Committee. “We have taken the first step calling the loans." (Tumulty, 1/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Obama Administration Works To Fix Health Insurance Co-Ops
An Obama administration official said Thursday the government is taking steps to help health cooperatives set up under the Affordable Care Act remain solvent, while seeking to recoup federal funds from those that failed. Andy Slavitt, acting administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told a Senate committee that the agency is working with the Justice Department and taking legal actions to collect the federal moneys in some cases. (Armour, 1/21)

The Washington Post: How Would Paul Ryan Replace Obamacare? Only Time Will Tell
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) vowed to release a plan to replace Obamacare this year. There is plenty of skepticism about whether that will actually happen. ... Yet, the new House speaker intends to back a “bold alternative agenda,” and he committed to unveiling a replacement plan in his first major policy address. ... “As the speaker has said many times, committees, not leadership, will be taking the lead on policy development,” said Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong in response to an inquiry. (Viebeck, 1/21)

Los Angeles Times: Hospitals Failed To Report Outbreaks Linked To Tainted Scopes, Senate Report Says
A Senate investigation of deadly infections spread by contaminated scopes found that not one of the 16 or more American hospitals where patients were sickened appeared to have properly filed the required federal report. A Senate report titled "Preventable Tragedies" said the hospitals' failure to properly report the outbreaks left the Food and Drug Administration "with an inaccurate picture of the frequency and severity" of the outbreaks. (Petersen, 1/22)

The Associated Press: What We Know: Sanders' Health Care Plan
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' health care plan dangles the prospect of "Medicare for all." But it's not the same as Medicare. [Here's] a closer look. (1/21)

Reuters: Aetna's Deal For Humana Will Push Up Costs For Seniors: Think Tank
Aetna Inc's plan to buy smaller insurer Humana Inc for $31 billion will mean seniors will pay higher Medicare Advantage premiums, according to a new report by the think tank Center for American Progress (CAP). Aetna's proposed deal for Humana would combine Aetna's 7 percent of the Medicare Advantage market with Humana's 19 percent, and make it the largest provider, according to CAP, which was founded by John Podesta who worked in the White House under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. (Humer, 1/21)

USA Today: Patient Groups Funded By Drugmakers Are Largely Mum On High Drug Prices
Drug companies provide so much of the funding for major patient groups that many critics say they've stifled a key voice in the policy debate over soaring drug prices, especially over those for cancer. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, for example, gets $50 million a year from drugmakers, which comes to about 16% of their funding. The National Patient Advocate Foundation receives 60% of its $2 million budget from the pharmaceutical industry, while the Colon Cancer Alliance gets 15% of its $1.2 million budget. Several other groups get up to 20% of their revenue from drug companies. (O'Donnell, 1/21)

The Associated Press: Reviled Pharma Exec Would Decline Congressional Questioning
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has subpoenaed [Martin] Shkreli to appear at a hearing on exorbitant drug pricing next Tuesday. Shkreli became the public face of pharmaceutical-industry greed last fall, after hiking the price of a 60-year-old drug for a rare infection by 5,000 percent. Questions emerged Thursday about whether Shkreli would even attend the hearing, in spite of the congressional subpoena. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, said Shkreli has apparently not made any legal arrangements to travel to Washington, based on conversations with his attorney. (1/21)

Reuters: Drug Exec Shkreli, Lawmakers Clash Ahead Of Congressional Hearing
Former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli was on a collision course with Congress on Thursday as lawmakers warned he could be prosecuted for contempt if he does not appear next week for a hearing about drug prices. Shkreli, 32, has said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. On Twitter, he told followers it was "disgusting and insulting" for lawmakers to try to subvert that right. ... The dispute appeared likely to end in one of two ways: with Shkreli appearing in Washington on Tuesday to invoke that right, or with Shkreli staying home in New York, prompting the committee to vote to hold him in contempt and setting off a potential criminal prosecution. (Raymond and Ingram, 1/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Shkreli Seeks To Shield Congressional Testimony
Martin Shkreli, the former drug-company executive criticized for dramatically raising a pill’s price, has asked a congressional committee seeking his testimony to guarantee it can’t be used in a federal prosecution, according to materials reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. ... Lawyers for Mr. Shkreli have told the committee he won’t answer questions, citing his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, according to emails between Mr. Shkreli’s lawyers and the committee. The lawyers indicated that position would change if the committee would grant Mr. Shkreli the immunity so prosecutors couldn’t use his testimony against him, according to the emails. (Rockoff, 1/21)

Reuters: J&J Stops Trials Of Drug Similar To One Linked To Brain Death In France
Johnson & Johnson has suspended international trials of a drug in the same class as an experimental drug made by Portuguese pharmaceutical company Bial, whose tests in France left one person brain dead and five others hospitalized. A spokesman for Johnson & Johnson said in an emailed statement that it voluntarily suspended two mid-stage trials and had not received reports of serious adverse events in its studies of patients with social anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder with anxious distress. (Beasley, 1/21)

The Associated Press: VA Chief To Congress: You Can’t Fire Your Way To Excellence
Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert McDonald on Thursday disputed claims by members of Congress that his scandal-plagued agency hasn’t dismissed enough employees, saying, “You can’t fire your way to excellence.” McDonald told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee that he and other top leaders are turning the VA around, “providing more and better care than ever before” and holding employees accountable, including firing about 2,600 workers since he took office 18 months ago. (Daly, 1/21)

The New York Times: Zika Virus May be Linked to Surge in Rare Syndrome in Brazil
A mosquito-borne virus that has been linked to severe brain damage in infants may be causing another serious health crisis as well, Brazilian officials and doctors warn: hundreds of cases of a rare syndrome in which patients can be almost completely paralyzed for weeks. The virus, called Zika, made its way to Brazil recently but is spreading rapidly around Latin America and the Caribbean. Nearly 4,000 cases of brain damage, in which babies were born with unusually small heads, have been registered in Brazil in the past year, and this month American officials advised pregnant women to delay traveling to any of nearly 20 countries in the Western Hemisphere, as well as Puerto Rico, where mosquitoes are spreading the virus. (Romero and McNeil, 1/21)

The Associated Press: Battleground Colorado Enters 2016 With Abortion Debates
Colorado Republicans could be forgiven for thinking that several years of fiery political contests over abortion and reproductive rights were behind them. Then, last year a pregnant woman close to giving birth was gruesomely attacked with a knife, and a few months later an anti-abortion zealot opened fire at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs, killing three. Think those cases won’t affect the 2016 races? Not a chance. (Wyatt, 1/22)

The Associated Press: Kansas Court Plans Ruling Over Ban On Common Abortion Method
The Kansas Court of Appeals is expected to decide Friday whether to allow the state’s first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion method. The ruling, which will come on the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision, stems from a lawsuit filed by two abortion providers who said the 2015 law is an unconstitutional burden on women seeking to end their pregnancies. (Hegeman, 1/22)

The Associated Press: Hawaii Could Be 1st To Start Long-Term Care Elderly Benefit
Hawaii lawmakers are introducing a bill that could make the state the first in the nation to offer long-term care benefits to seniors. Democratic Sen. Rosalyn Baker said during a legislative hearing Thursday that the bill would provide eligible seniors with a benefit of $70 per day for a year. The seniors could use the benefit to pay family caregivers, hire in-home aides and help offset the cost of safety equipment, like walkers and ramps. (Riker, 1/21)

NPR/KQED: Childhood Vaccination Rates Climb In California
Maybe it was last January's big measles outbreak at Disneyland that scared more California parents into getting their kids vaccinated. Or maybe health campaigns have become more persuasive. Or maybe schools getting stricter about requiring shots for entry made a difference. Whatever the reasons, childhood vaccination rates last fall went up in 49 of 58 counties in California, according to data released Tuesday by state health officials. (Aliferis, 1/21)