First Edition: January 6, 2015

Kaiser Health News: Lots Of Responsibility For In-Home Care Providers — But No Training Required
No overall training is required for the more than 400,000 caregivers in California’s $7.3 billion In-Home Supportive Services Program (IHSS) for low-income elderly and disabled residents. Without instruction even in CPR or first aid, these caregivers can quickly become overwhelmed and their sick or disabled clients can get hurt, according to interviews with caregivers, advocates and elder abuse experts. (Gorman, 1/6)

The New York Times: Resistance From Right Slows G.O.P. Press To Redefine Full-Time Worker
One of the new Republican Congress’s first legislative priorities — redefining a full-time worker under the Affordable Care Act — is gaining opposition just days before passage from a surprising group: conservatives. The House will take up legislation on Wednesday, the first major bill of the 114th Congress, that would change the definition of a full-time worker under the health law from one who works 30 hours a week to one who works 40 hours. A vote is scheduled for Thursday. Writing this weekend in National Review, Yuval Levin, a conservative popular with House Republicans, said the legislation “seems likely to be worse than doing nothing.” His rationale is that there are many more people who work 40 hours a week than just over 30, and that it would be easier for an employer to cut their hours to 39 a week to avoid offering them insurance than to 29. (Weisman, 1/5)

Los Angeles Times: Republicans Take Helm Of Congress, But Initial Course Is Unclear
For Republicans, their performance in the coming months will become a referendum not only on their ability to lead — a key question in the 2016 presidential race — but on what has become the party's increasingly conservative ideology. The incoming House Budget Chairman, Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, vows to deliver a spending blueprint that builds on the austerity outlined by his predecessor, Rep. Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), the former vice presidential nominee, with cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and other safety-net programs. (Mascaro, 1/5)

The Associated Press: New Congress Getting Sworn In With GOP In Charge
Republicans are assuming full control of Congress for the first time in eight years in a day of pomp, circumstance and raw politics beneath the Capitol Dome. (Werner, 1/6)

NPR: 3 States Counter Obama's Proposal For Medicaid Expansion
States have a year to get full funding for Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. The governors of Utah, Wyoming and Montana are trying to get the money but their legislators may derail the efforts. (Whitney, 1/6)

The Associated Press: Maine Governor Spent $53K In Medicaid Fight
Gov. Paul LePage's administration spent nearly $53,000 on private lawyers in its failed attempt to remove thousands of low-income young adults from the state's Medicaid program after being told by Maine's attorney general that he couldn't win the case, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. The Republican governor went to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals after the federal government denied his request to end Medicaid coverage for about 6,000 19- and 20-year olds. He was forced to seek outside counsel after Attorney General Janet Mills, a Democrat, declined to represent the state. (Durkin, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal's Total Return: Wait Time For Medicare Appeals Is Cut In Half
Some good news for Medicare beneficiaries to start the new year: The wait time for hearings of Medicare appeals has been cut by more than half. Every year, Medicare denies millions of claims, leaving beneficiaries with billions of dollars in unexpected bills. Such decisions can be appealed, but the process—which has five levels, in all—can be complicated and time-consuming. (Ruffenach, 1/5)

The Washington Post: Veterans Discharged After Sexual Trauma Push For VA Health Benefits
It took Navy Airman Apprentice Elena M. Giordano nine years to finally be granted service-connected disability compensation from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the post-traumatic stress disorder she suffered after multiple sexual assaults. Until recently, she was also not eligible for any VA medical care or other benefits because she was told she did not serve long enough. (Wax-Thibodeaux, 1/6)

The Wall Street Journal: CVS Gives Preferred Status To Gilead’s Hepatitis C Drugs
The battle for supremacy in one of the fastest-growing pharmaceutical markets intensified on Monday, with CVS Health Corp. saying it will make Gilead Sciences Inc. ’s drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni the exclusive options for patients with hepatitis C. A competing treatment made by AbbVie Inc., called Viekira Pak, will be excluded from CVS’s drug formulary of approved medications, except in cases when it is medically necessary, CVS said in a letter sent to employment-benefit consultants that was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. (Walker, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal's Pharmalot: FDA Staff Recommends Novartis Biosimilar Version Of An Amgen Drug
The U.S. market may be a step closer to having the first biosimilar available for patients. In documents released today, FDA reviewers determined that there are “no clinically meaningful differences” between Neupogen, an Amgen medicine that is used to fend off infections during chemotherapy, and a biosimilar version that is being developed by Sandoz. ... Biosimilar drugs are cheaper versions of expensive and complex medicines made from biological matter and are among the biggest-selling medicines in the world. A number of biosimilars are available in Europe, where the products have been allowed since 2005. (Silverman, 1/5)

NPR: Big Data Not A Cure-All In Medicine
Big data is a trendy term for the ever-expanding cloud of information that's online and increasingly searchable. Some researchers say it could change the way medical research is done and the way individual doctors make medical decisions. Others say big data raises too many big questions — especially when it comes to medicine. (Standen, 1/5)

NPR: Self-Tracking Gadgets That Play Doctor Abound At CES
This week, Las Vegas hosts the International Consumer Electronics Show where companies large and small set up shop in the giant convention center to demo their latest cars, TVs, games and gadgets. This year a new wave of trackers and online tools, wristbands and apps, are hitting the show — ones that collect your vital signs for medical purposes. (Shahani, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Can A Smartphone Tell If You’re Depressed?
The app was part of an effort by Ms. Flowers ’s health-care provider to test whether smartphone data could help detect symptoms of postpartum depression, an underdiagnosed condition affecting women after they give birth. The app’s developer, San Francisco-based Ginger.io Inc., compared data from Ms. Flowers and nearly 200 other women against their answers to a weekly survey used to diagnose depression. The company says it found that behavioral patterns like decreased mobility on weekends and longer phone calls were associated with poor mood in surveys. (Walker, 1/5)

Los Angeles Times: Proposed Sale Of Lynwood Hospital To Prime Healthcare Debated
Hundreds of health professionals engaged in a spirited debate Monday about the proposed sale of a nonprofit Lynwood hospital to a for-profit hospital company in Ontario. St. Francis Medical Center is one of six struggling Roman Catholic nonprofit hospitals that Prime Healthcare Services has agreed to buy for about $843 million in cash and assumed liabilities. (Pfeifer, 1/5)

Los Angeles Times: Blue Shield In Dispute With Sutter Health Over Costs
In a high-stakes fight over healthcare costs, insurance giant Blue Shield of California contends that a major hospital chain is trying to hide some of its business practices from public scrutiny. The dispute has prevented Blue Shield and Sutter Health, which runs 23 hospitals in Northern California, from reaching a new contract that could affect numerous employers and consumers. Their previous agreement expired Dec. 31. (Terhune, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Justice Department Joins Suits Against Florida Cardiologist
The Justice Department said it joined two whistleblower lawsuits against one of the highest-billing doctors in the Medicare program. The two whistleblower suits allege that Ocala, Fla., cardiologist Asad Qamar performed and billed for numerous procedures that were medically unnecessary, and illegally waived co-payments so that patients wouldn’t second-guess his treatment recommendations. (Stewart and Carreyou, 1/5)

The New York Times: Harvard Ideas On Health Care Hit Home, Hard
For years, Harvard’s experts on health economics and policy have advised presidents and Congress on how to provide health benefits to the nation at a reasonable cost. But those remedies will now be applied to the Harvard faculty, and the professors are in an uproar. (Pear, 1/5)

The Associated Press: Portland, Ore., Police Rethink How To Respond To Mentally Ill People
Portland police have drafted a new policy for dealing with mentally ill people that says sometimes it’s OK for an officer to walk away if a confrontation could jeopardize a suspect or other people. The policy follows a settlement last summer between the city and the U.S. Justice Department, which found that officers had a pattern of excessive force against people who have, or seem to have, mental illness, the Oregonian reported Monday. (1/5)

NPR: Addiction Patients Overwhelm Vermont's Expanded Treatment Programs
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin attracted national attention last January when he devoted his entire State of the State address to Vermont's opiate addiction problem. For the first time, he said, the number of people seeking drug addiction treatment had surpassed those getting help for alcoholism, and many had nowhere to go. (Zind, 1/6)