First Edition: January 6, 2017

Kaiser Health News: Medicare Failed To Recover Up To $125 Million In Overpayments, Records Show
Six years ago, federal health officials were confident they could save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually by auditing private Medicare Advantage insurance plans that allegedly overcharged the government for medical services. An initial round of audits found that Medicare had potentially overpaid five of the health plans $128 million in 2007 alone, according to confidential government documents released recently in response to a public records request and lawsuit. But officials never recovered most of that money. (Schulte, 1/6)

Kaiser Health News: Only 20 Percent Of Americans Support Health Law Repeal Without Replacement Plan
The Republican strategy of repealing the Affordable Health Care Act before devising a replacement plan has the support of only one in five Americans, a poll released Friday finds. The Kaiser Family Foundation survey also disclosed that shrinking the federal government’s involvement and spending in health care — the long-sought goal of House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republican lawmakers — is less important to most Americans than is ensuring medical care is affordable and available. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent project of the foundation.) (Rau, 1/6)

California Healthline: How Will The Planned Repeal Of Obamacare Affect Californians?
As federal lawmakers debate the fate of Obamacare this month, health coverage for millions of Californians hangs in the balance. Covered California, the state health insurance exchange, and the expansion of Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program for low-income residents, are products of the Affordable Care Act. Both could be at risk if the GOP-led Congress and President-elect Donald Trump gut key pieces of the health law. (1/6)

The Washington Post: Conservatives Ready To Support $1 Trillion Hole In The Budget
Some of the most conservative members of Congress say they are ready to vote for a budget that would — at least on paper — balloon the deficit to more than $1 trillion by the end of the decade, all for the sake of eventually repealing the Affordable Care Act. In a dramatic reversal, many members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus said Thursday they are prepared later this month to support a budget measure that would explode the deficit and increase the public debt to more than $29.1 trillion by 2026, figures contained in the budget resolution itself. (Snell and Weigel, 1/5)

The New York Times: Democrats Appeal For Compromise: Alter, But Don’t Gut, The Health Law
With Republican leaders pressing to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, possibly within weeks, moderate Senate Democrats reached out on Thursday to Republicans, appealing for them to slow down the repeal efforts and let lawmakers try to find acceptable, bipartisan changes to make the existing law work better. Democrats also had new reason to hope for possible Republican defections after Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin said that the repeal measure would cut off federal funds for Planned Parenthood. But for now, Republican leaders are holding firm. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, denounced the law, President Obama’s signature domestic achievement, as “a lesson to future generations about how not to legislate.” (Kaplan and Pear, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Republicans Face Pressure For Push To Repeal Affordable Care Act
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday reiterated the need to move swiftly to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, as Republicans face growing questions about the turmoil that might ensue and the viability of crafting a replacement. ... But there are increasing signs that the final result of the intensifying battle over health care will be more complicated, and that the final health plan may retain or restore parts of the Affordable Care Act. (Armour and Hackman, 1/5)

The Associated Press: Ryan: Lawmakers Will Act This Year On Replacing Health Law
Lawmakers will act this year on bills not simply repealing President Barack Obama's health care law but replacing it as well, House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday. The remarks by Ryan, R-Wis., suggested a faster schedule than some had expected on reshaping the nation's health care system. While Republicans have said they plan to vote this year on dismantling Obama's law, Ryan went a step further, saying they also would write legislation to replace it in 2017. It won't be easy. (Fram, 1/5)

The Associated Press: Dems Want Probe Of Trump Cabinet Pick Over Stock Sales
Top Senate Democrats said Thursday that the House ethics office should investigate whether stock sales by a congressman who is now one of President-elect Donald Trump's Cabinet picks broke any laws. The Democrats cited a Wall Street Journal report last month that Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., Trump's selection to head the Department of Health and Human Services, had traded over $300,000 worth of shares in health care companies over the past four years while pushing legislation that might affect those stocks' values. (Fram, 1/5)

Reuters: Democrats Demand Probe Of Trump Health Nominee
Democratic Senator Patty Murray said lawmakers want to know what nonpublic information Price may have had when the transactions at issue were made. ... Price, asked by Reuters in a Capitol hallway for a reaction to Schumer's comments, replied, "We're looking forward to a positive and productive confirmation hearing." (Cornwell and Heavey, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Senate Democrats Scrutinize Trump Cabinet Pick Over Possible Conflicts Of Interest
A spokeswoman for Mr. Price wasn’t immediately available to comment. A spokesman for the Trump transition said in a statement that questions raised about Mr. Price could also be directed at Senate Democrats who own drug and health-care stocks. “Hypocrisy is apparently alive and well this morning in Washington,” said spokesman Phil Blando. “Today’s stunt is simply an effort to deflect attention away from Obamacare’s dismal record.” (Hughes, 1/5)

NPR: Americans Say: Don't Repeal Obamacare Without A Replacement Plan
An overwhelming majority of people disapprove of Republican lawmakers' plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act without having a ready replacement for the health care law, according to a poll released Friday. And judging by the letter-writing and lobbying in the first week of the new Congressional session, many health care and business groups agree. (Kodjak, 1/6)

Los Angeles Times: Americans Don't Want To Scrap Obamacare Without Something To Replace It, New Poll Shows
The vast majority of Americans do not support Republican plans to repeal the Affordable Care Act without enacting a replacement, a new nationwide poll finds. Nearly half the country does not want the law, commonly called Obamacare, to be repealed at all. Even among those who want to see the law rolled back, most say Congress should wait to vote on repeal until the details of a replacement plan have been announced. (Levey, 1/5)

The Washington Post: Only 1 In 5 Americans Supports Republicans’ ‘Repeal And Delay’ Obamacare Strategy
The Republican plan to immediately do away with the Affordable Care Act and come up with a replacement later is out of sync with what most Americans want, according to a new poll. Only 1 in 5 people supports repealing President Obama's health-care law before the replacement is worked out. Republicans officially began the work to unravel the law this week, but a Trump transition team member told The Washington Post they had six months to come up with a replacement. The poll suggests the likely “repeal and delay” agenda, in which a replacement plan is crafted months after a vote to repeal parts of the law, isn't supported by most voters. (Johnson, 1/6)

Reuters: Exhibit A For Republican Obamacare Repeal Challenge: People With HIV
Scientists have shown conclusively that treatment not only improves the health of people infected with HIV, it also stops transmission of the virus that causes AIDS. That public health issue is just one of the challenges Republicans face as they attempt to overhaul the Affordable Care Act, a law that brought health insurance coverage to some 20 million people -- including tens of thousands of Americans living with HIV. (Steenhuysen, 1/5)

Los Angeles Times: 7 Things To Know About The Future Of Obamacare
You’ve seen the headlines and you’ve heard the slogans: Obamacare is on the chopping block and President-elect Donald Trump is going to replace it with “something terrific.” But what are the new president and Congress really going to do? How much of the current law will really go away? And what could “Trumpcare” look like? In case it’s been a while since you read about the Affordable Care Act and the GOP replacement plans, here’s a refresher on the biggest Obamacare issues. (Levey, 1/5)

The New York Times: Trump Takes On Democrats And Health Law In New Twitter Blitz
President-elect Donald J. Trump lashed out at Democrats on Thursday over their efforts to preserve President Obama’s health care coverage law, insulting their top legislative leader and denouncing the measure as a “lie” as he called for a less expensive and more effective system. “The Democrats, lead by head clown Chuck Schumer, know how bad ObamaCare is and what a mess they are in,” Mr. Trump wrote in the first of three early-morning posts on Twitter. (Hirschfeld Davis, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal: GOP Makes Fresh Effort To End Federal Funding For Planned Parenthood
That bill will use a budget maneuver known as reconciliation, which allows the Senate to pass legislation with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes typically needed. A similar clause stripping hundreds of millions of dollars away from Planned Parenthood appeared in a similar 2015 reconciliation bill, which passed both chambers of congress but which President Barack Obama vetoed. (Hackman, 1/5)

CNN: Paul Ryan: GOP Will Defund Planned Parenthood
A push by Republican congressional leaders to defund Planned Parenthood could threaten passage of their top-priority legislation to repeal Obamacare because of opposition to the anti-abortion provision by two key GOP senators. House Speaker Paul Ryan announced Thursday that Republicans will move to strip all federal funding for Planned Parenthood as part of the process they are using early this year to dismantle Obamacare. (Walsh, Barrett and Raju, 1/5)

The Associated Press: Ryan: GOP To 'Defund' Planned Parenthood In Obamacare Repeal
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday Republicans would strip federal dollars for Planned Parenthood as part of the GOP effort to repeal the health care law, prompting an outcry from the century-old organization and Democrats promising to fight the move. Ryan spoke a day after a special House panel issued a report criticizing the organization, which provides birth control, abortions and various women's health services, for its practices regarding providing tissue from aborted fetuses to researchers. (Taylor, 1/5)

Reuters: Kentucky Moves Toward Requiring Ultrasound Before Abortion
Kentucky's new Republican House majority took the first step on Thursday toward requiring women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound, acting swiftly to capitalize on winning control of the chamber for the first time in almost a century. ... The bill requires a physician or qualified technician to perform the ultrasound and position the screen so the woman may view the images. The medical staff will be required to describe what the images show, including the size of the fetus and any organs or appendages visible. (Bittenbender, 1/5)

The Washington Post: Why Obamacare’s Insurance Marketplaces Won’t Necessarily Collapse With A Repeal
Replacing the health-care law, commonly known as Obamacare, could take years, potentially destabilizing the nascent system designed to provide insurance to individuals who don't receive it through an employer. Several large insurance companies had already announced plans to pull out of some health-care insurance exchanges created by the law because of financial losses, and health policy experts fear that repealing the law without immediately replacing it could exacerbate the exodus by adding uncertainty. ... But other policy experts predict that Republicans will provide incentives for insurers to stay. (Johnson, 1/5)

The New York Times: Snapshots Of An Epidemic: A Look At The Opioid Crisis Across The Country
Public health officials have called the current opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history, killing more than 33,000 people in 2015. Overdose deaths were nearly equal to the number of deaths from car crashes. In 2015, for the first time, deaths from heroin alone surpassed gun homicides. And there’s no sign it’s letting up, a team of New York Times reporters found as they examined the epidemic on the ground in states across the country. From New England to “safe injection” areas in the Pacific Northwest, communities are searching for a way out of a problem that can feel inescapable. (1/6)

The Associated Press: Pence's Indiana Successor Backs Fewer Needle Exchange Limits
Indiana's incoming governor pledged Thursday to roll back some restrictions on needle exchanges that his predecessor, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, signed into law as part of the state's response to its largest HIV epidemic. Republican Eric Holcomb, who takes office next week, said he believes local officials — not the state — should be able to authorize needle exchanges, a move he characterized as a "prudent step." Health experts, who criticized Pence's response to the crisis, say exchanges can dramatically curtail deadly outbreaks by allowing intravenous drug users to swap dirty needles for clean ones. (Slodysko, 1/5)

Los Angeles Times: Death Rate From Cancer Now 25% Lower Than It Was 25 Years Ago, Report Says
In the year to come, an estimated 1,688,780 people in the United States are expected to get a cancer diagnosis, and cancer will claim the lives of a projected 600,920. That death toll, however grim, represents a death rate from cancer that is 25% lower than it was a quarter-century ago — a drop driven by steady reductions in smoking rates and advances in early detection and treatment. Between 1991 and 2014, that boost in cancer survivorship translates to approximately 2,143,200 fewer cancer deaths than might have been expected if death rates had remained at their peak. (Healy, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal: In The Fight Against Zika, Insecticides Hit A ‘Dead End’
Health workers have a thinning arsenal of insecticides capable of killing mosquitoes that carry Zika and similar viruses as the Southern Hemisphere’s summer begins and as outbreaks persist in other areas. One reason: Eliminating disease-carrying mosquitoes is a niche business with costly barriers to entry. “We may be hitting a dead end,” said Doug Carlson, director of the Indian River Mosquito Control District in Vero Beach, Fla. “In the not-too-distant future, we may very well not have chemicals that are effective.” (Bunge and McKay, 1/5)

The Washington Post: Ebola Virus Found Hiding In Lungs Of Health-Care Worker
Ebola has proven itself a tricky foe to get rid of in the human body. In numerous cases in which it was thought to be gone and patients fully recovered, the virus has been found in the eyes, semen, amniotic fluid, placenta, breast milk and central nervous system. Now a paper published in the journal PLOS Pathogens describes another possible hiding place for the virus: the lungs. (Cha, 1/5)

Reuters: Regeneron, Sanofi To Appeal U.S. Judge's Ban On Cholesterol Drug Sales
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA said on Thursday they would appeal the U.S. District Court ruling which banned the two companies from selling their cholesterol drug, Praluent, on grounds of patent infringement. A federal judge had earlier blocked Sanofi and Regeneron from selling the drug after Amgen Inc accused them of infringing its patents. (Pierson, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Judge Rules Against Sanofi And Regeneron In Patent Case
A U.S. federal judge ruled Thursday that drugmakers Sanofi SA and partner Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. infringed the patent that rival Amgen Inc. holds for its new cholesterol drug. The decision permanently blocks Sanofi and Regeneron from selling their drug Praluent in the U.S., which would provide a big boost to Amgen’s drug Repatha if the decision stands. (Rockoff, 1/5)

Reuters: Walgreens Profit Beats Estimates On PBM Partnerships
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as recent partnerships with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and insurance companies helped boost sales of prescription drugs as well as non-drug items. The largest U.S. drugstore chain also raised the lower end of its adjusted profit forecast for the year ending August 2017. ( Ramakrishnan, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Walgreens Boots CEO: No Plan B For Rite Aid Merger
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. has no backup plan should U.S. antitrust regulators reject a $9.4 billion tie-up with Rite Aid Corp. that has been held up amid scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, the drugstore giant’s chief executive said Thursday. “We don’t want even to think the deal could not be approved after so many months, after we have given so much information and have had a good relationship with the people of the FTC,” Walgreens CEO Stefano Pessina said during a call with analysts. (Terlep and Steele, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Trump Defense Nominee James Mattis Resigns From Theranos Board
The retired Marine Corps general President-elect Donald Trump has picked to lead the Defense Department resigned from the board of embattled Theranos Inc., people familiar with the matter said. The move distances Gen. James Mattis from a blood-testing startup embroiled in scandal ahead of his confirmation hearings. (Weaver, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal: MD Anderson Cancer Center To Lay Off Roughly 5% Of Workforce
MD Anderson Cancer Center said it would cut 800 to 900 jobs, or about 5% of its workforce, as the globally renowned Texas hospital struggles with financial losses. Chief Financial Officer Dan Fontaine attributed the losses to a drop in physician productivity as the Houston-based hospital began using new electronic health records last year. Doctors took time away from patients to learn the new computerized system, and continue to struggle with it, he said in an interview. (Evans, 1/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Biotech Stocks Find Reprieve In Options
After the worst year for American biotechnology stock since 2002, options traders are optimistic about the group, according to data compiled by Goldman Sachs Group. In a note Thursday, the firm showed how options positioning for two biotech exchange-traded funds was among the most positive. (Banerji, 1/5)

The Associated Press: Transgender Man: Catholic Hospital Denied My Hysterectomy
A transgender man sued a Roman Catholic hospital on Thursday, saying it cited religion in refusing to allow his surgeon to perform a hysterectomy as part of his sex transition. Jionni Conforti's sex and gender discrimination lawsuit comes as new regulations hailed as groundbreaking anti-discrimination protections for transgender people are under legal attack from religious groups. (Cornfield, 1/5)