First Edition: May 7, 2015
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Losing A Hospital In The Heart Of A Small City
Lakewood Hospital is this community’s biggest employer, with 1,000 workers. It has been a rich source of municipal revenues even as manufacturing jobs left the region. But the hospital, operated for the city by the large nonprofit Cleveland Clinic system, has lost money since 2005. Executives say they need to close it and replace it with a smaller outpatient health center and emergency room. (Tribble, 5/7)
Kaiser Health News:
Florida Governor Leaves D.C. Meeting Empty-Handed
Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s high-stakes visit to Washington Wednesday to persuade the Obama administration to keep the federal government’s $1 billion in annual funding for hospital care of the poor produced no breakthrough. 'We had a good conversation … but we don’t have a resolution,' the Republican governor told reporters after an hour-long meeting with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell. (Galewtiz, 5/6)
Los Angeles Times:
New Study Gives More Evidence Of Obamacare Gains For Millions
As congressional Republicans move toward another vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act, new evidence was published Wednesday about the dramatic expansion of insurance coverage made possible by the law. Nearly 17 million more people in the U.S. have gained health insurance since the law's major coverage expansion began, according to a study from the Rand Corp., a Santa Monica nonprofit research firm. (Levey, 5/6)
The Associated Press:
No Agreement Between Florida Governor, Feds On Medicaid
The Obama administration snubbed Florida's proposal to extend federal funds for hospitals that treat low-income and uninsured patients, a dispute that has paralyzed the state budget. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell gave Gov. Rick Scott the news when she met with him in Washington on Wednesday. The Republican governor wants the administration to extend $1 billion in low-income pool funds for hospitals, but the federal government wants Florida to expand Medicaid, arguing its more efficient to give people insurance than to pay hospitals for caring for the uninsured retroactively. (Kennedy and Alonso-Zaldivar, 5/6)
The Associated Press:
States Watching Medicaid Standoff Between Florida, Obama
The standoff also has implications for eight other states, including Texas, which draw billions of dollars from the same pool of hospital funds. And like Florida, several are also refusing to expand Medicaid coverage. Republican leaders in those states are adamant about not expecting any federal money tied to Obama's Affordable Care Act. ... The Obama administration also noted in its statement that Florida and other states have known for well over a year that the funds were ending and Florida was granted an extension last year on the condition it seek alternative funding. It's unlikely the federal government will drop the hospital funds entirely, but the Obama administration has been clear that those states will get less funding because the Obama administration will not pay for health care for low-income individuals that would be covered in a Medicaid expansion. (Kennedy, 5/7)
The Associated Press:
Analysis: Republican Budget Claims Don't Add Up
That's because the budget itself is nonbinding and, on its own, has no effect on spending. And also because Republicans have decided against using unique budget rules for follow-up legislation to save the trillions of dollars from food stamps, Medicaid and other benefit programs that would be needed to erase red ink. To do that would spark a pitched political battle with Democrats, a veto from President Barack Obama — and a possible backlash from the voters in 2016. (5/6)
The Associated Press:
Are Bungled VA Claims Systemic? Senators Want Agency Review
Troubled by delays in handling veterans claims, a bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday urged a wide-scale, independent review of the Department of Veterans Affairs for mismanagement and changes to improve budgeting and speed up applications. A report released by nine senators acknowledged recent efforts by the VA to reduce disability and pensions claims backlogs but said it wasn’t enough. (Yen, 5/6)
The New York Times:
Company Creates Bioethics Panel On Trial Drugs
Johnson & Johnson has appointed a nationally known bioethicist to create a panel that will make decisions about patients’ requests for lifesaving medicine, responding to an emotional debate over whether companies should allow desperately ill people to have access to the drugs before they are approved. (Thomas, 5/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
J&J Changes ‘Compassionate’ Care
Under increasing pressure to expand access to experimental medicines, Johnson & Johnson has arranged for an independent panel to review requests from seriously ill patients who want to try an unapproved drug even if they aren’t participating in the drug’s testing. The committee of doctors, bioethicists and patient representatives organized by the New York University School of Medicine will consider the hundreds of requests that J&J receives each year from patients who believe an experimental drug can help them. The panel will recommend a course of action to J&J. (Rockoff, 5/7)
The Wall Street Journal:
WellCare Health Plans Earnings Top Expectations
WellCare Health Plans Inc. on Wednesday posted better-than-expected profit in the first quarter as its Medicaid membership grew. In February, the company gave downbeat guidance for the year after an unexpectedly severe flu season. WellCare reiterated its full-year earnings guidance Wednesday. (Dulaney, 5/6)
The Associated Press:
Alexion Pharma To Pay $8.4 Billion For Synageva BioPharma
Alexion Pharmaceuticals will pay a huge premium to buy Synageva BioPharma in an $8.4-billion deal for a rare disease treatment maker that lost nearly $60 million in the first quarter and has no products on the market. Alexion made the deal, announced Wednesday morning, more for what Synageva can offer rather than what it already provides. That includes access to a potential blockbuster drug and stronger footing in lucrative field where drugmakers can command top dollar for treatments without facing fierce negotiations from insurers and other payers. (Murphy, 5/6)
The Washington Post:
Study On Premature Babies Raises Questions About Abortion And Medical Care
In hospitals where extremely premature babies are given intensive care, a small fraction of infants are surviving outside the womb earlier than was once believed possible. That finding, from a study published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, is heartening news in the world of pediatrics. But it also adds to a list of questions for parents, doctors and lawmakers by challenging the accepted age for “viability” — a standard that has defined the debates about abortion and intensive neonatal care. (Kaplan, 5/7)
Los Angeles Times:
Aetna's Rate Hike Excessive For Small Employers, Regulator Says
For the third time since 2013, California's managed-care regulator has criticized health insurance giant Aetna Inc. for imposing an excessive rate hike on small employers.
The nation's third-largest health insurer is raising rates by 19.2%, on average, for about 16,000 people covered by small employers. This change in premiums took effect last month. (Terhune, 5/6)
The Washington Post:
Hogan Will Maintain Md. State Worker Raises; No Decision Yet On School Funds
The decision settles one part of the budget battle between Hogan and the Democratic-controlled legislature, which balked when the governor introduced a budget in January that eliminated the pay raises for state workers, reduced proposed funding levels for 13 of the state’s largest school systems where the cost of education is more expensive and reduced spending for several health-care initiatives. ... Hogan still must decide whether to spend the $133 million that the General Assembly set aside to fully fund high-cost school systems and to pay for some Medicaid-related programs that the governor cut. (Wiggins, 5/6)
The Washington Post:
Texas High School With Chlamydia Outbreak Has Abstinence-Only Sex Ed
Crane High School in Crane, Tex., is experiencing an outbreak of the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia. The number of cases reported appears to be in dispute. While numerous stories in the Texas media say there have been 20 cases, with the MySanantonio reporting “nearly two dozen,” the school superintendent told the Washington Post and CBS7 in Texas that there have been a total of 8 cases during the year in the county as a whole but that more people are being tested. Crane Independent School District Jim Rumage had sent a letter home to parents, saying the number of cases reported have been “significant.” (Moyer, 5/7)