Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First Edition: November 10, 2014
Kaiser Health News: Insurance Marketplaces Offer Options For Consumers Without Job-Based Coverage
But those who fail to enroll in insurance can face penalties and the loss of subsidies to help pay premiums. Kaiser Health News’ Mary Agnes Carey and Julie Appleby discuss what you need to know before open enrollment in the health law’s marketplaces begins again on Nov. 15, including details on the health law’s online marketplaces, or exchanges. (Carey and Appleby, 11/10)
Kaiser Health News: Consumer Guide To The Supreme Court’s Action On ACA Subsidy Issue
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a case on a subject that’s important to millions of people who receive subsidies to help purchase coverage under the health-care law. Friday’s decision follows earlier action in July when two U.S. appeals courts issued conflicting rulings on the issue. Kaiser Health News' Mary Agnes Carey answers some frequently asked questions about those court decisions and how they impact consumers. (Carey, 11/7)
Kaiser Health News: In Surprise Move, Supreme Court Will Examine Key Part Of Health Law
Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Rovner reports: "Once again, the Supreme Court will decide whether the Affordable Care Act lives or dies. Defying expectations, the court announced Friday it has agreed to hear – during this term – a case that challenges the heart of the law: subsidies to help people pay their insurance premiums. In about three dozen states, the federal government runs the online marketplaces where individuals can find health plans." (Rovner, 11/7)
Kaiser Health News: L.A. County Health Department Allegedly Falsified Nursing Home Probe Records
The Los Angeles County Public Health Department falsified the dates it received complaints about nursing homes as pressure rose to meet state deadlines for launching investigations, according to two employees. In a letter last month to county, state and federal officials, inspector Kimberly Nguyen cited 11 cases in which she said the dates typed into the computer system were later than the dates the complaints were actually received. The cases mentioned in the letter involve alleged abuse, falls and pressure sores, she said. (Gorman, 11/10)
The Wall Street Journal: Upgraded Health Site Faces Test This Week
An updated version of HealthCare.gov now includes a window-shopping tool that could help the website withstand new pressures, including millions of people returning in coming months for insurance, federal officials said Sunday. ... Supporters of the 2010 health law, bruised by the site’s poor performance early on, have sought assurances that it will perform better this time around. Critics, including Republicans set to take control of the Senate in January, are likely to point to any flaws as proof of bigger problems with the law. (Radnofsky, 11/9)
The Washington Post: Obama Officials Work On Health Site Contingency Plans As Enrollment Nears
With the next time to buy health plans under the Affordable Care Act starting in less than a week, the Obama administration is expressing confidence that HealthCare.gov is no longer the rickety online insurance marketplace that exasperated consumers a year ago. Behind the scenes, however, federal health officials and government contractors are scrambling, according to confidential documents and federal and outside experts familiar with this work. (Goldstein, 11/9)
The Washington Post: Consumers Now Able To Window-Shop For Insurance On HealthCare.gov
The window-shopping period is beginning several days before the Nov. 15 official start of the sign-up period for people in the three dozen states that rely on the federal exchange to renew their coverage or buy insurance for the first time. (Goldstein, 11/9)
The New York Times: New Healthcare.gov Opens Early To Allow For Review Of Plans
The Obama administration said Sunday that consumers could shop for health insurance and compare their options on HealthCare.gov starting Monday, even before the open enrollment period formally begins five days later. (Pear, 11/9)
USA Today: Healthcare.gov Opens For Insurance Plan Shoppers
The Department of Health and Human Services is trying to prevent a repeat of last year's disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov, an experience that many newly insured consumers may want to avoid going through again. HHS principal deputy administrator Andy Slavitt said the window shopping "functionality has been ready for a while ... (but) obviously we've been continuing to test it." (O'Donnell, 11/9)
Los Angeles Times: Many Latinos Shun Obamacare For Fear Of Getting Relatives Deported
Lilian Saldana turned down Obamacare coverage once, and she might do it again. With sign-ups set to resume Saturday, the 23-year-old Covina resident and her younger sister are hesitant to enroll because their parents are immigrants who are not citizens and therefore ineligible for benefits under the Affordable Care Act. (Karlamangla and Terhune, 11/9)
The Wall Street Journal: Supreme Court To Hear Case On Health-Care Law Subsidies
The case granted Friday marks the law’s third trip to the high court and sets the stage for another major health-care ruling next summer. The appeal threatens a principal aim of President Barack Obama ’s signature law—extending private health insurance to lower-income Americans who don’t receive coverage from their employers or qualify for Medicaid—and could cripple the law if the challengers prevail. (Bravin and Radnofsky, 11/7)
The New York Times: Justices To Hear New Challenge To Health Law
The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a new challenge to the Affordable Care Act, potentially imperiling President Obama’s signature legislative achievement two years after it survived a different Supreme Court challenge by a single vote. The case concerns tax subsidies that currently help millions of people afford health insurance under the law. According to the challengers, those subsidies are being provided unlawfully in three dozen states that have decided not to run the marketplaces, known as exchanges, for insurance coverage. (Liptak, 11/7)
The Washington Post: Supreme Court Will Hear Newest Challenge To Affordable Care Act
The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will hear the most serious challenge to the Affordable Care Act since the justices found it constitutional more than two years ago: a lawsuit targeting the federal subsidies that help millions of Americans buy health insurance. More than 4 million people receive the subsidies, which the Obama administration contends are essential to the act by making insurance more affordable for low- and middle-income families. (Barnes, 11/7)
NPR: Supreme Court Agrees To Hear New Health Law Challenge
In a rare and unexpected move, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a new challenge to the Obama health care overhaul, dealing the White House yet another blow this week. Health care experts say an adverse ruling would be catastrophic for the health insurance program that the president has fought to enact and preserve. (Totenberg, 11/7)
Politico: Supreme Court Move Comes At Challenging Time For Obamacare
The Supreme Court’s decision Friday to take up a challenge to Obamacare subsidies couldn’t come at a worse time: Republicans fresh off big election wins are vowing to dismantle the law while the White House is readying a second enrollment season that it needs to get off to a better start than last year’s disaster. The case taken by the court, King v. Burwell, puts at risk the health law’s low- and middle-income subsidies for millions of Americans who live in states that did not set up their own health insurance exchanges. (Haberkorn, 11/10)
Los Angeles Times: In Surprise Move, Supreme Court To Hear Healthcare Law Challenge
The Supreme Court put President Obama's healthcare law back into legal peril, announcing it would consider a conservative group's claim that the law does not allow the government to subsidize health insurance for low and middle-income Americans in two-thirds of the states. The announcement surprised legal observers who had expected the justices to wait on the issue, at least until a court of appeals [in Washington, D.C.] had finished considering it. Friday's decision to quickly move ahead provided a strong indication that at least four justices remain determined to undo central elements of the law. (Savage, 11/7)
The Wall Street Journal: States Urge Upholding Of Health Law’s Tax Credit
Eleven states that could be affected if the Supreme Court upholds the latest challenge to the Affordable Care Act told a court earlier this week they had assumed residents could still receive the law’s tax credits even if they didn’t build their own exchanges. ... In the brief the states said they assumed there wouldn’t be a problem with the tax credits when they opted not to run their own exchanges, saying they “elected to forgo establishing their own exchange under the ACA with the understanding that relying on a federally facilitated exchange would not harm state citizens or interfere with state insurance market.” (Radnofsky, 11/8)
The Washington Post: How Killing The Medical Device Tax Became One Of Washington’s Top Priorities
Within days of the Republican Party regaining control of the Senate, a host of policy issues has quickly risen to the top of Washington's priorities list: trade, corporate tax reform, the Keystone pipeline. And then there's the medical device tax. The tax, passed as part of the Affordable Care Act, plays a marginal role in the health-care overhaul, but the push to repeal it has attracted millions of dollars of lobbying, as well as high-profile supporters on the Hill, from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). (Millman, 11/7)
The New York Times: With Fear of Being Sidelined, Tea Party Sees The Republican Rise As New Threat
As most Republicans were taking a victory lap the morning after the elections, a group of conservatives huddled anxiously in a conference room not far from Capitol Hill and agreed that now is the time for confrontation, not compromise and conciliation. Despite Republicans’ ascension to Senate control and an expanded House majority, many conservatives from the party’s activist wing fear that congressional leaders are already being too timid with President Obama. They do not want to hear that government shutdowns are off the table or that repealing the Affordable Care Act is impossible — two things Republican leaders have said in recent days. (Peters, 11/8)
The Wall Street Journal: Cigna Agrees To Restructure HIV Drug Benefits
Facing allegations of discriminating against people with HIV and AIDS, Cigna Corp. agreed to restructure the HIV prescription drug benefits in its 2015 plans in Florida, making them less costly and burdensome for such patients. The AIDS Institute and the National Health Law Program filed a complaint in May with the federal government, charging that Cigna and three other insurers unlawfully discriminated against people with HIV and AIDS in their Florida health plans by placing all HIV medications, including generics, on specialty drug tiers, where patients are required to pay 40% to 50% of the cost. (Beck, 11/7)
NPR: Electronic Medical Records, Built For Efficiency, Often Backfire
Electronic medical records were supposed to usher in the future of medicine. Prescriptions would be beamed to the pharmacy. A doctor could call up patients' medical histories anywhere, anytime. Nurses and doctors could easily find patients' old lab results or last X-rays to see what how they're doing. The computer system could warn doctors about dangerous drug combinations before it was too late. Many of those things are an everyday reality in doctors' offices and hospitals across the country. But a survey of more than 400 internists with experience using electronic medical records, or EMRs, documents what doctors have complained about for years: computerized records chew up a lot of time. (Hensley, 11/7)
The Wall Street Journal: Health Care Industry Starts To Pay Attention To Cyber Risks
The health-care industry is grappling with how to protect personal health information from increasing cyber threats. In addition to meeting security and privacy regulations, companies can do more to prevent breaches by assessing and prioritizing cybersecurity risks, said Jim Routh, chief information security officer at health insurer Aetna Inc. The message has already caught on at some health-care companies, who are starting to look for technology executives with risk experience. (King, 11/7)
The New York Times: Cigna Agrees To Reduce H.I.V. Drug Costs For Some Florida Patients
The health insurer Cigna has agreed to reduce the out-of-pocket costs that patients in Florida must pay for H.I.V. drugs, settling a complaint filed by advocacy groups, who said the drug pricing system in the state’s health care plans was discriminatory. The groups indicated Florida could serve as a test case for what they contend is discriminatory pricing by other insurers around the country. Under the settlement with Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation, Cigna will place a $200 a month limit on the amount that patients have to pay for some commonly prescribed drugs like Atripla, and make other changes to make the drugs less costly and easier to get. The changes apply only to people who enroll in the company’s plans through the new health insurance exchanges, and will take effect for 2015 plans. (Thomas, 11/7)
The New York Times: Needing To Hire, Chief Of V.A. Tries To Sell Doctors On Change
Robert A. McDonald, formerly chief executive of Procter & Gamble, runs the government’s second-largest agency, the Department of Veterans Affairs. And he has been crisscrossing the nation looking for doctors-in-training to fill staffing shortfalls that over time could jeopardize care for millions of veterans. ... Mr. McDonald says he was shocked by a paucity of physicians, nurses and other clinicians in some veterans’ hospitals — a shortage that the department says contributed to delays in care that led to manipulated waiting lists for appointments. ... Mr. McDonald says the only way to address that shortage may involve not just increasing the number of students at existing medical schools but also building new schools. (Oppell, 11/8)
The Associated Press: Ebola Volunteers Wrestle With Quarantine Mandates
As Ebola-related quarantine policies have arisen around the United States, some health workers are reassessing whether, or how long, they can be among the hundreds that officials say are needed to fight the outbreak. Potential volunteers are anxious about what they might come back to, especially after seeing new rules arise so rapidly that nurse Kaci Hickox was sequestered in a medical tent for days because New Jersey announced new regulations the day she flew back from Sierra Leone. Others are facing family qualms. And as the year winds down, some aid workers wonder whether they'll be able to go home for the holidays. (Peltz, 11/8)
NPR: Maine Nurse To Move Out Of State Following Ebola Quarantine Row
The boyfriend of Kaci Hickox, the nurse who defiantly refused to self-quarantine after she returned from West Africa, says the couple will move out of Maine this week after a state court order restricting their movement expires. Ted Wilbur withdrew from a nursing program at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, where the couple lives, and said Friday that he and Hickox were "going to try to get our lives back on track" by leaving the state. (Neuman, 11/9)
The Associated Press: Dallas Reaches End Of Ebola Monitoring Period
Dallas calmly marked the end of its Ebola crisis on Friday when the last of the 177 people who were being monitored for symptoms of the deadly virus were to be cleared at midnight. Thirty-eight days after Thomas Eric Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola in a local hospital, officials expressed relief and resolve that they were prepared if anything similar — with its resulting panic, fear and constant media attention — ever happened again. (Merchant, 11/7)
The New York Times: Dallas Closes The Door On Its Ebola Scare
Dallas ... has moved on. The city, the first to grapple with the virus in the United States and the near panic and quarantines that it set off, reached the end of its Ebola ordeal Friday, as the last person being monitored was cleared by officials. (Fernandez, 11/7)
The New York Times: Montefiore’s New Bronx Medical Center Emphasizes Outpatient Care
The newest medical complex in the Bronx offers valet parking, views of Long Island Sound, and operating rooms equipped with overhead lamps that do not throw shadows and nonporous, plastic-lined walls to reduce the spread of infection. But there is one amenity it does not have: overnight beds. Though it has the resources of a hospital, the $152 million complex operated by Montefiore Medical Center will send patients home the same day as part of the hospital system’s shift toward outpatient operations. ... The complex, known as Montefiore’s Hutchinson campus, will serve one of the nation’s poorest urban communities at a time when many Bronx residents are struggling with obesity, diabetes, asthma and other chronic diseases. (Hu, 11/7)
Los Angeles Times: California Businesses Benefit From Election Day Outcomes
Health insurers spent tens of millions of dollars to stave off an initiative, Proposition 45, that would have regulated their rates. And doctors and hospitals ponied up equally large sums to defeat Proposition 46, which would have raised medical malpractice award caps for non-economic "pain and suffering." (Lifsher, 11/9)
The New York Times: A Veteran Actor’s Backstage Fight For Affordable Health Care
Richard E. Waits was lying in bed hours before his audition, envisioning his metamorphosis. He closed his eyes and imagined his easy stride transformed into a jaunty strut, his smooth baritone sinking into a gravely rasp. But his anxieties kept intruding on his meditations. In about seven weeks, the health fund for Actors’ Equity, the union that represents theater performers, will drop Mr. Waits and scores of other struggling actors from its health insurance plan. (Swarns, 11/9)
