First Edition: November 25, 2014

Kaiser Health News: Obama Officials Seek To Clarify Abortion Coverage Rules
The Obama administration is seeking to clarify rules for the coverage of elective abortion in health insurance exchanges. ... A complicated compromise that got the final few anti-abortion Democrats to agree to vote for the [health law] in 2010 required every exchange to include health plans that do not cover abortions except in the cases of rape, incest or a threat to the life of the pregnant woman. Plans that do offer abortion other than in those cases are required to segregate funds and bill for that abortion coverage separately. But that did not happen. (Rovner, 11/24)

Kaiser Health News: Marketplaces Will Automatically Renew Consumers’ Plans But Take A Look First
KHN's consumer columnist Michelle Andrews answers readers' questions about plans, premiums and provider networks. (Andrews, 11/25)

The Wall Street Journal: Federal Government To Mandate More Calorie Counts
Caloric ignorance will no longer be bliss at many restaurants across the country starting next year. The Obama administration plans to unveil final labeling rules on Tuesday that require restaurants with at least 20 locations to display the calorie count of food items on their menus. The changes, part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, will bring the type of calorie tallies on public view across New York City and Seattle to chain restaurants nationwide. The changes have been delayed for years, and drew intense pushback from food chains and retailers that argued they were being unfairly included in the mandate. (Tracy, 11/24)

The Washington Post: Calorie Counts: Coming To A Restaurant, Movie Theater, Vending Machine Near You
Chain restaurants, vending machines, grocery stores, coffee shops and pizza joints will soon have to display detailed calorie information on their menus under long-awaited rules to be issued Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration. The calorie-posting requirements extend to an array of foods that Americans consume in their daily lives: popcorn at the movie theater, muffins at a bakery, a deli sandwich, a milkshake at an ice cream shop, a drive-through cheeseburger, a hot dog at Costco or Target. (Dennis, 11/24)

The New York Times: F.D.A. To Require Calorie Count, Even For Popcorn At The Movies
The rules will have broad implications for public health. As much as a third of the calories that Americans consume come from outside the home, and many health experts believe that increasingly large portion sizes and unhealthy ingredients have been significant contributors to obesity in the United States. ... Perhaps the most surprising element of the new rules was the inclusion of alcoholic beverages, which had not been part of an earlier proposal. (Tavernise and Strom, 11/24)

NPR: Want A Calorie Count With That? FDA Issues New Rules For Restaurants
The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday will release new rules that will require chain restaurants with 20 or more locations to begin posting calorie information on their menus. ... The labeling rules will take effect a year from now. (Aubrey, 11/24)

Poliltico: Burwell Soliciting Ideas For 'Increased Transparency' At HHS
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell is looking for ways to make her department more transparent after the House GOP discovered that officials had overstated Obamacare enrollment. Burwell emailed senior HHS leadership Sunday night asking them to work toward a “culture of increased transparency, ownership, and accountability.” ... When Burwell was nominated in April to be HHS secretary, she pledged to bring a greater openness and management structure to the agency. She’s generally made a good impression among lawmakers in her first six months on the job, but the flap over the enrollment numbers has created a new round of criticism. (Haberkorn, 11/24)

Los Angeles Times: Wall Street Chides Top California Insurers For Obamacare Network Errors
Two leading health insurers drew new fire from Wall Street for overstating their Obamacare doctor networks and trying to deflect the blame. Last week, California regulators found that Anthem Blue Cross, a unit of publicly traded WellPoint Inc., and nonprofit insurer Blue Shield of California violated state law by giving consumers misleading information about their provider networks. The two companies' error rates each topped 25%, according to the California Department of Managed Health Care. (Terhune, 11/24)

The New York Times: Lawmakers Look For Ways To Provide Relief For Rising Cost Of Generic Drugs
With the prices for some common generic medicines soaring over the past 18 months, state and federal lawmakers are trying to find relief for patients struggling to pay. On Thursday, a Senate panel convened to investigate price increases for generic drugs. Separately, Senators Amy Klobuchar and John McCain will revive stalled legislation to allow some prescription imports from Canada. And Maine is testing out a hotly contested new law that allows its residents to buy drugs from overseas, flouting United States policy. One half of generic medicines went up in price between last summer and this summer; about 10 percent more than doubled in cost in that time, with some common medicines rising by over 500 percent, new data released in connection with a Congressional hearing found. (Rosenthal, 11/24)

The Wall Street Journal Pharmalot blog: Should Generic Drug Makers Pay Medicaid Rebates Tied To Inflation?
A pair of lawmakers has introduced identical bills in the House and Senate that would require generic drug makers to pay additional rebates to state Medicaid programs for any medicine that increases in price faster than the inflation rate. The move follows a hearing last week into recent spikes in prices for some generic drugs that was held by U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Along with U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), he is conducting an investigation into generic pricing and they introduced the bills. (Silverman, 11/24)

The New York Times: F.D.A. Issues Caution On Use Of Uterine Surgery Device That Can Spread Cancer
A power device used during uterine surgery in at least 50,000 women a year in the United States risks spreading cancerous tissue and should no longer be used in “the vast majority” of women, the Food and Drug Administration said on Monday. The tools, laparoscopic power morcellators, have been widely used in operations to remove fibroid tumors from the uterus, or to remove the entire uterus. Morcellators cut tissue into pieces that can be pulled out through the tiny incisions made during minimally invasive surgery. (Grady, 11/24)

The Wall Street Journal: Surgical Tool Gets Strongest Warning
The top U.S. health regulator warned Monday that a common surgical tool shouldn’t be used on most women during hysterectomies, a decision that caps nearly a year of debate and is expected to sharply curtail a procedure that the agency said can spread hidden cancer. The Food and Drug Administration used its authority to call for an immediate “black box” warning for laparoscopic power morcellators, the strongest caution the agency issues. Typically, such warnings on product labels undergo a lengthy comment period before being completed, lawyers for device makers said. (Kamp and Levitz, 11/24)

The Wall Street Journal: 5 Questions About The FDA Warning On Morcellators, Uterine Fibroids
The FDA has warned against using laparoscopic power morcellators for the majority of women having growths removed from their uterus. The decision comes after a growing awareness that the devices can spread and worsen hidden cancers. (Burton, 11/24)

USA Today: FDA Warns Gynecologic Device Has Spread Cancer
The US Food and Drug Administration Monday warned against a gynecologic device that has spread cancer in women who thought they had harmless fibroids. In the last year, two-dozen women have reported that their cancer was made worse by the device, called a power morcellator, which turned a treatable condition into a life-threatening disease. (Weintraub, 11/24)

The Washington Post: FDA Toughens Warning That Uterine Procedure Can Spread Cancer
The Food and Drug Administration strengthened its warnings Monday against the use of a controversial uterine surgical technique, recommending that doctors avoid using laparoscopic power morcellators to remove uterine growths in the vast majority of women because of the risk of spreading hidden cancers. ... The warnings, which come seven months after the FDA first recommended against the widespread use of the procedure, would inform patients that using power morcellators to remove uterine growths could unwittingly spread cancer inside their bodies and decrease the odds of long-term survival. (Dennis, 11/24)

The New York Times: Health Care Delays Lead To Ouster Of Veterans Hospital Director In Phoenix
Under pressure from Republicans in Congress, the Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday fired the director of its Phoenix medical center, Sharon Helman, six months after she was placed on administrative leave amid revelations that hospital employees had manipulated wait lists to cloak long delays many veterans faced to see doctors. The department said it had “formally removed” Ms. Helman because an investigation by its inspector general had found that “allegations of lack of oversight and other misconduct were substantiated.” In a statement, the new department secretary, Robert A. McDonald, said those shortcomings ran “counter to our mission of serving veterans, and V.A. will not tolerate it.” (Oppel, 11/24)

The Washington Post: VA Removes Sharon Helman, Manager At Center Of Phoenix Health-Care Scandal
Department of Veterans Affairs officials on Monday said they had “formally removed,” Sharon Helman, the director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System, where the largest nationwide scandal in the agency’s history first came to light this summer. ... The action comes amid complaints from a growing chorus of Republicans who said the agency was not acting quickly enough to discipline officials responsible for the wrongdoing, despite legislation this summer to expedite the process for firing VA senior executives. (Wax-Thibodeaux, 11/24)

The Associated Press: VA Ousts Hospital Chief In Phoenix Scandal
The head of the troubled Phoenix veterans' hospital was fired Monday as the Veterans Affairs Department continued its crackdown on wrongdoing in the wake of a nationwide scandal over long wait times for veterans seeking medical care and falsified records covering up the delays. Sharon Helman, director of the Phoenix VA Health Care System, was ousted nearly seven months after she and two high-ranking officials were placed on administrative leave amid an investigation into allegations that 40 veterans died while awaiting treatment at the hospital. (Daly, 11/24)

The New York Times: Report Faults Care Of Peace Corps Volunteer
In a detailed examination of the death of Nick Castle, a 23-year-old volunteer who was the subject of an article in The New York Times in July, the Peace Corps inspector general cited “cascading delays and failures in the treatment” of Mr. Castle as a factor in the death .... More broadly, the report calls on the Peace Corps to make changes to its health care system, including giving its doctors more thorough training in gastrointestinal illnesses, the most common health complaint from volunteers. It also suggests the agency improve record-keeping. (Stolberg, 11/24)

NPR: Africa Inspires A Health Care Experiment In New York
There's a project in the neighborhood of Harlem in New York that has a through-the-looking-glass quality. An organization called City Health Works is trying to bring an African model of health care delivery to the United States. Usually it works the other way around. If City Health Works' approach is successful, it could help change the way chronic diseases are managed in poverty-stricken communities, where people suffer disproportionately from HIV/AIDS, obesity and diabetes. (Palca, 11/24)