Latest KFF Health News Stories
In Course Reversal, Notre Dame To Continue Offering Employees Free Birth Control
Following the Trump administration’s decision to allow employers and universities to cite religious or moral objections to end birth control coverage, the university notified employees that contraception coverage would end Jan. 1. Now it’s walking that decision back.
Individual-Mandate Repeal Gains Traction As GOP Scrambles To Close $74B Revenue Hole
But while the move would give House tax writers an estimated $416 billion in sorely needed offsets for the deep rate cuts they want, it risks alienating GOP senators.
Pharma Racks Up Huge Victory In Ohio As Voters Overwhelmingly Reject Drug Price Relief Act
Pharmaceutical companies pumped about $60 million into defeating the initiative that sought to reduce spending on prescription drugs and save money for public agencies. Voters, however, were left confused about exactly what the measure would do.
Iowa Medicaid Enrollees And Officials Raise Questions About Insurer’s Abrupt Departure
Democratic lawmakers and advocates for Medicaid enrollees question how the state is handling the program and why AmeriHealth, one of three companies hired by the state, is leaving. In other Medicaid news, federal officials say Ohio owes $29.5 million for improper payments and the Oregon governor seeks to get some overpayments back.
CMS Chief Signals Willingness To Approve Work Requirements For States’ Medicaid Programs
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma criticized the previous administration’s stance on requirements as “the soft bigotry of low expectations” and said “those days are over.”
Maine Voters Green-Light Medicaid Expansion With First-Of-Its-Kind Ballot Initiative
Gov. Paul LePage (R) had vetoed five different attempts by lawmakers to expand the program. Other states have been closely watching the campaign, particularly Utah and Idaho, where newly formed committees are working to get Medicaid expansion on next year’s ballots.
First Edition: November 8, 2017
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Viewpoints: Advance Directives And Dementia; When Scientific Trials Take Place In Court
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country, including perspectives on the opioid crisis, a Medicare trap for people who choose to work past age 65 and the limits of behavioral economics in medicine.
Perspectives On Gun Violence: Mass Shootings Are Not ‘Inevitable’; It Is ‘A Mental Health Issue’
In response to the weekend’s mass shooting in a small town in Texas, opinion writers offer their ideas on why gun violence continues to plague the United States.
Media outlets report on news from California, D.C., Ohio, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Minnesota, Louisiana and Texas.
Tenet Healthcare Reports Third-Quarter Loss Of $366 Million
The company has implemented new cost controls and 1,300 job cuts. It attributes part of the loss to less volume because of the hurricanes that struck Texas and Florida.
Valeant Is Selling Female Libido Pill Back To Former Owner, But Is Drug ‘Dead In The Water’?
The drug, Addyi, garnered lots of attention and controversy when it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but then it flopped.
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) points to reports that pharmaceutical company Alkermes has attempted to increase sales of Vivitrol — a monthly shot to treat opioid addiction — by playing up misconceptions about other medications and trying to limit their availability.
End-Of-Life Guidance For Heart Disease Stuck In The Past When It Used To Kill Quickly
Heart disease has become a chronic condition, but unlike cancer, many doctors don’t know how to deal with patients they can no longer help but are still alive. In other public health news: Alzheimer’s, diabetes, sleep, vaccines, genetic tests, and more.
Saying mental illness is to blame for mass violence incidents not only misses the complexities at the root of the motivation, but also besmirches millions of non-violent mentally ill people, experts say in the wake of the Texas shooting which left 26 dead. President Donald Trump said the shooting was a “mental health” problem and not a “guns situation.”
Pa. Officials Delay Shift To Medicaid Managed Care For Some People In Philadelphia
The implementation for elderly and disabled enrollees needing long-term care services is put back a year. In other Medicaid news, Arkansas officials say the wait for federal approval of a new waiver is delaying plans to change eligibility standards, Virginia lawmakers get an estimate of costs for next year, Iowa officials assert that a lawsuit brought by disabled enrollees is now moot and a Republican lawmaker running for governor in Oregon seeks a probe of overpayments.
Maine Voters Set Today To Decide Whether To Expand Medicaid Enrollment
Lawmakers have five times passed bills to expand the state’s Medicaid program under the federal health law, but the governor has vetoed the measures.
Trump Administration Keeping Executive Order To Repeal Individual Mandate In Its Back Pocket
The draft order would broaden the “hardship exemption” that the Obama administration established for those who face extraordinary circumstances.
GOP Lawmakers Don’t See Repeal Of Individual Mandate Getting Added To House Version Of Tax Bill
“It hasn’t ever been in the [House] bill,” said one Republican on the Ways and Means Committee. “I expect that it will be added somewhere down the sausage-making venture.” Meanwhile, lawmakers may be considering changes to taxes on health savings accounts.
Health Law Signups, Traffic To Healthcare.gov Surge In First Few Days Of Open Enrollment
Despite fears that Trump administration’s actions to cut the outreach budget for the health law would undermine sign ups, the numbers spiked over last year according to a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. However, usually signups this early are consumers renewing coverage, not new customers. Meanwhile, insurers are opening their own wallets to make up for the lack of federal marketing for the health law.
