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The rule, published Thursday in the Federal Register, would increase the minimum penalty to $10,781 for a false claim submitted for Medicare and other federal programs. Also, CBS News examines the backlog in Medicare appeals.
Physicians and teaching hospitals in the U.S. took in fees, educational services, meals and other services worth billions, according to required annual disclosures available through a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' database. Nearly 2.3 percent of the transactions between doctors and drugmakers were related to opioids.
The move cuts the once-celebrated company's valuation to about $2 billion.
The Justice Department has expressed skepticism that the companies can properly address its competition concerns. But if the merger falls apart, the two may go after smaller companies. In other news, Connecticut's insurance commissioner is being urged to recuse herself from the review of the merger.
Republicans are trying to wrap up legislation to address the opioid epidemic, but Democrats are demanding the GOP lawmakers include new funding for the legislation's initiatives, not just authorize such funding.
There are laws on the books in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia with measures similar to the ones struck down this week by the Supreme Court. The campaign will also go after Texas provisions that weren't included in the ruling. Meanwhile judges in Indiana and Florida block abortion laws that were set to go into effect in those states. And in Missouri, officials say they won't immediately cut off funds to Planned Parenthood.
The sticking point is federal funding for hospitals that have high levels of uncompensated care. Federal officials want to discontinue that funding and say states can overcome that problem by expanding their Medicaid programs.
Louisiana is the first state in the Deep South to overcome Republican resistance and implement the health law's Medicaid expansion for low-income residents. Meanwhile officials in Kentucky, which expanded Medicaid early on, say the new governor's efforts to curb that program is likely to win federal approval.
The 13 percent of people who dropped coverage is more than predicted, since the Department of Health and Human Services had been actively trying to weed out problematic applications, but the attrition of nearly 1.6 million is in a "reasonable range." Meanwhile, the health law's risk-adjustment program is under fire.
NOTE TO READERS: KHN's First Edition will not be published July 4. Look for it again in your inbox July 5. Here's today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Each week, KHN's Shefali Luthra finds interesting reads from around the Web.
Outlets report on health news from New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Georgia, California, Texas, Ohio and Wyoming.
Some turn to heroin after becoming addicted to prescription painkillers because it's cheaper, in great supply and doesn't require going to a doctor. Meanwhile, Illinois' bill tackling the epidemic has been called "groundbreaking legislation" that can provide a blueprint to other states. And police in Columbus, Ohio, are now carrying naloxone.
Cancer comes in at No. 2, and combined they cause nearly 50 percent of all deaths in the country. Also in the news, church attendance is linked to lower suicide rates, the struggle of helping aging parents while living abroad, a hospital tackles "super-utilizers," children with concussions may not get proper treatment and eating canned foods can lead to increased toxin exposure.
The vice president's remarks came at the start of a daylong cancer summit at Howard University.
Laws across the country are going into effect on July 1, including ones that dictate what can be done to fetuses' remains, cut off funding for Planned Parenthood and ban a common second trimester abortion method. Meanwhile, a Republican candidate for the New Hampshire governor seat shifts course and votes in favor of funding Planned Parenthood.
The model will last five years and is designed to test ways to improve quality of care while lowering costs.
In other news, Politico Pro reports that enrollment in private exchanges is lagging behind consultants' expectations and in Georgia and California, an insurer faces lawsuits for sending ER reimbursements directly to patients. Meanwhile, The Associated Press details the high stakes and challenges involved in picking a health plan not associated with the workplace.
Until the past few years, big pharmaceutical companies had largely given up on new antibiotics because development can cost billions of dollars yet deliver little profit. But the U.S. is now dumping millions into helping companies develop new drugs. In other news, drugmakers see a potential new vaccine market in expectant mothers, promising ovarian cancer drugs might not help all, the new and cheaper hepatitis C drug may not be a signal of dropping prices and more from the pharmaceutical industry.
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