Latest KFF Health News Stories
First Edition: January 15, 2016
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Viewpoints: Kentucky’s Obamacare Escape Route; What Are The GOP Replacement Plans?
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Longer Looks: LSD For Psychotherapy; Opioids And Pregnant Women; Fighting Cancer
Each week, KHN’s Shefali Luthra finds interesting reads from around the Web.
News outlets report on health care developments in Kansas, Florida, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Michigan, Illinois, and California.
Bay Area Health System Consolidation — How Will It Impact Costs?
Elsewhere, Cincinnati health systems report profits went up, while for some Ohio insurers they went down. And, in New Hampshire, a hospital is planning to increase nurses’ pay in order to draw new talent and address a staffing shortage.
Alabama Officials Seek 23 Percent Increase In Medicaid Funding
The growing costs are the result of medical inflation, a transition to Medicaid managed care and refunds to the federal government for past overpayments. In Nevada, officials sought to reassure advocates that a plan to privatize Medicaid programs will be transparent and move slowly.
High-Fat, Low-Fiber Diets Are Killing Off Healthy Gut Microorganisms Over Generations: Study
Meanwhile, CNN spotlights potential child heart surgery policy changes that could result from its investigative report of a Florida hospital. And in reproductive health news, media outlets report on the climbing age of first-time mothers and the benefit of doulas on birth outcomes.
Researchers Study Impact Of Opioid Prescription Crackdowns On Heroin Use
As state and federal officials struggle with the deadly increase in drug abuse, the New England Journal of Medicine rounds up the latest research on the link between prescription painkiller and heroin addictions. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, state lawmakers pass a bill targeting opioid overdoses.
Blurred Ethical Lines Worry Advocates As Companies Use Patients To Sell Treatments
The manufacturers of hemophilia and other drugs and the specialty pharmacies that dispense the medicines have been hiring patients or family members to sell their products. Some are concerned this practice is causing consumers to be misled by people they are more inclined to trust. In other pharmaceutical news, the Federal Trade Commission reports “pay-for-delay” deals have dropped following the Supreme Court ruling on the issue.
BeneStream Offers Employers Help Shifting Workers To Medicaid Coverage
Such efforts are one tactic to help keep costs down for employers. Also in insurance news, a look at how consumers find coverage when they leave marketplace plans and some problems that consumers and insurers are having.
A House Divided: GOP’s Two Leaders Approach 2016 With Starkly Different Mindsets
While Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., wants to dream big on health care repeal, tax reform and other issues, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s, R-Ky., plans are not quite as ambitious. In other news from Capitol Hill, according to a Senate committee report, the Food and Drug Administration took 17 months to notify anyone about infected scopes and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., faces criticism over her remarks on abortion.
Clinton Continues Full-Blown Attack Of Sanders’ Single-Payer Health Plan
Hillary Clinton is calling on her opponent for the Democratic nomination to explain how he would pay for the proposal, which some have given a $15-trillion price tag. Meanwhile Bernie Sanders is frustrated by her statements that his “Medicare-for-all” policy could be vulnerable to Republican governors. And NBC takes a look at what this fight is really all about.
Kentucky Governor’s Move To Disband Health Marketplace Raises Concerns
The insurance exchange had been among the country’s most successful, but the Republican governor had vowed to get rid of it during the campaign.
Health Law’s Risk Strategies Could Be Creating Reverse Robin Hood Effect
The original purpose of the obscure insurance risk adjustment was to support plans with a lot of sick patients by giving them money from ones with healthier customers. In reality, critics say, it’s not working that way. In other health law news, “concierge medicine” is no longer just for billionaires and more on what the Cadillac tax delay means.
Obama Hopes To Entice Reluctant GOP States With Extended Medicaid Funding
Full federal funding of the Medicaid expansion is scheduled to slowly phase down to 90 percent starting next year. Obama wants to allow any state that decides to expand Medicaid eligibility under the law to get three years of full federal funding, no matter when the expansion starts.
Researchers: Call For Cancer ‘Moonshot’ Relies On Archaic View Of Disease
The chance of reaching one cure is unrealistic because cancer is not one disease, experts say. Still, many see the additional funding the president has pledged as key to speeding up the process of finding treatments.
Va. Governor Asks Republicans To Have ‘Open Mind’ On Medicaid Expansion
Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s $109 billion budget includes expansion of the program, but GOP legislators have called it an unhelpful gimmick. Meanwhile in his State of the State address, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal maintains his opposition to Medicaid expansion.
Viewpoints: Joe Biden Takes Aim At Cancer; Obamacare As A Pay Cut
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
News outlets report on health care developments in Kansas, Missouri, Washington, Florida, Colorado and Iowa.
