CBS News: Last Chance To Enroll In Obamacare For 2015
Americans eligible for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are facing an important deadline. This year's sign-up period ends Sunday, Feb. 15. For most people, it will be the last chance to select an ACA marketplace health plan or switch plans for 2015. That's why health advocates are urging uninsured Americans to take advantage of this final window of opportunity. (Pallarito, 2/12)

NBC News: Countdown: Three Days Left For Obamacare Deadline
The emails are landing several times a day now. "Three days left: Time is running out," the latest one reads. They're arriving in the e-mail inboxes of people who registered in 2013 on the then-doomed Healthcare.gov website. (Fox, 2/12)

Politico Pro: Low Key But On Target, Obamacare Season Nears Its End
Obamacare enrollment will likely finish on a high note this weekend. The second sign-up season has marched so smoothly toward enrollment goals — so unlike the bumpy drama of the first season— that Americans have scarcely noticed. (Pradhan, 2/12)

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: MNsure On Enrollment: 'We Have Our Work Cut Out For Us'
People who want to avoid the tax for lacking health insurance this year are running out of time. The state’s MNsure exchange says more people are calling with questions about coverage, and visiting the MNsure website, in advance of Sunday’s deadline for buying private policies for 2015. (Snowbeck, 2/12)

Los Angeles Times: California Extends Obamacare Enrollment Deadline To Feb. 20 For Many
California gave many consumers until Feb. 20 to enroll in Obamacare coverage in anticipation of long lines this weekend. The formal deadline for open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act remains Sunday. But, like last year, the Covered California exchange has granted extra time for anyone who tries to enroll but is unable to complete the process by Sunday. Beyond Sunday, applicants can no longer sign up online on their own. Officials said after the weekend they must go through Covered California's call center, an enrollment counselor, insurance agent, county office or health plan enroller. (Terhune, 2/12)

Kaiser Health News: Advocates Press For Uninsured To Get Special Enrollment Option After They See Tax Penalties
Sunday’s deadline for signing up for health insurance on the exchanges will have long passed by the time many people file their taxes this March and April. But that may be the first time it sinks in for some people that they owe a penalty for not having insurance last year. Consumer advocates want the government to give them a chance to sign up for 2015 coverage after the enrollment deadline. But federal officials say they’re not making any promises. (Andrews, 2/13)

The Associated Press: As Sign-Up Deadline Nears, A New Risk For Obama Health Law
Thousands of people signing up for health insurance this weekend may not realize it, but their coverage under President Barack Obama's law could be short-lived. The 2015 enrollment season, which ends Sunday, has avoided last year's website meltdown so far. But a Supreme Court case could result in millions of consumers losing financial assistance for their premiums later in the year. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/12)

The Hill: Study: Supreme Court Ruling Could Have High Cost
A new report from The Urban Institute, a liberal think tank, finds that if the Supreme Court strikes down the subsidies, there will be $12 billion worth of healthcare that is not paid for in 2016, because people will lose insurance that they can no longer afford without the subsidies. Much of the "uncompensated care" comes in the form of emergency room visits by people without insurance. The report estimates 8.2 million people will lose insurance under a Supreme Court ruling against the law, including around 6 million who will be stripped of subsidies and more than 1 million more who will be unable to afford coverage because of premium increases. (Sullivan, 2/12)

The Hill: ObamaCare Fans: SCOTUS Case 'Unraveling'
Legal experts in favor of the Affordable Care Act say new information unearthed about the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell could derail the case before the justices have a chance to rule. “The case made by the [Affordable Care Act]’s opponents is unraveling around them,” Brianne Good and Joey Meyer, legal experts from the progressive group Constitutional Accountability Center, wrote in a blog this week. The standing of the four plaintiffs in the case has come under intense media scrutiny, with at least three of the challengers now facing claims they are not personally harmed by the law and therefore do not have standing to sue. (Ferris, 2/13)

NBC News: Health Care Supreme Court Case Draws In AAPI Groups
A coalition of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) civil rights and community health organizations have filed an amicus ("friend of the court") brief with the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the King v Burwell case, advocating on behalf of AAPIs that the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) tax credits or subsidies should not be limited only to state-run health insurance Marketplaces, but should apply to all states, including those that use the federal Marketplace. (Kai-Hwa Wang, 2/12)

In other news regarding health law legal action -

The Associated Press: Court Nixes Faith-Based Birth Control Mandate Challenge
An appeals court has ruled that the birth control coverage required by federal health care reforms does not violate the rights of several religious groups because they can seek reasonable accommodations. Two western Pennsylvania Catholic dioceses and a private Christian college had challenged the birth control coverage mandates and won lower-court decisions. (Mandak, 2/12)

The New York Times: Study Backs Kentucky Medicaid Expansion
Gov. Steven L. Beshear of Kentucky released a study Thursday predicting that his expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act would generate a positive fiscal impact of nearly $1 billion for the state over the next seven years. (Goodnough, 2/12)

Lexington Herald-Leader: Beshear: Kentucky's Medicaid Expansion Is Successful
Kentucky's often-debated expansion of Medicaid is financially viable and will provide a net gain to the state, including 40,000 new jobs through 2021, according to Gov. Steve Beshear. He held an hourlong news conference Thursday to share information from a state report that lays out the success of Medicaid expansion in Kentucky and "answers the questions as to whether we can afford it," Beshear said. The answer is yes, he said. (Meehan, 2/12)

Modern Healthcare: Kentucky Hospitals Gain $506 Million In Medicaid Expansion's First Year
Kentucky is seeing a positive economic impact in its first 12 months of Medicaid expansion, above even the state's projections in 2013, according to new data released Thursday by Gov. Steve Beshear. The state added 12,000 jobs last year, including more than 5,400 in healthcare, as a result of the Affordable Care Act, the governor reported. That number is expected to rise to 40,000 new jobs by 2021, according to Beshear, who placed the net economic impact on the state at $30 billion over eight years. (Kutscher, 2/12)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Medicaid Members: We Can Pay Kasich’s Premiums
Shawnise Lewis had emergency surgery in 2013. She didn’t have insurance. Now, she does, through Medicaid. And she’s willing to pay a little to keep it. ... [Gov. John] Kasich wants about 100,000 of Medicaid’s better-off adults – those whose income reaches or surpasses the federal poverty level of $11,670 for a single adult – to pay a monthly premium on their insurance. Those premiums would likely average $20 a month, the governor’s staff said. Low-income Ohioans who would have to pay premiums under the plan told The Enquirer their budgets are tight already. But they don’t want to lose their health insurance and said they realize they’d likely pay much more for coverage without Medicaid. (Thompson, 2/12)

Vermont Public Radio: House GOP: Boost Medicaid Payments But Not With Taxes
House Republican leaders say they support Gov. Peter Shumlin's proposal to increase the state's Medicaid reimbursement rate, but they strongly oppose how the governor wants to pay for this plan. ... Under the governor's plan, a new payroll tax of 0.7 percent would be imposed on all employers and a good chunk of the money would be used to increase the Medicaid reimbursement rate. ... Instead of using a new payroll tax, House Minority leader Don Turner wants Vermont to dump its state health care exchange and adopt a federal model. "This money can be re-prioritized to do some of the goals we've outlined," says Miller. (Kinzel, 2/12)

San Antonio Express-News: San Antonio Leaders Back Private Market Alternative To Medicaid Expansion
Local hospital leaders and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff are voicing support for a proposal to provide government subsidies to Texans falling into the Medicaid gap so they can buy health insurance. The proposal, known as the Texas Way coverage plan, is being touted as a private-market-based alternative to expanding Medicaid eligibility requirements. Supporters say the idea would require state and federal funding and could provide private health coverage to more than 1 million low-income Texans and 100,000 Bexar County residents shut out when Texas chose not to expand Medicaid. (O'Hare, 2/11)

Fox News: Fox News Poll: Will Obamacare Ultimately Be A Good Thing Or A Bad Thing?
In the end, will ObamaCare be a good thing or a bad thing for the country? The new poll, released Thursday, finds views split 47-47 percent on that question. A year ago, more voters said it would be a bad thing by 51-42 percent. (Blanton, 2/12)

Kansas Health Institute News Service: HHS Secretary: 'We’re Open To Working With States' On Medicaid Expansion
Sylvia Matthews Burwell succeeded former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in June 2014. Before that she was director of the Office of Management and Budget. ... In a telephone interview earlier this week, she spoke with Heartland Health Monitor (HHM) about the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion and a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that challenges a key element of the ACA. Here are excerpts from that conversation. (Margolies, 2/12)

The Fiscal Times: Thousands To Get Booted From Obamacare Plans
Some 200,000 Obamacare enrollees are about to be kicked off their insurance policies after they failed to confirm that they are legally living in the United States administration officials announced Thursday. Under the health law, people enrolled in exchange policies must be able to prove legal status. (Ehley, 2/12)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Innovation Center Reviving Partnership For Patients
The CMS Innovation Center plans to revive the Partnership for Patients, the $1 billion patient-safety initiative that ended last December, and will attempt to fix a flaw in its structure that obscured the results. State hospital associations, major U.S. health systems and other companies formed so-called hospital engagement networks under the initiative and agreed to aggressive targets to reduce hospital-acquired conditions and readmissions. (Evans, 2/12)

The Boston Globe: Officials Look Into Long Health Connector Hotline Waits
The Massachusetts Health Connector will examine why its call center became so overwhelmed that more than half the callers during peak times hung up in frustration after being left on hold for too long. (Freyer, 2/13)

WBUR: Massachusetts Defines “Affordable” Health Insurance
What’s affordable when it comes to health insurance? Any figure that comes to mind right now is probably less than you actually pay every month. The federal government says Americans should be able to spend 8.05 percent of their income on health coverage this year. Massachusetts cuts low-income residents some slack. (Bebinger, 2/12)

The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: Obama Embraces Meme Cliches In HealthCare.gov Pitch
President Barack Obama used a “selfie stick” and riffed on the popular “Thanks Obama” Internet meme to plug the latest health-care signup deadline in a new video posted by BuzzFeed. In a “Things Everybody Does But Doesn’t Talk About” video for the social news and entertainment website, Mr. Obama took a photo of himself using a “selfie stick” device and an iPhone. He also muttered “Thanks Obama” when his cookie was too large to fit in a glass of milk — citing an Internet meme where trivial, everyday indignities are blamed on him. He concludes the video with “YOLO,” short for “you only live once.” (Tau, 2/12)

Politico: Between Two Mirrors, Obama Touts Health Law Sign-Up
President Barack Obama made a comic online video — complete with silly faces and several shots with a selfie stick — that reminds Americans that they only have through Sunday to sign up this year for Obamacare. A BuzzFeed video released Thursday shows the commander-in-chief speaking and checking himself out in front of a mirror, practicing his messaging that people should go to HealthCare.gov by Feb. 15 to get covered. ..After an appearance on “The Colbert Report” early in this year’s health law sign-up season, the president has been pretty low key about enrollment. This video — a follow-up perhaps to last year’s deadpan “Between Two Ferns” appearance with Zach Galifianakis — is the latest youth-focused effort on the part of the administration to boost sign-ups before the open enrollment period closes at midnight Pacific time Sunday. (Pradhan, 2/12)

The New York Times' First Draft: Obama, A Selfie Stick And The Affordable Care Act
President Obama has made it abundantly clear that he will do almost anything to make sure the Affordable Care Act is a success. The latest example came on Thursday, with the release of a video produced by BuzzFeed showing him playing with a “selfie stick,” admiring himself in sunglasses, and practicing his jump shot alone in his office. Without a ball. Why would the commander in chief go through such humiliation? To remind people that they need to sign up for health insurance. (2/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Signing Clay Hunt Veterans Bill, Obama Notes Rare Bipartisan Accord
President Barack Obama signed a veterans suicide prevention bill into law on Thursday, celebrating a moment of bipartisan accord and cooperation. “This is one of those areas that we can’t have an argument,” Mr. Obama said at a signing ceremony at the White House. The law, Mr. Obama said, is “a reminder of what we can accomplish when we take a break from the partisan bickering that so often dominates this town and focus on what really matters to the American people.” (Tau, 2/12)

The New York Times: Obama Signs Suicide Prevention For Veterans Act Into Law
President Obama signed a measure into law on Thursday to fight a wave of suicide among veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress, a problem that has won increased attention as American troops have returned from Afghanistan and Iraq. (Baker, 2/12)

USA Today: Obama Signs Veteran Suicide Prevention Bill
The Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act will help the Department of Veterans Affairs study new strategies for suicide prevention and give student loan incentives to recruit psychiatrists to work with veterans. The bill's namesake was a Marine Corps veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan who struggled with post traumatic stress disorder and campaigned on behalf of veterans health care. He took his own life in 2011 at age 28. (Korte, 2/12)

The Associated Press: Obama Signs Veterans Suicide Prevention Bill
The law requires the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs Department to submit to independent reviews of their suicide prevention programs and make information on suicide prevention more easily available to veterans. It also offers financial incentives to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals who agree to work for the VA and assist military members as they transition from active duty to veteran status. (2/12)

Arizona Republic: Whistle-Blowers: VA Still Endangering Suicidal Vets
During the past eight months, roughly 1,000 military veterans with mental-health problems have shown up in the emergency room at Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center in Phoenix, sometimes intoxicated and potentially suicidal. (Wagner, 2/12)

The Hill: House Bill Would Repeal Obamacare Tax On Insurance Companies
Rep. Charles Boustany Jr. (R-La.) is renewing his push to repeal an ObamaCare tax on insurance companies that he says “drives up costs” across the board. Boustany is joining Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on a bill to repeal the Health Insurance Tax, which he said hurts individuals and businesses by increasing premiums and out-of-pocket costs. ... The tax is an important revenue source for the Affordable Care Act, amounting to $8 billion in 2014 and rising to $14.3 billion by 2018, though the Congressional Budget Office has warned it would be “largely passed through to consumers in the form of higher premiums.” (Ferris, 2/12)

The Hill: Hillary Calls For Extending CHIP Funding
Clinton, the presumed 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner, is calling on Congress to extend the Children's Health Insurance Program's (CHIP) funding for the next four years, labeling the approximately $10 billion expense "an investment in our children that will pay off for decades to come." Senate Democrats have launched their own push to reauthorize the program, signing on as co-sponsors of a bill that would extend funding through 2019. Currently, the program's funding runs out at the end of September. A companion bill was also introduced in the House on Thursday. (Byrnes 2/12)

The Wall Street Journal: A ‘Swear Jar’ For Drug Makers
Should drug makers that break the law be required to pay an extra penalty that would be used to fund the National Institutes of Health? Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma.) believes this idea would not only provide needed money for medical research, but would help persuade drug makers to curtail bad behavior. Last month she introduced a bill, the Medical Innovation Act, that she has described as the equivalent of a swear jar. (Silverman, 2/12)

NPR: The Black Market For Stolen Health Care Data
President Obama is at Stanford University today, hosting a cybersecurity summit. He and about a thousand guests are trying to figure out how to protect consumers online from hacks and data breaches. Meanwhile, in the cyber underworld, criminals are trying to figure out how to turn every piece of our digital life into cash. The newest frontier: health records. (Shahani, 2/13)

Los Angeles Times: Anthem Says Hackers Had Access To Customer Data Back To 2004
Insurance giant Anthem Inc. said Thursday that hackers had access to customer data going back to 2004 as investigations continue into the massive breach. The nation's second-largest health insurer disclosed the new time frame as it prepares to offer two years of free identity-theft protection to millions of affected consumers starting Friday. (Terhune, 2/12)

Los Angeles Times: Anthem Data Breach Poses A Big Test For Its CEO
In unusually blunt terms, the chief executive of Anthem Inc. told investors recently that his company and the health insurance industry rank last in customer service. That was before the insurance giant disclosed a massive data breach last week affecting as many as 80 million Americans. Now, there's a lot at stake in how CEO Joseph Swedish handles his first full-blown crisis at the nation's second-largest health insurer. (Terhune, 2/12)

Modern Healthcare: Anthem Beefs Up Identity-Theft Protections Amid Criticism
Anthem health plan customers affected by the recent data breach can sign up for two years of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services starting Friday, the insurer told state attorneys general. The updates come as Anthem works to stem the damage from a historic data breach that exposed the personal information of up to 80 million people. But at least in the short term, the incident does not appear to be negatively affecting Anthem's enrollment efforts in the waning days of the Affordable Care Act's sign-up period. (Herman, 2/12)

Modern Healthcare: VA Ignored 100+ Health System Recommendations, GAO Charges
The Veterans Affairs Department has taken little to no action on more than 100 recommendations it has received to help improve the quality of healthcare it offers veterans, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released late Wednesday. The recommendations, dating as far back as 2000, were made by the GAO. The consequences of continuing non-action could be severe, the agency warned. “We have found that this ambiguity and inconsistency may pose risks for veterans' access to VA health care, or for the quality and safety of VA health care they receive,” the GAO stated. (Dickson, 2/12)

CIR: VA Gave $8,025 Bonus To Director Of Troubled Wisconsin Hospital
Prescriptions for narcotic painkillers had skyrocketed, patients were overdosing and pharmacists who balked at filling prescriptions were fired or quit in disgust. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Tomah, Wisconsin, had been dubbed “Candy Land” by veterans and staff and was being investigated by the agency’s inspector general. Despite all these issues, the facility’s director, Mario DeSanctis, received an $8,025 bonus for 2013, a 5 percent bump atop his $160,000 annual salary. (Glantz, 2/12)

Connecticut Mirror: Sandy Hook Panel: Further Tighten Gun Laws, Improve Mental Health Care
The commission Gov. Dannel P. Malloy created in the wake of the 2012 massacre of 26 students and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School will consider a draft report Friday recommending a further tightening of Connecticut's gun laws, a prospect unlikely to find traction in the General Assembly. Like many previous reports, the commission's draft also describes a need for better integrating mental and physical health care, reducing fragmentation, providing more holistic services and reducing the stigma that many people with mental illness face. The draft also points to the need to focus not just on treating mental illness once it develops but on preventing mental health problems and fostering healthy development, starting in children’s earliest years. (Rabe Thomas and Levin Becker, 2/12)

The New York Times: Newtown Panel’s Report Aims To Improve Safety
More than two years after Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 schoolchildren and six faculty members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., as well as killing his mother and himself, a state commission released a draft report of a wide-ranging set of recommendations on Thursday with the goal of preventing such killings. (Santora, 2/12)

The Associated Press: Newtown Panel Urges More Gun Control, Mental Health Changes
The report focuses heavily on the state's mental health system, which it called "fragmented and underfunded" and "tainted by stigma." The commission said the problems of the shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, were "not reducible to any particular category of psychiatric illness," but it is clear his needs were not met. (2/12)

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Minnesota Lawmakers Want To Crack Down On Insurance Scammers
Minnesota lawmakers are taking aim at insurance scammers they say flock to the state because of legal loopholes that result in big cash payouts for bogus medical claims. (Simons, 2/13)

Georgia Health News: Bill On 'Biosimilar' Drugs Easily Clears Panel
The goal of Senate Bill 51 is to create a state structure for the prescribing of “biosimilar’’ drugs – and could potentially save Georgians money. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Dean Burke (R-Bainbridge), was approved unanimously Thursday by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee. The state House is working on a “biosimilar” bill as well. (Miller, 2/12)

Politico Pro: Florida Plays A $2B Game Of Chicken With CMS
Florida Gov. Rick Scott is counting on a $2 billion pot of money for his state’s safety-net providers — a pot that the feds have repeatedly said they won’t refill and may still be using as leverage to push state leaders toward Medicaid expansion. (Wheaton, 2/12)

The Washington Post: Va. House, Senate Pass Budget Packages
Virginia’s House and Senate on Thursday passed separate but similar budget bills, both of which reject Medicaid expansion, provide raises to state employees and plow more money into universities and the state’s rainy-day fund. (Vozzella and Portnoy, 2/12)

The Texas Tribune: Democrats Push To Repeal Abortion Waiting Period
They're pushing a boulder up a hill in the conservative Texas Legislature. But three House Democrats remain laser-focused on repealing the 24-hour waiting period for abortion imposed by the state’s 2011 sonogram law. “This 24-hour waiting period has proven to be ineffective, unnecessary and cruel,” state Rep. Jessica Farrar, a Houston Democrat and the chairwoman of the Texas House Women's Health Caucus, said at a Thursday press conference. “It does not change a pregnant Texas woman’s decision.” Texas’ abortion sonogram law requires a doctor to perform a sonogram on a woman 24 hours before she can receive an abortion. During the sonogram, the physician must play the heartbeat aloud and describe the development of the fetus. (Ura, 2/12)

The Associated Press: Delaware Bill Eyes Experimental Drugs For Terminally Ill
Delaware lawmakers announced Thursday that they are introducing a bill allowing terminally ill patients access to experimental medicines that have not received final approval from the Food and Drug Administration. (2/12)

Des Moines Register: Bill Seeks Nursing Home Unit For Aggressive Elderly
Iowa would consider setting up a special nursing home unit for elderly people who are combative or sexually aggressive, under a bill that took its first step forward Thursday. The bill, Senate File 142, comes amid questions about what will be done with elderly psychiatric patients — including four sex offenders — now living at the state mental institution at Clarinda. Gov. Terry Branstad’s administration is moving to close that hospital and another one at Mount Pleasant. (Leys, 2/12)

Denver Post: Abortion Clinic Regulations Bill Fails In Colorado House
A bill that aimed to put more regulations on abortion clinics in Colorado failed in a House committee Thursday, after supporters of regulations said it would make the process safer and opponents called it an attempt to make abortions harder and more expensive to get. The bill was killed on a 8-5 vote. ... [The] bill would have required state inspections and reporting requirements from facilities that provide abortions, ultrasounds for patients and would have required an abortion doctor to have admitting rights at a hospital within 30 miles. (Bunch, 2/13)

Denver Post: Colorado Flu-Related Hospitalizations Hit A Record High This Season
Flu season is far from over, but this one is already a record breaker, according to the state health department. As of Feb. 7, Colorado hospitals had reported 2,747 cases in 57 counties — the greatest number of flu-related hospitalizations since reporting began in 2004-05. The state health department says the number is greater than the 2,157 flu-related hospitalizations reported as of May in the 2009-10 swine flu (HIN1) pandemic. And this flu season doesn't officially end until May 23. Three influenza-related deaths of children have been reported this season, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reports. (Draper, 2/12)

Kansas Health Institute News Service: Pharmacists, Benefits Managers Look For Middle Ground On Price Control
Kansas pharmacists butted heads with health insurance industry representatives Thursday at a hearing about reimbursement price controls. After a contentious hearing, Sen. Jeff Longbine, the chairman of the Senate Financial Institutions Committee, urged the parties to come to some compromise on Senate Bill 103. The bill would increase state scrutiny of pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, which insurers use to control prescription drug costs. Longbine said the committee could debate, amend and vote on the bill late next week. (Marson, 2/12)

Modern Healthcare: HCA Midwest Settles With Foundation Over Charitable Care
Kansas City's largest healthcare network, HCA Midwest Health, will pay a local healthcare foundation $15 million to settle allegations that it didn't provide the level of charitable and uncompensated care to the community that had been required by a 2003 purchase agreement. HCA announced the settlement with the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City Wednesday. HCA did not admit to any wrongdoing in the settlement. (Schencker, 2/12)

Los Angeles Times: Measles Outbreak Highlights The Importance Of Adult Immunization
Measles was once considered a childhood illness, spreading rapidly across schools, playgrounds and parks. But the national measles outbreak that began two months ago at Disneyland has showed another side of the highly infectious disease — that it is a danger to people of all ages. (Xia and Lin, 2/12)

JAMA Internal Medicine: Research Misconduct Identified By The US Food And Drug Administration
Every year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspects several hundred clinical sites performing biomedical research on human participants and occasionally finds evidence of substantial departures from good clinical practice and research misconduct. However, the FDA has no systematic method of communicating these findings to the scientific community .... Fifty-seven published clinical trials were identified for which an FDA inspection of a trial site had found significant evidence of 1 or more ... problems .... Only 3 of the 78 publications (4%) that resulted from trials in which the FDA found significant violations mentioned the objectionable conditions or practices found during the inspection. No corrections, retractions, expressions of concern, or other comments acknowledging the key issues identified by the inspection were subsequently published. (Seife, 2/9)

Health Affairs: US Hospitals Experienced Substantial Productivity Growth During 2002–11
We studied productivity growth among US hospitals in treating Medicare patients with heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia during 2002–11. We found that the rates of annual productivity growth were 0.78 percent for heart attack, 0.62 percent for heart failure, and 1.90 percent for pneumonia. However, unadjusted productivity growth appears to have been negative. These findings suggest that productivity growth in US health care could be better than is sometimes believed, and may help alleviate concerns about Medicare payment policy under the Affordable Care Act. (Romley, Goodman and Sood, 2/11)

U.S. Government Accountability Office: HHS Leadership Needed To Coordinate Federal Efforts Related To Serious Mental Illness
Agencies identified 112 federal programs that generally supported individuals with serious mental illness in fiscal year 2013. ... The programs were spread across eight federal agencies .... Interagency coordination for programs supporting individuals with serious mental illness is lacking. HHS is charged with leading the federal government's public health efforts related to mental health, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is required to promote coordination of programs relating to mental illness .... Of the 30 programs specifically targeting individuals with serious mental illness, 9 programs had a completed program evaluation, 4 programs had an evaluation underway, and 17 programs had no evaluation completed and none planned. (2/5)

The Kaiser Family Foundation/JAMA: Visualizing Health Policy: Premium Changes In The Affordable Care Act’s Insurance Marketplaces 2014-2015
This Visualizing Health Policy infographic illustrates the change in monthly premiums by county, and select cities, from 2014 to 2015 for a 40-year-old person covered by the second-lowest-cost silver “benchmark” plan in the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces. Premium changes were greatest in Summit County, Colo. (45% decrease) and southeastern Alaska (34% increase), before tax credits. After accounting for tax credits, premiums for a 40-year-old person with an annual income of $30,000 would remain flat in most of the country, as long as the enrollee changed from the 2014 benchmark plan to the plan designated as the benchmark for 2015. (Cox et al., 2/10)

The Urban Institute/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Characteristics Of Those Eligible For Cost-Sharing Reductions And Premium Tax Credits Under The Affordable Care Act
Under the ACA, approximately 23.2 million people will be eligible for financial assistance through the nongroup marketplaces in 2016. ... almost 60 percent are eligible for both tax credits to lower the cost of their health insurance premiums and CSRs [cost-sharing reductions] to lower their direct out-of-pocket payments for medical services. Those eligible for both types of assistance are heavily concentrated in the South, almost half are single adults without children, and the majority are White. They differ from those eligible for premium tax credits alone in that they have lower income, tend to be younger, and more frequently report being in fair or poor health. (Blumberg and Wengle, 2/6)

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: SNAP Costs Declining, Expected To Fall Much Further
SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] spending, which rose substantially as a share of the economy (gross domestic product or GDP) in the wake of the Great Recession, has begun to decline, as the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and other experts expected. ... Spending on SNAP (formerly food stamps) fell by 11 percent in 2014 as a share of GDP. ... As the economic recovery continues and fewer low-income people qualify for SNAP, CBO expects SNAP spending to fall further in future years, returning to its 1995 level as a share of GDP by 2020. (Rosenbaum and Keith-Jennings, 2/9)

JAMA: Accuracy Of Smartphone Applications And Wearable Devices For Tracking Physical Activity Data
[N]early two-thirds of adults in the United States own a smartphone and technology advancements have enabled these devices to track health behaviors such as physical activity and provide convenient feedback. ... The objective of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of smartphone applications and wearable devices. ... Across all devices, 552 step count observations were recorded from 14 participants in 56 walking trials. ... We found that many smartphone applications and wearable devices were accurate for tracking step counts. Data from smartphones were only slightly different than observed step counts, but could be higher or lower. Wearable devices differed more and 1 device reported step counts more than 20% lower than observed. (Case et al., 2/10)

Here is a selection of news coverage of other recent research:

Los Angeles Times: Cigarette Smoking Is Even More Deadly Than You Think, Study Says
The U.S. surgeon general says about 480,000 Americans die each year as a result of smoking. But a new analysis suggests the true figure may be closer to 575,000. The 21 causes of death that have been officially blamed on smoking accounted for 83% of the actual deaths among smokers who were tracked in a study published in Thursday’s edition of the New England Journal of Medicine. Additional diseases -- including breast cancer, prostate cancer, hypertensive heart disease and renal failure -- were responsible for most of the rest of the observed deaths. (Kaplan, 2/11)

USA Today: Obamacare Subsidies Slash Costs For Low-Income Consumers
Lower-income insurance shoppers can slash their share of healthcare costs to an average of $14 in co-payments when they visit their primary care doctors, and the percentage of costs they have to share for emergency room visits can be as low as 19%, according to a report out today from the Kaiser Family Foundation. As the deadline for Obamacare open enrollment nears on Sunday, the Kaiser report and a federal study out earlier this week on premium tax credits show how little many lower-income consumers would have to pay out of pocket for coverage. (O'Donnell, 2/11)

Los Angeles Times: HPV Vaccine Doesn't Make Teen Girls Engage In Risky Sexual Behavior, Study Shows
Girls who got vaccinated against HPV were more likely than their unvaccinated peers to become infected with a sexually transmitted disease, but the vaccine was definitely not to blame for their risky sexual behavior, according to a new study of more than 200,000 American teens. Even for girls who didn’t get the HPV vaccine, the risk of being diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection increased with age, the study authors found. By comparing the changes in infection rates for both groups of girls, the researchers were able to isolate the effect of the vaccine – and they found that it was nonexistent. (Kaplan, 2/9)

Reuters: Trauma Surgery May Not Be Riskier At Night
Contrary to suggestions that sleepy surgeons might make more mistakes in the middle of the night, a large study finds no differences in patient deaths after trauma surgeries done at night or during the day. Researchers who looked at U.S. death rates after so-called exploratory laparotomies, which are done in trauma victims to discover the extent of injuries, found similar mortality both day and night. (Rapaport, 2/6)

Medscape: Pediatric ACO Cuts Cost Growth, But Not Quality
Partners for Kids (PFK) in Ohio, the oldest pediatric accountable care organization (ACO) in the United States, increased value for Medicaid children in 34 counties in the state between 2008 and 2013, according to a new analysis. The gains came primarily through cost savings, and quality remained steady. (Frellick, 2/9)

JAMA: As Home Births Increase, Recent Studies Illuminate Controversies And Complexities
Three years ago, the New York Times published an article in its Fashion and Style section, “The Midwife as Status Symbol.” Trendy expectant mothers, it seemed, increasingly opted for midwives to deliver their babies at home or a birthing center rather than choose an obstetrician-attended hospital birth. The recent medical literature, however, indicates that although home births may be considered fashionable, the decision of where to give birth is not to be taken lightly. Births are inherently unpredictable events, and an unexpected complication without a planned, quick route to a hospital can have tragic consequences. (Lewis, 2/10)

Medscape: Impact Of Burnout: Clinicians Speak Out
Professional burnout has serious negative consequences not only for affected clinicians but potentially for patient care and outcomes as well, new research suggests. A mixed-methods survey of 120 clinicians who provide mental health services showed that 58% reported that burnout had a negative impact on either work quality or productivity. Other reported negative effects included decreased empathy, communication, and patient engagement. In addition, those who reported higher levels of depersonalization were significantly more likely to report that burnout affected their interaction with patients. (Brauser, 2/10)

Kaiser Health News: Study: Physicians Report Few Requests By Patients For ‘Unnecessary’ Treatments
Kaiser Health News staff writer Shefali Luthra reports: "Though medically unnecessary tests and procedures are often blamed for the nation’s high health care costs, patients’ requests for such superfluous treatments may not be what triggers them, suggests a study published today in the JAMA Oncology." (Luthra, 2/12)

The New York Times: Few Health System Studies Use Top Method, Report Says
The gold standard of scientific research, routinely used in the development of new drugs, has been neglected in studies meant to improve the American health care system, researchers reported on Thursday in the journal Science. The method, known as random assignment, compares outcomes for people randomly chosen to receive a treatment with the results for those who are left untreated. Economists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology analyzed hundreds of studies in top academic journals and found that only 18 percent of such research used this rigorous method. (Tavernise, 2/12)

The New York Times: Save The Children’s Insurance
For the past 18 years, the Children’s Health Insurance Program has provided much-needed coverage to millions of American children. And yet, despite strong bipartisan support, we are concerned that gridlock in Washington and unrelated disputes over the Affordable Care Act could prevent an extension of the program. As parents, grandparents and former legislators, we believe that partisan politics should never stand between our kids and quality health care. (Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Frist, 2/12)

Los Angeles Times: With Purchase Of EnvisionRx, Rite Aid Gets In On The Drug Intermediary Racket
John Standley, chief executive of the Rite Aid pharmacy chain, was effusive this week in describing how consumers will benefit from his company spending $2 billion to buy EnvisionRx, a firm most people likely never heard of. The deal, he said, will allow Rite Aid to expand its "health and wellness offerings" and enhance the company's ability "to provide a higher level of care to the patients and communities we serve." A great advance, in other words, for the U.S. healthcare system. Or, more accurately, yet another big business cutting itself in for a piece of your healthcare dollar with an unnecessary service that can inflate drug prices. Welcome to the world of pharmacy benefit managers. (David Lazarus, 2/12)

The New York Times' Opinionator: Breaking Up With My Meds
My psychiatrist wheels his desk chair toward the couch to show me the graphs he’s holding: One tracks my depression over the course of a year and a half. The other tracks my anxiety over the course of a year and a half. The results are based on surveys he emails me every couple of months that ask me to rate various symptoms of my anxiety and depression on a scale of one through five. It’s November 2014. In the last year and a half, I’ve given my brain every possible rating. (Diana Spechler, 2/12)

Des Moines Register: State Needs Action, Not Just Talk, On EMTs
[Gov. Terry] Branstad was fortunate to have fallen ill in the metro area, which is well served by several full-time, professionally staffed emergency medical services. In many areas of rural Iowa, ambulance services are struggling, and some are closing down. There are no paid, professional EMTs working for some EMS agencies, and many others can’t attract and retain enough volunteers. ... Branstad’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year includes $200,000 to pay for two additional EMS coordinators and a contracted, part-time medical director — but much more is needed. EMS leaders throughout the state have called for mandatory background checks for EMTs and the passage of legislation that would make EMS a mandatory public service similar to police and fire protection. (2/12)

JAMA: Law, Ethics, And Public Health In The Vaccination Debates
The measles outbreak reignited a historic controversy about the enduring values of public health, personal choice, and parental rights. ... Although vaccine policy is politically divisive, the consensus scientific view is that childhood vaccines are safe and effective, among CDC’s 10 great 20th-century achievements and a World Health Organization “best buy.” One estimate suggests that from 1924 to 2012, childhood vaccinations prevented more than 100 million cases of serious disease, with very rare adverse effects. The ethical question, then, is whether parents’ rights to raise their children justify decisions that place the community at risk. (Lawrence O. Gostin, 2/12)

The New England Journal of Medicine: Should We Practice What We Profess? Care Near The End Of Life
[S]everal studies have revealed a disconnect between the way physicians themselves wish to die and the way the patients they care for do in fact die. ... In Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences near the End of Life, an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee (which we cochaired) concluded that the U.S. health care system is poorly designed to meet the needs of patients and their families at the end of life and that major changes are needed. We need to begin by fostering patients' ability to take control of their quality of life throughout their life and to choose the care they desire near the end of life. The committee recognized that these goals could be achieved only by making major changes to the education, training, and practice of health care professionals, as well as changes in health care policy and payment systems, (Philip A. Pizzo, and David M. Walker, 2/12)

The New England Journal of Medicine: Finding The Right Words At The Right Time — High-Value Advance Care Planning
Last September, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report entitled Dying in America, in which it recommends measures to improve end-of-life care through, among other strategies, better advance care planning (ACP). Specifically, it recommends the development of “standards for clinician–patient communication and advance care planning that are measurable, actionable, and evidence based” and that these standards be tied by payers and professional societies to “reimbursement, licensing, and credentialing” ... If promoting ACP discussions were as simple as asking or paying physicians to have them, Dying in America might not have been necessary. These discussions are difficult, and for multiple reasons. (Justin Sanders, 2/12)

The New England Journal of Medicine: Breast-Density Legislation — Practical Considerations
[Connecticut] was the first to pass a law requiring physicians to offer supplemental whole-breast ultrasonography to women with dense breasts ... and mandating that insurers cover the additional screening. Since then, the number of breast-density laws in the United States has grown rapidly: as of January 2015, a total of 21 states had adopted such legislation. ... Given recent concerns raised by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force about false positives and increased patient anxiety with routine mammography screening, it would be unwise to adopt supplemental ultrasound screening without careful consideration of the risks and benefits. ... In this era of cost containment, and given the limited data supporting screening ultrasonography, a rational and cost-effective approach to screening is needed. (Priscilla J. Slanetz, Phoebe E. Freer and Robyn L. Birdwell, 2/12)