- KFF Health News Original Stories 4
- Growing Pains For State Obamacare Exchanges
- New Preventive Health Services Approved For No-Cost Coverage
- Anti-Abortion Activists See Mixed Results In Texas Legislature
- Florida To Review Proposed Obamacare Rate Hikes For First Time
- Political Cartoon: 'Ain't It The Truth?'
- Health Law 6
- White House Report Notes Financial Effects When States Don't Expand Medicaid
- States Are The Audience For White House Analysis About Medicaid Expansion
- Fla. House Appears Unlikely To Accept Medicaid Expansion In Vote Today
- HHS Head: Final Obamacare Premium Increases Will Be Lower
- Still No Plan B From White House If Supreme Court Strikes Down Obamacare Subsidies
- Status Check: How Are State-Run Health Exchanges Holding Up?
- Capitol Watch 1
- House GOP Group Offers Its Obamacare Replacement Plan, But Intraparty Divisions Persist
- State Watch 3
- Mass. Hospital Cutting Jobs After $22M Budget Gap
- Planned Parenthood Sues Arizona Over Abortion Law
- State Highlights: Calif. Senate OKs Right-To-Die Measure; Panel Begins Review of Kan. Behavioral Health System
From KFF Health News - Latest Stories:
KFF Health News Original Stories
Growing Pains For State Obamacare Exchanges
Minnesota, Colorado and Connecticut are figuring out how to continue running their health insurance marketplaces as federal start-up funding runs out. (6/4)
New Preventive Health Services Approved For No-Cost Coverage
Two new procedures have been added to the list of what should be covered by insurance without charge to consumers under provisions of the health law. (Michelle Andrews, 6/5)
Anti-Abortion Activists See Mixed Results In Texas Legislature
Legislation tightening rules for minors seeking abortions passes in Texas and is expected to become law. Another bill favored by abortion opponents fails. (Carrie Feibel, Houston Public Media, 6/5)
Florida To Review Proposed Obamacare Rate Hikes For First Time
After two years with its hands tied, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation will be able to review proposed rate increases in a market seeing double digit hikes. (Chabeli Herrera, The Miami Herald, 6/4)
Political Cartoon: 'Ain't It The Truth?'
KFF Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with "Political Cartoon: 'Ain't It The Truth?'" by Chip Bok.
Here's today's health policy haiku:
IN THE SUNSHINE STATE...
The debate goes on.
Lawmakers spar, while poor folks
don't have insurance.
- Anonymous
If you have a health policy haiku to share, please Contact Us and let us know if we can include your name. Haikus follow the format of 5-7-5 syllables. We give extra brownie points if you link back to an original story.
Opinions expressed in haikus and cartoons are solely the author's and do not reflect the opinions of KFF Health News or KFF.
Summaries Of The News:
White House Report Notes Financial Effects When States Don't Expand Medicaid
The analysis by the Council of Economic Advisers finds that hospitals in states that have not expanded the program would have $4.5 billion less uncompensated care if they accepted the health law provision to offer coverage to more low-income residents. Also, federal officials release new figures about the growth in Medicaid and a related program for children.
USA Today:
White House: Medicaid Expansion Would Save Billions, 5,200 Lives
Hospitals' non-reimbursed costs for treating patients would be $4.5 billion lower next year if Medicaid coverage was expanded to the poorest residents in states that haven't done so, according to a new White House report out Thursday. The 28 states that have already expanded Medicaid -- the polarizing healthcare program for the poor and disabled -- are on track to reduce these uncompensated care costs by almost the same amount, an estimated $4.4 billion in 2016, the White House Council of Economic Advisers said. (O'Donnell and Ungar, 6/4)
CQ Healthbeat:
Medicaid, CHIP Enrollment Continues To Climb, U.S. Says
More than 71 million people were enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program in March, which is a 21.2 percent increase since the health care law’s most significant coverage expansions took place. The growth in the early part of this year has been steady but not dramatic. Medicaid and CHIP grew by 534,845 additional people from February to March, less than a 1 percent increase, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Adams, 6/4)
Fox News:
Medicaid Enrollment Under Obamacare Soars, Raising Cost Concerns
Several states that chose to expand Medicaid eligibility under ObamaCare now are facing deadline pressure to pay for it, the result of more signups than anticipated -- and, a looming reduction in how much of the bill the federal government will cover. (6/5)
States Are The Audience For White House Analysis About Medicaid Expansion
While the new report provides individual state statistics about the benefits of expansion, politics is likely to keep many of those states from accepting the option.
Raleigh News & Observer:
White House: Expanding Medicaid Would Prevent 380 Deaths A Year In N.C.
In its latest health care push, the White House said Thursday that expanding Medicaid would prevent 380 deaths a year in North Carolina. The Obama Administration has trumpeted the benefits of Medicaid expansion in the past, but it is adding mortality to the list of consequences for non-participating states in its latest update. The report says that 5,180 deaths could be prevented annually in the 22 states that have opted not to expand the federal health care insurance program for the poor and disabled. That ranges from 20 deaths prevented annually in Wyoming and Alaska to 900 in Florida and 1,330 in Texas. (Murawski, 6/4)
The Associated Press:
White House Makes Case For Medicaid Expansion In Virginia
The Obama administration said Thursday that Virginia would have healthier and less depressed residents, as well as a better economy, if it expanded a publicly funded health insurance program for the poor. The White House Council of Economic Advisers released a report saying that states that have expanded Medicaid are better off and if Virginia were to do so, an additional 179,000 residents would have health insurance coverage and 16,000 fewer would experience symptoms of depression. (Suderman, 6/4)
Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier:
White House Says Medicaid Expansion In South Carolina Would Save Lives
Medicaid expansion under Obamacare would save nearly 200 lives in South Carolina each year, a new White House report claims. ... Gov. Nikki Haley’s office did not immediately respond to a question about the White House report on Thursday, but she has steadfastly opposed expanding Medicaid since the high court issued its 2012 ruling. Twenty-one other states are also opting out of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act. An estimated 160,000 South Carolina residents would qualify for Medicaid next year if the state expanded the health insurance program, the White House report shows. Other reports push that estimate closer to 250,000. (Sausser, 6/4)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
New White House Report Outlines Medicaid Expansion Benefits
A report released by the White House on Wednesday outlined the financial and health benefits for Missouri if the state decides to add more low-income residents to the Medicaid program. But it’s likely to have little effect, especially in the short term, on Missouri’s debate. The analysis is the latest in a series of studies that have sought to use empirical data to build a case for expanding Medicaid programs across the country. (Shapiro, 6/4)
AL.com:
Alabama Could Save 210 Lives In 2016 By Expanding Medicaid, White House Study Says
If Alabama expanded its Medicaid program, it would boost federal spending in the state by $1.24 billion in 2016 and save the lives of 210 people who otherwise would die, according to a study released by the White House Thursday. In "Missed Opportunities: The Consequences of State Decisions Not to Expand Medicaid," the report by the White House Council of Advisers draws on previously published research. It is the latest attempt by the Obama administration to persuade Alabama and 21 other holdout states to accept the deal under the Affordable Care Act to expand the federal-state health insurance program for the poor. (Kirby, 6/4)
Fla. House Appears Unlikely To Accept Medicaid Expansion In Vote Today
House members sharply questioned expansion supporters yesterday, and the speaker, who opposes the effort to provide coverage to low-income residents, said proponents have not made sufficient inroads in his caucus to get the measure through.
The Associated Press:
House Poised To Vote Down Senate's Medicaid Expansion Bill
House Republicans appeared ready to reject the Senate's plan on Medicaid, arguing Thursday that it is essentially an expansion that relies on money from the president's health care overhaul. During a tense two-and-a-half hours of questions, House Republicans agreed the Senate plan was still a government entitlement program for "able-bodied adults" that would increase the federal deficit. House Speaker Steve Crisafulli said it was a "safe assumption" that the bill would be defeated on Friday. (6/4)
Orlando Sentinel:
House Digs In Against Health Plan, Pivots To Budget
epublican House members kept up their resistance Thursday to a Senate plan to expand health coverage to the uninsured even as they moved closer to the Senate on a budget deal to avert a state government shutdown. A final vote on the health-care bill is expected Friday and will likely signal the end of the health care expansion debate, at least for this year. "Based on what we heard today I think it's a pretty safe assumption that there's not enough votes … here in the House," said House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island. ... Meanwhile, Crisafulli and his counterpart, Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, who has led the fight for the health care expansion bill, have yet to agree to top-line budget numbers, the next step in budget negotiations. (Rohrer, 6/4)
The Tampa Tribune:
House Unmoved By Senate Tweaks In Medicaid Expansion
The Florida House on Thursday began its consideration of the state Senate’s Medicaid expansion proposal, but the plan’s fate soon bubbled up like a Magic 8-ball answer: “Don’t count on it.”
House sponsor Mia Jones, a Jacksonville Democrat, was cross-examined for nearly three hours by successive members of the Republican majority, who mostly teased out what they see as the plan’s flaws.
Speaker pro tem Matt Hudson, a Naples Republican, pointed out that Medicaid already consumes nearly a third of the state’s $77 billion budget and questioned how much more it would cost under expansion. (Rosica, 6/5)
Orlando Sentinel:
White House Economists' Report Touts Medicaid Expansion Benefits Amid Florida Fight
A report released Thursday morning by White House economists claims Medicaid expansion in Florida under the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, will cover 750,000 people by next year, boost the health and living standards of recipients and save the state $790 million in health costs by offering poor people preventative coverage instead of relying on more expensive emergency room care.
This is not news to anyone who has been saying the state would save money by assisting the poor with their health care. It's just common sense. But now it's official, so who here is ready to admit they were wrong? (Rohrer, 6/4)
HHS Head: Final Obamacare Premium Increases Will Be Lower
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell says state regulators can lower the proposed increases. Insurers, in the meantime, are defending their requested premium cost increases in Minnesota, Ohio and New Hampshire. In Washington state, however, health coverage prices are dropping for some.
The Hill:
Health Chief: ObamaCare Premium Hikes Will Drop
Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Mathews Burwell argued Thursday that premium hikes floated by health insurance companies this week will likely end up being lower once they are finalized. Republicans have seized on the higher rates to attack the healthcare law. (Sullivan, 6/4)
Minnesota Public Radio:
Insurers Defend Proposals For Higher Health Premiums
Minnesota health insurers are defending the dramatic premium increases they are seeking on the grounds that rates are so low that their companies have been hurt financially. Several insurance plans are asking for average rate increases that range from 13 to 73 percent, proposals that have been denounced by Minnesota politicians. Gov. Mark Dayton called the proposed rate hikes "outrageous." (Zdechlik, 6/4)
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
5 New Important Things To Know About Obamacare In Ohio
As you learned last week, a couple of big health insurers in Ohio, Medical Mutual of Ohio and Aetna, want to raise premiums for individual policies on the Affordable Care Act by double digits in 2016. Some other companies are seeking much smaller rate hikes. You can read the reasons for the hikes here.
But there's more big Ohio news on the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, or Obamacare, if you prefer, this week. (Koff, 6/4)
The Associated Press:
2 Insurers Seek Double-Digit Premium Hikes In New Hampshire
More than 13,000 New Hampshire residents who purchased insurance under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law could see double-digit premium hikes next year, under requests made by two insurers. In preliminary filings, Maine Community Health is proposing premium increases of about 20 percent for its 10 plans, which currently enroll 4,565 people. Minuteman Insurance has requested increases ranging from 42 to 51 percent for plans that cover 8,933 people. (Ramer, 6/5)
The Associated Press:
Washington Health Insurance Prices Going Down For Some
While some states are expecting double-digit increases in individual health care insurance premiums next year, some Washington insurers on the state exchange plan to lower their rates for 2016. Most Washington residents who buy health insurance through Washington Healthplanfinder, however, should expect to pay more next year. A big chunk of those increases is tied to an exchange user fee collected to pay to run the state exchange, Washington's answer to the federal Affordable Care Act. (Blankinship, 6/4)
Still No Plan B From White House If Supreme Court Strikes Down Obamacare Subsidies
With a decision expected in just a few days from the high court, many wonder why the Obama administration has not offered a backup plan, even as HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell warns that the number of uninsured could spike if the subsidies are struck down. Delaware joins Pennsylvania, however, in moving to save the health coverage subsidies if they are ruled out.
The Wall Street Journal:
HHS’s Burwell Sees Spike In Uninsured If Supreme Court Rules Against Health Law
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said Thursday that a potential Supreme Court decision voiding the health law’s tax credits would create widespread disruption, but that federal officials were prepared to work with states to mitigate the effects. (Radnofsky and Burton, 6/4)
Fox News:
No Plan B? White House, States In Bind If Supreme Court Strikes Obamacare Subsidies
With a major Supreme Court decision on Obamacare potentially just days away, neither the Obama administration nor state governments seem to have a comprehensive plan in place in the event the court strikes down a key component of the law. (Edson, 6/4)
CQ Healthbeat:
State Officials Perplexed By White House Silence On Obamacare Contingencies
With the fate of President Barack Obama's top legislative accomplishment hanging in the balance, state officials are increasingly concerned that the administration is refusing to discuss contingency plans for insurance markets should the Supreme Court later this month strike down 2010 health care law subsidies for 6.4 million low and middle-income people. Officials in a variety of states, including many led by Republicans, say they are panicked by the uncertainty a ruling against the government in King v. Burwell could unleash. Justices are weighing whether the health care overhaul allows federal subsidies for coverage to be offered in all states, or just in those that, as the law states, are “established by the state.” Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have created their own state-run health insurance exchanges; the others that rely on the federal healthcare.gov website to enroll people could see aid disappear. (Adams, 6/4)
McClatchy:
For Obamacare Subsidies, Looming Supreme Court Ruling Creates Uncertainty
As the U.S. Supreme Court nears its decision in the King v. Burwell case, lawmakers, insurers, the Obama administration and millions of Americans are stuck in a state of uncertainty, trying to prepare for a legal hurricane that may never make it ashore. (Pugh, 6/4)
The Hill:
Second State Moves To Save ObamaCare Subsidies
A second state has announced a backup plan in case the Supreme Court rules against ObamaCare this month. Delaware's top health official said Wednesday that the state would create its own healthcare exchange to preserve the insurance subsidies at stake in the case King v. Burwell. (Ferris, 6/4)
And some see a GOP win on the subsidies as hurting the party's 2016 presidential chances --
Bloomberg:
GOP Victory On Obamacare Could Hurt Party In 2016, Report Suggests
If Republicans get their way at the Supreme Court this month and wipe out Obamacare premium subsidies for millions of Americans, the ensuing damage to their party in 2016 swing states could be significant. ... In battleground Florida — home of presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio and likely candidate Jeb Bush, as well as an open Senate seat in 2016 — 1.3 million residents would lose an average of $294 per month in health insurance tax credits and face a remarkable 359 percent premium hike. In Wisconsin — home of Gov. Scott Walker, a probable presidential candidate, and politically vulnerable Sen. Ron Johnson — 166,000 residents would lose an average of $315 in monthly tax credits and face a 252 percent premium increase. In Ohio, a critical presidential swing state and one where Sen. Rob Portman faces re-election, 161,000 people would lose a monthly average of $255 in premium tax credits and face a 190 percent premium hike. (Kapur and Knowles, 6/4)
Status Check: How Are State-Run Health Exchanges Holding Up?
KHN examines the growing pains being experienced in certain states that are running their own online insurance marketplaces. Meanwhile, the Seattle Times offers an update in action from Washington.
Kaiser Health News:
Growing Pains For State Obamacare Exchanges
The states that set up their own insurance marketplaces have nothing to lose in King V. Burwell, the big Supreme Court case that will be decided by the end of June. But that doesn’t mean those states are breathing easy. With varying degrees of difficulty, all of the state-based exchanges are struggling to figure out how to become financially self-sufficient as the spigot of federal start-up money shuts off. Here are dispatches from Minnesota, Colorado and Connecticut on this tricky transition. (6/4)
The Seattle Times:
More Employers Using State's Health-Insurance Exchange
More than 100 small businesses in Washington are covering their workers through the state’s health-insurance exchange, officials announced Thursday. And beginning in November, the Washington Healthplanfinder Business exchange will expand its reach to include employers with up to 100 workers, growing beyond its current market covering businesses with 1 to 50 workers. (Stiffler, 6/4)
House GOP Group Offers Its Obamacare Replacement Plan, But Intraparty Divisions Persist
The Republican Study Group plan would repeal the existing health law and replace its subsidies for low- and middle-income Americans with tax breaks, among other changes. However, GOP lawmakers are divided about how to proceed if the Supreme Court strikes down the health law's subsidies, which are a target of the pending challenge in King V. Burwell.
The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire:
House GOP Group Unveils Plan For Replacing Obamacare
The Republican Study Committee unveiled its blueprint for overhauling U.S. health-care if the Supreme Court cripples the federal health law in a decision expected later this month. The official plan from the group of 170 House conservatives would repeal the entire 2010 Affordable Care Act starting Jan. 1, 2016. It would then replace the ACA’s centerpiece tax credits to help low and modest income people pay premiums and its requirements that insurers sell coverage to everyone regardless of their medical history with tax deductions and new insurance plans for people with pre-existing conditions. (Radnofsky, 6/4)
The Associated Press:
House Conservatives Offer Plan To Replace Obama's Health Law
House conservatives offered their plan Thursday for repealing President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and replacing it with tax breaks and other changes. But they're divided over whether to replace that law's subsidies for lower-earning people should the Supreme Court annul them this month, underscoring potential problems ahead for the GOP. (6/4)
The Fiscal Times:
The Latest GOP Plan To Kill Obamacare
House Republicans today threw yet another proposal onto the growing stack of plans aimed at repealing and replacing the president’s healthcare law once and for all. Just days after the Obama administration announced that some 10 million people had purchased coverage on healthcare exchanges this year, the House Republican Study Committee unveiled its plan to completely gut Obamacare and replace it with its own alternative. (Ehley, 6/4)
CQ Healthbeat:
House Conservatives Rework Obamacare Replacement Plan
House conservatives unveiled their latest blueprint to replace the 2010 health care law as a Supreme Court decision that could gut the law's insurance subsidies looms. Members of the Republican Study Committee introduced legislation Thursday that would entirely repeal President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement beginning next year and replace the law’s tax credits to help people pay premiums with tax deductions for purchasing insurance. (Zanona, 6/4)
The Houston Chronicle:
Obama Snubs Cruz On Obamacare Hearing
The Obama administration snubbed Texas Republican Ted Cruz Thursday in his effort to force them to testify in the Senate about federal subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Cruz, chairman of a Judiciary subcommittee on government oversight, invited three members of the Treasury Department to testify under oath, but was told that the administration had no plans to send any of its members. (Reiley, 6/4)
In other Capitol Hill action, a revised mental health bill is reintroduced -
Politico Pro:
Murphy Revives — And Softens — Mental Health Bill
Rep. Tim Murphy has softened his mental health bill that was meant to be a bipartisan response to the school shootings in Newtown, Conn., in 2012 but was stymied in Congress by a handful of highly controversial provisions. Murphy reintroduced the revised bill on Thursday, and said in an interview he was optimistic it could move forward. But it wasn’t immediately clear that his changes went far enough to bring significant bipartisan support. (Villacorta, 6/4)
Drug Companies Trying To Press Monopoly Pricing Power Into Trade Deal
The drugs in question include costly and revolutionary drugs to treat cancer and other intractable diseases, Politico reports. In other pharmaceutical news, CMS allows drug and medical device companies access to Medicare data, and a new HPV-vaccine shows greater cancer protection.
Politico:
Big Pharma Seeks Special Trade Deal
A revolutionary class of drugs with the potential to treat intractable diseases like cancer and other killers — as well as to explode health spending globally — is at the center of the toughest negotiations of the biggest trade deal in history. The pharmaceutical industry has been pressing the Obama administration to insist that the Trans-Pacific Partnership include 12 years of monopoly pricing power for the makers of these complex and costly drugs. But critics and international relief organizations warn that the deal would lock in higher costs and mean that far fewer people in developing countries would be able to afford life-saving medication. (Norman and Behsudi, 6/5)
Politico Pro:
CMS Opens Medicare Data Door To Industry
Drug and medical device companies can now access a wealth of raw Medicare claims data, thanks to a move this week by CMS that is expected to increase industry research on the “real world” benefits, risks and economic value of medical treatments. (Karlin, 6/4)
The Chicago Tribune:
New HPV Vaccine May Offer Greater Cancer Protection
The latest generation of human papillomavirus vaccines, 9-valent, offers "potential" 11.1 percent greater protection against HPV-related cancers than does its predecessor, according to a study funded the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The projection is based on the prevalence of HPVs in 2,670 patients with cancer of the oropharynx (tonsils, tongue, throat), cervix, vulva, vagina, penis or anus. The study analyzed the DNA of the cancers to see if the new vaccine could provide greater protection. The new vaccine is marketed by Merck & Co. as Gardasil 9. It replaces Gardasil. (Mann, 6/4)
The FDA recommends approval of a drug to boost female libido --
The Washington Post:
FDA Advisory Panel Recommends Approval Of ‘Female Viagra’
The first-ever "female Viagra" came one step closer to coming to market, as a key advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration voted Thursday afternoon to recommend that the FDA approve the drug with conditions. The committee voted 18-6 to recommend that the FDA approve flibanserin, a drug designed to boost the low sexual desire of otherwise healthy women. (Schulte, 6/4)
The Associated Press:
FDA Panel Backs Female Libido Pill, Under Safety Conditions
The drug industry’s decade-spanning search for a female equivalent to Viagra took a major step forward Thursday, as government experts recommended approval for a pill to boost sexual desire in women. The first-of-a-kind endorsement came with safety reservations, however, due to drug side effects including fatigue, low blood pressure and fainting. The panel of Food and Drug Administration advisers voted 18-6 in favor of Sprout Pharmaceutical’s daily pill, flibanserin, on the condition that the company develops a plan to manage its risks. (Perrone, 6/4)
And a drug maker subpoenas a journalist in a lawsuit brought by shareholders --
The Wall Street Journal's Pharmalot:
Amgen Subpoenas A Journalist As It Fights A Shareholder Lawsuit
As an outgrowth of ongoing litigation between Amgen and some of its shareholders, the biotech has subpoenaed a journalist whose stories eight years ago revealed negative clinical trial results for a best-selling product. And the journalist, Paul Goldberg of The Cancer Letter, is fighting back by insisting that the First Amendment shields him from providing the information Amgen is seeking. (Silverman, 6/4)
VA Workers Could Lose Due Process Protections Under Proposal
A Florida Republican's attempts to reform the VA might have repercussions for other federal workers. Meanwhile, a Massachusetts congressman and former Marine Corps officer is using his own experience with the VA as a guide.
The Washington Post:
Bill Would Undermine Protections For All VA Workers
Congressional efforts to significantly cut workplace protections for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees — with clear implications for the rest of the federal workforce — are moving apace even as the largest federal union mounts a vigorous attack on the legislation. At the same time, the Obama administration is telling agency heads to rein in the use of paid administrative leave that at times has left non-working employees on the payroll for months. (Davidson, 6/5)
The Boston Globe:
In Effort To Fix Woes In VA Care, Moulton Taps Own Experience
Seth Moulton had earned two medals in Iraq for his valor. He’d witnessed brutal combat in four tours with the Marines. But none of that mattered when he showed up at the Veterans Health Administration hospital in Washington, D.C., where staff could not find records. (Meyers, 6/5)
Mass. Hospital Cutting Jobs After $22M Budget Gap
In other hospital news: A N.C. hospital closes down. In Ohio, a children's hospital gets $10 million to study genomics, which examines tailored genetic treatments for diseases. And protesters are arrested at a Chicago trauma center.
The Associated Press:
Baystate Medical Center Cutting Jobs, Hours
The parent company of Springfield's Baystate Medical Center is laying off of 24 employees, decreasing hours for 17, and leaving 45 positions unfilled to help close a $22 million budget shortfall. Baystate officials say the shortfall is the result of the government not paying enough to cover health care costs of the poor. Baystate Medical provided more than $112 million in unreimbursed care in 2014. (6/5)
North Carolina Health News:
Yadkin Valley Community Hospital Shuts Down, A Community Remains Hopeful
On Friday May 22, just past 6 p.m., Yadkin Valley Community Hospital was shut down by HMC/CAH Consolidated Inc., the Missouri-based company licensed to operate it under a lease agreement with Yadkin County that runs through July 31. Yadkin County Attorney Edward Powell said around lunchtime that Friday, county officials received a call from Drexdal Pratt, director of the state Division of Health Service Regulation. According to Powell, Pratt said DHSR employees who were at the hospital conducting a regulatory survey had learned that hospital administrators planned to cease operations the following morning. That afternoon, the county filed a temporary restraining order in superior court in Raleigh to keep the hospital open. (Sisk, 6/5)
The Columbus Dispatch:
Nationwide Children’s Hospital To Get $10 Million For Genomics Research From Nationwide Foundation
The Nationwide Foundation will give $10 million to Nationwide Children’s Hospital to advance research in the rapidly evolving field of genomics.
The gift, which is to be formally announced today, will supplement the hospital’s Nationwide Pediatric Innovation Fund, which the foundation established a year ago with an initial donation of $10 million. (Allen, 6/5)
The Chicago Sun-Times:
Trauma Center Protesters Arrested At University Of Chicago
Nine protesters were arrested at the University of Chicago Wednesday, after they barricaded themselves inside an administration building vestibule and disabled the elevators, according to a university spokesman. The coalition, which is pushing the university to build a Level 1 trauma center, held a protest that lasted about two hours, until police and fire officials arrived to restore access to the building, officials said. (Esposito, 6/4)
Planned Parenthood Sues Arizona Over Abortion Law
A provision of the law requires doctors to tell patients that drug-induced abortions are reversible, which the group says "writes junk science into law." In Texas, state lawmakers adjourn after delivering mixed results for anti-abortion advocates. Elsewhere, GOP presidential-hopeful Scott Walker's comments on abortion and ultrasounds are scrutinized, and Iowa lawmakers pass a bill that requires providers to offer women seeking abortions an ultrasound image of their fetus.
USA Today:
Planned Parenthood Sues Arizona Over New Abortion Law
Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and the Center for Reproductive Rights filed suit in federal court Thursday to block a section of a new Arizona law requiring doctors to tell patients it is possible to reverse drug-induced abortions. "The measure we are challenging today writes junk science into law," said Bryan Howard, CEO of Planned Parenthood Arizona. "It puts the health and safety of women at risk." (Bacon, 6/4)
The Associated Press:
Planned Parenthood Sues Arizona Over New Abortion Law
Arizona abortion providers asked a federal judge Thursday to block part of a recently passed law that would require doctors to tell women they can reverse the effects of a drug-induced abortion. Planned Parenthood and Star Family Planning filed the complaint in federal court, arguing the new law violates abortion providers' First Amendment rights by forcing them to repeat a state-mandated message against their medical judgment. (Velzer and Christie, 6/5)
Kaiser Health News:
Anti-Abortion Activists See Mixed Results In Texas Legislature
If you’re keeping score, anti-abortion groups were 1 for 2 during this year’s legislative session in Texas, which ended Monday. One major bill they wanted failed, but another passed. The new law will tighten rules for girls under 18 who are asking a judge to grant an abortion — a small but politically significant fraction of those who seek the procedure. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has until June 21 to veto the legislation, but observers say that’s highly unlikely given his longstanding opposition to abortion. (Feibel, 6/5)
The Washington Post's Fact Checker:
Walker’s Claim That A Controversial Abortion Law Allows A Choice Of Ultrasounds
Gov. Scott Walker, who plans to seek the GOP presidential nomination, caught some flak recently when he described ultrasound photographs of fetuses as a “cool thing out there.” He made that remark as part of a defense of signing a 2013 law that requires women considering an abortion to receive an ultrasound before undergoing the procedure. (We won’t get into the debate, but anti-abortion advocates argue that an ultrasound might convince a woman not to have an abortion—a theory disputed by others.) In a recent New Hampshire appearance, Walker was challenged by a voter who asked why he thought it was cool to have a transvaginal ultrasound. (Kessler, 6/5)
The Des Moines Register:
Legislators Pass Sonogram Language For Abortions
Any Iowa woman wanting an abortion would have to be offered the chance to look at an ultrasound of the fetus before undergoing the procedure, under a bill that passed both houses of the Legislature Wednesday evening. Women also would have to be offered information about abortion alternatives, including adoption. Abortion opponents hailed the bill as a major achievement, though the state's main abortion provider said it would have little practical effect. (Leys, 6/4)
News outlets report on health issues from California, Kansas, Missouri, Oregon, Arizona, Florida, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts.
The Associated Press:
California Lawmakers Advance Right-To-Die Legislation
California lawmakers advanced a right-to-die bill Thursday, giving hope to those who want the nation's most populous state to allow terminally ill patients to end their lives under doctor's care. The state Senate passed the measure on a 23 to 14 vote ahead of a legislative deadline. (6/4)
The Sacramento Bee:
California Senate Approves Assisted Death Law
In an emotional vote on Thursday, the California Senate advanced a controversial proposal allowing terminally ill people to seek life-ending medication. Modeled on a law first enacted in Oregon in 1997, Senate Bill 128 would permit doctors to provide lethal drugs to patients with less than six months to live. The measure passed 23-14, over passionate objections from Republicans who argued it devalues life. (Koseff, 6/4)
The Kansas Health Institute:
Committee Starts Review Of State's Behavioral Health System
A committee charged with critiquing the state’s behavioral health system on Thursday met for a four-hour discussion on needed improvements. “We need to be looking at providing intensive treatment to people who need it and when they need it,” said Wes Cole, a member of the Adult Continuum of Care Committee who also is chairman of the Governor’s Behavioral Health Services Planning Council. “We need to keep moving forward.” After breaking into small groups, many of the committee’s 30 members raised concerns about reports of the state-run hospitals either not admitting people known to be in mental health crisis situations or sending them home before they’re stable. (Ranney, 6/4)
The Oregonian:
Missouri-Based Firm Pays More Than $80 Million For Piece Of Oregon's Medicaid Program
A Fortune 500 company is prepared to pay as much as $130 million to buy one of the larger health care companies serving the Oregon Health Plan. Critics are asking the state to block the sale. They say care will suffer as Missouri-based Centene pulls greater profits from the local company. Some lawmakers are also crying foul, saying reforms were intended to make sure that the state and federally funded Oregon Health Plan is managed by Oregonians, not far-off firms. (Budnick, 6/4)
The Associated Press:
California Takes First Step To Regulate Medical Marijuana
California took the first step Thursday to regulate its nearly 20-year-old medical marijuana industry, one that lawmakers said currently resembles something out of the "wild, wild West." Lawmakers in the Senate and Assembly passed separate bills attempting to set up state regulations that will pass muster with the federal Department of Justice. The bills were among dozens of pieces of legislation advancing through the Legislature Thursday as lawmakers faced a Friday deadline to move bills out of their house of origin. (Thompson, 6/5)
The Arizona Republic:
Consumers Can Search Health-Care Quality, Cost Online
Which Arizona hospital ranks among the best for uncomplicated deliveries or has the lowest Caesarean-section rates? In which hospital are patients more likely to die after a heart attack, or get an infection after surgery? How does your hospital's charges for knee or hip-replacement surgery compare with others? Consumers can find answers to these questions and more using an online hospital-comparison tool launched by the Arizona Department of Health Services last year. The AZ Hospital Compare database was updated this week with the most recent, 2012 inpatient data collected from all 108 licensed Arizona hospitals. (Lee, 6/4)
The Associated Press:
Feds: Florida Doctor Gave Cancer Patients Unapproved Drugs
A Florida oncologist was charged Thursday with giving cancer patients medications, included chemotherapy drugs, from other countries that were not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration. Federal health officials said patients at East Lake Oncology in Tampa were unaware that for the past six years Dr. Diana Anda Norbergs and her staff were giving them cheaper, misbranded drugs that weren't registered or approved for use in the United States. She then billed the taxpayer-funded Medicare program and private insurance companies for the illegal prescriptions, claiming that she was actually using the FDA-approved versions. Norbergs pocketed the extra money, according to the indictment first reported by The Associated Press. (Kennedy, 6/4)
The Denver Post:
Coloradans In Poverty Less Likely To Survive Cancer, Study Says
Coloradans living in poverty were less likely to survive cancer, the state health department reported Thursday. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's report, "Cancer and Poverty: Colorado 2001-12," shows low-income Coloradans were less likely to get screened for cancer or be diagnosed at an early stage when most cancers are treatable. (Draper, 6/4)
The Chicago Tribune:
Medical Practice Embraces Patients With Limited English-Language Skills
The Illinois Administrative Code requires all health facilities to "ensure access to health care information and services for limited-English-speaking or non-English-speaking residents" by adopting and reviewing annually a policy that provides "language assistance services" and "to the extent possible as determined by the facility" provides for interpreters available in person or by phone 24 hours a day. The code says the facility must annually give the Department of Public Health a copy of its policy and include a description of the "facility's efforts to ensure adequate and speedy communication" between ESL patients and staff. The facility must also advise patients and employees of availability of interpreters and language services, identify and record a patient's primary language, and develop community liaison groups to ensure the adequacy of the services, among other requirements. Melaney Arnold, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Public Health, was unable to immediately provide data on how many health facilities in the state may have recently been found compliant or noncompliant with the requirement for language services. (Kadioglu, 6/4)
NPR:
Gloucester, Mass., Police Program Provides Treatment For Drug Users
Drug addicts have begun turning themselves into the police department in Gloucester, Mass., after the police chief announced an amnesty program. Addicts who turn themselves in and hand over their drugs will go right into treatment, without criminal charges. (Becker, 6/4)
The Baltimore Sun:
Baltimore Officials Back Off Plan To Charge Smokers More For Health Insurance
Baltimore officials say they are backing off a plan to charge city employees who smoke more for their health insurance after union officials objected. Howard Libit, a spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, said the administration agrees with the union's position that such a surcharge would need to be negotiated through the collective bargaining process. (Broadwater, 6/4)
Research Roundup: Medicare Benefits And Glaucoma; Weekend Hospital Discharges; Insurers' Health
Each week, KHN compiles a selection of recently released health policy studies and briefs.
JAMA Ophthalmology:
Cost-Related Medication Nonadherence And Cost-Saving Behaviors Among Patients With Glaucoma Before And After The Implementation Of Medicare Part D
[Researchers sought to] determine whether the implementation of the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit [in 2006] affected rates of cost-related nonadherence and cost-reduction strategies in Medicare beneficiaries with and without glaucoma ... using 2004 to 2009 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data. ... the number of Medicare beneficiaries with glaucoma who reported taking smaller doses and skipping doses owing to cost dropped from 9.4% and 8.2% to 2.7% ... and 2.8%, respectively .... However, reports of failure to obtain prescriptions owing to cost did not improve in the same period .... This suggests that efforts to improve cost-related nonadherence should focus both on financial hardship and medical therapy prioritization. (Blumberg et al., 6/4)
JAMA Internal Medicine:
Effects Of A Medical Home And Shared Savings Intervention On Quality And Utilization Of Care
The northeast region of the Pennsylvania Chronic Care Initiative began in October 2009, included 2 commercial health plans and 27 volunteering small primary care practice sites, and was designed to run for 36 months. ... We analyzed medical claims for 17 363 patients attributed to 27 pilot and 29 comparison practices .... All pilot practices received recognition as medical homes during the intervention. By intervention year 3, relative to comparison practices, pilot practices had statistically significantly better performance on 4 process measures of diabetes care and breast cancer screening; lower rates of all-cause hospitalization ... lower rates of all-cause emergency department visits ... lower rates of ambulatory care–sensitive emergency department visits ... lower rates of ambulatory visits to specialists ... and higher rates of ambulatory primary care visits. (Friedberg, 6/1)
JAMA Surgery:
Association Between Weekend Discharge And Hospital Readmission Rates Following Major Surgery
Although evidence suggests worse outcomes for patients admitted to the hospital on a weekend, to our knowledge, no previous studies have investigated the effects of weekend discharge. ... [Researchers reviewed] discharge abstracts from the California Office of State Health Planning and Development from 2012 identifying all patients who underwent abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair, colectomy, total hip arthroplasty, and pancreatectomy. ... Hospital readmission rates were similar for those discharged on a weekend vs weekday after AAA repair (8.8% vs 9.3%) and pancreatectomy (17.5% vs 15.9%). However, weekend discharge was associated with a lower 30-day readmission rate for patients undergoing colectomy (12.1% vs 14.1%) and hip replacement (6.9% vs 7.7%). ... Similar results were seen for 90-day readmissions. (Cloyd, 6/3)
Health Affairs blog:
The Post-Launch Problem: The Affordable Care Act’s Persistently High Administrative Costs
The roughly $6 billion in exchange start-up costs pale in comparison to the ongoing insurance overhead that the ACA has added to our health care system — more than a quarter of a trillion dollars through 2022. We calculated these new overhead costs from the official National Health Expenditure Projections for 2012-2022 .... Most of this soaring private insurance overhead is attributable to rising enrollment in private plans which carry high costs for administration and profits. The rest reflects the costs of running the exchanges .... Government programs—primarily Medicaid—account for the remaining $101.4 billion increase in overhead. But even the added dollars to administer Medicaid will flow mostly to private Medicaid HMOs, which will account for 59 percent of total Medicaid administrative costs in 2022. (Himmelstein and Woolhandler, 5/27)
The Kaiser Family Foundation:
How Have Insurers Fared Under The Affordable Care Act?
[W]e analyzed 2014 financial performance for insurers in the individual market (using data compiled by Mark Farrah Associates). We examined the trend in the medical loss ratio (MLR) .... For 2014, financial results depend heavily on how much insurers will receive in reinsurance payments under the ACA, which will not be known until June 30, 2015. Insurers submit requests for reinsurance payments to the federal government based on expenses for high-cost patients. ... We estimate that the MLR in 2014 for the individual market ... will range from 81% to 87%. The high end of the range assumes that reinsurance payments to insurers will total (as a share of claims) what carriers with available data reported to state insurance departments. The low end of the range assumes that the full estimated amount of $9.7 billion will be paid out. This would suggest insurers overall had roughly comparable financial performance as in recent years. (Levitt, Claxton and Cox, 6/1)
Urban Institute/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation:
Employer-Sponsored Insurance Continues To Remain Stable Under The ACA: Findings From June 2013 Through March 2015
[B]etween 2000 and 2012, [employer-sponsored insurance] ESI coverage rates for nonelderly workers (ages 18 to 64) fell 11 percent .... Among workers in firms with fewer than 50 employees, coverage rates fell 17 percent, from 61.1 percent to 52.4 percent. ... The subsidies provided by the ACA, along with the availability of Medicaid for most adults up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) in states that expanded Medicaid, may lead to changes in employer decisions to offer coverage and employee decisions to take up those offers. If ESI erodes ... the government cost of the ACA will increase .... Though it is too soon to know the long-term course of ESI, we are now 18 months into the implementation of the ACA. ... Similar to [earlier] findings published in Health Affairs, we continue to find no change in ESI offer rates, take-up rates, or overall ESI coverage under the ACA. (Blavin, Shartzer, Long and Holahan, 6/3)
Health Affairs Policy Brief:
The FDA's Sentinel Initiative
Until recently ... the FDA had primarily relied on passive collection of adverse events obtained from manufacturers or through voluntary physician and consumer reporting to track emerging safety issues after drugs received FDA approval. ... the FDA's Sentinel Initiative ... aims to use big data and broad networks to proactively and systematically detect and respond to emerging risks associated with prescription medicines. ... The Sentinel network consists primarily of eighteen organizations that include some of the nation's largest health insurers ... and various disease registries. ... the FDA says that it has access to selected data from eighty-eight hospitals and other inpatient facilities. ... Sentinel has not yet become a tool for the rapid assessment of potential drug safety problems .... That's in large part because of persistent technical and methodological challenges. (Findlay, 6/4)
The Urban Institute:
The Challenge Of Financing Long-Term Care
Although insurance is ... essential to assuring access and financial protection for long-term care ... insurance protection is lacking. Private health insurance doesn’t cover long-term care, and few Americans have private long-term care insurance, which typically costs a lot, offers limited value, and is subject to premium increases that can cause purchasers to lose coverage they have paid into for years. ... Medicare—which older people and some younger people with disabilities rely on for health insurance—does not cover long-term care. The federal-state Medicaid program does serve as a valuable last resort for people who need long-term care, but its protections (especially for care at home) vary considerably from state to state and become available only when people are, or have become, impoverished .... As a result, families bear enormous responsibility for caregiving. (Feder, 6/3)
The Kaiser Family Foundation:
Medicare’s Income-Related Premiums: A Data Note
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA)—a new law to repeal and replace Medicare’s ... formula for physician payments—includes a provision to increase Medicare premiums for some higher-income beneficiaries .... This data note describes current requirements with respect to Medicare’s Part B and Part D income-related premiums, including the number and share of Medicare beneficiaries who are estimated to pay these premiums in 2015, the amount they pay, and the revenues raised from these premiums, based on data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of the Actuary. ... Based on our estimates, the recently enacted provisions ... would affect around 2 percent of beneficiaries if it were implemented this year. (Cubanski and Neuman, 6/3)
Here is a selection of news coverage of other recent research:
JAMA:
Novel Programs And Discoveries Aim To Combat Antibiotic Resistance
The perception that the commercial potential of antibiotics is much lower than that of drugs used to treat conditions such as cancer, heart disease, or mental illness has historically stalled investments and advances in novel antibiotic development. However, the annual effect of antibiotic-resistant infections on the US economy may be as high as $20 billion in excess direct health care costs and as much as $35 billion in lost productivity from hospitalizations and sick days. (Hampton, 6/3)
Reuters:
U.S. Policies To Encourage Organ Donation Largely Ineffective
State policies meant to encourage people throughout the U.S. to donate organs over the past few decades have been largely ineffective, a new study suggests. Creating a state fund to promote organ donations was the only policy linked to any increase in transplants, the researchers reported June 1 in JAMA Internal Medicine. (Seaman, 6/2)
Medscape:
Return Visits To ED Twice As Frequent As Thought
Nearly 1 in 12 patients who visited an emergency department (ED) in six states returned to an acute care setting within 3 days, and 30 days after that first emergency visit, the revisit rate to acute care settings rose to nearly 1 in 5 patients, according to a longitudinal and population-based study. This return rate is twice as frequent as was previously reported. Reena Duseja, MD, from the Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, and coauthors report their findings in an article published in the June 2 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. (Henderson, 6/2)
Reuters:
Early Diabetes Detection Tied To Fewer Heart Problems
Earlier screening, diagnosis and treatment of type 2 diabetes may decrease the risk of cardiovascular problems, hint results from a computer model. The timing of the diagnosis and the start of treatment appeared more important than the actual intensity of treatment, the researchers reported online May 18 in Diabetes Care. (Doyle, 6/2)
The New York Times:
Teenagers Seek Health Information Online, But Don’t Always Trust It
Four out of five teenagers turn to the Internet for health information, but they don’t always put much stock in what they find, according to a national survey released on Tuesday. The source they really trust with questions about health? Surprise: their parents. The new report, “Teens, Health and Technology,” is an expansive look at how teenagers use technology to learn about health by researchers at Northwestern University. The findings are based on a nationally representative sample of 1,156 adolescents aged 13 to 18. (Hoffman, 6/2)
Viewpoints: Doctors And Electronic Health Records; Consequences Of Refusing Medicaid
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
The Washington Post:
Why Doctors Quit, Chapter 2
I rarely do follow-up columns. I’m averaging one every 10 years. And while my last such exercise resulted in a written apology from the White House (for accusing me of making up facts over its removal of Churchill’s bust), today’s is not a complaint. It’s merely a recognition that the huge response elicited by last week’s column, “Why doctors quit ,” warrants both rebuttal and clarification. (Charles Krauthammer, 6/4)
Tampa Bay Times:
Accepting Medicaid Expansion Money Comes Down To 12 House Votes
Perhaps a dozen votes, give or take. That is roughly how many more votes are needed Friday for the Florida House to accept Medicaid expansion money to help provide health coverage for hundreds of thousands of low-income Floridians. Surely among 81 House Republicans there are 12 more who are willing to rise above partisan politics and vote for a conservative plan that is financially and morally responsible. (6/4)
The Tampa Tribune:
A Fair Alternative To Medicaid
The Florida House is scheduled to vote today on a Senate plan to expand health insurance opportunities for the working poor, and all indications are Republican House members will meekly go along with their leadership’s unbending and politically driven opposition to the measure. And that’s shameful. We hope members have the spine to do what’s best for the people of Florida. (6/5)
Houston Chronicle:
Refusing Medicaid Expansion Has Consequences
In Florida they're at least fighting about it. Expanding Medicaid, that is. Not so in Texas. Held hostage by lawmakers afflicted with extreme ideological sclerosis when it comes to anything related to the federal Affordable Care Act, the issue didn't even come up in the just-concluded legislative session. ... What's outrageous about the mulishness of Texas lawmakers is that taxpayers pay twice to provide health care to the poor, once in federal taxes that never return to the state after they're bundled off to Washington and yet again through property taxes. Other states, including those with Republican leadership, have managed to customize Medicaid expansion, however grudgingly. (6/4)
Jackson (Miss.) Free Press:
Refusing Medicaid: 'Far-Reaching Consequences'
What a new report says is that Mississippians would benefit greatly from the expansion of Medicaid. But what the report really means is that Mississippians—and the rest of the country—are suffering great harm by the state's refusal to expand Medicaid. ... In Mississippi, expanding Medicaid would provide an additional 139,000 people with insurance, the lack of which is a major barrier to people going to the doctor. Increasing health-care access would also mean 19,800 fewer people would struggle with paying their bills due to high medical costs. The overall physical and mental health of people living in Mississippi would also improve, the report finds. (R.L. Nave and Zachary Oren Smith, 6/4)
Bloomberg:
Obamacare's Unlikely Supporters: Utah Cops
Police chiefs and sheriffs who run local jails in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid are coming out in favor of Obamacare on the grounds that it could help drug addicts and people with mental illness get help before they commit crimes. ... Jim Winder, the elected sheriff of Salt Lake County, says 15 percent to 18 percent of the 40,000 people booked each year into the county jail—Utah’s largest—are severely mentally ill, about the same as the national rate. He spends $3 million to $5 million a year on psychotropic medication, out of a budget just shy of $90 million. Even if inmates have private insurance, the jail picks up the tab for them while they’re locked up. It often takes days or weeks to stabilize them, and many are arrested again soon after release. “I’ve got people who we’re booking 150 times a year,” says Winder, a Democrat serving his third term. “If people think for a moment we’re not paying for this, they are sadly mistaken.” (John Tozzi, 6/5)
The Nashville Tennessean:
Let’s Advance Health Equity Across Nashville
Health and illness are unsettlingly unfair. It is bad enough when a grim diagnosis or an untimely death strikes a family member or friend at random. The unfairness is worse when disease and early death are not random, but predictable and preventable.
One of the strongest predictors of an early death, sadly, is where you live. In many ways, your ZIP code impacts your health more profoundly than your genetic code. Nashville is not unique in this, but our data are striking: Some neighborhoods in Davidson County have premature death rates four to six times higher than others. Is this acceptable? (Nashville Public Health Department Director William S. Paul, 6/4)
The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch:
Health-Care Workers Need Outlet For Stress
As society begins to better understand the toll taken by psychological and emotional stress — on military warriors, police and firefighters, crime victims and others — it makes sense to extend that understanding to those who work in hospitals.
Hospital-based nurses, social workers, clergy members and doctors see some of the greatest pain and tragedy that life can offer. Even as they are shaken and heartbroken by what they see and know, their job is to not only to perform skilled work competently, but to be bastions of comfort and calm for the patients and loved ones in the midst of crisis. (6/5)
Beaumont Enterprise:
Beaumont Hospitals Need Funding Boost To Help Care For The Poor
The Beaumont City Council has faced some tough calls over the years, but its upcoming decision about helping local hospitals is not one of them. Acting on a new law passed by the Legislature, the council should create a Municipal Local Provider Participation Fund that could deliver about $20 million in federal aid to the hospitals in the current year. (6/4)
The Wall Street Journal:
Cholera’s Fresh Attack In Haiti
The fight against the cholera epidemic in Haiti, by far the world’s worst in recent years, has been a hard slog. Still, the number of new cases had fallen precipitously, to just 1,000 per month for much of 2014 from an average in 2011 of nearly 30,000 per month. But a recent spike — to about 1,000 new cases per week — is a grim reminder of how much is left to do to eradicate an illness that was virtually unknown in Haiti until U.N. peacekeepers from Nepal introduced it in 2010. (6/4)
The New England Journal of Medicine:
The 21st Century Cures Act — Will It Take Us Back In Time?
In May 2015, the 21st Century Cures Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, with the goal of promoting the development and speeding the approval of new drugs and devices. ... An underlying premise of the bill is the need to accelerate approval for new products, but this process is already quite efficient. A third of new drugs are currently approved on the basis of a single pivotal trial; the median size for all pivotal trials is just 760 patients. More than two thirds of new drugs are approved on the basis of studies lasting 6 months or less — a potential problem for medications designed to be taken for a lifetime. Once the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) starts its review, it approves new medications about as quickly as any regulatory agency in the world. (Jerry Avorn and Aaron S. Kesselheim, 6/3)
JAMA:
Quality Indicators For Physical And Behavioral Health Care Integration
Earlier this year, Secretary Sylvia Burwell of the US Department of Health and Human Services announced measurable goals and a timeline to move the US health care system “toward paying providers based on the quality, rather than the quantity of care they give patients.” In April, Congress passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (HR 2) to repeal the sustainable growth rate formula and develop options for alternative, value-based payment models for Medicare. These initiatives are in pursuit of the “triple aim” of better health care quality, improved population health, and more affordable health care. Achieving these goals will require a robust set of quality metrics that are especially focused on high-need/high-cost patient populations. The interface of behavioral (including mental health and substance use conditions) and general health care is an especially promising area for leveraging change of the status quo. (Matthew L. Goldman, Brigitta Spaeth-Rublee and Harold Alan Pincus, 6/4)