The Associated Press: More Than 540k Sign Up For Health Overhaul Plans
The Obama administration says more than 543,000 people signed up for coverage last week under the president's health care law, as the 2016 enrollment season got underway. Premiums are going up for many plans, and consumers are being urged to shop around. The health care law offers subsidized private insurance for those who don't have coverage through their jobs. The Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday that returning customers accounted for about two-thirds of those picking a plan for next year. (11/12)

USA Today: Feds Say Health Site's First Week Was A 'Solid Start'
More than a half million people selected health plans during the first week of open enrollment on the federal insurance site HealthCare.gov, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said Thursday. HealthCare.gov is used by consumers in 38 states that didn't establish their own insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. (O'Donnell, 11/12)

The Washington Post: HealthCare.gov Sign-Ups Ahead Of Last Year — But With Fewer Newcomers
Compared with a year ago, more Americans signed up for health plans during the opening week of the enrollment season on the federal insurance exchange, although the number of first-time customers lagged. About 553,000 consumers chose insurance plans through HealthCare.gov between Nov. 1 and Nov. 7, according to federal figures. ... The smaller share of newcomers is consistent with recent predictions by federal health officials and outside health-policy experts that attracting additional uninsured Americans to HealthCare.gov would prove more difficult. (Goldstein, 11/12)

The New York Times: Senate Rules Entangle Bid To Repeal Health Care Law
Efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act have become snarled in the complex rules of the Senate, raising questions about whether the Republican-controlled Congress can fulfill its pledge to send a repeal measure to President Obama. Repealing the law, passed five and a half years ago, is a goal cherished by Republican politicians, including those running for president, and by elements of the party’s base. Mr. Obama has repeatedly vowed to use his veto power if necessary to preserve the health care law, the biggest change in domestic social policy in a generation. (Pear, 11/12)

Elsewhere, media outlets report on insurance enrollment news from Ohio and Florida -

Cleveland Plain Dealer: Obamacare In Ohio: Racial Disparity Remains Despite Gains In Coverage, Study Says
Ohio's rate of uninsured residents has dropped significantly under the Affordable Care Act, but the law is still not reaching many people of color, according to a new study. The uninsured rate among blacks in Ohio is nearly 33 percent higher than it is for whites; it is nearly 57 percent higher for Hispanics than for whites, according to a study by WalletHub, a consumer information company. (Ross, 11/12)

The Orlando Sentinel: New ACA Enrollment Center Opens On I-Drive
A new center on International Drive is hoping to help more Central Floridians sign up for insurance coverage during the third enrollment period of the Affordable Care Act. SRA International, a federal contractor, has opened the Orlando Enrollment Assistance Center at 5628 International Drive. Trained enrollment specialists will help individuals and families review their coverage options and find out if they quality for financial assistance. (Miller, 11/12)

Kaiser Health News: Study Finds Marketplace Silver Plans Offer Poor Access To HIV Drugs
In most states, consumers with HIV or AIDS who buy silver-level plans on the insurance marketplaces find limited coverage of common drug regimens they may need and high out-of-pocket costs, according to a new analysis. In 31 states and the District of Columbia, silver-level plans cover fewer than seven of the 10 most common drug treatment options or charge consumers more than $200 a month in cost sharing, according to an analysis of 2015 silver plans by consultant group Avalere Health. Only 16 percent of those marketplace plans cover all 10 of the top HIV/AIDS drug regimens and charge less than $100 a month. (Andrews, 11/13)

The Connecticut Mirror: CT’s Insurance Co-Op Sticking Around, But Still A Work In Progress
Because it has no plans to shut down and is marketing health plans for 2016, Connecticut’s health insurance “CO-OP,” HealthyCT, is already more successful than more than half of its counterparts across the country. But the Wallingford company still has a ways to go to achieve long-term sustainability. (Levin Becker, 11/13)

The Associated Press: Alabama Governor Says He Is 'Looking' At Medicaid Expansion
The conservative Republican governor of Alabama, a Deep South state where "Obamacare" is often reviled, said Thursday that his administration is mulling an expansion of the state's Medicaid program under the federal health care law. Gov. Robert Bentley, a dermatologist turned governor, emphasized that he was in the exploratory stages— and said funding the state's share of costs could be a major stumbling block — but his comments were the strongest to date about the possible acceptance of expansion dollars in the deeply red, high-poverty state. (Chandler, 11/12)

AL.com: Gov. Bentley On Expanding Medicaid: 'We Are Looking At That. We Have Not Made A Final Decision'
In perhaps his most direct comments to date, Gov. Robert Bentley said Thursday his administration is looking at expanding Medicaid, the health care program that serves one million Alabamians. "We are looking at that (Medicaid expansion). We have not made a final decision on that yet, exactly on how that will work," said Bentley in response to a question from an audience of lawyers he addressed this morning in Montgomery. (Dean, 11/12)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Health Clinics Fear Loss Of Kynect
Just a few years ago, Louisville's Family Health Centers were on the brink of closing clinics and laying off staff. ... Then the Affordable Care Act kicked in. Enrollment in health plans surged through kynect, Kentucky's award-winning health insurance exchange created under the federal law also known as Obamacare. Now Family Health Centers' budget is in the black, with more than 80 percent of patients enrolled in health coverage and able to pay for care. ... health advocates are alarmed that changes proposed by Gov.-elect Matt Bevin threaten to undermine major public health advances under the health law in a state with abysmally poor health rankings. (Yetter, 11/11)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Medicaid And Kynect: Facts As Bevin Eyes Cuts
Could Gov.-elect Matt Bevin end the Medicaid expansion in Kentucky under the Affordable Care Act that has added about 400,000 people to the state's Medicaid plan? Yes. Gov. Steve Beshear authorized the federal Medicaid expansion through an executive order and Bevin, as governor, could terminate it through his own executive order after he becomes governor Dec. 8. But Bevin has said he has no plans to do that and instead will ask the federal government for a waiver that would allow Kentucky to create its own Medicaid plan with more cost-sharing by consumers. (Yetter, 11/12)

And in New Mexico --

The Santa Fe New Mexican: Report: More Insured Means Less Costs For Indigent Care
For years, the No. 1 issue for hospital executives in New Mexico — whether talking with state lawmakers or county commissioners — was the cost of providing care to patients who showed up at the emergency room without insurance. Unlike other health care providers, hospitals are required under federal law to provide emergency care to patients without regard for their ability to pay. But a new report by the Legislative Finance Committee shows that for the first time, hospitals are spending less money on indigent care because more and more patients have some type of private insurance or government-issued Medicaid coverage. (Krasnow, 11/12)

Reuters: Consumer Coalition Forms To Fight U.S. Health Insurance Mergers
Two U.S. consumer groups announced the formation of a coalition with New York labor unions on Thursday to press antitrust regulators to oppose big insurance mergers that would cut the number of nationwide for-profit health insurers from five to three. The Coalition to Preserve Patient Choice, made up of the Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Action and others, was formed because of concern about Anthem Inc's purchase of Cigna Corp for $47 billion and Aetna Inc's decision to buy Humana Inc for $37 billion, the group said in a statement. (11/12)

The Connecticut Mirror: AMA Asks Justice Department To Block Aetna-Humana, Anthem-Cigna Mergers
Saying it would end competition in key markets and erode patient care, the American Medical Association has asked the Justice Department to quash the proposed mergers between insurance giants Aetna and Humana and Anthem and Cigna. (Radelat, 11/12)

The Associated Press: Rite Aid Adds Prescription Analysis To Genetic Test Lineup
Rite Aid is giving patients a chance to peek over their doctor's shoulder with genetic tests that help determine the effectiveness of some prescriptions. The drugstore chain said Thursday that it is selling Harmonyx testing kits at nearly all of its stores. The kits cost between $49 and $89 without a prescription, and customers can use them to learn more about the effectiveness of medicines for cardiac conditions, cholesterol and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. (Murphy, 11/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Highly Valued Startup Zenefits Runs Into Turbulence
Human-resources startup Zenefits Inc. is falling short of its aggressive revenue targets and has started to curb expenses, making it the latest highly valued venture-backed company struggling to meet investor expectations. Since late summer, Zenefits has frozen hiring in certain departments as sales teams have repeatedly missed targets, according to people familiar with the matter. It has cut the pay of some employees and dozens of people, including at least eight executives, have left or been fired, the people said. (Winkler, 11/12)

CNBC: Health Care Way Behind On Data Security, Cyber Firm Says
Despite high-profile hack attacks, like the Anthem breach in which cybercriminals exposed 80 million medical records, the health-care industry continues to shortchange Americans when it comes to protecting their data. That's the key takeaway from a new cybersecurity report from Forrester. (Taylor, 11/12)

The Associated Press: Rings And Pacifiers: Health Gadgets Get Sophisticated
After the smartphone and fitness bracelet, here comes the smart ring. And the smart pacifier, and smart rollator. "Wellness" computers that monitor your pulse, temperature and other health indicators are becoming increasingly sophisticated and varied to cover every aspect — and age — of human life. Some products, like the ring by Finnish startup Ouraring, are specialized in optimizing physical training by tracking sleep patterns and physical activity. Others are looking to fit into health care services, such as in developed countries that are struggling to cope with aging populations. (Huuhtanen, 11/12)

Marketplace: The Promise And Problems Of Drug-Finding Apps
Nearly half of all employees who get insurance through work now face deductibles of $1,000 or more. That means more and more of us pay for prescription drugs out of our own pockets. (Gorenstein, 11/12)

Kaiser Health News: Depressed? Look For Help From A Human, Not A Computer
Almost 8 percent of Americans 12 and older dealt with depression at some point between 2009 and 2012. With that many of us feeling blue, wouldn’t it be nice if we could simply hop on the computer in our pajamas, without any of the stigma of asking for help, and find real relief? Online programs to fight depression are already commercially available, and while they sound efficient and cost-saving, a study out of the U.K. reports that they’re not effective, primarily because depressed patients aren’t likely to engage with them or stick with them. (Shallcross, 11/12)

The New York Times: U.S. Smoking Rate Declines, But Poor Remain At Higher Risk
Smoking, the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, continued to decline last year, federal health authorities reported Thursday, with the share of American adults who smoke dropping to 16.8 percent, down from 17.8 percent in 2013. Smoking has been one of the brightest public health successes of recent history. Nearly half of all Americans smoked in the 1960s, but a broad push against the habit, starting with the surgeon general’s warning in 1964, helped bring rates down. The rate has dropped by about a fifth since 2005, when it was 21 percent. (Tavernise, 11/12)

Los Angeles Times: Adult Cigarette Smoking Reaches New Low -- But Stays Stubbornly High Among Some Groups
In 1965, 42.4% of American adults smoked, and though the habit's prevalence has declined steadily, reducing the ranks of the addicted has become an increasingly uphill battle. The CDC report underscores that the smoking habit has been hardest to extinguish among several categories of American adults -- most notably, the poor. Only 12.9% of adults who have private health insurance continue to smoke cigarettes, but 29.1% of those on Medicaid, the federally funded insurance program for low-income Americans, were current smokers in 2014, the report said. Current smokers make up 27.9% of the uninsured. (Healy, 11/12)

McClatchy: Feds Move To Make Public Housing A Tobacco Smoke-Free Zone
An Obama administration plan to ban indoor smoking at public housing properties has drawn praise from health experts and concern from others who fear violations of the policy would cause some low-income tenants to lose their homes. A rule proposed Thursday by the Department of Housing and Urban Development would require the nation’s 3,100 public housing agencies to ban lit tobacco products – including cigarettes, cigars and pipes – in all homes, indoor common areas and administrative offices in their developments. (Pugh, 11/12)

The Washington Post: HUD Proposes Smoking Ban In Public Housing, Citing Dangers Of Secondhand Smoke
In its proposed rule, announced Thursday, the Department of Housing and Urban Development would require more than 3,100 public housing agencies to go smoke-free within several years. The agencies must design policies prohibiting lit tobacco products in all living units, indoor common areas, administrative offices and in all outdoor areas near housing and administrative office buildings, HUD officials said. (Markon and Rein, 11/12)

USA Today: Supreme Court May Wade Back Into Abortion Debate
Nearly a quarter-century after its last major ruling on abortion created a fragile balance between women's rights and government restrictions, the Supreme Court appears ready for a rematch. And like the last time, the debate would unfold in the midst of a presidential election. (Wolf, 11/13)

The Associated Press: Justices' Decision Imminent On Whether To Hear Abortion Case
Conflicting rulings about whether women should have to cross state lines to obtain an abortion could prompt the Supreme Court to take up its first case on the hot-button social issue since 2007. The justices could say as soon as Friday whether they will hear cases from Texas and Mississippi that examine how states regulate abortion clinics. If they accept the cases, a decision on abortion, along with others on religious freedom and contraception under the Obama health care overhaul, affirmative action and perhaps even immigration, are likely to land in late June, roughly four months before the 2016 presidential election. (11/12)

USA Today: Pregnancy Centers Spread In Texas As Abortion Clinics Close
Women visiting the Hope Pregnancy Center here could receive a free sonogram, counseling on the virtues of parenting and adoption, a tutorial on the risks of terminating a pregnancy and pamphlets on “Car Seat Safety” and “How to Receive Christ.” What they won’t get is a referral to an abortion doctor. (Jervis, 11/12)

Reuters: Texas Tries To Stitch A Safety Net Without Planned Parenthood
Four years after cutting off funding for Planned Parenthood, the state of Texas says it has been able to rebuild its safety net, in what could be a model for Republicans in Congress who hope to defund the nation's largest family planning provider at the national level. Independent health experts dispute the claim, saying Texas still has a long way to go before it can provide the level of service it did when Planned Parenthood was an integral part of its family planning efforts. (11/12)

The Associated Press: Study: Rural Mississippi Hospitals Run Risk Of Closure
A study has identified nine rural Mississippi hospitals that are at-risk of closing down. Hospitals in Covington, Holmes, Tippah, Attala, Adams, Noxubee, Tallahatchie, Pearl River and Copiah counties were identified as running the risk of closure. Researchers say they arrived at their findings based on the hospitals' profitability, uncompensated care and Medicaid shortfalls. According to the study, reasons for the hospitals' struggles include the national recession that hit in 2008, population loss in rural areas and lack of capital. (11/12)

USA Today: Found Too Late: Cancer Preys On Rural Americans
USA TODAY analyzed state-by-state data on screenings, incidence and death for these three cancers. The newspaper worked with the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries to compare states’ incidence-to-mortality ratio to see where deaths exceed what’s expected based on how often cancer strikes. States faring worst include Arkansas, Mississippi and Alabama, largely because cancers were found late, causing untold suffering and pushing up health costs for everyone. (Ungar, 11/12)

The Associated Press: Catholic Health System Raises Minimum Wage To $10 An Hour
A Peoria, Illinois-based Catholic health system with hospitals in Illinois and Michigan, is raising its minimum wage to $10 an hour. OSF HealthCare announced the move Thursday. Nearly 500 employees will benefit when the new minimum wage takes effect Nov. 22. Most of them work in food service, housekeeping, gift shops and guest services. The health system is owned and operated by the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. It runs 11 hospitals, two colleges of nursing, a doctors group and a network of home health services. (11/12)

The Milwaukee Times: Northern West Virginia Group Formed To ID Health Care Fraud
State and federal authorities have created a multi-jurisdictional working group to identify and deal with health care fraud in northern West Virginia. U.S. Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld II and representatives of the FBI, the IRS and the state Medicaid Fraud Control Unit announced the group's formation on Thursday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Montoro is the group's leader. (11/12)

The Orlando Sentinel: Florida Ranks 41st In Access To Physicans
When it comes to having access to doctors, Florida isn't doing so well, according to a study. Florida ranked 41st among the 50 states, according to the Physician Access Index, compiled by the physician search firm Merritt Hawkins. The report used 33 factors that influence access to health-care providers, including the number of physicians per capita in the state, percent of the population with health insurance, doctor Medicare and Medicaid acceptance rates, income, and urgent care centers per capita. (Miller, 11/11)

The Orlando Sentinel: With Fair Chance At Health, Fewer Would Die In Florida
If everyone in Florida had a fair chance at being healthy, nearly 8,000 deaths could be avoided, 1 million fewer people would be uninsured, and 500,000 fewer adults would be obese. This is according to the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps that was released by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on Wednesday. The study explores how wide are the health gaps among different counties of each state and what's driving those differences. (Miller, 11/11)

The Associated Press: Georgia Nixes Cancer Chain's Bid For Rule Change
A national cancer treatment chain seeking permission to treat more Georgia patients was stopped short Thursday after facing staunch opposition from the state's influential hospital association. Cancer Treatment Centers of America wanted permission from Georgia's Department of Community Health to apply for a new certificate as a general hospital. The Florida-based chain is known for its ads describing access to medical care along with spiritual support and alternative remedies in the four states where its hospitals operate. (Foody, 11/12)

The Connecticut Mirror: Malloy Pitches $350M In Cuts; GOP Wants Mix Of Cuts, Labor Savings
The administration Thursday offered cuts worth about $350 million per year. Just over $40 million of them fell on departments involving social services and health care. Lawmakers rejected most of those ideas this past spring. Those include cuts to regional mental health boards, social service programs, grants for mental health and substance abuse programs, funeral and burial funds for poor people, and grants for museums and other cultural programs. It also calls for closing the Department of Social Services’ Torrington regional office, a plan Malloy proposed in February that legislators rejected. (Phaneuf, Levin Becker, Pazniokas and Thomas, 11/12)

McKnight's: Union Strikes Deal For $15 Nursing Home Wage
Connecticut's largest union of healthcare workers has reached a tentative agreement to raise the minimum wage in several of the state's nursing homes to $15 per hour. The agreement was reached late Tuesday by SEIU 1199NE, the New England branch of the Service Employees International Union, and is expected to be ratified by workers over the coming weeks. Once finalized, the agreement would cover an estimated 2,600 certified nursing assistants at 20 Connecticut nursing homes owned by iCare and Genesis. (Morgan, 11/12)

Reveal: Two Years Later, California Is Still Cleaning Up Drug Rehab System
California prosecutors are brokering plea deals in more than 11 criminal cases as health leaders overhaul the state’s drug rehabilitation care more than two years after a Center for Investigative Reporting and CNN investigation into the system in Southern California. (Jewett, 11/12)

The Associated Press: California Awards $500M For Rehab Programs In Jails
California awarded $500 million on Thursday to 15 counties to pay for new classrooms, mental health facilities and other projects intended to help rehabilitate prisoners. The Board of State and Community Corrections approved the projects despite concerns over a plan by Butte County to contribute matching money from inmate welfare funds. The board encouraged the county to avoid using money from a fee on inmate phone calls and commissary items. (Thompson, 11/12)

The Dallas Morning News: Texas Officials Cancel Transit Agency's Medicaid Contract, Launch Fraud Investigation
State officials canceled their multimillion-dollar Medicaid contract with financially troubled TAPS Public Transit on Thursday and launched an investigation into the possibility of fraud. Sherman-based Texoma Area Paratransit System won the three-year contract in July 2014 to provide non-emergency medical trips to Medicaid recipients in a 16-county area, including Collin County. The service is in addition to its mission of providing on-demand and fixed-route bus service in a seven-county area. (Wigglesworth, 11/12)

The Washington Post: Federal Jury Convicts Md. Couple In $80 Million D.C. Medicaid Fraud Case
A federal jury on Thursday convicted a Bowie, Md., couple of orchestrating a multi-year campaign to defraud D.C. Medicaid of more than $80 million between 2009 and 2014, the largest local health-care fraud scheme ever prosecuted in the city.(Hsu, 11/12)

NPR: To Prevent Addiction In Adults, Help Teens Learn How To Cope
"Addiction is a pediatric disease," says Dr. John Knight, founder and director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at Boston Children's Hospital. "When adults entering addiction treatment are asked when they first began drinking or using drugs, the answer is almost always the same: They started when they were young — teenagers," said Knight. Smoking, drinking and some forms of drug use among teens have declined in the U.S. in recent years, but an estimated 2.2 million adolescents — 8.8 percent of youth aged 12 to 17 years old — are currently using an illicit drug, according to a 2014 Behavioral Health Barometer prepared for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (Korry, 11/12)

NJ.com: New Jersey School Allowing Medical Marijuana For Students
A south Jersey teenage girl with autism and potentially life-threatening epilepsy may legally consume edible marijuana at her school every day, according to a policy school administrators adopted Wednesday night to comply with a new state law. The Larc School in Bellmawr appears to be first school in the nation to permit medical marijuana on campus, according to executive director Susan Weiner. (Livio, 11/12)

The Associated Press: Judge Pondering Cancer Patient's Plea For Marijuana Card
A judge is pondering a New Hampshire cancer patient's plea for a medical marijuana identification card before state dispensaries open so she can buy the drug immediately in a neighboring state. Linda Horan is battling late-stage lung cancer. She wants to obtain marijuana now in Maine, which serves patients with registry cards in their home states. Four dispensaries are slated to open in New Hampshire early next year. (Tuohy, 11/12)

Health Affairs: Enforcing Mental Health Parity
[N]early all insured Americans are now entitled to receive their mental health and substance use benefits at the same level as their benefits for other medical care. Enforcing those rights, however, has not been consistent .... Patients, providers, and consumer advocates allege that health plans ... are using more subtle ways to make mental health and substance use treatment less available ... including more frequent utilization review, "fail first" requirements, and applying stricter medical necessity criteria. In addition, patients report having trouble getting timely access to network providers .... regulations for Medicaid and CHIP plans have lagged. ... As the single largest payer for mental health services, HHS is under pressure from advocates to quickly finalize the regulations and extend parity protections to millions of beneficiaries covered by Medicaid. (Goodell, 11/9)

Urban Institute/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Marketplace Antidepressant Coverage And Transparency
This paper examines marketplace and insurer web sites in five states -- Alabama, California, Florida, Maryland, and Minnesota -- to determine transparency, coverage, and out-of-pocket costs of antidepressant medications. Antidepressants are commonly used in the United States, making them an important marker of the ability of patients with prescription drug needs to choose an appropriate, cost-effective plan. While insurers tend to provide broad coverage of the array of antidepressants, there is variation by state and insurer. Plus, there is considerable room for improvement in transparency of coverage, limits, and cost-sharing requirements. (Blumberg, Skopec and Wengle, 11/10)

Pediatrics: Children’s Food And Beverage Promotion On Television To Parents
Nutritionally poor foods are heavily advertised to children on television. Whether those same products are also advertised to parents on television has not been systematically examined. ... This study is a content analysis of advertisements for children’s packaged foods and beverages aired over US network, cable, and syndicated television for 1 year (2012 to 2013). ... Fifty-one children’s food or beverage products were advertised over the study year, 25 (49%) of which were advertised directly to parents. ... Over all products, 42.4% of total airtime was devoted to advertisements that targeted parents. The products with the most amount of airtime over the study year were ready-to-eat cereals, sugar-sweetened beverages, and children’s yogurt. (Emond et al., 11/9)

Health Affairs: Food Insecurity And Health Outcomes
Almost fifty million people are food insecure in the United States .... We examine recent research evidence of the health consequences of food insecurity for children, nonsenior adults, and seniors in the United States. ... We show that the literature has consistently found food insecurity to be negatively associated with health. For example, after confounding risk factors were controlled for, studies found that food-insecure children are at least twice as likely to report being in fair or poor health and at least 1.4 times more likely to have asthma, compared to food-secure children; and food-insecure seniors have limitations in activities of daily living comparable to those of food-secure seniors fourteen years older. (Gundersen and Ziliak, 11/2)

The Kaiser Family Foundation: What's In Store For Medicare's Part B Premiums And Deductible In 2016, And Why?
The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 averted an unprecedented increase in the 2016 Medicare Part B premium for the 30 percent of Part B enrollees who would have otherwise have faced a 52 percent increase in their premiums. It also reduced the level of increase in the Part B deductible that would have affected virtually all beneficiaries in traditional Medicare. ... some beneficiaries could see an actual reduction in their Social Security benefits in 2016 due to rising Part D drug plan premiums—which are increasing by 13 percent on average between 2015 and 2016 .... And the absence of a [cost of living adjustment] for 2016 in and of itself has direct financial implications for roughly 60 million Social Security recipients, many of whom ... rely on Social Security benefits as their primary source of income. Thus ... many people on Medicare could have greater difficulty affording their medical care costs in the coming year. (Cubanski and Neuman, 11/11)

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

Philadelphia Inquirer: Penn Study: Pay Patients To Take Their Pills
Statins are proven to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, yet as many as half of patients with prescriptions eventually stop taking the pills. A possible solution, says a team of University of Pennsylvania researchers: Pay the patients. And for those whose good pill-taking habits lead to lower levels of LDL ("bad") cholesterol, give their physicians a bonus as well. (Avril, 11/8)

NBC News: Study Details Confirm Lower Blood Pressure Is Better
Last September, a government-led team of experts created an uproar among heart disease experts when they stopped an ongoing study of blood pressure treatment to announce that patients who got more drugs to force their blood pressure lower were living longer .... But they didn't have all the details yet. Now, they've released them at a meeting of the American Heart Association. ... For blood pressure patients 50 and older, going for a reading of 120 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) cuts events such as heart attack, stroke and heart failure by 25 percent. And people whose blood pressure was forced this low were 27 percent less likely to die over the three-year study than people whose blood pressures were at the current target of 140. (Fox, 11/10)

The Associated Press: Big Study Suggests Steep Drop In Needless Heart Procedures
Fewer heart patients are getting inappropriate angioplasties, a new study suggests. The analysis showed overuse of the common procedure to open clogged heart arteries has declined dramatically since 2009 guidelines, which were aimed at curbing inappropriate use. The study examined nearly 3 million angioplasties done nationwide. In these procedures, doctors guide a narrow tube into an artery, inflate a tiny balloon to flatten blockages, and often insert a stent to keep arteries propped open. (Tanner, 11/9)

The New York Times: Uterus Transplants May Soon Help Some Infertile Women In The U.S. Become Pregnant
Within the next few months, surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic expect to become the first in the United States to transplant a uterus into a woman who lacks one, so that she can become pregnant and give birth. The recipients will be women who were born without a uterus, had it removed or have uterine damage. The transplants will be temporary: The uterus would be removed after the recipient has had one or two babies, so she can stop taking transplant anti-rejection drugs. (Grady, 11/12)

MedPage Today: Diabetes Screening Underused In Mental Illness
The majority of California Medicaid patients with severe mental illness aren't screened for diabetes, despite this group's elevated risk of cardiovascular mortality, researchers found. Only 30% of patients in the state's Medi-Cal program with severe mental illness were screened for diabetes with a standard procedure such as fasting plasma glucose or HbA1c, Christina Mangurian, MD, of the University of California San Francisco, and colleagues reported in a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine. (Fiore, 11/9)

The Connecticut Mirror: Study: Black Women Twice As Likely To Be Re-Hospitalized After Childbirth
Black women in Connecticut were twice as likely as white women to be readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of childbirth, and Hispanic women were nearly 50 percent more likely than whites to be readmitted, according to a study published this month in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology. (Levin Becker, 11/11)

Stat: Getting A Flu Shot Every Year? More May Not Be Better
If you’ve been diligent about getting your flu shot every year, you may not want to read this. But a growing body of evidence indicates that more may not always be better.The evidence, which is confounding some researchers, suggests that getting flu shots repeatedly can gradually reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines under some circumstances. (Branswell, 11/11)

Bloomberg: U.S. Smoking Hints At Rare Comeback After Decades-Long Decline
For the first time more than a decade, Americans appear to be smoking more. A confluence of factors -- from a better jobs market to cheaper gasoline to reductions in government anti-smoking programs -- are driving a months-long pickup in cigarette sales, analysts say. If current trends hold, 2015 could mark the first year since 2002 that sales volumes increase. (Kaplan, 11/9)

The Associated Press: Wealth May Give Advantage For Getting Organ Transplants
You can't buy hearts, kidneys or other organs but money can still help you get one. Wealthy people are more likely to get on multiple waiting lists and score a transplant, and less likely to die while waiting for one, a new study finds. The work confirms what many have long suspected — the rich have advantages even in a system designed to steer organs to the sickest patients and those who have waited longest. Wealthier people can better afford the tests and travel to get on more than one transplant center's waiting list, and the new study shows how much this pays off. (Marchione, 11/9)

Reuters: Superbugs Mean More Infections And Deaths After Surgery, Chemotherapy
The declining effectiveness of antibiotics may make tens of thousands more U.S. patients vulnerable to potentially fatal infections after surgery or chemotherapy, researchers estimate. Up to half of pathogens causing surgical site infections and more than a quarter of bugs leading to infections after chemotherapy are already resistant to antibiotics commonly used in the U.S., the researchers calculate based on an analysis of previously published studies. (Rapaport, 11/6)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Virtua Team: Pricey New Drug No Better Than Old One For Knee Surgery Pain
A relatively new, brand-name drug was about as effective as a long-available generic at relieving pain after knee replacement despite costing 25 times as much, a team of Virtua Health orthopedists reported, winning a national research award for their small study. Orthopedic surgeon Rajesh K. Jain and colleagues from the Virtua Joint Replacement Institute in Voorhees measured post-operative pain earlier this year among 207 consecutive patients who were randomly assigned to three groups in advance. (Sapatkin, 11/11)

Reuters: High-Spending Doctors Less Likely To Be Sued
Providing more care than necessary may work to lower a doctor's risk of being accused of malpractice, suggests a new U.S. study. Although the results can't prove extra expenditures are due to so-called defensive medicine, the researchers found that doctors in Florida who provided the most costly care between 2000 and 2009 were also least likely to be sued between 2001 and 2010. (Seaman, 11/6)

Huffington Post: Republicans Realize Taking Obamacare Away From Their Voters Maybe Isn't A Great Idea
Republicans have enjoyed big electoral wins over the past year that put them on the verge of being able to do major damage to Obamacare. Only now, some of them seem a little anxious about taking the next, big step. It's a truism in politics, espoused by Republicans and Democrats alike, that it's awfully hard to take away government benefits once they've been offered. In the case of the Affordable Care Act, repeal would mean yanking health coverage from more than 16 million people who didn't have it before, between those who now get subsidies for private health insurance and those who gained access to Medicaid coverage via the law's expansion of that program to more low-income adults. It's the Medicaid expansion that now appears to be complicating the ceaseless, noisy and heretofore ineffective "Repeal Obamacare!" movement. (Jeffrey Young, 11/12)

The Washington Post: A Message To My Friends And Allies About Why Repealing The Cadillac Tax Is The Wrong Thing To Do
This one goes out to my progressive friends, colleagues and allies — to my labor friends, my political allies on all sides of all aisles, and anyone else who generally finds these scribblings agreeable, until I stand up in defense of the Cadillac tax. ... The fact is, you make some strong points against the tax. But read on, as you may find I’ve got even stronger ones, especially given the reality of tax policy today and some ideas for compromise. (Jared Bernstein, 11/12)

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Inefficiency In Medicaid
According to a new report, Virginia has shelled out millions in Medicaid payments for people who were not eligible for them. While it’s good to have hard numbers, the news comes as no great surprise. At the same time, it also is not the knock-down argument against Medicaid expansion that Republicans are pretending it is. (11/12)

Los Angeles Times: GOP Presidential Debate Suffers From A Deficit Of Details
The uncomfortable reality is that the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, and it's not because federal agencies are growing like kudzu. Discretionary nondefense spending hasn't grown at all in recent years, and defense spending has grown only modestly. The problem over the coming decades is the rising cost of healthcare, especially for the growing number of seniors. Only one candidate acknowledged this — [Ohio Gov. John] Kasich, again — but he didn't say how he planned to slam the brakes on doctor bills and hospital costs in Medicare and Medicaid. And when [Sen. Ted] Cruz was asked about cutting benefits to retirees, he touted a plan to let younger workers shift some of their Social Security contributions into private retirement investments — a shift that defeats the purpose of providing guaranteed income for seniors in the future, while draining the system of money needed to pay for current retirees' benefits. (11/12)

The Washington Post: Trump Exploits A Crack In The GOP’s Foundation
Republicans have been united around the belief that government spending is out of control. The problem is that there are only two ways to significantly reduce the debt and deficits: raise taxes or cut Social Security and Medicare. Since the former is anathema to all Republicans — indeed, they want tax cuts — most conservatives propose paring down entitlement programs. That remains the centerpiece of House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) appeal to conservatives. But the bulk of the Republican electorate is elderly, and they are increasingly making it clear that they disagree. (Fareed Zakaria, 11/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Awaiting Ben Carson’s Agenda
Many Americans date their first notice of Ben Carson to that prayer breakfast in 2013, when he criticized ObamaCare in front of the president. In fact, the surgeon has spent 15 years writing a string of best-selling books and giving interviews that feature policy ideas. Just a few past Carson proposals: He has called for government to take responsibility for providing catastrophic health insurance, funded by taxes on insurers. He has called for turning insurers into “nonprofit service organizations with standardized, regulated profit margins.” He’s suggested that he’d be OK with a total tax rate (federal, state, local) of 37%—or 42% for those earning more than $1 million. He’s suggested having government pay for child-care facilities. ... It’s possible Mr. Carson now holds different views. We don’t really know. (Kimberly A. Strassel, 11/12)

Health Affairs: Maryland’s Progress On The Path To The Triple Aim
Nearly 18 months ago, in January 2014, I wrote in this publication about a historic agreement between the State of Maryland and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that, for the first time on a statewide level, provided a framework that could reduce per capita health care costs, improve the health of communities, and improve the care experience for patients. Now, midway through year two of a five-year demonstration period that Princeton University health care economist Uwe Reinhardt called “the boldest proposal in the United States in the last half century to grab the problem of cost growth by the horns,” Maryland, with hospitals leading the way, has made remarkable strides in pursuit of that Triple Aim. (Carmela Coyle, 11/12)

The Tampa Bay Times: Antibiotic Overuse, Misuse Can Be Harmful To Us All
Every year, roughly 2 million people in the United States will develop an antibiotic-resistant infection, resulting in 23,000 deaths — more than 60 people each day. Try to imagine yourself or a family member with a life-threatening infection caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Your doctor comes to the bedside to tell you that there are few, if any, available antibiotics to treat the infection. (Dr. David M. Berman, 11/12)

The New York Times' Room For Debate: Should Drug Addicts Be Forced Into Treatment?
Opiate addiction is on the rise in the United States. Death rates, partly stemming from substance abuse, are increasing among middle-age white Americans. In response to what is being called a heroin epidemic, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has proposed legislation that would give hospitals the power to force treatment on drug addicts. Is this an effective approach to the problem? (11/12)

Los Angeles Times: 'Recreational' Marijuana Proponents Are Pushing A False Narrative
The weed warriors are back, peddling pot for the California ballot. And one old tale they're spinning is pure bunk. It's that too much tax money, cop time and jail space are wasted corralling and incarcerating marijuana users. Maybe that was true decades ago. But today it's a myth. No one gets busted and jailed for merely smoking a joint. (George Skelton, 11/12)

The New England Journal Of Medicine: Improving Diagnosis In Health Care — The Next Imperative For Patient Safety
The 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report To Err Is Human transformed thinking about patient safety in U.S. health care. On its 15th anniversary, a topic largely missing from that report is finally getting its due. With its new report, Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, the IOM has acknowledged the need to address diagnostic error as a “moral, professional, and public health imperative.” The new report emphasizes that diagnostic errors may be one of the most common and harmful of patient-safety problems. (Hardeep Singh and Mark L. Graber, 11/11)