The Wall Street Journal: Birth Control Coverage Rules Announced By Obama Administration
The Obama administration on Friday set final rules for contraception coverage in workers’ health insurance plans, putting in place rules that are unlikely to satisfy some religious employers who object to birth control. ... Federal officials said the arrangements also would be available to closely held for-profit companies such as Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. that last year won a Supreme Court case against the coverage requirement under the Affordable Care Act. ... Catholic bishops and other religious leaders have said the revised system is inadequate because it still uses the insurance plan they set up to provide something they believe to be wrong. They have challenged the alternative system in the courts. (Radnofsky, 7/10)

The New York Times: Health Law’s Contraceptive Rule Eased For Businesses With Religious Objections
The Obama administration issued new rules on Friday that allow closely held for-profit corporations like Hobby Lobby Stores to opt out of providing women with insurance coverage for contraceptives if the companies have religious objections. Women enrolled in such health plans would still be able to get birth control at no cost, the administration said. Insurers would pay for contraceptive services, but the payments would be separate from the employer’s health plan. (Pear, 7/10)

The Associated Press: New Birth Control Rule For Employers With Religious Qualms
Hoping to put to rest one of the most difficult disputes over its health care law, the Obama administration Friday unveiled its latest plan to address employers' religious objections to providing free birth control for their female workers. ... To qualify for the opt-out, companies cannot be publicly traded on stock markets. Also, more than half the ownership must be in the hands of five or fewer individuals. For purposes of meeting the new rule, a family counts as a single individual. The administration's latest effort also attempts to address the objections of some religious nonprofits to an earlier accommodation. That previous plan called for the nonprofit to notify its insurance administrator of its objections to covering birth control. Some nonprofits said that would essentially involve them in arranging the coverage, albeit indirectly. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/10)

The HIll: Feds Set Final Rules For Birth Control Mandate
The Obama administration on Friday took the final step toward ensuring that women can keep their birth control coverage even if their employer refuses to provide it on religious grounds. Final regulations released Friday allow women to receive contraceptive services without co-payments over the objections of their employer. The much-anticipated rules also expand the definition of businesses that can seek exemptions from the controversial ObamaCare mandate. (Ferris, 7/10)

The New York Times: Courts Support Obama’s Contraceptive Policy, But Challenges Remain
Four federal appeals courts have upheld efforts by the Obama administration to guarantee access to free birth control for women, suggesting that the government may have found a way to circumvent religious organizations that refuse to provide coverage for some or all forms of contraception. While pleased with the rulings, administration officials are not celebrating. (Pear, 7/12)

The Hill: Uninsured Rate Hits Lowest Level To Date, Boosting ObamaCare
The uninsured rate has dropped to its lowest level since Gallup began tracking the statistic in 2008. A total of 11.4 percent of people remained uninsured in the second quarter of this year, between April and June, according to a Gallup poll released Friday. (Ferris, 7/10)

CNBC: Health Uninsured Rate Falls, Yet Again, Under Obamacare
What goes down apparently goes down even more. The sharp plunge in the number of Americans lacking health coverage has continued, reaching a seven-year low, as Obamacare exchanges and Medicaid enroll more people. (Mangan, 7/10)

Business Insider: One Chart Shows Obamacare Is Working Exactly As Intended
The rate of uninsured people in the US is at its lowest level ever recorded by Gallup, continuing a theme that first appeared amid the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The uninsured rate among adults 18 and older in the US plunged to 11.4% in the second quarter of 2015, down from the 11.9% Gallup recorded in this year's first quarter. "The 2015 second-quarter uninsured rate is the lowest rate measured since Gallup and Healthways began tracking the metric at the start of 2008, raising the question of how low the rate can go," Gallup's Stephanie Kafka wrote. It is Gallup's first estimate of the uninsured rate since a special enrollment period that allowed people who hadn't yet filed a tax return to sign up for coverage through April 30. Gallup said the uninsured rate plummeted to 11.3% in March before staggering in April, May, and June. Ultimately, the simplest goal of the law — one that cuts through the spin of the sign-up numbers — is to reduce the number of uninsured in the US. (Logiurato, 7/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Kentucky Is New Test Case Of Health Law’s Politics
For a Southern state where President Barack Obama is deeply unpopular and Republicans dominate federal elections, Kentucky stands out for having created a well-regarded health exchange and having expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. That dynamic will be put to the test in November’s gubernatorial election. (Campo-Flores, 7/12)

The Washington Post: D.C. Residents To Lose Some Insurance Options Next Year On Health Exchange
District residents who want to purchase individual insurance plans on the city’s health exchange will have fewer options next year. In fact, individuals searching for more flexibility than that offered by health maintenance organizations will have just one carrier to choose from — and the cost for some of its plans may jump by double digits. (Davis, 7/10)

The Fiscal Times: Newly Confident On Obamacare, White House Brings Back ‘Death Panels’
Having survived what might well have been a mortal threat with a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court in the King v. Burwell case, the Obama administration’s signature legislative achievement got some more good news on Friday when the Gallup polling organization reported that the percentage of Americans lacking health insurance has hit the lowest level it has ever measured. (Garver, 7/10)

The Motley Fool: This Hidden Obamacare Quirk Can Make Thousands in Subsidies Disappear
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, continues to inspire heated debate between supporters and opponents, with plenty of disagreement even years after it initially became law. Yet even though Americans have become more familiar with Obamacare, there are still some little-known provisions that can snare the unwary. One particularly onerous hit can cost you thousands of dollars in Obamacare subsidies, and it can strike if you earn even a single dollar above a limit that the healthcare law imposes. Let's look more closely at what has become known as the Obamacare subsidy cliff and why it can cost you thousands of dollars if you don't take action to avoid it. (Caplinger, 7/12)

The Wall Street Journal: Cost Of Covering New People Under ACA Significantly Higher Than Expected
The cost of covering people who qualified for Medicaid as part of the federal health law was significantly higher than expected in 2014, federal actuaries said Friday. Adults who became eligible for Medicaid as a result of the health law’s expansion of the program to include most low-income Americans incurred average medical costs of $5,517, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services office of the actuary said. That was about $1,000 higher than had initially been expected for the first full year of the expansion. (Radnofsky, 7/10)

The Arizona Republic: Many Medicaid-Expansion Foes In Arizona Legislature Get Prime State Insurance
More than two-thirds of Republican lawmakers who sued to overturn Medicaid coverage for low-income Arizonans took state-sponsored health-insurance plans that offer more-robust medical benefits than what the average Arizonan gets from private employers. (Alltucker, 7/11)

The Associated Press: Health Care Industry: Healthy Indiana Plan Working Smoothly
Industry representatives say Indiana's expanded health care program for low-income residents has functioned smoothly in the months since it was implemented following federal approval. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in January approved expanding the existing Healthy Indiana Plan into a larger program that Gov. Mike Pence has dubbed HIP 2.0. That program uses federal Medicaid funds under President Barack Obama's health care law to cover people with incomes under 138 percent of the federal poverty level. (7/10)

The Associated Press: Audit: Xerox's Montana Medicaid Project Could Be 6 Years Late
At the pace it's going, Xerox Corp. will be six years past its renegotiated deadline by the time it completes an $84 million state contract for a new computer program to manage Medicaid payments, according to an audit of the project. State officials received the report last week after the Legislature sought an outside review. Since the Medicaid Management and Information system project began in 2012, Xerox has been found in breach of contract for missing deadlines and a legislative panel has given them a vote of no confidence. (Baumann, 7/10)

The Associated Press: Federal Government Gives Oklahoma Health Plan An Extension
A state program that uses a combination of state tobacco tax revenue and federal Medicaid money to help provide health insurance coverage for nearly 18,000 low-income Oklahoma will receive federal funding through the end of 2016, state officials said on Friday. Gov. Mary Fallin and Oklahoma Health Care Authority Chief Executive Officer announced that Oklahoma's request for an extension has been approved by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (7/10)

The Hill: Ryan: GOP Planning To Use Reconciliation 'To Go After ObamaCare'
A top House Republican on Friday vowed to keep fighting to repeal ObamaCare through budget reconciliation even as the tactic is losing support from some within the GOP. “We want to use reconciliation to go after ObamaCare,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters Friday. (Ferris, 7/10)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Conservative Alternatives To Health Care Law Bring Tradeoffs
The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding a key provision of the Affordable Care Act ensures that the law will be an issue in the 2016 campaigns, and a likely refrain from opponents will be that the law raised premiums and forced millions of people to change their health plans. Without question, the law did both, and Republicans opposed to the law have called for ending many of the regulations that remade the market for people who buy their own health insurance. (Boulton, 7/11)

The Wall Street Journal: House Votes To Boost Funding For Medical Research
The House of Representatives voted 344-77 for a bill that would boost federal funding for medical research, and would speed up Food and Drug Administration approvals for many new drugs and medical devices. The bill, which won overwhelming support from both Republicans and Democrats, would increase funding for the National Institutes of Health by $8.75 billion over five years. (Burton, 7/10)

The Washington Post: House Overwhelmingly Passes Bill To Speed FDA Drug Approvals
The bill tries to address the impatience that stems from a major societal problem: despite billions of dollars of research into diseases that range from common cancers to the rarest genetic diseases, we still lack treatments for thousands of conditions. Many of its provisions seek to make the drug approval process less burdensome. But its laundry list of provisions that tweak the process for approving new drugs or devices have raised significant concern from industry watchdogs and physicians who say the legislation is aimed more at helping drug and device companies than patients. (Johnson, 7/10)

The Associated Press: Big House Vote To Speed Drug Approvals, Boost Research
For the second time this year, the House used overwhelming bipartisan unity Friday to approve health legislation, this time voting to bolster biomedical research and streamline how the government approves drugs and medical devices. The chamber's 344-77 vote sent the measure to the Senate, where a bill is unlikely until later this year. It is unclear how different the Senate version will be. (Fram, 7/10)

The New York Times: Bipartisan Partnership Produces A Health Bill That Passes The House
By the standards of the modern Congress, Representatives Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan, and Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado, have no business writing health care legislation together. Mr. Upton, the buttoned-up chairman of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee, is one of the House Republicans’ go-to representatives on dismantling the Affordable Care Act. Ms. DeGette, a member of the Democratic leadership who leans decidedly left of center, counts herself among the central champions of the health care law. ... But the two lawmakers, friends since they met in a prayer group nearly two decades ago, have spent the last 18 months — sometimes with a spouse or dog in tow — sitting together through hundreds of hours of meetings with doctors, health advocates and policy experts; traveling to each other’s districts and to policy conferences around the country; and enlisting colleagues coast to coast to hold town hall-style meetings, all with the goal of developing a sweeping measure to help cure diseases. (Steinhauer and Tavernise, 7/10)

The Baltimore Sun: House Clears Medical Research Bill With Wide Margin
In an unusual display of bipartisanship on an issue that has divided Congress for years, the House overwhelmingly approved a biomedical research bill Friday that would change how the National Institutes of Health grants money to institutions like the Johns Hopkins University. The measure, approved on a 344-77 vote, would provide $1.75 billion in additional annual funding to the Bethesda-based NIH in exchange for the agency's placing a greater emphasis on young scientists — who often struggle to win grants — and requiring more accountability in grant making. (Fritze, 7/10)

Politico: Bernie Sanders’ Senate Colleagues Stunned By His Ascent
Bernie Sanders’ Senate colleagues have come to know him as a bit player in the Democratic Caucus, a gruff, rumpled protest voice to the left of even the most liberal senators. Now the Vermont socialist is drawing crowds by the thousands seemingly everywhere he goes — and his cohorts in D.C. can hardly believe it. ... When President Barack Obama came into office and pushed his health care bill, Sanders was a rare voice publicly calling for a single-payer, Medicare-for-all type system. (Raju and Everett, 7/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Hillary Clinton Economic Plan To Chart Center-Left Course
Hillary Clinton is preparing to lay out an economic plan that seeks a center-left ideological course, rejecting ideas put forth by Republican presidential contenders but striking a contrast with her party’s liberal wing. ... To address income inequality, Mrs. Clinton will call for raising the minimum wage, increasing taxes on the wealthy, boosting the power of unions and reducing health-care costs. She also is likely to propose some new rules governing Wall Street. ... She is unlikely to propose breaking up Wall Street banks or installing a single-payer health-care system. A wholesale expansion of Social Security, as many on the left would like, is unexpected as well. (Meckler, 7/12)

Quad City (Iowa) Times: Rubio Says Changes To Social Security, Medicare Needed
Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio argued Thursday the only way to bring down the federal debt is to change Social Security and Medicare for younger generations. ... Rubio, who is 44, proposed raising Social Security retirement age by a year, and he said people may see their benefit grow more slowly than it did for previous generations. He added Medicare may involve buying a private plan. "These are not draconian changes," he said. Social Security and Medicare were once thought to be politically untouchable, but in this year's race for the Republican presidential nomination, they are being mentioned more often. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also has called for changes. (Tibbetts, 7/11)

The Associated Press: Walker To Remind Voters Of Union Wins As He Enters 2016 Race
Walker cut income and corporate taxes by nearly $2 billion, lowered property taxes, legalized the carrying of concealed weapons, made abortions more difficult to obtain, required photo identification when voting and made Wisconsin a right-to-work state. ... Walker also talks about how the 2011 union law saved taxpayers $3 billion as of late 2014, saying state and local governments have used "tools" he provided them to reduce spending on pensions and health benefits for public employees. (7/13)

On the congressional side, Indiana's Senate race is shaping up -

The Associated Press: Rep. Young Joins Indiana Senate Race To Succeed Coats
Young has worked to try to repeal the Affordable Care Act and points to a bill that would increase the number of hours an employee has to work before an employer must offer health insurance under the act as one of the achievements he’s proudest of. The bill has passed the House but hasn’t been considered by the Senate. (Coyne, 7/12)

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Obama Nominates Former UnitedHealth Exec Slavitt To Run Medicare And Medicaid
President Obama has nominated former UnitedHealth Group executive Andy Slavitt to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Slavitt, whose nomination is subject to Senate approval, has been working as acting administrator of the government health insurance ­programs since February. (Spencer, 7/10)

Modern Healthcare: Wakefield Nominated To Permanently Serve As HHS Deputy Secretary
Mary Wakefield has been nominated to permanently serve as HHS deputy secretary, a position she's held in an acting capacity for the past four months. The White House announced the nomination late Thursday, along with the nomination of Andy Slavitt as CMS administrator. For the past five years, Wakefield had served as head of the Health Resources and Service Administration, an HHS agency that works to improve access to healthcare for Americans who are uninsured, isolated, low-income or medically vulnerable. (Rubenfire, 7/10)

Reuters: States Line Up To Scrutinize Aetna's $33B Humana Deal
U.S. insurance regulators and state attorneys general are lining up to scrutinize Aetna Inc's proposed $33 billion takeover of rival Humana Inc for potential harm to consumers, complicating what is already expected to be a tough and lengthy review by federal antitrust authorities. Insurance commissioners in 18 states including Texas, Kentucky and Florida will study merger documents provided by Humana to determine whether the deal will harm competition and lead to higher insurance premiums or diminished access to healthcare providers, according to Reuters interviews with regulators and insurance experts. (Humer, Bartz and Freifeld, 7/10)

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Effect Of Health Insurance Merger On Missouri Draws Local Concern
A proposed merger between two health insurance giants is drawing concerns around the country and in Missouri, as some fear the consolidation could leave older adults in the state with fewer choices for health care. Earlier this month, Aetna Inc. announced it would acquire Humana Inc. for about $37 billion, a combination that would produce the nation’s second-largest health insurer, just behind UnitedHealth Group Inc. (Shapiro, 7/11)

Modern Healthcare: An Insurer's Transformation: Humana's Evolution Into Medicare Powerhouse Offers Strong Lure To Aetna
An acquisition by Aetna would bring an end to the half-century of radical company makeovers by Humana and create an insurance giant in the fast-growing market for government-subsidized health plans. Louisville, Ky.-based Humana—a $23 billion company that began as a single nursing home in 1961 founded by David Jones and Wendell Cherry—is the second-largest player in Medicare Advantage, Medicare's private managed-care option that has seen enrollment triple in the past decade. That program will continue to grow, with a surge of baby boomers entering Medicare. (Evans, 7/11)

In other marketplace news -

The New York Times: How CVS Quit Smoking And Grew Into A Health Care Giant
With 7,800 retail stores and a presence in almost every state, CVS Health has enormous reach. And while shoppers might think of CVS as a place to pick up toothpaste, Band-Aids or lipstick, it is also the country’s biggest operator of health clinics, the largest dispenser of prescription drugs and the second-largest pharmacy benefits manager. With close to $140 billion in revenue last year — about 97 percent of that from prescription drugs or pharmacy services — CVS is arguably the country’s biggest health care company, bigger than the drug makers and wholesalers, and bigger than the insurers. (Tabuchi, 7/11)

The Associated Press: $1,000-Per-Pill Drug Overtaken By Pricier Successor
The $1,000 pill for a liver-wasting viral infection that made headlines last year is no longer the favorite of patients and doctors. ... Sovaldi, last year's wonder drug, has been pushed aside by a successor called Harvoni, made by the same company. The sticker price for Harvoni is $1,350 a pill. The fast-paced changes in hepatitis C treatment are being watched closely amid fears that breakthrough drugs could reignite the rise of U.S. health care costs. Other medications that could turn into cost drivers include a new treatment for melanoma and a cholesterol-lowering drug awaiting approval. More hepatitis C drugs are also headed to market. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/11)

Meanwhile, NPR examines the relationship between doctors and drug companies -

NPR: Should Doctors And Drugmakers Keep Their Distance?
Doctors are obsessed with time. It comes down to simple math. If I have four hours to see a dozen patients, there simply isn't much time to stray from the main agenda: What ails you? Frequently harried, I avoid drug company salespeople. Their job is to get face time with me and convince me quickly of the merits of their products. To sweeten the path in, they bring food for the staff along with free samples of prescription drugs for us to give to our patients. (Schumann, 6/12)

And ProPublica reports on how a blood thinner may be causing serious issues for nursing homes -

ProPublica: Popular Blood Thinner Causing Deaths, Injuries At Nursing Homes
When Loren Peters arrived in the emergency room in October 2013, bruises covered his frail body, and blood oozed from his gums. The 85-year-old had not been in a fight or fallen down. Instead, he had been given too much of a popular, decades-old blood thinner that, unmonitored, can turn from a lifesaver into a killer. Peters took Coumadin at his Marshalltown, Iowa, nursing home because he had an abnormal heart rhythm, which increases the risk of stroke. It’s a common precaution, but the drug must be carefully calibrated: too much, and you can bleed uncontrollably; too little, and you can develop life-threatening clots. (Ornstein, 7/12)

Los Angeles Times: Sounding The Alarm As Prescription Drug Abusers Turn To Heroin
Standing in the pulpit above Austin Klimusko's casket three years ago, his mother used his death to draw the connection between pills from a pharmacy and drugs from the street. "When his prescriptions dried up, he turned to heroin," Susan Klimusko said in a frank eulogy meant as a warning to the young mourners at Simi Valley's Cornerstone Church. Last week, the nation's top public health official used the bully pulpit to sound the same alarm. The prescription drug epidemic is stoking the nation's appetite for heroin with disastrous results, Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters in a teleconference. (Girion, 7/11)

The New York Times: Obituaries Shed Euphemisms To Chronicle Toll Of Heroin
When celebrities like the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman die of heroin overdoses, the cause of death is a prominent part of the obituary. The less famous tend to die “unexpectedly” or “at home.” But as the heroin epidemic surges across the country and claims more lives every day, a growing number of families are dropping the euphemisms and writing the gut-wrenching truth, producing obituaries that speak unflinchingly, with surprising candor and urgency, about the realities of addiction. (Seelye, 7/11)

NPR: For Families Of Heroin Addicts, Comfort Comes In Sharing Their Stories
In a community center just south of Los Angeles, upwards of 50 people pack into a room to offer each other words of comfort. Most of them are moms, and they've been through a lot. At Solace, a support group for family members of those suffering from addiction, many of the attendees have watched a child under 30 die of a fatal drug overdose — heroin, or opioids like Oxycontin or Vicodin that are considered gateway drugs to heroin. (Hersher and Javier, 7/11)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Death And Dying: Advocates Seek State Laws
This year may prove to be a watershed for those pushing to change state laws throughout the country so that the terminally ill can receive a doctor’s aid in dying. “The 2015 legislative session has been the busiest we have seen in our movement,” said Peg Sandeen, executive director of the Death with Dignity National Center, an advocacy group headquartered in Portland, Ore., the state that enacted the nation’s first aid-in-dying law in 1997. (Shields, 7/10)

The Washington Post: D.C. Could Be The Next Place To Legalize Assisted Death For The Terminally Ill
The nation’s capital could be on track to join those U.S. jurisdictions where terminally ill patients can legally seek to end their lives with medication prescribed by physicians. D.C. lawmakers on Friday held a hearing on the Death With Dignity Act of 2015, which would authorize doctors to prescribe lethal medication to patients who have been given six months or less to live and wish to die on their own terms. (Hauslohner, 7/10)

Reuters: Elderly Want To Control What Health Information Families See
Elderly patients may be willing to let family members access their medical records and make decisions on their behalf, but they also want to retain granular control of their health information, a study suggests. “Respecting and preserving the autonomy of the elder is critical,” said lead author Dr. Bradley Crotty. “Elders and families should have honest discussions about preferences for information sharing and decision-making, and share these conversations with healthcare providers.” (Rapaport, 7/10)

The Associated Press: New Hampshire Moves Ahead With Updating Insurance Rules
The New Hampshire Insurance Department is moving forward with changing its rules for health care provider networks, but some insurance companies aren't yet sold on a key part of the proposed approach. Department officials say the rules are ripe for revision given how much health care has changed since the standards for evaluating network adequacy were enacted in 2001. They created a working group to begin the process last year, with a goal of having new standards in place in 2017. (Ramer, 7/10)

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Wisconsin Last Among States For Malpractice Claim Payments, Analysis Shows
Wisconsin doctors paid fewer medical malpractice claims per capita last year than their peers in any other state — and physicians here are consistently at the bottom nationwide when it comes to paying such claims, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis of federal data. (Spivak and Crowe, 7/11)

The Sacramento Bee: Rate Hike For Healthcare Providers Gets No Mention In Tobacco Tax Petition Language
A tobacco-tax initiative proposed for the November 2016 ballot would raise as much as $1 billion to increase reimbursement rates for healthcare providers, about three-quarters of the estimated revenue that would be generated by the $2-per-pack tax hike. (Miller, 7/10)

Reuters: Michigan Doctor Gets 45-Year Prison Sentence For Health Care Fraud
A federal judge on Friday sentenced a Detroit-area doctor who admitted performing unnecessary procedures on hundreds of cancer patients to 45 years in prison, prosecutors said. Dr. Farid Fata, 50, who pleaded guilty in September to more than a dozen healthcare and financial fraud charges, was accused of administering unnecessary infusions or injections on 553 patients and submitting about $34 million of fraudulent claims to Medicare and private insurers. (Gonzales, 7/10)

The Detroit Free Press: Cancer Doc Patients Say 45 Years In Prison Not Enough
He pumped poisonous chemotherapy drugs into patients for years, telling them they had cancer. They didn't. He over-treated terminal cancer patients rather than letting them die peacefully. When he could profit from it, he also under-treated actual cancer patients. And on Friday, nearly two years after his arrest, Dr. Farid Fata was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison for violating more than 550 patients' trust and raking in more than $17 million from fraudulent billings. (Allen, 7/10)

The Texas Tribune: Biomedical Research Turning More To Private Funds
The pharmaceutical company Sanofi will fund up to $2.4 million a year in biomedical research at the University of Texas System under a deal announced Thursday, the latest in a trend toward more research funding from private industry as government research money dwindles. The university system and multinational company called the agreement a mutually beneficial way to advance new discoveries in biomedicine, and said specific research to be funded has not yet been identified. But watchdogs say universities have to be vigilant to prevent conflicts of interest as such funding relationships become more common. Private funding for research at the UT System has grown nearly 30 percent in the last five years, administrators said. (Walters, 7/10)

The Associated Press: NY Says Home Care Company Will Pay $22.4M In Inquiry
The New York Attorney General's office says a home care provider formerly owned by Walgreens will pay $22.4 million to end allegations it overcharged the state's Medicaid program for a costly drug that is mostly given to premature babies. (7/10)

The Tennessean: Metro Council Protects Lifetime Health Benefits — Again
The [Nashville] Metro Council has voted to protect the city subsidy that covers lifetime health insurance for former council members — yet again. Not even the headwind of an upcoming election can derail the council's most controversial perk. With the clock running out on the current council, term-limited Councilman Phil Claiborne had introduced a bill that would have reduced Metro's subsidy for lifetime health insurance for former two-term council members after they leave office. With several council members seeking re-election or running for at-large seats, he figured he had better odds with a proposal that fell short two years ago. (Garrison, 7/10)

The Associated Press: Medicare Warns Winnebago Hospital To Correct Deficiencies
Officials have warned a northeast Nebraska hospital for the second time in two years that its Medicare and Nebraska Medicaid funding will be pulled unless the hospital adequately addresses treatment deficiencies. Spokesman Mike Fierberg for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Friday that he couldn't release the May survey report that led to the warning sent Wednesday to the Winnebago Indian Health Service Hospital. But the report noted "immediate jeopardy to patients," Fierberg said. (7/10)

The Associated Press: Undergraduate Medical Students Treat Homeless People's Feet
Foot care, including washing, scraping and filing calluses, clipping toenails and massage, also had practical health applications in this case, said Dr. Michelle Whitehurst-Cook, associate dean of admissions at the VCU School of Medicine. Whitehurst-Cook runs the summer program with Cheryl Ford-Smith, an associate professor of physical therapy at VCU. "We were serving the homeless, and the feet seem to be a big issue with them, because they're walking all the time," said Whitehurst-Cook, also an associate professor. During the school year, students in VCU's Department of Family Medicine's rural and inner-city preceptorship program work with Caritas, a homeless services organization in Richmond. They see a lot of foot-related ailments, some related to diabetes. (7/11)

The Wall Street Journal: The Unaffordable Care Act
The Affordable Care Act was supposed to make insurance, well, more affordable. But now hard results are starting to emerge: premium surges that often average 10% to 20% and spikes that sometimes run as high as 50% or 60% or more from coast to coast. Welcome to the new abnormal of ObamaCare. This summer insurers must submit rates to state regulators for approval on the ObamaCare exchanges in 2016—and even liberals are shocked at the double-digit requests, or at least the honest liberals are. (7/10)

Los Angeles Times: As Health Insurers Merge, Consumers' Premiums Are Likely To Rise
As leading health insurers scramble for market share through a series of multibillion-dollar mergers, consumers are no doubt wondering if their premiums are bound to skyrocket. Short answer: Probably. "That's what usually happens when you have less competition," said Erin Trish, a researcher at USC's Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. "At the same time, though, consolidation among insurers could mean a stronger position in negotiating lower rates with hospitals." The question, she said, is whether insurers would pass along any savings to policyholders. Past mergers among insurance companies suggest that consumers seldom benefit. (David Lazarus, 7/10)

The New York Times: Obamacare Flexes Muscles With New Medicare Payment Plans
For the first time, the Obama administration has deployed an important new power it has under the Affordable Care Act: proposing to pay doctors and hospitals based on the quality of care they provide, regardless of whether they want to be paid that way. It introduced two such programs this week. One would require all hospitals in 75 metropolitan areas to accept a flat fee for the costs associated with a hip or knee replacement — including the costs of surgery, medications, the joint implant and rehabilitation. And if the quality of the care is not judged to be good, Medicare will take back some of the money it paid. Another program would increase or decrease payments to home health agencies in nine states, depending on how they perform on certain quality measurements. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 7/10)

Forbes: How Device Makers Lose When Medicare Bundles Knee, Hip Surgery Fees
News that the Obama administration is shifting more Medicare dollars away from fee-for-service medicine when it comes to paying for knee and hip replacements could force device makers to become more competitive or lose sales. ... Bundled payments are already becoming more common among private insurers like UnitedHealth Group, Aetna, Cigna, Anthem and other Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans. Those involved in early bundled payment efforts for knee and hip replacements say the costs are lowered and it’s the device makers who tend to bring their prices down when surgeons go out for bid and become tougher negotiators in effort to get more of the “at risk” bundled payment for themselves rather than the device maker. (Bruce Japsen, 7/12)

The New York Times: The Inconceivable Success Of Obamacare
[T]he good news about Obamacare isn’t really debatable. It’s a simple fact that there has been a stunningly rapid drop in the number of uninsured, coming from multiple independent sources. It’s also a simple fact that outlays on Medicaid and exchange subsidies are coming in well below projections. ... But this wasn’t supposed to happen — and therefore, given the epistemology of the modern American right, it didn’t. Failure was inevitable, success inconceivable, and therefore failure must have happened. (Paul Krugman, 7/10)

Los Angeles Times: Obama's Contraceptive Mandate Still Rankles, But Why?
It's time for critics of the Obama administration's contraceptive mandate to drop the pretense. The fight is no longer about employers being required to pay for contraceptives, particularly "morning after" pills that some consider abortifacients. It's about employees being able to obtain them. The final rules released Friday, like the ones that have been in effect since last August, give religious-affiliated nonprofits and closely held for-profit firms an easy way to disassociate themselves completely from their employees' use of birth control. (Jon Healy, 7/11)

The Washington Post: What Denying Medicaid Expansion Looks Like
When the Virginia-Kentucky District Fair returned to Wise County recently, it brought funnel cakes and whole families smiling — a sight not too common here in the coalfields. This week, another gathering on the Wise County fairgrounds will see thousands of people standing in the bright summer sun: the 16th annual Remote Area Medical clinic. Some of those same families and their friends will be among those who travel to Wise not for fun rides or local band favorite Folk Soul Revival but for something lacking in this county, this state and this country: access to health care. (Matt Skeens, 7/10)

Albuquerque Journal: Medicaid A Big Plus For Tribal Health
Recently, there has been much discussion regarding funding of Medicaid Expansion programs in New Mexico. Very often missing from the discussion is how Medicaid is impacting tribal health programs and their primary health care delivery source, the Indian Health Service. ... If determined eligible, Medicaid provides free coverage to tribal members, is paid for by the federal government and increases access to health care providers outside of the Indian Health Service system. Medicaid Expansion is good for New Mexico, good for New Mexican tribes, good for Native Americans living in urban areas, costs the state nothing for tribal members and pours money into local economies. (Erik Lujan, 7/13)

The New York Times: Better Contraception For Young Women
Colorado has achieved remarkable reductions in the rate of teenage pregnancy in recent years by giving young women free, long-acting contraceptives that protect them for several years. The birthrate among teenagers in the state plummeted by 40 percent from 2009 to 2013 and teenage abortions dropped by 42 percent largely as a result of this initiative. ... Unfortunately, the private grant is running out and the department has been searching, so far unsuccessfully, for additional funds to keep the effort going. (7/13)

The Wall Street Journal: Government By The Pizza Slice
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday delayed rules requiring chain restaurants to post calorie counts on menus to help you make the hard call between a Whopper and double cheeseburger. The agency ordered more than it could eat, and it’s up to adults in Congress to fix the mess. (7/12)

The Wall Street Journal: YES: [A Tax On Sodas] Is an Effective Way to Cut Obesity And The Harm It Does
There is a long history of voters supporting taxes meant to protect health and to offset costs produced by products that can cause harm. It’s time to add sodas and sugary beverages to that list. ... Tobacco and alcohol taxes are now commonplace and are considered a permanent part of the public-health and economic picture. Soda taxes are likely to follow the same course and will provide considerable benefit in the U.S. and around the world. (Kelly Brownell, 7/13)

The Wall Street Journal: NO: The Health Benefits Are Far Less Than Claimed
Imposing a tax on sugary drinks is bad policy. It doesn’t solve the health problems it purports to address, creates new problems and leads to waste in the public sector. Just because the idea has gained traction among voters does not make it defensible. First and foremost, taxing sugary drinks does not reduce purchases enough to matter. Numerous studies find that consumption is persistent, despite higher taxes. (William Shughart II, 7/12)

The Detroit Free Press: Aging With Dignity Out Of Reach For Many In America
The White House Conference on Aging convenes Monday in Washington, providing a national opportunity to engage older adults, families, caregivers, advocates, community leaders and experts in the aging discussion. The dialogue comes at a crucial time for our country, as the U.S. population of older Americans is expected to double in the next 40 years. Our aging demographics have many wide-ranging implications affecting families, businesses, healthcare providers and communities. (Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., 7/11)

The New York Times: California’s Tough Vaccination Law
California sets a smart example for the nation by passing tough new laws that will require the vast majority of children in day care or kindergarten to be vaccinated against a slew of infectious diseases next year. The state will no longer grant exemptions based on a parent’s religious convictions or “personal belief” that vaccines might be harmful. It will only allow exemptions for children with medical conditions that make vaccination unsafe. This public health policy ought to be adopted by all states. (7/13)

The Kansas City Star: Kansas Invites Tragedy With An Inadequate Mental Health Network
The soul-searching over the dire implications of overcrowding at the Osawatomie State Hospital should extend to Kansas’ entire mental health system. Advocates argue convincingly that it is overburdened and underfunded at nearly all levels. A system that at one time was well regarded and innovative is staggering from high demand and too few resources. (7/11)

The Chicago Sun-Times: Brown: State's Waiting List Leaves Mentally Ill Woman Stuck In Jail
A month ago, I reported relief was in sight for a severely mentally ill woman being held at the Cook County Jail and in need of treatment. Unfortunately, it hasn’t arrived. On Friday, the Cook County public defender’s office filed a contempt motion against state mental health officials in hopes of getting an explanation for why they have yet to take custody of 41-year-old Veronica Gorlicki. (Mark Brown, 7/11)

Minneapolis Star Tribune: 'Death Panel' Lie Finally May Be Put To Rest With Medicare Change
It took more than five years, but the outbreak of “death panel” hysteria — a national embarrassment fueled by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin — finally appears to be ending. This week, the Obama administration again proposed expanding a compassionate, common-sense policy: having Medicare pay medical providers to advise patients on advance care planning. Medicare is the federal government’s health insurance program serving Americans age 65 and up. It is eminently reasonable to have elderly people think through end-of-life planning with trusted medical providers before a medical crisis occurs and family members must make rushed, anguished decisions about what their loved ones would have wanted. Anyone who has watched an older parent or other relative decline intuitively understands this. (7/10)

Raleigh News & Observer: Medicare’s Push For End-Of-Life Counseling Will Cut Costs And Help Patients
Many people who are terminally ill, or rendered helpless and virtually lifeless by injury, would if they could limit their end-of-life care and spare themselves the prolonging but ultimately hopeless treatments available with modern medical science. Doctors should be able to counsel them as to their alternatives while they are able to make decisions. That does not constitute a “death panel,” but rather a fully informed choice. Some people might choose to use every medical alternative available, and that ought to be their right. But others, realizing the treatment likely would not change outcomes, might decide to pass on some treatments. (7/12)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Commonsense Care: Medicare Will Pay Doctors For End-Of-Life Talks
Nearly six years have passed since former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin turned end-of-life counseling between doctors and patients into a toxic political football. ... Fortunately, the dark days of slandering commonsense counseling are over. Beginning on Jan. 1, 2016, doctors will be paid by Medicare to counsel patients about options involving end-of-life care. Counseling is entirely voluntary for patients. The assumption is that the more patients understand their options, the more likely medical costs will come down as patients opt out of expensive medical interventions that don’t add to the quality of their lives. The counseling helps discern what type of medical care patients want as they approach the end of their lives — the minimum to be made comfortable or all-out intervention at any cost. (7/12)

The New York Times: Aid-In-Dying Laws Are Just A Start
As Medicare’s announcement last week of plans to reimburse doctors for end-of-life discussions shows, a once hidden conversation about medical autonomy and the downsides of life-support technologies is exploding into the wider culture. In five states, medical aid in dying is now legal, and bills permitting it have been introduced in legislatures in more than half of the other states. As with same-sex marriage and marijuana, the question may be not whether the laws will change, but when. I support freedom of choice. But after shepherding my parents through their last years, I doubt that legalizing aid in dying alone will end the current epidemic of unnecessary deathbed suffering. (Katy Butler, 7/11)