The Associated Press: Medicaid Enrollment Surges, Stirs Worry About State Budgets
More than a dozen states that opted to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act have seen enrollments surge way beyond projections, raising concerns that the added costs will strain their budgets when federal aid is scaled back starting in two years. ... In Kentucky, for example, enrollments during the 2014 fiscal year were more than double the number projected, with almost 311,000 newly eligible residents signing up. That's greater than what was initially predicted through 2021. As a result, the state revised its Medicaid cost estimate from $33 million to $74 million for the 2017 fiscal year. By 2021, those costs could climb to a projected $363 million. (Cassidy, 7/19)

The Fiscal Times: The Great State Divide Over Expanded Medicaid
With Alaska Gov. Bill Walker’s decision late last week to unilaterally accept federal funds available to cover low-income people under the Affordable Care Act, three-fifths of all the states have now accepted expanded Medicaid benefits for their residents. Three years after the Supreme Court limited the expansion of Medicaid under President Obama’s health care reform law, the federal-state health program for the poor and disabled has evolved into a troubling dual system in which the availability of health care is being determined largely by the continued partisan divide over Obamacare and the geographic accident of where poor people happen to live. (Pianin, 7/19)

The Associated Press: NY Health Exchange Adds 1.1 Million To Medicaid
New York has added 1.1 million people to Medicaid since the state health exchange opened last year in the national effort to connect the uninsured with low-cost coverage. More than 6.2 million New Yorkers are now enrolled, almost one-third of its 19 million people. ... Medicaid in New York costs about $63.5 billion this year, almost half the state budget. That's up from $52.1 billion five years ago. However, the state's $22.5 billion share this year is flatter, up from $21.3 billion five years ago, according to budget officials. They cite higher federal reimbursements and frugal measures like a self-imposed spending cap and pushing patients into managed care. Enrollment is projected to rise to almost 6.5 million in 2019 at a state cost of $24.9 billion. (Virtanen, 7/19)

The Associated Press: A Look At The Numbers Around Ohio's Medicaid Expansion
Ohio is among a dozen states where enrollment has exceeded projections in the expansion of Medicaid under President Barack Obama's health care law. ... The state's share to cover those in the expanded Medicaid program in 2017 is more than twice what was projected, with officials now expecting to pay $130 million. But the Kasich administration contends the cost is more than offset by revenue generated from the Medicaid expansion population through an insurance tax and the state sales tax. It estimates that Ohio will see $301 million in tax revenue from the group in fiscal year 2017. (Sanner, 7/19)

The Associated Press: Medi-Cal Enrollment Surpasses Projections
California has enrolled 2.3 million people under an optional expansion of the state's Medicaid program -- nearly three times more than the state had anticipated, according to the state Department of Finance. ... Medi-Cal's rapid growth is now putting financial pressure on a state that was quick to embrace President Barack Obama's health care initiative. Five years ago, the program accounted for 14 percent of California's general fund. Today, Medi-Cal consumes 16 percent. In that time, the overall cost of the program has jumped to $115.4 billion from $91.5 billion, although much of the extra funding is supplied by the federal government. California officials say the decision to expand has injected billions of federal dollars into the state's economy, and they say the state is prepared to handle the additional costs through long-term budgeting and better coordination with other social programs. (Lin, 7/19)

The Associated Press: Minnesota Health Care Programs Mute Medicaid Expansion Costs
The budget implications of expanding Medicaid aren’t hitting Minnesota as hard as other states. ... Minnesota estimates growing enrollment of childless adults will result in a $15 million higher bill in the 2017 fiscal year. (7/19)

The Associated Press: Nevada Expects To Spend More On Medicaid Than Planned
State officials say 181,051 people are now receiving benefits as a direct result of [Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval's] decision, which extends Medicaid eligibility to all non-disabled adults with incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level — currently $16,243 for an individual. That's well over the 144,340 new enrollees that state officials expected to have by this time when they were making the decision in 2012. ... The overrun means Nevada expects to spend $22.6 million in state general funds for new Medicaid enrollees in fiscal year 2017, rather than the $8.5 million it projected. (7/19)

The Associated Press: Massachusetts Predicts Net Savings For Medicaid Expansion
Many states that opted to expand Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act have seen enrollments surge well beyond projections .... But Massachusetts, a pioneer of health care reform, appears well situated going forward. ... In the state fiscal year that ended June 30, estimated spending for the Medicaid expansion population came to about $1.7 billion before federal matching funds. The state budget for the new fiscal year is $38.1 billion .... State health officials say that when the federal matching funds and savings from consolidating other state health coverage into Medicaid is factored in, Massachusetts will realize a net state savings for its Medicaid expansion. (7/19)

The Associated Press: Medicaid Expansion Booming In W.Va.
West Virginia has already boomed past the extra 93,000 people the state expected to enroll by 2020 under a Medicaid expansion plan ushered in by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin in 2013. More than 164,400 people are now receiving insurance from the widely used expansion. But that won't necessarily mean the state will be footing more of the bill than it first expected. ... Even though enrollment in West Virginia exceeded projections, actual costs are expected to meet the estimates due to lower per-person costs, said Jeremiah Samples, deputy secretary of the state's Department of Health and Human Resources. An update on anticipated 2017 state costs is still in the works. (7/20)

The Associated Press: Maryland Medicaid Expansion Much Higher Than Forecast
Maryland is one of more than a dozen states where new Medicaid enrollees under President Barack Obama’s health care law have surpassed initial projects, though state analysts say Maryland is actually spending less on its Medicaid population because federal health care reform is covering 100,000 people who used to get health care paid entirely by the state. ... It’s expected that Medicaid will take up an increasingly larger percentage of the state budget moving forward. The state has found alternative revenue sources to reduce pressure on the state budget. Maryland has significantly increased provider taxes on hospital and nursing homes in recent years, and the state has continued to rely on other state funds sources to alleviate Maryland’s reliance on general funds. (Witte, 7/19)

The Associated Press: N.H. Medicaid Enrollment Surging
In New Hampshire, state officials had estimated that there would be 34,000 new enrollees in the first year. Instead, it came close to that number in the first six months, and as of June 30, there were 41,018 new enrollees, according the state Department of Health and Human Services. New Hampshire’s Gov. Maggie Hassan included $12 million for Medicaid in her state budget for fiscal years 2016 and 2017, assuming the expansion would be reauthorized once the federal government, now paying 100 percent of the costs, starts lowering its share. But after lawmakers said they would rather wait until next year to debate whether to continue the program, Hassan vetoed the Legislature’s $11.3 billion budget proposal, and the state is now operating under a six-month temporary spending plan that keeps funding at existing levels. (Ramer, 7/20)

The Associated Press: A Look At The Medicaid Expansion In New Jersey
More people have taken advantage of the expanded eligibility for Medicaid than New Jersey expected. A state-commissioned Rutgers University study had anticipated 234,000 more people on Medicaid. In May, the number of newly eligible people in the program was nearly 383,000. The state says it expects the enrollment to continue to grow and that its share of the cost next year will be $162 million. ... In the budget, the state cut charity aid to hospitals for providing care to uninsured patients to $502 million from $650 million, saying the Medicaid expansion was responsible for about half of the reduction. That cut alone would pay for most of the state’s costs next year for the expanded Medicaid program. (Mulvihill, 7/19)

The Associated Press: Oregon Underestimated Medicaid Expansion Price Tag
The Health Plan is Oregon's Medicaid program, and as hundreds of thousands of people became newly eligible last year under President Barack Obama's health care law, most of them signed up. In the first year, enrollment was 73 percent higher than anticipated, according to data from the Oregon Health Authority. ... [A] 2013 report estimated that the Medicaid expansion would cost the state $217 million in the 2017-2019 biennium, the first full two-year budget cycle in which the state begins shouldering some of the costs. The Oregon Health Authority now projects it will cost $369 million, about 70 percent more. (Cooper, 7/19)

The Associated Press: In Illinois, Medicaid Expansion Sign-Ups Double Predictions
More than twice as many Illinois residents have enrolled under the expansion than was projected by former Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn's administration. It expected 298,000 people to sign up in 2015, but 623,000 newly eligible Illinoisans enrolled by the end of June. ... In 2020, the Medicaid expansion will cost the state $208.6 million and Cook County $72.6 million, according to new projections from Gov. Bruce Rauner's administration. That year, the federal government's share of the Medicaid expansion costs will be $3.03 billion. "These impending added costs are one more reason Illinois needs to control the reckless spending of the past right now," Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services spokesman John Hoffman said in an emailed statement. (Johnson, 7/19)

The Associated Press: Rise In Medicaid Enrollment May Squeeze Michigan Budget
Enrollment in Michigan's expanded Medicaid program is a quarter higher today than what officials thought it would be five years from now, which will squeeze the budget starting in 2017. Gov. Rick Snyder's administration initially estimated 477,000 enrollees by 2020. But 600,000 have signed up more than 15 months after the Medicaid expansion launched. Officials expect enrollment to hover there in the future. ... The Snyder administration estimates roughly $120 million in additional budget costs over four years due to the higher-than-expected enrollment, but says insuring more people will minimize uncompensated care costs and save money across the health system. (Eggert, 7/19)

The Associated Press: Medicaid Expansion Could Save Montana $11.5 Million In First 2 Years
If implemented as soon as November, the costs of expansion in fiscal year 2016 and 2017 would be covered by the federal government. State funds would be needed for portions of the program, but they would be offset by federal dollars that are projected to save Montana about $11.5 million during that time, according to officials. ... In fiscal years 2018 and 2019, Montana would incur costs from Medicaid expansion as contributions from the federal government gradually decrease to 90 percent. Montana's cost has been projected at about $10 million in 2018, rising to about $17 million the following year. (Baumann, 7/19)

The Associated Press: Projected, Actual Enrollment For Medicaid Expansion States
This table contains projected and actual enrollment figures for the newly eligible Medicaid population in the 30 states and the District of Columbia that have opted to expand the program under the federal Affordable Care Act. (7/19)

The Associated Press: An Explanation Of Medicaid And Its Expansion In Some States
Some answers to common questions about Medicaid and the program's expansion under the federal health care reform law. (7/19)

Salt Lake City Tribune: Breakthrough — Utah GOP Leaders Reach A Deal On Medicaid Expansion
Republican leaders have agreed to a broad, conceptual framework for expanding Medicaid to insure tens of thousands of low-income Utahns with a plan that would call on medical providers to pay for the new health coverage. The so-called Gang of Six — Gov. Gary Herbert, Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, House Speaker Greg Hughes, House Majority Leader Jim Dunnigan and Sen. Brian Shiozawa — huddled this week constructing the skeleton of a new Medicaid plan to replace the governor's Healthy Utah and the House's Utah Cares proposals. On Friday, they announced their agreement, saying it was sustainable and would protect other key areas of the budget. (Gehrke, 7/17)

Deseret News: 'Conceptual Framework' On Medicaid Expansion Announced
Just days after House Republicans heard a woman who had lobbied them for Medicaid expansion died after not getting the care she needed, state leaders have announced a "conceptual framework" on a new program. ... They came to at least a conceptual agreement on two key issues: covering all of the Utahns eligible for Medicaid expansion and taxing hospitals and others in the medical community to pay for the state's share of the federal program's cost. That would mean a new plan for spending hundreds of millions of dollars available to the state would provide health care to about 100,000 Utahns earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. (Riley Roche, 7/17)

Fairbanks News-Miner: Medicaid Expansion Forecast To Add Thousands Of Jobs
The state estimates that more than 4,000 new jobs will be created throughout Alaska to serve the new enrollees. Those jobs largely will focus on the healthcare industry, state officials said, but will include construction, hospitality and other fields. The state estimates that of the people who will become Medicaid eligible when expansion goes into effect by Sept. 1 about 5,000 live in the Interior. (Buxton, 7/18)

Los Angeles Times: Healthcare Law Helps Sickest Americans — Depending On Their State
Every year, thousands of people like Blanca Guerra call the National Cancer Information Center, desperate to find some kind of health insurance. Guerra rang recently from her home in Arizona, seeking help for her older brother, who had just been diagnosed with advanced stage colorectal cancer. A few years ago, the call center would have had few solutions. (Levey, 7/19)

The Associated Press: Tribes Push To End Affordable Care Act Coverage Requirement
Representatives of several Indian tribes say they support legislation introduced by congressional Republicans this week that would exempt tribes nationwide from being classified as large employers under the federal Affordable Care Act — a designation that requires tribes to pay higher insurance costs or face federal penalties. Supporters say requiring tribes to provide group insurance for tribal employees serves to shift the costs of implementing the Affordable Care Act from the federal government to the tribes. People who register for individual coverage under the act may qualify for federal tax credits, but that option's not available to those who work for designated large employers. (7/17)

Politico Pro: State-Run Exchanges Using HealthCare.Gov Await Bill From CMS
The handful of state-run exchanges relying on HealthCare.gov for enrollment have had a pretty good deal so far — they’re using the federal technology platform at no cost after their own websites broke. But with the free ride soon coming to an end, officials from those states are offering a clear message for CMS: Don’t make us pay too much, and let us figure out where the money will come from. (Pradhan, 7/17)

USA Today: Theranos Gets Nod From FDA For Possible In-Home Testing
A few weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration granted approval to Theranos' innovative finger-prick method, which requires mere drops of blood as opposed to vials to run complex tests. The agency also specifically gave its blessing to Theranos' test for the herpes simplex 1 virus. But on Thursday, the FDA gave [company founder Elizabeth] Holmes yet another thumbs up that could radically expand the company's business potential. By granting Theranos the right to conduct that herpes test outside of a lab - a so-called CLIA waiver - the FDA is giving the Palo Alto-based startup the green light to offer consumers even greater flexibility and itself a broader revenue stream. (della Cava, 7/17)

Reuters: Xerox To Revamp Healthcare Business, Book Charge
Xerox Corp said it would revamp its healthcare IT business and record a related impairment charge of about $145 million in the second quarter. ... The healthcare business provides administrative and care management solutions to state Medicaid programs and government healthcare programs. (7/17)

The Wall Street Journal CIO Journal: Health Care Software Maker Intermedix Names Jack Hemmert CIO In Analytics Push
Jack Hemmert has been hired as the first CIO of Intermedix Corp., which provides sales management and analytics software for health-care providers, corporations and government agencies. Mr. Hemmert, formerly CIO of Verisk Health, reports to CEO Joel Portice. Mr. Hemmert will work to expand the company’s technology and data analytics initiatives. He will establish IT culture and practices centered around Agile software development, with an emphasis on collaboration with business partners to accelerate growth. (Boulton, 7/17)

NPR: Siren Song Of Tech Lures New Doctors Away From Medicine
Just a stone's throw from UCSF Medical Center, a small group of entrepreneurs at Rock Health, a business accelerator program that is now a venture firm, were thinking about how to shake up the health care process with technology. These startups were developing new wearable devices and mobile apps to help patients take more control of their own health. The timing was right to bring new ideas to the sector. By 2012, hospitals around the country were rapidly moving away from paper-based medical records to electronic systems, a first step to moving health care into the digital age. Angelotti graduated the following year, but she didn't apply for any residency programs. Instead, she went to work at Rock Health as a researcher and writer and later joined the medical review site Iodine, one of an exploding number of digital health startups in San Francisco. (Farr, 7/19)

The Associated Press: Spin Meter: Sketchy Claims For High-Tech Health Fraud Buster
Medicare says its computerized fraud prevention system worked like a cybercharm last year, identifying $454 million in problematic payments and generating a financial return for the taxpayer of $10 for every dollar spent. But you can't take that to the bank: Most of the savings claimed by the Obama administration are unlikely to be realized, the Health and Human Services inspector general's office said in its own recent analysis. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/20)

The Hill: Spotlight Falls On O-Care Fraud
A watchdog report on fictitious people signing up for ObamaCare has put renewed attention on the potential for fraud and abuse in the system. Congressional Republicans, who have long warned about a lack of safeguards in ObamaCare, pounced on Wednesday as the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) released the results of an investigation that found 11 of 12 fabricated people were able to enroll in coverage through the federal marketplace. (Sullivan, 7/19)

The Associated Press: VA Problems Mount As Missteps Continue
The Department of Veterans Affairs faces a serious numbers problem — multiple in fact. It can't count how many veterans died while waiting to sign up for health care. It says some VA hospitals may have to close if the agency can't get $2.5 billion. And a year after scandal rocked the department, congressional Republicans want to know why the number of employees fired is so low. (Daly, 7/17)

The New York Times: Hillary Clinton Criticizes Republicans In Arkansas Homecoming
Mr. Beebe, the popular Democratic governor who left office last year due to term limits, called the 2014 midterm elections “a huge sea change” and said Mrs. Clinton’s speech “revitalizes a lot of folks.” Despite the turn away from Democratic candidates in Arkansas, voters here have embraced some of the party’s policies including a minimum wage increase and a private-option health insurance program. “I am well aware that here in Arkansas last year was a hard one for Democrats,” Mrs. Clinton said. “But don’t forget, voters did come out and pass an increase in the minimum wage, Arkansas voters know pay checks need to grow.” (Chozick, 7/19)

Politico: Hillary: I'm 'Examining' Obamacare's Cadillac Tax
In her highly anticipated speech on the economy Monday, Hillary Clinton was heavy on rhetoric and short on specifics, promising to reveal her actual policy proposals in the weeks ahead. But this week, she also dropped a not-so-subtle hint about a big one. In a questionnaire for the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which endorsed her this week, Clinton noted that the so-called “Cadillac tax” levied under Obamacare is one area she is “examining.” (Vinik, 7/19)

The Associated Press: Jeb Bush: Arrogance And Incompetence Accepted In DC
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who pursued an aggressive agenda when he was Florida’s governor for eight years, returns to the state capital on Monday where he plans to outline his top domestic priorities if elected. ... It’s not surprising that Bush would begin rolling out a series of policies even as the field for president continues to grow. Before he ran for president he constantly urged other Republicans to offer up alternatives to Democratic-backed ideas like President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul instead of just opposing them. (Fineout, 7/20)

Reuters: Ahead Of Alzheimer’s Meeting, Researchers Seize On Signs Of Progress
After decades of Alzheimer’s research that led to dead ends, including 123 drugs that failed, top researchers in the field say they are far more confident now of producing an effective treatment. Their optimism has been building ahead of the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC), which starts on Saturday in Washington, DC. New experimental drugs from Eli Lilly and Co and Biogen have shown promise in slowing down the progression of the mind-wasting disease, attracting the attention of investors and patients. Those drugs are still very early in their development and could still join the scrap heap. But the field has gained a major understanding of how the brain changes with Alzheimer’s and better insight on how and when to intervene medically. (Berkrot and Pierson, 7/18)

NPR: Alzheimer's Drugs In The Works Might Help Other Diseases, Too
Efforts to find a treatment for Alzheimer's disease have been disappointing so far. But there's a new generation of drugs in the works that researchers think might help not only Alzheimer's patients, but also people with Parkinson's disease and other brain disorders. Previous efforts to treat Alzheimer's have focused on a single target — usually the protein called beta-amyloid, says Maria Carrillo, chief science officer of the Alzheimer's Association. "The one-target approach is probably not going to be the answer," Carrillo says. (Hamilton, 7/19)

The Washington Post: Saliva Seen As Possible Diagnostic Tool For Alzheimer’s Disease
Your spit might just reveal whether you’re a likely candidate for developing Alzheimer’s disease. That at least is the hope of Canadian researchers whose study suggests that analyzing certain chemical compounds in saliva could provide a cheap, noninvasive way to learn whether the brain has begun to undergo the changes that culminate in loss of memory and cognitive function. (Kunkle, 7/19)

The Associated Press: California Universities Battle Over Alzheimer’s Research
One university’s effort to poach a star faculty member at another Southern California university has devolved into a legal battle that some fear may impede Alzheimer’s disease research. The University of California, San Diego, has filed a lawsuit over last month’s defection of Alzheimer’s disease expert Paul Aisen and other employees to the University of Southern California, which has worked to bolster its reputation in medicine and sciences and has offered lucrative compensation packages to public university faculty. (7/19)

Los Angeles Times: UCLA Health System Data Breach Affects 4.5 Million Patients
Marking another high-profile data breach, hackers broke into UCLA Health System's computer network and may have accessed sensitive information on as many as 4.5 million patients, hospital officials said. This cyberattack at UCLA comes on the heels of a major breach of federal employee records and a massive hack at health insurance giant Anthem Inc. affecting 80 million Americans this year. (Terhune, 7/17)

The Associated Press: Major Cyberattack Targets UCLA Hospital System
The FBI said in a statement that the agency was looking into the nature and scope of the cyberattack, as well as the person or group responsible. University of California President Janet Napolitano ordered an outside cybersecurity group to assess the computer security system throughout the UC system and look for potential vulnerabilities. (7/17)

Reuters: UCLA Health Says It Was Victim Of Criminal Cyber Attack
University of California (UCLA) Health, which runs four hospitals in the university's campuses, said its computer systems had been hacked and that data on as many as 4.5 million individuals could have been involved in the cyber attack. UCLA Health said on Friday it was working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and private computer forensic experts to look into the attack. (7/17)

NPR: UCLA Health Says 4.5M May Be Affected In Data Breach
UCLA Health says it was a victim of a criminal cyberattack that affected as many as 4.5 million people. UCLA Health, in a statement Friday, said attackers accessed parts of the computer network that contain personal and medical information, but there is no evidence they "actually accessed or acquired any individual's personal or medical information." The statement said UCLA Health is working with the FBI and has hired private computer forensic experts to help in the investigation. (Calamur, 7/17)

USA Today: Hack At UCLA Health Could Involve 4.5M People
However, there is "no evidence at this time that the cyber attacker actually accessed or acquired any individual's personal or medical information," said UCLA Health, a medical system that includes four hospitals and over 150 offices in southern California. That seems unlikely, said Stephen Newman, CTO of Damballa, an Atlanta-based computer security company. "Though UCLA Health says there was no evidence that personal and medical information was taken, time will tell for sure," he said. "Once criminals have unfettered access to a network, they have many ways to remove data." Health care networks are juicy targets for hackers, said Gavin Reid, vice president of threat intelligence for Lancope, an Alpharetta, Ga.-based company. (Weise, 7/19)

Los Angeles Times: UCLA Hack Q&A: What You Need To Know
Up to 4.5 million people may have had their medical information stolen in a recent cyberattack on the UCLA Health System. Here is what you need to know. (Shively, 7/17)

In related news -

Marketplace: Blue Cross Blue Shield Will Offer Credit Protection
Earlier this year, hackers broke into the database for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield – one of the nation’s largest insurers. The bad guys made off with personal information of nearly 80 million consumers. By the start of next year, Blue Cross Blue Shield plans will offer credit monitoring and fraud detection to most of their collective 106 million members. The company's senior vice president of operations and chief information officer, Doug Porter, says Blue Cross Blue Shield is making a major investment. (Gorenstein, 7/20)

Miami Herald: Florida Says Privatizing Medicaid Cut Costs, But Insurers Say They’re Underpaid By State
In less than a year, Florida’s switch to privately managed healthcare for more than 3 million poor, disabled and elderly residents has achieved one of its primary goals: cutting costs for Medicaid, the public health insurance program for low-income people that accounted for roughly one-fifth or about $9.5 billion of state spending last year. But the savings may be short lived after the private companies that took over insuring Florida’s Medicaid patients asked for a mid-year raise of nearly $400 million. (Chang, 7/17)

The Des Moines Register: Registry Aims To Ease Search For Mental Health Care
State administrators will soon launch a computerized system designed to track the availability of psychiatric beds throughout Iowa. The registry is supposed to allow emergency department staffers, social workers and other professionals to see if any of the approximately 700 psychiatric beds in Iowa are open. (Leys, 7/19)

Reuters: D.C. Medicaid Recipients May Have Right To More Due Process - Court
Medicaid recipients in Washington, D.C., may be entitled to an explanation and written notice of their right to request a hearing whenever their claim for prescription-drug coverage is denied, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday. The decision revives part of a potential class action that was filed five years ago in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The nine named plaintiffs said they had tried to fill prescriptions at area pharmacies, but the District of Columbia and its third-party Medicaid administrator, Xerox, refused to authorize payment, did not tell them why or that they could request a hearing to challenge the denial. (Grzincic, 7/17)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Could An Aetna-Humana Merger Help Control Costs In Western Pa.?
Consumer advocates worry that merging Aetna and Humana into the country’s second-largest health insurer might encourage near monopolies, regional hot spots where the companies could dominate pricing and access to care. But the opposite could be true in Western Pennsylvania, where the proposed merger could help control costs and deliver new coverage options for more than 400,000 senior citizens on Medicare Advantage, industry observers said. (Smeltz, 7/19)

The Sacramento Bee: County Receives Big Money For Mental Health Services, Facilities
After suffering major cuts during the last recession, Sacramento County’s mental health programs are finally bouncing back with an influx of state money that will more than double the number of beds for people needing crisis mental health care. (Caiola, 7/18)

The San Jose Mercury News: Daughters Of Charity Health System Selects Hedge Fund As New Investor
The 19-month saga of the struggling Daughters of Charity Health System took an unexpected turn Friday after the nonprofit hospital chain announced that it will be financed by an East Coast hedge fund. (Seipel, 7/17)

Albuquerque Journal: County Officials Pleased By MDC Medicaid Enrollment
Bernalillo County officials learned that 58 percent of inmates at the Metropolitan Detention Center were enrolled in Medicaid during a one-day “snapshot” of the jail’s population last month, said Tom Swisstack, deputy county manager for public safety. The finding is good news for the county, which is developing a pilot program to enroll all eligible inmates in Medicaid, he said. The ultimate goal is to prevent inmates from returning to jail by enrolling them in medical, mental health and substance abuse services from the day they leave custody, Swisstack said. (Uyttebrouck, 7/20)

The Texas Tribune: Private Equity Firms Fishing in Texas Medical Waters
Sensing a new vein of potential profits to be mined in the multibillion-dollar health care industry, a small but growing number of private equity firms is seeking to buy into primary care practices, interviews with doctors and financial analysts suggest. Policy shifts in the way public programs like Medicare pay for care, financial factors such as low interest rates and changing employment preferences among young doctors are aligning to intrigue investors, experts said. (Walters, 7/18)

The Wall Street Journal: What’s Blocking Consensus On Health Care
Ideally, states function as laboratories of democracy, and one state’s experiments can spark broader national trends. But when it comes to health care, the administration and Obamacare are offering little flexibility to states whose leaders have differing philosophical objectives. This suggests that, at least in the near term, bipartisan health experiments will remain an elusive goal. (Chris Jacobs, 7/17)

Bloomberg: Nuns Are Obamacare's Latest Victim
A group of Catholic nuns, the Little Sisters of the Poor, wants relief from the Affordable Care Act's mandate that it offer contraceptive coverage to its employees. The nuns lost a court case this week -- and everyone who cares about religious freedom should be troubled by the reasons why. (Ramesh Ponnuru, 7/17)

The New York Times: How Not To Fix The F.D.A.
A bill passed by the House and ostensibly designed to streamline the Food and Drug Administration is loaded with bad provisions and may not even be necessary. The Senate should either eliminate or rewrite the flawed provisions before passing its version of the legislation. (7/20)

The Wall Street Journal: A Not-So-Transparent Attempt To Cap Drug Prices
At the dawn of the 20th century, life expectancy in the United States was 47 years. Today, it’s 79. Two decades ago, a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS or hepatitis C was a death sentence. The mortality rate from AIDS has since dropped 85%, to fewer than 7,000 deaths a year from 44,000. Hepatitis C cure rates have reached 90%. These stunning improvements are the result of medical and scientific advances. If they continue, we could someday solve the riddle of such scourges as Alzheimer’s and cancer. Why, then, are some people so willing to jeopardize if not halt this progress? It’s a question that those who seek to vilify pharmaceutical companies need to answer. (Robert A. Ingram, 7/19)

The Washington Post: Walker, Kasich And The GOP’s Midwest Bracket
Republicans won’t win the presidency in 2016 without making inroads in the Midwest. Happily for the GOP, two Midwestern governors are running for their party’s nomination. ... The former fought to have his state accept the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion. He made his case on moral grounds, ... The latter adamantly opposed expanding Medicaid under the ACA, and his speeches are compendiums of every right-wing bromide party activists demand. ... You have no doubt figured out that I’m talking about John Kasich of Ohio, who is expected to announce his candidacy on Tuesday, and Scott Walker of Wisconsin. It’s telling about the contemporary Republican party: Kasich would probably be the better bet in the general election but barely registers in the surveys, while Walker has the better chance of winning the nomination. (E.J.Dionne Jr., 7/19)

Fox News: Justice Roberts' Obamacare Ruling Could Be Boon For Congressional Republicans
Supreme Court Justice John Roberts infuriated conservatives when he wrote the recent opinion to uphold ObamaCare. But secretly, many Republicans in Congress are thanking Roberts from saving conservatives from themselves. And if they aren’t sending him balloons and flowers now, they may do so by the end of the year. (Pergram, 7/19)

The Washington Post: A Troubling Fiscal Outlook
Data in the [White House’s annual budget update] show the federal government is on course to record a $455 billion budget deficit this year, which is $128 billion less than the Obama administration had projected six months ago. ... Here’s the problem: This year’s progress is likely to get canceled out later on. The same White House report projects no real improvement in the long-term fiscal outlook, and indeed foresees a slight deterioration. ... These stubbornly high levels of public debt, and the prospect of truly uncontrolled debt in the years beyond 2025, reflect the lack of fundamental reform to U.S. entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. President Obama may be able to boast about lower deficits on his watch, but not his avoidance of this issue. (7/18)

The New York Times: Psychiatry’s Identity Crisis
American psychiatry is facing a quandary: Despite a vast investment in basic neuroscience research and its rich intellectual promise, we have little to show for it on the treatment front. With few exceptions, every major class of current psychotropic drugs — antidepressants, antipsychotics, anti-anxiety medications — basically targets the same receptors and neurotransmitters in the brain as did their precursors, which were developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Sure, the newer drugs are generally safer and more tolerable than the older ones, but they are no more effective. (Richard A. Friedman, 7/17)

The New York Times: Every Drug Court Should Allow Methadone Treatment
When an old offense caught up with 28-year-old Robert Lepolszki last year, he had a full-time job and had kicked heroin. But Frank Gulotta Jr., the Nassau County judge assigned to his case, forced him to end the only treatment that had ever worked: methadone maintenance. Judge Gulotta said that methadone does not enable a defendant “to actually rid him or herself of the addiction.” Complete abstinence programs were the only treatments his court allowed. Not long after stopping the medication, Mr. Lepolszki was dead from an overdose. The judge’s position on methadone is common among those who administer drug courts, which are aimed at helping defendants get treatment and avoid prison. (Maia Szalavitz, 7/20)

Los Angeles Times: When Screening Is Bad For A Woman's Health
If you haven't gotten this message already, you should heed it now: The benefits of screening for breast cancer are limited. We should be doing fewer screening mammograms, not more. The data that support this conclusion come from studying the effects of mammography across time and place. A couple of years ago an Oregon colleague and I reported on the effect across time. We found that the initiation of widespread screening in the United States during the 1980s was associated with a substantial increase in the number of women found with early-stage breast cancer, but it didn't yield much of a decrease in the number found with serious late-stage cancer. And, remarkably, no change in the worst stage: The number diagnosed with life-threatening metastatic breast cancer didn't decrease. (H. Gilbert Welch, 7/19)

The Washington Post: I’m Disabled. Can NIH Spare A Few Dimes?
I don't enjoy being a drain on society, and neither do any of the other ME patients I know. And with the ever-growing research interest in ME, I have hope that someday I'll be able to stand for more than a few minutes, walk for more than a block or two, maybe even resume my career. (It took me four days, with frequent breaks, to write this letter - that's a bit slow for newspaper work.) The causes of ME will eventually be discovered, treatments will be found and patients will enjoy long-term remissions. As the leader of our nation's medical research enterprise, you have a decision to make: Do you want the NIH to be part of these solutions, or will the nation's medical research agency continue to be part of the problem? At the very least, you could ensure that Dr. Lipkin doesn't have to scorch his intestinal tract again just to drum up a few research dollars. (Brian Vastag, 7/20)

USA Today: How To Aid The ADA
Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Hailed as the greatest piece of civil rights legislation since the 1964 Civil Rights Act — an "emancipation proclamation" for people with disabilities — the ADA had profound material and psychological impacts, from removing physical barriers to increasing public awareness of the plight of the disabled. When President George H.W. Bush signed the ADA into law in 1990, he referred to it as "the world's first comprehensive declaration of equality for people with disabilities." But 25 years later, the United States has fallen behind other nations when it comes to how we treat people with disabilities. (David Pettinicchio, 7/19)

Philadelphia Inquirer: Medicare At 50: Is Privatization The Way To Go?
Fifty years ago this month, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a law to give American seniors something they had never before had - guaranteed access to affordable health care. We asked the health-policy experts who write for the Field Clinic blog at Philly.com for their thoughts on Medicare at 50, especially as pressures grow to privatize this popular program further. (7/19)

Los Angeles Times: Will A Hedge Fund Make A Better Savior For Daughters' Hospitals?
When Prime Healthcare Services dropped its bid to rescue the six floundering Daughters of Charity Health System hospitals, pundits raised two questions: Did Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris put the kibosh on the deal by demanding too much from Prime? Or is it just not possible to preserve a struggling hospital chain that caters to the poor in this state? We'll get the answers to both questions soon enough. (Jon Healey, 7/17)