CBS News: Washington Tinkers With Obamacare Amid Mixed Results For Health Law
More than four years after the law's passage, Republicans are as insistent as ever that Obamacare is destined to fail. Illustrating their commitment to taking down the law, the GOP-led House on Thursday is voting on a bill that would make a major adjustment to the Affordable Care Act. (Condon, 1/8)

The Wall Street Journal: House Moves To Change Full-Time Work To 40 Hours In Health Law
The House is expected to move Thursday to loosen the rules for when employers must offer workers health insurance by changing the health law’s definition of a full-time worker, reopening a debate over whether the legislation is hurting the labor market. The bill is expected to easily pass in the Republican-dominated lower chamber, where GOP leaders have made it a top priority in seeking to strip the Affordable Care Act piece by piece. That would set up a longer fight in the Senate, where Republicans have 54 seats and would need six more votes to overcome a filibuster. (Radnofsky and Zumbrun, 1/7)

NPR: Congressional Republicans Take Another Swing At Obamacare
The House will debate, and likely pass a bill, that would make a change in the Affordable Care Act. It would raise the law's definition of full-time work from 30 hours to 40 hours a week. (Ydstie, 1/8)

USA Today: Bill On Full-Time Workweek Sets Up White House Showdown
Indiana GOP Rep. Todd Young, the lead sponsor of the bill the House will vote on, and Indiana Sen. Joe Donnelly, the top Democratic sponsor of the Senate's version, say their proposals would restore the traditional definition of a full-time job to 40 hours a week instead of the 30-hour threshold included in the Affordable Care Act. Employers with at least 50 full-time workers must offer health care or face potential penalties under the law. (Groppe, 1/7)

Politico: Workweek Bill Is First GOP Senate Test On Obamacare
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said making the switch from 30 to 40 hours is at the top of the GOP’s Obamacare priorities, along with repealing a tax on the medical-device industry. But an immediate slam dunk could prove elusive. Lobbyists backing the workweek bill said they haven’t yet lined up the 60 votes — including at least six Democrats, who would have to cross party lines despite the renewed White House veto threat — needed to bring the measure to the Senate floor. (Norman and Pradhan, 1/8)

The Hill: Senate Health Panel Takes Up 40-hour Week
The Senate committee on health will devote one of its first hearings of the new Congress to a GOP-led bill aimed at weakening ObamaCare’s employer mandate, its chairman announced Wednesday. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who cosponsored the bill, said he will hold a hearing this month to highlight ways the employer mandate’s definition of a 30-hour work week has “made it harder” for American businesses to stay afloat. (Ferris, 1/7)

Connecticut Mirror: Obamacare Mandate Hits Some CT Firms Harder Than Others
Connecticut businesses must begin complying with the Affordable Care Act this year, but the new Republican-led Congress is trying to blunt the impact. Most efforts to change the ACA, however, will put Congress at loggerheads with the White House. (Radelat, 1/8)

In other action on Capitol Hill -

Politico Pro: Bill To Repeal Medical Device Tax Introduced
Lawmakers took the first stab in the new Congress to repeal a tax on medical devices on Wednesday — but the bill has a ways to go before it becomes the latest casualty in the Affordable Care Act. (Snell, 1/7)

The Washington Post's Wonkblog: Social Security Disability Payments Could Be Cut By A Fifth Without New Action
On the first day of the new Congress, Republicans symbolically bound themselves to what is certain to be a controversial reform of the federal disability insurance program, which would probably occur near the height of the 2016 presidential campaign. Social Security has two components, the disability insurance program and the much larger Old Age and Survivors Insurance program, for which almost all Americans become fully eligible when they reach retirement age. Congress has historically treated them as one system, moving money between one pot and the other if one is running short on funds and the other has plenty of money. That's the situation now, as the disability pot is expected to be empty late next year. There is enough money in the larger pot to last until 2034, or to keep both programs solvent through 2033, according to the Social Security Administration. (Ehrenfreund, 1/7)

The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: New GOP Contract: Restore Americans’ Trust
Launched by the 2014 midterm elections, the new GOP majority is setting out to build the Keystone XL pipeline, expand trade and tinker with the health-care law–serious goals but more like a to-do list than a manifesto. Indeed, more than any particular policy aim, Republicans’ overriding goal for this year is about confidence-building: Restoring voters’ trust in Congress and in the GOP. (Hook, 1/7)

The Associated Press: Obama Issues 3 Veto Threats In 2 Days
The White House threatened more vetoes Wednesday against top-priority legislation of the two-day-old Republican-controlled Congress, and GOP leaders said they intend to keep challenging President Barack Obama to sign early measures that demonstrate bipartisan support. "We're calling on the president to ignore the voices of reaction and join us," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said as he and Speaker John Boehner lined up legislation to approve the Keystone XL oil pipeline, make changes to the health care law they also have vowed to repeal, and delay a key provision of a 2010 financial regulation law. (1/7)

The Associated Press: Health Insurance Sign-ups Making Steady Gain
Sign-ups under President Barack Obama's health care law grew slowly but steadily over the New Year's holiday, as the share of Americans still lacking coverage hit its lowest level in years. The Obama administration reported Wednesday that nearly 103,000 people signed up last week in the 37 states where the federal government is running online health insurance markets, bringing total enrollment for 2015 to 6.6 million in those states. The remaining states are running their own exchanges. Meanwhile, a new Gallup survey found that 12.9 percent of the adult population remained without coverage in the last three months of 2014, the lowest share since the pollster began daily tracking of the uninsured in 2008, before Obama took office. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 12/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Small Businesses Snub Health Exchanges For Coverage
Some small-business owners are snubbing the new health-insurance exchanges, operating under the Small Business Health Options Program, citing limited federal tax credits and a small menu of insurance offerings in a few states, companies and health-insurance brokers said. (Janofsky, 1/7)

Minnesota Public Radio: MNsure Gets Extra $34M From Feds For Upgrades
Minnesota's health insurance exchange will receive up to $34 million from the federal government to accelerate software development and improve consumer assistance. MNsure has received nearly $190 million from the federal government. (Zdechlik, 1/7)

Minneapolis Star-Tribune: MNsure Gets Another $34 Million In Federal Money
The federal government is providing another $34 million for work on the MNsure health insurance exchange — a move that was cheered on Wednesday by supporters of the government-run marketplace, and derided by critics as a bailout. (Snowbeck, 1/7)

Heartland Health Monitor: Company Chosen As ACA ‘Navigator’ In KCMO Faces Criticism
A Maryland company that has reaped millions of dollars in federal health reform grants for work across the country is drawing fire for its performance in the Kansas City area. Critics say that Advanced Patient Advocacy (APA), a privately held company, has been slow off the mark in its role as a “navigator” organization, charged with helping consumers find coverage through the health insurance marketplace established by the Affordable Care Act. Critics also question whether the company, which houses its local staff in for-profit hospitals owned by Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA, is fulfilling its obligation under a nearly $400,000 grant to conduct outreach and education activities in the community. (Sherry, 1/7)

Meanwhile, Bloomberg News looks at how employers are ending their most lavish plans as the health law's Cadillac tax draws closer -

Bloomberg: Lavish ‘Cadillac’ Health Plans Dying Out As Obamacare Tax Looms
Large employers are increasingly putting an end to their most generous health-care coverage as a tax on “Cadillac” insurance plans looms closer under Obamacare. Employees including bankers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. and college professors at Harvard University are seeing a range of moves to shift more costs to workers. Companies are introducing higher deductibles and co-payments, rising premiums and the imposition of wellness programs that carry penalties for people who don’t comply. Requiring employees to shoulder more of the cost burden may undermine public support for Obamacare just as Congress, now firmly under Republican control, considers new ways to gut the law. (Wayne and Lauerman, 1/7)

Los Angeles Times: Workers Paying More For Health Insurance, But Getting Fewer Benefits
Although the Affordable Care Act has not led to soaring insurance costs, as many critics claimed it would, the law hasn't provided much relief to American workers either, according to a new study of employer-provided health benefits. Workers continue to be squeezed by rising insurance costs, eroding benefits and stagnant wages, the report from the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund found. (Levey, 1/7)

CBS News: Study: Premium Growth Slowed After Obamacare
The Affordable Care Act may be helping to slow down the ever-growing costs of health care, according to a new report. Still, the health care law has yet to entirely live up to its name. (Condon, 1/8)

McClatchy: Cost Growth In Job-Based Health Coverage Slowed After Health Law Passed
Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia saw slower growth in job-based health insurance premiums after the Affordable Care Act became law, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Fund. But because of slow wage growth, average annual health insurance premiums ate up 20 percent or more of household income in 37 states in 2013. That’s up from just two states, New Mexico and West Virginia, in 2003. (Pugh, 1/8)

Dallas Morning News: Texas Workers’ Health Insurance Costs Near Highest In Nation
The average Texas worker spent 12.3 percent of income on health insurance in 2013, a larger share for coverage than almost anyone else in the nation, according to a report released Thursday by the Commonwealth Fund, a health policy think tank in New York. Florida, where 12.4 percent of income went for health insurance and deductibles, was the only state where workers spent more. (Landers, 1/7)

The Associated Press: Feds: Utah Will Not Get Medicaid Work Requirement
Utah will still not be allowed to require Medicaid recipients to work, even though the president has offered Utah Gov. Gary Herbert more flexibility on the issue, federal officials said Wednesday. U.S. Health and Human Services Department spokesman Ben Wakana said “encouraging work is a legitimate state objective” and the agency looks forward to continuing negotiations with Herbert over Medicaid expansion. (Price, 1/7)

The Associated Press: Hutchinson Says He Wants Broader Discussion On Health Care
Incoming Gov. Asa Hutchinson says he wants to take a broader look at Arkansas' role in health care that goes beyond whether the state should continue its compromise Medicaid expansion. The Republican governor-elect said Wednesday he wants to look at the state's role in delivering health care services. Hutchinson, who takes office on Tuesday, has said he'll deliver a "major speech" later this month about the future of the private option and health care reform. (DeMillo, 1/7)

Houston Chronicle/San Antonio Express: Texas Urged To Expand Medicaid
As more Republican-led states accept Medicaid expansion or consider expanding the program to extend health coverage to the low-income uninsured, a report released Wednesday recommends that Texas do the same. The report by the Code Red Task Force on Access to Health Care in Texas says doing so would not only cover an estimated 1 million residents but also prevent billions of dollars in federal taxes paid by Texans from going to other states to fund their programs. The task force, made up of health care providers, researchers, business leaders and advisers from across the state, also proposes development of more organized local and regional health care and creation of more medical residency programs to expand the state’s health care workforce to improve patient care and to keep people healthier. (Hines, 1/7)

Politico Pro: Texas And Medicaid Expansion: A Brief Blip Of Interest
It says something about the long odds for Medicaid expansion in Texas that the incoming governor’s mere request for information recently made advocates swoon. Obamacare supporters on the national level started speculating that Texas was on the way to joining the ranks of Republican-controlled expansion states. But Greg Abbott’s informal inquiry about an alternative proposal in Utah, reported by the Houston Chronicle, is at best a tiny step in that direction. (Wheaton, 1/7)

The Associated Press: Beshear Confident Kentucky Can Pay For Medicaid Expansion
Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear says hospital Medicaid revenues have jumped $450 million while Kentucky has added more than 5,000 new health services jobs during the first year of the state's embrace of the federal Affordable Care Act. Beshear touted those numbers in prepared text of his final State of the Commonwealth address as evidence the state will be able to pay for the nearly half-million new people who now have government-funded health insurance through the state's expanded Medicaid program. (1/7)

The Associated Press: Floridians Rally To Urge Gov. Scott To Expand Medicaid
Patients and health advocates will rally across Florida to urge Gov. Rick Scott and lawmakers to expand Medicaid to nearly 1 million residents. Thursday's rally is slated to take place in Miami, Tallahassee, Tampa and Orlando and will include a coalition of nearly 100 organizations. They want lawmakers to accept roughly $50 billion from the federal government over the next decade to offer health coverage to residents who are too poor to qualify for tax credits in the marketplace, yet earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. (1/8)

The Washington Post: A Class Of Expensive Drugs Is Getting Cheaper Competition For The First Time
A government panel Wednesday took a major step toward approving a copycat version of a blockbuster cancer drug, paving the way for a new class of cheaper medicines that could save consumers billions of dollars. An expert Food and Drug Administration panel unanimously recommended that the government approve the drug known as EP2006, a lower-cost imitator of a popular medicine called Neupogen, used to help cancer patients fight off infection while undergoing chemotherapy. The FDA usually accepts recommendations from advisory panels but is not required to. (Millman, 1/7)

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Panel Backs First ‘Biosimilar’ Drug
A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Wednesday unanimously recommended the agency approve the first “biosimilar” drug in the U.S., a version of the anti-infective cancer drug Neupogen. The FDA panel concluded by a vote of 14-0 that a drug called EP2006, which Novartis AG ’s Sandoz unit plans to market in the U.S. under the name Zarxio, is highly similar to Amgen Inc. ’s Neupogen. Neupogen is designed to increase white blood-cell counts, and lower infection rates, mostly in patients getting chemotherapy and other treatments. (Burton, 1/7)

CQ Healthbeat: FDA Advisers Back First Potential Copycat Biotech Drug In U.S.
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel on Wednesday voted to recommend that the agency approve a generic version of a biotech drug, a move that could lead to the first U.S.-approved “biosimilar” in a potentially booming market. The panel voted 14 to 0 to recommend approval of a generic version of Neupogen, a $1.4 billion drug produced by Amgen Inc. used to boost white blood cells in cancer patients. Novartis AG’s Sandoz unit submitted its application earlier this year. (Gustin and Young, 1/7)

Meanwhile, other media look at how drug companies market to doctors and hold onto patents -

ProPublica: Vying For Market Share, Companies Heavily Promote ‘Me Too’ Drugs
For more than five decades, the blood thinner Coumadin was the only option for millions of patients at risk for life-threatening blood clots. But now, a furious battle is underway among the makers of three newer competitors for the prescription pads of doctors across the country. The manufacturers of these drugs — Pradaxa, Xarelto and Eliquis — have been wooing physicians in part by paying for meals, promotional speeches, consulting gigs and educational gifts. In the last five months of 2013, the companies spent nearly $19.4 million on doctors and teaching hospitals, according to ProPublica's analysis of federal data released last fall. The information, from a database known as Open Payments, gives the first comprehensive look at how much money drug and device companies have spent working with doctors. What it shows is that the drugs most aggressively promoted to doctors typically aren't cures or even big medical breakthroughs. Some are top sellers, but most are not. (Ornstein and Jones, 1/7)

Reuters: U.S. Hedge Fund Plans To Take On Big Pharma Over Patents
U.S. hedge fund manager Kyle Bass, who won fame for predicting the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008, plans to take on some of the world's biggest drug producers by challenging the patents of their top brands, he said on Wednesday. Bass, the founder of Dallas-based Hayman Capital Management, L.P., said some drug firms were hanging onto patents in questionable ways and he planned to take around 15 firms into a so called Inter Partes Review (IPR) process created by the America Invents Act in 2012. (1/7)

The New York Times: Texas Abortion Clinic Rules Tested In Appeals Court
Lawyers for abortion clinics squared off with Texas state attorneys in a federal appeals court here on Wednesday, arguing over the constitutionality of stringent abortion clinic rules that would force more than half the remaining abortion providers in Texas to close. (Eckholm, 1/7)

The Associated Press: US Appeals Court Considers New Texas Abortion Restrictions
The constitutionality of a Texas law that could force some women to travel hundreds of miles or cross state lines to get a legal abortion were debated Wednesday before a federal appeals court that has already dealt with similar issues in Mississippi. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had knocked down the Mississippi law that would have shuttered the state's only abortion clinic, which is in Jackson. Opponents of a Texas requirement that abortion clinics have the same facilities as surgical centers say it would result in a drop in legal abortion clinics from 17 to eight. None would be in the western half of the state. That includes El Paso, meaning women there would either have to make a 1,200-mile round trip to the nearest Texas clinic in San Antonio or drive into New Mexico, which doesn't have the same stringent clinic requirements. (McGill, 1/7)

Kaiser Health News: Appeals Court Hears Texas Abortion Case
Lawyers for the state of Texas were in federal appeals court in New Orleans Wednesday arguing in favor of a controversial state law that requires abortion clinics to meet the standards of outpatient surgery centers. If that provision is re-instated, ten of Texas’s remaining 17 abortion clinics would close immediately. Other provisions of the law – including one that said doctors who perform abortions need admitting privileges at nearby hospitals – have shuttered about half of Texas’ 40 abortion clinics over the past two years. (Feibel, 1/8)

Meanwhile, Politico reports on how legal challenges to state abortion laws will likely lead to the Supreme Court -

Politico: Courts Wrestle With Wave Of New State Abortion Laws
The fight over greater regulation of abortion is swinging once again to the federal courts, where challenges to recent state laws are producing a patchwork of contradictory rulings that may eventually reach the Supreme Court. Legislators have enacted scores of new laws in the last few years, from bans on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy to requirements that doctors at abortion clinics have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Courts have blocked some measures and allowed others. And some statutes have taken effect without any pushback, typically in conservative regions where a federal appeals court would more likely support restrictions. (Winfield Cunningham, 1/8)

Stateline: Improving Medicaid For 'Medically Complex' Kids
Finding care for children with medically complex or rare conditions—which may affect fewer than 100 kids nationwide—can force parents to tap into networks of highly-specialized physicians and hospitals scattered around the country. This is especially challenging when the children are covered by Medicaid, because each state-run program has a different benefit package, payment structure and provider network (Vestal, 1/8)

Kansas Health Institute News Service: Medicaid Rates Reduced For Primary Care
Starting this month Kansas primary care physicians will be paid less for seeing Medicaid patients. The expiration of a federal incentive program in the Affordable Care Act is responsible for the reduction. Nationally, the average fee reduction is expected to be about 43 percent, according to a recent report from the Health Policy Center of the Urban Institute. However, in Kansas, the cut in payments likely will be much less, closer to 25 percent. The change is expected to affect about 2,500 primary care physicians in the state. (Ranney, 1/7)

The Wall Street Journal's Metropolis: Appeals Court Upholds Schoolchildren Vaccination Rule
A federal appeals court has affirmed New York state’s requirement that all children be vaccinated in order to attend public school, rejecting claims that the law was discriminatory and that its local applications violated the constitutional right of religious freedom. In an order released Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals also upheld a regulation that allows school officials to temporarily exclude from school students who are not immunized during an outbreak of vaccine-preventable diseases. (O'Brien, 1/7)

The Associated Press: Beshear Urges Lawmakers To Pass Statewide Smoking Ban
Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear used his final State of the Commonwealth address Wednesday night to urge lawmakers to pass a statewide workplace smoking ban. Beshear said in prepared text that Kentucky has one of the highest smoking rates in the country, accounting for about $2 billion in health care costs annually. He noted that two-thirds of states already have smoking bans and half of Kentuckians live in cities and counties with local smoking bans. Historically, Kentucky farmers owe much of their prosperity to the tobacco crop, which has created a strong tobacco culture in the state. Last year, a statewide smoking ban failed to get a vote in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. But House Speaker Greg Stumbo told reporters Wednesday the body will vote on the ban in 2015. (1/7)

Bay City News Service: Dispute Threatens Coverage For Blue Shield, Sutter Health Customers
Hundreds of thousands of people have been told they will need to switch doctors soon due to a contract dispute between Sutter Health and Blue Shield of California. Notices sent to customers warns that as of Jan. 1 the health insurer has canceled coverage for all hospitals and medical providers affiliated with Sutter Health. (1/7)

Los Angeles Times: Stuck Waiting For The Doctor? Check Ratings On State Physician Groups
Californians wanting to check up on doctors have new ratings from Consumer Reports on more than 170 physician groups statewide. The scores released this week are intended to help consumers see how different medical offices stack up on providing care and dealing with patients. In Southern California, doctors affiliated with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente and HealthCare Partners earned some of the highest ratings. (Terhune, 1/7)

The Des Moines Register: CoOportunity's Future Looks 'Tough,' Commissioner Says
CoOportunity Health's prospects look bleak, but regulators should determine soon if it can be salvaged or if it must be liquidated, Iowa's insurance commissioner said Wednesday. The fledgling company, which provided health insurance to more than 100,000 people in Iowa and Nebraska, was taken over by Iowa regulators last month amid a financial crunch. Commissioner Nick Gerhart said his staff has been going through the carrier's books since last week, trying to determine if there's a way to keep the company going. (Leys, 1/7)

The Washington Post: Maryland Gov. O’Malley To Propose $400 Million In Cuts
According to people who have been briefed on O’Malley’s plan, the package includes reductions in spending by state agencies, colleges and universities, as well as reductions to providers participating in the state Medicaid program, which provides health insurance for the poor and disabled. (Wagner, 1/6)

Kaiser Health News: How California Can Improve Oversight Of Home Caregivers
In California, hundreds of thousands of low-income elderly and disabled people receive daily care in their homes from relatives and others paid by the state. Yet, no overall training is required for the more than 400,000 caregivers, who are paid about $10 an hour through the $7.3 billion In-Home Supportive Services Program. And the program provides little oversight. On KPCC’s Take Two, Kaiser Health News Reporter Anna Gorman said that while the IHSS program does work for many Californians, the state needs to pay more attention to those in the program who are vulnerable. (1/7)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Rural Hospitals: This Patient May Not Make It
Declining populations, fewer paying patients, rising expenses and falling incomes have doomed many of Georgia’s rural hospitals. A group of state lawmakers, hospital officials and others has spent much of the past year searching for ways to help dozens of the small institutions stay afloat. They’re still searching. (Williams, 1/7)

Los Angeles Times: Amazing Fact: Obamacare 'Beyond Repair,' Yet Brings Insurance To Millions
When it comes to the Affordable Care Act, you have two choices about what to believe. You can go with objective statistics from Gallup, a respected survey organization, which indicate that the law has increased the number of Americans with health insurance by more than 10 million. Or you can go with self-interested partisanship from the likes of House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who states that the law is "beyond repair" and backs that up with manifestly bogus and dishonest assertions. (Michael Hiltzik, 1/7)

USA Today: Obamacare Complexifies Tax Season
Much of the attention regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is focused on Americans signing up for health insurance, the cost and services covered. Largely lost in this dialogue is the fact that the ACA is the most significant change to the tax code in 20 years. It has made filing a tax return more complex for the more than 147 million individual tax filers — insured and uninsured alike. (Bill Cobb, 1/7)

The Missoulian: Full Medicaid Expansion Is Best For MT
Surely, between [Democratic Gov. Steve] Bullock's plan and the GOP's plan, our legislators can figure out which solutions are best for our state. And surely, expanding Medicaid to include as many low-income individuals as possible is best. Remember, 138 percent of the federal poverty level is only $16,100 for a single person. Low-income Montanans are not all jobless or caring for dependent children. Many are hard-working, low-paid individuals who simply earn too much to qualify for Medicaid now but too little to afford any other health insurance plan. Many others are struggling with struggling with circumstances and conditions that prevent them from working. All deserve health care. (1/5)

Newark Star Ledger: Only Stable Funding Can Prevent A Hospital Crisis In N.J.
In New Jersey, the ACA has helped provide approximately 500,000 residents with health insurance, and the peace of mind that comes with that insurance. But despite those successes, nearly 1 million of our residents remain uninsured, and many of the newly insured are covered under a system that does not fully reimburse hospitals for the treatment they provide. This is a looming issue with serious consequences for all New Jersey hospitals, especially safety nets. (Suzanne Ianni, 1/7)

The New York Times' The Upshot: The Drugs That Companies Promote To Doctors Are Rarely Breakthroughs
For more than five decades, the blood thinner Coumadin was the only option for millions of patients at risk for life-threatening blood clots. But now, a furious battle is underway among the makers of three newer competitors for the prescription pads of doctors across the country. (Charles Ornstein and Ryann Grochowski Jones, 1/7)

Bloomberg: Antibiotic Resistance
If the phrase “too much of a good thing” applies to anything, it surely applies to antibiotics. No medical invention has done more to save lives, but overuse has eroded their effectiveness. There’s widespread agreement on the need to speed up development of new antibiotics, and to discourage doctors from prescribing them for infections they’re not needed for. Another side of the issue is more contentious: roughly 80 percent of antibiotics are fed to farm animals. (Anna Edney, 1/7)

The New England Journal of Medicine: Beyond A Traditional Payer — CMS's Role In Improving Population Health
As a health care payer, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) focuses primarily on health care delivery for our beneficiaries. The agency has, however, articulated a commitment to improving broader population health through the CMS Quality Strategy, which aims to “improve the health of the U.S. population by supporting proven interventions to address behavioral, social, and environmental determinants of health in addition to delivering higher-quality care.” (William J. Kassler, Naomi Tomoyasu andPatrick H. Conway, 1/8)

The New England Journal of Medicine: Maintenance Of Certification 2.0 — Strong Start, Continued Evolution
During a 2-year review of the [maintenance of certification] program, it became clear that both the public and the profession valued a rigorous program of assessment and self-regulation and that many physicians saw value in the concept and philosophy of MOC. However, valid concerns and even anger were expressed about program elements, including the breadth and scope of the periodic secure examination for physicians whose practices have narrowed over time, the experience of testing in secure computer-based testing facilities, the financial and emotional costs of preparing for and taking the examination, and the challenges of finding performance-improvement activities that are relevant to physicians' practice and easily integrated into their clinical environments. The results of this review process indicated that MOC standards could be further refined. (Drs. Mira B. Irons and Lois M. Nora, 1/8)

The New England Journal of Medicine: Boarded To Death — Why Maintenance Of Certification Is Bad For Doctors And Patients
My personal frustration in trying to fulfill the new MOC requirements ultimately led me to create a Web-based petition that now has more than 19,000 anti-MOC signatures and contains thousands of comments against the new MOC requirements .... Although the ABIM argues that there is evidence supporting the value of MOC, high-quality data supporting the efficacy of the program will be very hard, if not impossible, to obtain. In fact, close examination of the reports cited by the ABIM reveals that the data are ambiguous at best. (Dr. Paul S. Teirstein, 1/8)