The Wall Street Journal: Audit Of Health Exchanges Finds Fault With Controls
Some consumers who got health coverage or subsidies through HealthCare.gov might not have been eligible to receive them last year because of deficiencies in the federal exchange’s internal controls, according to a government report likely to further stoke Republican criticism. Not all the internal controls were effective in determining if applicants were properly eligible for health insurance or subsidies, the Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General concluded in a report released Monday. It also found problems resolving inconsistencies between some applicants’ information and federal data. (Armour, 8/10)

Modern Healthcare: Healthcare.gov Failed To Verify All Applicants' Eligibility
The federal marketplace for getting insurance under the Affordable Care Act lacked adequate controls for verifying citizenship status, income and family size to determine eligibility and subsidies, according to a new report. HHS' Office of Inspector General reviewed 90 applicants from the 2013 and 2014 enrollment periods. The report notes that the problems identified don't necessarily indicate that anyone was improperly enrolled or received subsidies they weren't eligible to receive. (Muchmore, 8/10)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Delays Insurance Payout Data From ACA's Risk Corridors
The federal government has postponed the release of data that will show how much health insurance companies will receive or be charged under an Affordable Care Act program meant to mitigate the risk of taking on previously uninsured members. All health insurers that sold plans on the ACA's exchanges had to submit information on the risk corridors program by July 31. The CMS planned to publish data Aug. 14, but the agency pushed back the release to an unknown date because there were inconsistencies in the data. (Herman, 8/10)

Los Angeles Times: Two Years Into Obamacare, Only One State Still Has More Than 20% Uninsured
When the Affordable Care Act took effect in October 2013, there were 14 states in which more than 1 in 5 adults lacked health insurance; today only Texas remains, according to data released Monday. At the other end of the scale, only five states' populations were so well-insured in 2013 that fewer than 1 in 10 adult residents lacked insurance. Today, more than half the states have achieved that goal. (Lauter, 8/10)

CQ Healthbeat: Health Coverage Gains May Influence Rhetoric
Democrats seized on a new Gallup analysis showing that the number of Americans without medical coverage remains low as evidence that more people are benefiting from the controversial health care law. Several Democrats re-tweeted the mid-year Gallup Inc. report released Monday, which said about 11.7 percent of people in the United States did not have health coverage in the first half of 2015. That's down sharply from about 18 percent of residents at the start of 2014, when the health care law’s major coverage expansions took effect. (Adams, 8/10)

In other news related to the health law -

The Texas Tribune: Paxton Wants High Court To Block Birth Control Coverage
Female employees of religious nonprofits should not be given insurance coverage for birth control if their employers object to certain contraceptives on religious grounds, according to a brief filed at the U.S. Supreme Court by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton’s “friend of the court” brief was filed Monday in support of a lawsuit brought by East Texas Baptist University and Houston Baptist University against the federal government over a provision of the Affordable Care Act requiring some employers to offer health plans that include contraceptive coverage. (Ura, 8/10)

The Tampa Bay Times: 'Sharing Ministries' Boom As Faithful Look For Ways To Cover Medical Costs
Becky Cowdery's family received two blessings in 2015. The first, she said, was when surgeons removed a cancerous tumor from her husband's esophagus. The second was when strangers helped pay the bills. Six weeks of chemotherapy and radiation, two surgeries and a 19-day hospital stay had left the Tampa family more than $15,000 in debt. But it wasn't long before checks from across the country started arriving in their mailbox, some accompanied by notes of prayer and encouragement. (McGrory, 8/10)

Politico: Nurses Union Endorses Bernie Sanders
Hillary Clinton lost her first national labor endorsement Monday when the 185,000-member National Nurses United endorsed Bernie Sanders. The NNU endorsed Sanders at a “Brunch with Bernie” event at union headquarters in Oakland, California. The nurses group is the second AFL-CIO member union to issue an endorsement; the first, the 1.6-million member American Federation of Teachers, endorsed Clinton in June. (Mahoney, 8/10)

The Washington Post: National Nurses Union Backs Bernie Sanders Over Hillary Clinton
Sanders’s long advocacy of a single-payer health-care system is among the issues that resonated with the nurses union. Late last month, the senator, a self-described democratic socialist, appeared at a rally in Washington sponsored by the union and announced he would re-introduce “Medicare-for-all legislation.” (Wagner, 8/10)

CNN: Bernie Sanders Scores Nurses Union Endorsement
The endorsement is significant because it is Sanders' first sizable union endorsement in his quest for the Democratic nomination and comes after Sanders and other Democratic candidates pitched themselves to the AFL-CIO, a group that includes the nurses union, last month. (Merica, 8/10)

And Hillary Clinton focuses on GOP candidates and their positions on women's issues -

The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire: Hillary Clinton Takes Aim At GOP Candidates On Women’s Issues
Mrs. Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, singled out Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), saying that his comments about abortion were deeply troubling. During the debate, Mr. Rubio said he had never advocated including exceptions for rape and incest in abortion bans. “What I have advocated is that we pass a law in this country that says all human life at every stage of its development is worthy of protection,” the Florida senator said. Mrs. Clinton called Mr. Rubio’s suggestion that abortion laws should not include exceptions for rape or incest “as offensive and as troubling a comment as you could hear from a major candidate running for the presidency.” (McCain Nelson, 8/10)

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill -

The New York Times: A Republican Agitator In The Senate Makes Friends Across The Aisle
A member of [Utah Sen. Mike] Lee’s Senate staff had sent an email to a conservative group urging its leaders to pressure fellow Republicans to support another high-stakes procedural tactic to try to defund President Obama’s health care law, a move that Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, had counseled against. The message so provoked Mr. McConnell that he gave a copy of the email to Republican colleagues at an emergency meeting, then let them loose to attack Mr. Lee, whose efforts to gut the health care law two years ago helped lead to a politically toxic government shutdown. ... A few days later, Mr. Lee was working with Senator Amy Klobuchar, a liberal Democrat from Minnesota, to plan hearings on the consolidation of the health insurance industry, one of many efforts on the Judiciary Committee where Mr. Lee is gaining his legislative chops — and a reputation for working with Democrats. (Steinhauer, 8/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Startups Vie To Build An Uber For Health Care
Heal is one of several startups putting a high-tech spin on old-fashioned house calls—or “in-person visits,” since they can take place anywhere. The services provide a range of nonemergency medical care—from giving flu shots to treating strep throats and stitching lacerations—much like a mobile urgent-care clinic. The companies use slightly different models. Pager, in New York City, dispatches doctors or nurse practitioners via Uber, for $200. Heal, in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Orange County, Calif., promises to “get a doctor to your sofa in under an hour” for $99. (Beck, 8/11)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Details Huge Sums Generated by Cardiac Biomarker Lab
A civil complaint filed in federal court in South Carolina lays out just how much money the Justice Department estimates a now-bankrupt cardiac biomarker laboratory generated for its founder, her former associates and the doctors who ordered its blood tests. Tonya Mallory, the founder of Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc., received at least $26 million in salary, bonuses and tax distributions from the company, while BlueWave HealthCare Consultants Inc., the sales-and-marketing contractor headed by two of Ms. Mallory’s former associates, collected $223 million in commissions over a roughly five-year period, the complaint says. (Carreyrou, 8/10)

The Wall Street Journal's MoneyBeat: Health-Care Deals Prop Up Hedge Funds That Bet On M&A
The health-care sector has been the bright spot in what’s otherwise been a meager 2015 for hedge funds betting on mergers and acquisitions, bankruptcies and other corporate events. ... Philippe Ferreira, senior cross-asset strategist at Lyxor Asset Management said health care, where event-driven hedge funds have a “sizable” exposure, contributed about 60% of event-driven hedge funds’ gains this year so far, making it the strongest contributor by a large margin. Mr. Ferreira expected the strong performance of the health-care sector to continue in the coming months, buoyed by record levels of M&A. Global health-care M&A stands at an all-time high of $422.8 billion for the year-to-date, up 42%, and almost exceeds the full-year record of $429.3 billion set in 2014, according to Dealogic. (Eschenbacher, 8/10)

The Hill: CVS To Pay Feds $450K To Settle Dispute Over Forged Prescriptions
CVS Health Corp. is agreeing to pay the government $450,000 to resolve allegations that some of its Rhode Island stores filled invalid prescriptions and maintained deficient records. “It should come as no surprise to any Rhode Island citizen — individual or corporate — that diversion and misuse of prescription painkillers are a public health crisis in the State of Rhode Island,” U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha said in a statement announcing the deal. (Shabad, 8/10)

The Associated Press: CVS Health To Pay Government $450,000 To Settle Dispute
CVS Health has agreed to pay $450,000 to the federal government to settle allegations that several of its Rhode Island retail pharmacies filled forged and invalid painkiller prescriptions. The agreement announced Monday is the culmination of a two-year investigation by U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha's office and the Drug Enforcement Administration's Office of Diversion Control into several of the Woonsocket, Rhode Island-based CVS's retail pharmacy locations. (8/10)

Reuters: Pharmacy Benefit Manager CVS Urges Rewrite For U.S. Heart Guidelines
CVS Health Corp, the second largest manager of drug benefit plans for U.S. employers and insurers, asked heart specialists on Monday to revamp guidelines for treating patients with high cholesterol after the launch of new, expensive medications. The unusual move is the latest salvo in the war on escalating U.S. healthcare costs, with insurers using aggressive tactics to extract steep price discounts from drugmakers, even for the newest medications, and controlling patient access to the most expensive drugs. (Beasley, 8/10)

The Washington Post's Wonkblog: Why Two Brand Name Erectile Dysfunction Drugs Aren’t The Same Price
The news that in 2016, CVS Health will drop coverage of Viagra, the little blue pill that spawned a multibillion dollar industry of erectile dysfunction drugs, would seem to offer a window into one of the curious paradoxes of drug pricing. (Johnson, 8/10)

CQ Healthbeat: FDA Feels Opposing Tug Of Cures Bill, Consumer Safety
Officials at the Food and Drug Administration, worried about legislative initiatives to spur the development of new cures and devices, likely face two years walking a tightrope between lawmakers eager to speed up product approvals and consumer advocates concerned that could weaken important safeguards. The officials can take heart that the House's final bill reflected some FDA concerns. The agency will next turn to a Senate legislative effort expected to run into 2016. Whatever the outcome, it could become the marker for the must-pass reauthorization of the FDA user fee program in 2017. (Adams, 8/10)

Reuters: FDA Can't Sue Drug Company For Truthful Off-Label Marketing
The U.S. government made a fateful decision in January 2013 when it opted not to seek U.S. Supreme Court review of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2012 ruling in U.S. v. Caronia, which overturned the conviction of a pharmaceutical sales representative engaged in off-label marketing of a narcolepsy drug. The 2nd Circuit, in a split decision, held that as long as drug companies stick to truthful and accurate statements, off-label marketing is protected commercial speech under the First Amendment and Supreme Court precedent in Sorrell v. IMS Health. Commentary at the time called Caronia a landmark holding that might limit the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to police drug misbranding, but – perhaps fearing a loss at the Supreme Court – the Justice Department and the FDA portrayed the 2nd Circuit ruling as a narrow decision that wouldn’t affect enforcement. That now seems to have been an overly optimistic depiction of Caronia. (Frankel, 8/10)

Raleigh News & Observer: NC Senate Advances Bill That Would Remake Medicaid
The state Senate on Monday night tentatively approved its latest version of privatizing Medicaid, by a 38-10 vote. The final vote is scheduled to take place Tuesday, and then the bill will be returned to the House for consideration. It isn’t clear if the House will go along with the changes. The legislation, House Bill 372, calls for a mix of commercial insurers and in-state health care providers, and a change from the current fee-for-service system to a per-member monthly cost. That is meant to encourage patients and medical providers to control health-care costs. The state would not be responsible for overruns – bringing more certainty to a volatile piece of the state budget that involves billions of dollars each year. (Jarvis, 8/10)

The Charlotte Observer: Cooper Calls On McCrory To Expand Medicaid
N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper on Monday called on Gov. Pat McCrory to expand Medicaid health insurance for the poor, elderly and disabled in North Carolina, saying the governor was playing “political games.” Cooper, who is running for the Democratic nomination to oppose McCrory next year, emailed supporters asking them to sign a petition telling the governor to expand coverage now. (Jarvis, 8/10)

WRAL: Senate Gives Tentative Approval To Medicaid Revamp
The state Senate gave tentative approval Monday to revamping North Carolina's Medicaid program, voting 38-10 to create a system that would use both out-of-state managed care companies as well as home-grown "provider-led entities" to care for the state's poor and disabled. A final vote on House Bill 372 is expected Tuesday. (Binker, 8/10)

Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser: General Fund Passes Senate; House Rejects It
The Alabama Senate voted 19-15 to pass a $1.65 billion General Fund budget with major cuts to state agencies, ranging from Medicaid to law enforcement to the state's judicial system. ... About three hours later, the Alabama House of Representatives -- which sent a budget to the Senate with a $156 million cut to the state's Medicaid program last week -- rejected the Senate proposal 92 to 2. ... The $1.65 billion General Fund budget was very similar to the one passed by the Legislature in June and vetoed by [Gov. Robert] Bentley. The major difference was the addition of $16 million for prison reform, and a rollback of a Medicaid cut approved by the House from $156 million to about $34.2 million. ... Republicans in the House said they never expected the $156 million cut to become law. The goal, they said, was to start a conversation about Medicaid’s importance ... of to the state’s health care system. Over 1 million Alabamians qualify for Medicaid; more than half are children. (Lyman, 8/10)

Al.com: Alabama House Rejects General Fund Budget By Vote Of 92-2
The House had cut $156 million from Medicaid before sending it to the Senate last week, enough to possibly end a program that serves about 1 million Alabamians. House leaders said they did not intend for those cuts to take effect, but were trying to send a message on the need for a serious discussion about how to fund Medicaid, which takes more than one-third of the General Fund. The Senate restored most of Medicaid's funding, but the version of the budget it sent back to the House also cut most agencies significantly. (Cason, 8/10)

The Hill: Majorities In Senate Swing States Back Planned Parenthood Funds
The majority of voters in three Senate battleground states are opposed to defunding Planned Parenthood, according to a poll requested by the group released Monday. Nearly 7 in 10 voters in New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania said they disagree with a GOP-backed campaign to eliminate federal funding for the women’s health provider amid an undercover video controversy. (Ferris, 8/10)

Health News Florida: Planned Parenthood Fallout Grows In FL
The fallout from sting videos targeting Planned Parenthood is growing in Florida. Gov. Rick Scott ordered the Agency for Health Care Administration to inspect the 16 Planned Parenthood clinics in Florida, and three of the clinics were cited for performing second trimester abortions when only licensed for first trimester abortions. Another was cited for not following procedures labeling fetal tissue. Health News Florida reporter Abe Aboraya spoke with WMFE's All Things Considered host Crystal Chavez. (Aboraya, 8/10)

The Texas Tribune: Planned Parenthood Out Of Cancer Screening Program
As part of the GOP's ongoing fight against Planned Parenthood, poor, uninsured women in Texas will soon be unable to obtain government-subsidized breast and cervical cancer screenings at the organization's clinics. In an effort to boot Planned Parenthood from the joint state-federal Breast and Cervical Cancer Services program, Texas lawmakers wrote a provision into the state budget to prohibit clinics affiliated with abortion providers from receiving taxpayer funding for breast and cervical cancer screenings. That state budget takes effect Sept. 1. (Ura, Daniel and Busch, 8/10)

The Associated Press: Judge Strikes Down Oklahoma Law Restricting Abortion Drugs
A judge struck down an Oklahoma law Monday that required doctors to follow label instructions when prescribing abortion-inducing drugs, finding the rule is unconstitutional because it doesn't apply to other kinds of medication. District Judge Patricia Parrish invalidated the law, which the Republican-controlled Legislature approved and Gov. Mary Fallin signed last year. It had prohibited off-label uses of abortion-inducing drugs by requiring doctors to administer them only in accordance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocols. (Talley, 8/10)

Reuters: Oklahoma Judge Strikes Down Law Limiting Use Of Abortion-Inducing Bills
An Oklahoma judge struck down on Monday a law aimed at limiting the use of abortion-inducing drugs, saying the measure was unconstitutional because it did not apply to other medication. The law requires that the drugs, including one known by the brand name of Mifeprex, be administered under U.S. Federal and Drug Administration protocols, which critics say pose dangers to women because the dosage is far higher than needed and requires women to make multiple visits to doctors. (Brandes, 8/10)

The Daily Oklahoman: Oklahoma Sees Another Abortion Law Fall In Court
Oklahoma’s track record of trying to restrict abortion took another hit Monday when an Oklahoma County judge threw out a law restricting medication abortions, saying it violated the state constitution. ... In 2012, the state Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional a bill that banned drug-induced abortions altogether. The more recent bill was intended to withstand court objections to the earlier measure. (Schwab, 8/10)

USA Today/The Tennessean: Judge Lifts Restraining Order On Abortion Law — For Now
A federal judge on Monday conditionally lifted a temporary restraining order that had stopped the state from enforcing an abortion law requiring new licensing standards for clinics. The operator of two clinics — the Women's Center in Nashville and the Bristol Regional Women's Center in East Tennessee — claimed they were unable to obtain licenses from the state Department of Health in time to comply with the new law, which went into effect July 1. U.S. District Judge Kevin Sharp granted the temporary order in late June to allow the clinics to initiate the process, but lifted it Monday, noting the clinics and state licensing officials are now actively working toward becoming licensed. (Wadhwani, 8/10)

The Wall Street Journal: 12 Dead in NYC Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak
City and state workers have tested dozens of cooling towers for Legionnaires’ disease in the Bronx, a painstaking process augmented over the weekend by six staffers and three vehicles from Westchester County. The workers got along well, said Caren Halbfinger of the county health department. “These are all professionals who are used to responding to emergencies,” she said. (Ramey and Dawsey, 8/10)

The Texas Tribune: New Law Seeks To Curb Surprise Medical Bills
Patients with health insurance can still suffer sticker shock when the bill comes from a hospital visit. That’s because even an in-network hospital can contract with out-of-network doctors — physicians whose charges aren’t fully covered by a patient’s insurance. A new law that takes effect Sept. 1 will allow more consumers to challenge so-called "balance bills" they get from an out-of-network doctor, but only if the charge is more than $500. (Rocha, Dehn and Walters, 8/10)

The Associated Press: Arkansas Ending Program Providing Home Health Care To 13K
Arkansas health officials announced Monday that the state is ending a home health care program that serves thousands of people, a move that could leave 2,300 workers and contractors seeking new jobs. Arkansas Department of Health Director Nathaniel Smith told workers with the state's In Home Services program that the state would begin phasing out the program. (DeMillo, 8/10)

The Laurel Leader: Politicians, Residents Call For Laurel Regional Hospital To Stay Put
City, county and state officials representing Laurel pledged to push back against plans to convert Laurel Regional Hospital to an ambulatory care center at a forum attended by more than 100 people Monday evening. The board of Dimensions Healthcare, which runs the hospital, announced the decision July 31. The hospital has struggled to remain profitable in recent years, prompting a consultant to recommend major changes. The board's plan is to build a new, $24 million outpatient facility for Laurel that would continue to provide emergency and diagnostic services as well as outpatient surgery. The number of beds in the facility would be downsized to 30. (Yeager, 8/11)

Minnesota Public Radio: UCare Pushes Back As State Pulls Medicaid, MinnesotaCare Business
UCare is pushing back after the state decided to take away 70 percent of the health plan's business. UCare officials met with senior Dayton administration staff Monday but still want to make their case directly to the governor. Without the intervention, UCare will lose 360,000 clients who will have to find another plan, and competition in the marketplace will suffer, said UCare CEO Jim Eppel. But the state Department of Human Services, he said, isn't budging. (Zdechlik, 8/10)

Stateline: To Address Doctor Shortages, Some States Focus On Residencies
Last year, 369 students graduated from Iowa medical schools, but at least 131 of them had to finish their training elsewhere because Iowa had only 238 residency positions available. The story was the same for at least 186 students who graduated from Missouri medical schools and 200 who studied at Tennessee schools. States such as New York, California, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were happy to take them—all four states took in more residents than students they trained. (Beitsch, 8/11)

The Baltimore Sun: From Diaper Bags To Disease Management, Maryland Center For Entrepreneurship Helps Guide Market Success
Soon after Tonika and Cory Myers settled into their seats with their three children for a family wedding in South Carolina a few years ago, they realized a diaper change for their 1-year-old daughter was in order. A quick peek into their diaper bag revealed an all-too-familiar sight: No disposable diapers and no wipes. Before strains of "Here Comes the Bride" could fill the air, the Ellicott City couple was forced to flee the ceremony with children in tow, hunt for a drugstore, change Cori and rush back — only to find the wedding was over. (Holzberg, 8/10)

WBUR: State-Funded Lab At Harvard Medical Aims To Reinvent Drug Discovery
[Peter] Sorger and his team at the Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology are focused on cancer and on analyzing the ways cancer drugs affect the whole body. They aim to reinvent the drug development process through this systems approach, by going much deeper than would scientists supervising a typical clinical trial and by establishing a new model of collaboration. (Bebinger, 8/10)

The Associated Press: Connecticut Brain Injury Advocates See More Services
Advocates for people with brain injuries plan to urge Connecticut lawmakers this week to add more slots to the state's community-based services program, saying it's difficult for families to wait two years or more for help. Julie Peters, executive director of the Brian Injury Alliance of Connecticut, said there was hope that a new initiative enacted last year would significantly reduce or eliminate an existing waiting list for services such as case management, day programs and community living supports. However, she said that hasn't happened. (Haigh, 8/10)

The Washington Post: How One Couple’s Experience With Their Disabled Child Inspired Them To Launch A Powerful Digital Community
Slowly, a path emerged: Their son Isaac, born without a kidney, appeared to have no larger health issues. Annabel finally had a diagnosis that put a name to her mysterious symptoms, and a small but supportive digital community of Dup15q syndrome families showed them how to cope. A third child, Henry, came along. And then in early 2014, Porath was inspired to launch The Mighty, a digital platform for all people with disease and disabilities, and their families. Less than 18 months old, The Mighty now has an editorial team of 10 and nearly a thousand community contributors, and provides news and analysis of disability-related issues in popular culture, scientific research and social networks. It’s Huffington Post-meets-disability-and-disease-support-groups. (Tenety, 8/11)

Los Angeles Times: Mentally Ill Woman In LAPD Assault A Case Study In System's Lapses
After a court hearing examining county inmate Trishawn Carey's extensive medical and mental health history, a judge last month ordered her released to the care of a South Los Angeles residential treatment program for women just out of jail or prison. Two days later, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department dropped the homeless woman at the emergency room entrance of the county hospital. She ended up on skid row, where supporters found her five hours later at the scene of her March 1 arrest, without any medication. (Holland, 8/10)

Reuters: 4th Circuit Says 'Manager Rule' Has No Place In Title VII Cases
A rule barring managers from suing for retaliation over incidents in which they were acting within the scope of their employment does not apply to claims brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a U.S. appeals court said on Monday. A unanimous three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals became the second federal appeals court to conclude that the "manager rule" developed in wage-and-hour cases does not apply under the landmark discrimination law, and revived a retaliation lawsuit against Virginia-based healthcare provider Carilion Clinic. (Wiessner, 8/11)

Los Angeles Times: In A First, California Agrees To Pay For Transgender Inmate's Sex Reassignment
California is first in the nation to agree to pay for a transgender inmate's sex reassignment operation, but the state's settlement of a recent court case sidesteps the question of whether such surgery is a constitutional right. The state concedes that Shiloh Quine, who entered the California prison system in 1980 as Rodney, suffers severe gender dysphoria that can be treated only by physically conforming her body to her psychological gender. (St. John, 8/10)

CQ Healthbeat: Kentucky's 5th District Leads In Cancer Death Rates, Study Says
Kentucky's southeastern region has the highest rate of cancer deaths for men and women, while the lowest ones for both sexes were in parts of Utah, a new analysis found. The cancer fatality rate for men was 300 deaths per 100,000 people in Kentucky's 5th District, almost double the 159 deaths per 100,000 people for Utah’s 3rd District. Among women, the rate also was highest in Kentucky’s 5th district at 196 deaths per 100,000 people, with Utah’s 1st District having the lowest rate at 112 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the analysis by American Cancer Society researchers. (Young, 8/10)

Des Moines Register: Privatizing Medicaid No Cure For What Ails It
Medicaid is a massive government program that consumes about 476 billion tax dollars each year. Given its size, and the bureaucracy that surrounds it, it stands to reason that a certain amount of fraud is unavoidable. ... That point is underscored in a new report from the DHHS Office of Inspector General. It shows that roughly 12 percent of the Medicaid-funded service providers who have been kicked out of their state-run Medicaid programs for fraud or quality issues are still able to participate in other states’ Medicaid programs. ... One of the main culprits is managed care, which should be of concern to Iowans since the state is now moving toward the privatization of Medicaid administration. The OIG found that 25 of the 41 states that use managed care to deliver Medicaid services don’t require providers to be enrolled with the state Medicaid agency. That’s a problem because the states cannot terminate providers, even for fraud, if they are not directly enrolled in the program — a critical deficiency that DHHS says it’s working to correct. (8/10)

Forbes: Modernizing Medicare: Supporting Minorities And Low-Income Patients
In order to address quality of care issues that are especially germane to low-income beneficiaries, the government ranks the performance of [Medicare Advantage] MA plans on a 5-star scale. ... The problem is that as currently structured, the Stars system gives unfairly low grades to plans enrolling the lowest-income enrollees. That’s because a significant fraction of the performance measures are driven in part by patients’ socioeconomic conditions and determinants of health, not actual plan or provider performance. Importantly, the majority of measures of performance are not adjusted for patient characteristics or socioeconomic status. (Doug Holtz-Eakin and Len Nichols, 8/10)

The Washington Post: A Debate Over U.S. Pharmaceuticals Is Snagging The Trans-Pacific Partnership Deal
For the Obama administration, the heady feeling over congressional passage of trade-promotion authority in June has given way to at least temporary frustration. Twelve-nation talks in Hawaii that many thought might produce a final Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement instead broke up at the end of July with no deal. Sticking points range from a three-way dispute over truck tariffs involving Mexico, Japan and the United States to market access for New Zealand’s dairy products in North America. ... No issue caused more conflict in the latest round of talks — or in the general political debate over the TPP — than the question of intellectual property and other protections for the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. (8/10)

The Baltimore Sun: The Solemnity Of Abortion
I find I need to write about the damage the Planned Parenthood videos are doing to women who've had abortions. Not from the angle of the filmmakers, but from the angle of the clinic staff and doctors and the leadership of Planned Parenthood. The thing that has many people disturbed, even outraged, on either side of this issue is the seemingly cavalier attitude toward the aborted fetuses by the clinic personnel. They laugh, they make jokes, they appear to haggle over the price of the body parts and they describe making it "less crunchy." And every woman who has had an abortion is now is wondering "Did they talk like that about my abortion?" (Bunnie Riedel, 8/10)

JAMA: New Therapies In The Treatment Of High Cholesterol
On July 25, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved alirocumab (Praluent), the first in a new class ... [of drugs]. Approval of a second medication in the class is expected shortly. ... early results suggest these drugs have a powerful effect on levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), likely more potent than statins. ... This class also poses a new challenge for health care payers. It is an expensive specialty medication that targets a very common condition; more than 73 million adults (32%) in the United States have elevated LDL-C. As a reference, when sofosbuvir, which is used to treat hepatitis C, was approved and marketed over a year ago, it shocked the health care system because of the high cost and relatively large eligible population, up to 3 million infected individuals. Unlike new therapies for hepatitis C, which represent a cure for most patients, [the new cholesterol drugs] will be used long-term—generally for the remainder of the lives of treated patients. As a result, most payers, both government and commercial, should begin to consider thoughtful ways to rationalize the use of these medications. (William H. Shrank, Jane F. Barlow and Troyen A. Brennan, 8/10)

USA Today: Taking Women’s Health To Heart
Here’s a fact that should make your blood pressure rise: Heart disease and stroke cost the United States almost a billion dollars a day. A billion dollars. That's more than the annual budget of the Small Business Administration; more than twice the annual funding for the Peace Corps. ... Women’s health is at the heart of the epidemic we face. Cardiovascular disease is the top killer of women in the United States; it kills more U.S. women each year than all cancers combined, and has claimed more women’s lives than men’s for more than 20 years. (Ronald O. Perelman, 8/10)

The New York Times' Taking Note: Preventing Suicide In America’s Jails
Suicide has long been a problem in the corrections system, where a considerable portion of inmates suffer from mental illness. But new federal data show that suicide has reached crisis proportions in local jails, where psychiatric care appears to be particularly poor. This situation is especially alarming, given that 12 million people — many with mental illnesses — will cycle through local jails this year. (Brent Staples, 8/10)

The New York Times: N.F.L.’s Bogus Settlement For Brain-Damaged Former Players
Thanks to the ham-handedness of the National Football League’s Hall of Fame, the inane “deflategate” scandal, which has been the dominant N.F.L. headline this off-season, was pushed to the sidelines this weekend and replaced by a genuinely important issue facing the country’s dominant sports league and its players. That issue is the serious cognitive impairment that appears to affect so many former professional football players. (Joe Nocera, 8/11)