Modern Healthcare: House Republicans Seek Delay In Case To End ACA Cost-Sharing Subsidies 
To buy President-elect Donald Trump time to craft an Affordable Care Act replacement, House Republicans have asked a federal appellate court to delay considering the Obama administration's appeal in a case that could end some payments to health plans and throw the individual insurance market into chaos. The House Republicans' general counsel filed a motion Thursday to temporarily hold in abeyance all briefings in the appeal of a federal district court's May ruling in House v. Burwell that the Obama administration illegally compensated insurers for reducing low-income enrollees' cost-sharing responsibilities. A district judge nominated by President George W. Bush unexpectedly held that the payments were unconstitutional because Congress had not appropriated the money. (Meyer, 11/21)

The Associated Press: House Seeks Delay In Health Law Appeal Pending New President
The Republican-led House of Representatives is asking the federal appeals court in Washington to delay consideration of a case involving the Obama health care law because Donald Trump has pledged to repeal and replace it when he becomes president. The House won a ruling in U.S. district court that held the administration is illegally subsidizing medical bills for millions of people while ignoring congressional power over government spending. (11/21)

Politico: House Asks Court To Pause Obamacare Lawsuit
The House argues that Obamacare did not properly fund the health care law’s payments to health insurance companies to help low-income people pay for their out-of-pocket health care costs. The Obama administration argues that the subsidies were properly funded. If Trump’s Justice Department doesn’t continue to defend Obamacare, the subsidies mght be eliminated almost immediately. That’s because the lower court had already sided with the House, ruling that the health care law didn’t properly fund the subsidies. (Haberkorn, 11/21)

The Associated Press: Feds: NY Was Overpaid For Health Exchange Setup
New York improperly used as much as $150 million in grants to set up its insurance exchange under President Barack Obama's health care law and help people enroll for coverage, according to a federal audit released Tuesday. The Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services said in the report provided to The Associated Press that the state used inflated population figures to claim funding, effectively saying every New Yorker would benefit from coverage through the exchange. (Walsh, 11/22)

NPR: Trump Health Overhaul Could Follow Paul Ryan's Playbook
Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are vowing to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the signature health care overhaul of President Obama. Trump has offered a few ideas of where he'd like to see a health care overhaul go, such as a greater reliance on health savings accounts, but he hasn't provided a detailed proposal. The absence of specifics on health care from the president-elect makes the 37-page plan that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has released the fullest outline of what Republicans would like to replace Obamacare. Some health policy analysts say it looks a bit like Obamacare light. (Kodjak, 11/21)

The Associated Press: For Trump And GOP, 'Obamacare' Repeal Is Complex And Risky
Here's the idea: Swiftly pass a repeal of President Barack Obama's health care law, perhaps soon enough for Donald Trump to sign it the day he takes the presidential oath. Then approve legislation restructuring the nation's huge and convoluted health care system — despite Republican divisions, Democratic opposition and millions of jittery constituents. What could go wrong? (Fram, 11/22)

Kaiser Health News: Uncertain Fate Of Health Law Giving Health Industry Heartburn
Six years into building its business around the Affordable Care Act, the nation’s $3 trillion health care industry may be losing that political playbook. Industry leaders, like many voters, were stunned by the election of Donald Trump and unprepared for Republicans’ plans to “repeal and replace” Obamacare. In addition, Trump’s vague and sometimes conflicting statements on health policy have left industry officials guessing as to the details of any substitute for the federal health law. (Rovner and Terhune, 11/21)

And the current administration is still making a push to get people signed up for 2017 —

Bloomberg: Obamacare Champions Make Last-Ditch Appeal To The Under-35 Crowd 
Two months before President-elect Donald Trump begins his attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration and its allies are making an aggressive final push to sign-up some of the program’s most reluctant customers -- young people. Healthy and new to the workforce, the “young invincibles” -- people aged 25 to 34 -- represent the highest uninsured rate of Americans, according to a survey released in November by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While coverage of people in that range has grown under Obamacare, the group has for the last five years had the highest rates of uninsurance compared to other age bands. (Doherty, 11/22)

Pioneer Press: 28,000 Minnesotans Sign Up For Insurance In 3 First Weeks 
More than 28,000 residents have signed up for health coverage through Minnesota’s health insurance exchange. MNsure got off to a rocky start this year with a widespread state government website outage and long wait times that state officials say may have been exacerbated by automated calls. Anxiety is high due to big premium increases and concern about access to insurance for 2017. (Odden, 11/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Uncertainty Ahead For Health Insurer Started By Kushner’s Brother
For health insurance startup Oscar Insurance Corp., the election of Donald Trump could be a tough pill to swallow, complicated by ownership ties to the incoming administration that will put it under a bright spotlight. The New York company built its business on the Affordable Care Act, the health law that Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans have vowed to dismantle. Josh Kushner, brother of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, is a co-founder, and prominent Trump supporter Peter Thiel is among Oscar’s main investors. (Winkler and Wilde Mathews, 11/21)

The Washington Post: The Family Tie That Could Make Whatever Trump Does To Obamacare Awkward
President-elect Donald Trump's promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act raises a host of questions for health-insurance companies and consumers. ... Oscar Health, a start-up insurance company that has been valued at $2.7 billion, grappled with the uncertainty last week. In a blog post, its founders acknowledged the unknowns: “Though the precise nature of these changes has not yet been determined, we believe it is important to set forth Oscar's observations on the health care landscape.” A co-author of that blog post happens to be Joshua Kushner — the brother of Ivanka Trump's husband, Jared Kushner. (Johnson, 11/21)

Modern Healthcare: Anthem, DOJ Attorneys Present Opening Statements In Merger Trial 
Attorneys for the U.S. Department of Justice and Anthem laid out their arguments Monday in opening statements of a court battle over what would be the largest ever health insurer mergers in the country. The sides clashed over how to define the commercial insurance market and what the merger could mean for the future of value-based payment models. Anthem and Cigna are proposing a $54.2 billion deal that would scramble the health insurance industry by combining two of the “big five” national insurers. Two others—Aetna and Humana—are defending their own merger that is being challenged by the DOJ. That case will be heard next month. (Muchmore, 11/21)

Bloomberg: Anthem, Cigna Face Off Against US To Save $48 Billion Deal 
Anthem Inc., Cigna Corp., and the US government offered a federal judge widely divergent views of the impact their proposed $48 billion combination will have on health insurance markets. Justice Department lawyer Jon Jacobs said at the start of an antitrust trial in Washington that the biggest merger in the history of the American health insurance industry should be blocked because it will increase the companies’ dominance and cut consumer choice. (Harris, 11/21)

Politico Pro: Anthem-Cigna Antitrust Lawsuit Gets Underway 
An antitrust lawsuit to determine whether Anthem can proceed with its $54 billion acquisition of Cigna — a deal that would create the largest health insurance company in the country — got underway this morning in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The Department of Justice argued that the deal would be detrimental to competition, particular for accounts serving large, multi-state employers. The government further argued that Anthem, which markets Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in 14 states, effectively operates as one of just four national carriers through its affiliation with the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. (Demko, 11/21)

The CT Mirror: Trial Begins In U.S. Antitrust Battle Against Anthem, Cigna
Anthem, Cigna and the U.S. Justice Department on Monday tried to sway a federal judge with widely differing views on the impact a proposed merger of the insurers would have on the U.S. health care market. ... The Justice Department’s lawsuit to block Anthem’s acquisition of Cigna on antitrust grounds has been joined by eight states, including Connecticut, and the District of Columbia. (Radelat, 11/21)

Stat: Could The FDA Be Dismantled Under President Trump?
Has President-elect Donald Trump put a bull’s-eye on the Food and Drug Administration? It’s been less than a year since Robert Califf was sworn in as the Food and Drug Administration’s chief, but already the agency is facing post-election upheaval. Public health advocates are bracing for a seismic shift: a surrender of the agency’s rules for off-label promotion of drugs; the importation of more drugs from other countries; and fewer requirements for clinical trials — long the gold standard for determining whether medicines are safe and effective. (Kaplan, 11/22)

Stat: FDA Puts Off Closing Lab-Test 'Loophole,' Leaving Decision To Congress And Trump
After arguing for months that certain medical tests led to patients being mistakenly told they had illnesses and undergoing pointless treatment, the Obama administration Friday dropped its plans to regulate them. The Food and Drug Administration said a decision on whether and how to regulate the tests would be left to Congress and the new president. The diagnostics, known as laboratory developed tests, are designed, manufactured, and used within a single laboratory, often in a hospital. They range from simple tests that measure levels of sodium to ones that analyze DNA and help diagnose genetic diseases. (Kaplan, 11/18)

In other news concerning public health under the new administration —

The Washington Post: The Challenges To Public Health Under The Trump Administration
Some of the greatest challenges facing the United States aren’t terrorists or trade deficits, but public health threats. Experts are urging the next administration to support the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its international collaborations to protect people from preventable deaths. (Sun, 11/21)

Stat: Biden’s ‘Moonshot' Against Cancer Hangs In The Balance
Vice President Joe Biden’s cancer “moonshot” is in serious jeopardy following Donald Trump’s election, but there may be hope for it yet. The president-elect hasn’t said anything about the initiative, launched by the Obama administration earlier this year, and his aides didn’t reply to multiple requests for comment. But the lame-duck Congress is making a last-ditch effort to pass a medical innovation bill that would provide hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for the effort. And if that money is approved before Trump is inaugurated, there might not be anything the new president could do, even if he wanted to stop it. (Scott, 11/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Some In Marijuana Industry Fear Jeff Sessions Will Hinder — Or Reverse — Legalization Trend
Seven states passed ballot initiatives easing marijuana laws this year, four of them legalizing it for recreational use. But some in the nascent, if growing marijuana industry fear President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions for attorney general will hinder progress toward legalization. (Kite, 11/21)

And Stat offers a look at the billionaire doctor hanging out with Trump —

Stat: Who’s The Billionaire Doctor Palling Around With Donald Trump?
Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotech billionaire with a penchant for bluster, dined with Trump at a New Jersey country club over the weekend to discuss the future of medicine. It’s unclear how he might serve a Trump administration — but one possibility would be taking over the cancer moonshot initiative launched by Vice President Joe Biden. Soon-Shiong advised Biden on that program last fall — and then promptly launched his own Cancer MoonShot 2020, which brings together several biopharma companies to develop new immunotherapy treatments for cancer. (The initiative also happens to advance several of Soon-Shiong’s business interests, as it uses his genetic testing technology to find patients to participate in clinical trials of his companies’ drugs.) (Garde, 11/21)

The New York Times: Bayer’s Essure Contraceptive Implant, Now With A Warning
Kim Myers used to compete in rodeo-style barrel horse races, but after being sterilized with an implantable device called Essure, the pain was so intense that she had to stop. The device’s small metal and polyester coils had pierced her fallopian tubes, her doctor found, so the two implants were removed. But the sharp, laborlike pains didn’t really subside until three years later, when Ms. Myers had a hysterectomy. (Rabin, 11/21)

In other women's health news —

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Pennsylvania Improves Birth Control Access For Medicaid Patients
On Dec. 1, Pennsylvania will become the latest state to fully reimburse hospitals for providing long-acting forms of birth control to Medicaid patients immediately after they give birth. The change, announced Monday by Gov. Wolf's administration, is expected to increase the use of long-acting methods such as the intrauterine device (IUD) by low-income women on Medicaid, thus reducing the costs of unintended pregnancy. (McCullough, 11/21)

The New York Times: U.S. Dementia Rates Are Dropping Even As Population Ages
Despite fears that dementia rates were going to explode as the population grows older and fatter, and has more diabetes and high blood pressure, a large nationally representative survey has found the reverse. Dementia is actually on the wane. And when people do get dementia, they get it at older and older ages. (Kolata, 11/21)

NPR: Dementia And Alzheimer's Are Affecting Fewer People
While the prevalence of dementia cases dropped, the average amount of education in the study population increased. ... Researchers don't know why education should be a protector against dementia, says Dr. Kenneth Langa, a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan and the lead author of the study. But they have some theories. "One is that education might actually change the brain itself," Langa says. "We think that it actually creates more, and more complicated, connections between the nerve cells so that you're able to keep thinking normally later into life." (Jaffe, 11/21)

Stat: Dramatic Decline In Dementia Seen Among Older Adults In The US
The percent of older US adults with dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, declined from 11.6 percent in 2000 to 8.8 percent in 2012, a decrease of nearly a quarter, scientists reported on Monday. It had been thought that the baby boomers’ march toward old age would triple the number of Alzheimer’s patients by 2050. These new numbers not only portend a lesser burden on the health care system (and families) but also suggest that something has changed over the generations — and identifying that change could drive down dementia rates even further. (Begley, 11/21)

Kaiser Health News: Dementia Rates Decline Sharply Among Senior Citizens
A new study finds that the prevalence of dementia has fallen sharply in recent years, most likely as a result of Americans’ rising educational levels and better heart health, which are both closely related to brain health. Dementia rates in people over age 65 fell from 11.6 percent in 2000 to 8.8 percent in 2012, a decline of 24 percent, according to a study of more than 21,000 people across the country published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. (Szabo, 11/21)

Stat: As Opioids Spread, Coroners See Wave Of Medical Mysteries
The medical examiners are puzzled, and the bodies aren’t giving up their secrets. The bodies belong to overdose victims, and when they arrive on autopsy tables here, many are laced with substances that officials have never seen before. Drug screens weren’t designed to identify them. The drugs are synthetic opioids, a growing collection of chemicals cooked up in labs and responsible for an increasing number of overdose deaths across the country. In this city and elsewhere, they are spinning mysteries for the medical examiners who are called upon to identify them. (Joseph, 11/22)

In other news about the opioid epidemic —

The Washington Post: Her Daughter ‘Died’ From An Opioid Overdose. And Then ‘She Was Back.’
Roxanne Shuttleworth was in shock. Her 31-year-old daughter had called her on the phone to explain that she and a friend had overdosed on a drug that, unknown to them, was cut with carfentanil, a deadly synthetic opioid that authorities say is 10,000 times stronger than morphine and 100 times stronger than its cousin, fentanyl. Her daughter was in a hospital in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where she had been brought in as "an unknown," or a Jane Doe — too ill to communicate with the medical team that was trying to keep her alive. Once she regained consciousness, she called her mother and told her that she had died but that doctors had then saved her with an opioid overdose antidote known as naloxone. (Bever, 11/21)

The Washington Post: Virginia Declares Opioid Emergency, Makes Antidote Available To All
Virginia’s health commissioner on Monday declared opioid addiction to be a public health emergency and issued a standing prescription for any resident to get the drug Naloxone, which is used to treat overdoses. Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) said the actions are in response to not only the rising problem of painkiller overdoses, but also to evidence that a synthetic large-animal sedative called Carfentamil is being abused in Virginia. (Schneider, 11/21)

WBUR: How To Spot — And Treat — Addiction In Your Family 
More Americans now use prescription painkillers than tobacco. Opioid abuse has skyrocketed. And that, of course, is hardly the only path to addiction. This week, many families will gather for Thanksgiving. Too many will be facing addiction in the family. (Ashbrook, 11/21)

The New York Times: Telling Mosquitoes Apart With A Cellphone
Simple cellphones can tell one type of mosquito from another by their hums, which may be useful in fighting mosquito-borne diseases, according to new research from Stanford University. Calling their project “Shazam for Mosquitoes,” after the phone app that identifies music, students from the university’s Bio-X institute showed that common cellphones could record mosquito wing beats accurately enough to distinguish, for example, Culex mosquitoes, which spread West Nile virus, from Aedes mosquitoes, which spread Zika. (McNeil, 11/21)

Health News Florida: Florida Confirms 11 More Zika Cases 
Florida health officials on Friday identified 11 new cases of the mosquito-borne Zika virus, bringing the state total to 1,188 cases. Six of the new cases involved people who were infected while traveling outside of Florida. Two of those cases were found in Miami-Dade County and two were in Volusia County, while Escambia and St. Lucie counties each had one of the cases. (11/21)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Detecting The Language Of Suicide: There's An App For That
[John] Pestian, a professor in the divisions of Biomedical Informatics and psychiatry at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, has spent nearly a decade immersed in the language of suicide in an effort to try and keep kids alive. What he has found is there are indicators in spoken language that can help school counselors and medical professionals identify when kids are at risk for suicide or when they may be suffering from a mental illness but are not at risk for suicide. (Graves, 11/20)

Kaiser Health News: Clinics Help Keep People With Serious Mental Illness Out Of ER
Yolanda Solar has battled a life-threatening disease for more than three decades. The disease nearly killed her last summer, and Solar, a 73-year-old grandmother, was rushed to the hospital by ambulance. When Solar was discharged one week later, she received bad news: She would have to wait until March to see a doctor. (Szabo, 11/22)

Minnesota Public Radio: Task Force Targets Delays In Mental Health Care System 
A state mental health task force last week issued nine recommendations aimed at relieving the bottlenecks that delay Minnesotans from getting care. Emily Johnson Piper, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services and the task force chair, talked about what they found, and what happens next. (Weber, 11/21)

The Washington Post: The Disturbing Airborne Allergen In Schools That May Be Exacerbating Your Kid’s Asthma
If you have a kid diagnosed with asthma, it probably is not news to you that the environment in which children with the condition spend their time can play a major role in how well they are doing. As such, you may have ripped out all of the carpets in your home and banned pets. You may also obsessively wash dust-mite pillow covers and other bedding several times a week. (Cha, 11/21)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: High Blood Pressure Is Vastly Underdiagnosed In Children, New Study Says
A new national study that looked at 15 years of health records for thousands of pediatric patients suggests that hypertension in children is a greatly underdiagnosed condition. Only 23 percent of the children who had elevated blood pressure readings in the hypertension range and about 10 percent of the patients with prehypertensive readings were actually diagnosed with the conditions, according to the study to be reported online Tuesday in the medical journal Pediatrics. Of the children actually diagnosed with hypertension, fewer than 6 percent were prescribed medication for their condition. (Giordano, 11/21)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Diabetic's Diagnosis: Lose His Leg Or His Life
The rate of diabetes complications has declined over the past 20 years because patients and practitioners are taking the disease more seriously. In the years ahead, the number of new diabetes cases may decline, but the total number is still high and will remain high because people are living with the disease much longer than they used to, said Matt Petersen of the American Diabetes Association. ... People will go blind, be forced to go on dialysis or have their limbs amputated. (Goetz, 11/21)

Los Angeles Times: Why Your Doctor Might Start Grocery Shopping With You
A mother and her teenage son approach Ana Cristina Jurczyk near the entrance of a Food 4 Less grocery store in Anaheim. Boxes of Cheetos and Frosted Flakes are stacked to the ceiling next to them. The mother explains to Jurczyk, a registered dietitian, that her son wants to vomit when he eats vegetables. “That’s probably psychological,” says Jurczyk, smiling. (Karlamangla, 11/22)

Bloomberg: No Evidence Of Aloe Vera Found In The Aloe Vera At Wal-Mart, CVS 
The aloe vera gel many Americans buy to soothe damaged skin contains no evidence of aloe vera at all. Samples of store-brand aloe gel purchased at national retailers Wal-Mart, Target and CVS showed no indication of the plant in various lab tests. The products all listed aloe barbadensis leaf juice — another name for aloe vera — as either the No. 1 ingredient or No. 2 after water. There’s no watchdog assuring that aloe products are what they say they are. (Mulvany and Faux, 11/22)

Tampa Bay Times: Lose Those Bad Exercise Habits
As the saying goes, "old habits die hard." When you've been doing the same thing over and over again, it is indeed difficult to make changes. Unfortunately, many people have developed bad exercise habits, and bad exercise habits can lead not only to ineffective workouts but, in many cases, to injuries. As we near the end of the year, it's a good time to identify any negative habits and adjust your workout routine accordingly. (Anderson, 11/21)

Chicago Tribune: Matter CEO: Chicago Has 'Greatest Collection Of Health Care Expertise In The Country' 
When Steven Collens looked at the health care scene in Chicago several years ago, he saw a place brimming with some of the biggest names in the business. The Chicago area has major pharmaceutical and device companies, hospitals, medical schools and associations. But he didn't see a community to connect all those areas and foster innovation among startups. So he and a team of others created one: Matter. The nonprofit health care technology incubator, which opened its doors in February 2015, now has 150 startup companies as members, all trying to become the next big thing in health care. (Schencker, 11/21)

Nashville Tennessean: Report: Employees' Out-Of-Pocket Health Costs Outpace National Average
The total spending per person covered in employer-sponsored health insurance in Tennessee in 2015 was below the national average, but people paid more out-of-pocket than in other states, according to a new study. Tennesseans who get their insurance through work spent an average of $928 in out-of-pocket costs in 2015 — $115 more than the national average, per an annual report from the Health Care Cost Institute. That does not include the monthly premium that people pay. Yet in the same period, the average spending per person, including money spent by employers or insurers, was $5,041 in Tennessee, or $100 less than the national average of $5,141. (Fletcher, 11/21)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Mass. General Acquisition Of Dover Hospital Gets Closer 
Massachusetts General Hospital’s proposed acquisition of Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover has cleared a key hurdle. The director of the Attorney General Office’s charitable trusts unit has concluded the proposed “deal includes sufficient protections for the charitable purposes and the assets of Wentworth-Douglass Hospital,” the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement Monday. That is conditioned upon the two hospitals making specific commitments for future community benefits to the Dover area. They include the addition of eight full-time behavioral health staff to provide mental health and substance abuse services. (11/22)

Savannah Morning News: Patient-Centered Health Care Proving Successful In Chatham, Others 
While that hardly constitutes a definitive plan, the mention of patient-centered health care offers a glimpse into something physicians, hospitals and insurance companies have already been working on and refining for several years. Last month, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia reported encouraging results from primary care doctors in Savannah who have been participating in the company’s value-based, patient-centered program for the last three years. (Mayle, 11/19)

Kansas Health Institute: Challenges Ahead On Path To Privatize Osawatomie State Hospital 
Kansas officials have taken the first step toward privatizing Osawatomie State Hospital, but drumming up interest from potential bidders, finding a workable financial model and convincing the Legislature all are hurdles. Last week, state officials posted a request for proposals to operate Osawatomie State Hospital, one of two state-run psychiatric facilities for people deemed a danger to themselves or others. Federal officials halted Medicare payments to the hospital in December 2015 after finding dangerous conditions for patients and staff, costing the state about $1 million per month.Since then, the hospital has hired additional staff, completed renovations and worked with a consultant to improve its care. It isn’t clear when inspectors will come to perform the two inspections the hospital must pass to begin receiving Medicare payments again. (Wingerter, 11/21)

Sacramento Bee: More California Seniors Are Treated For Falls 
Across California, more seniors are winding up in hospital emergency rooms after taking a tumble, hitting a high of more than 232,000 last year, according to new statewide data. (Buck, 11/21)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: Plan To Replace West County Hospital Gets Initial Backing In Creve Coeur 
A proposal from BJC HealthCare to significantly transform its campus in west St. Louis County, including plans to build a new hospital to replace the current one, passed its first hurdle Monday night. Creve Coeur planning and zoning officials gave the project unanimous initial support. In addition to the new hospital, the project calls for a new parking structure and at least four new medical office buildings and an expansion to the existing Siteman Cancer Center building on campus. (Liss, 11/22)

MPR: Health Officials Warn Rochester Area Of Stomach Flu Outbreak 
Olmsted County Public Health has issued a holiday health alert after receiving hundreds of reports consistent with norovirus, a highly contagious and fast-spreading virus that causes diarrhea, vomiting, aches and other symptoms. With families about to gather and cook for Thanksgiving, Olmsted County Public Health official Kari Etrheim said it's wise to wash one's hands regularly and thoroughly. (Richert, 11/21)

Nashville Tennessean: Moore County Pharmacist Charged In Medicare Scam
A Moore County pharmacist has been indicted on one count of theft over $10,000 after authorities say he submitted claims to Medicare for prescription drugs that weren't dispensed by the pharmacy. Robert Gray, 59, pharmacist and owner of the Lynchburg Drug Store, was arrested Friday and booked into the Moore County Jail on a $25,000 bond, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. (Humbles, 11/21)

The Associated Press: Judge: Severely Anorexic Patient Can Refuse Force-Feedings
A New Jersey judge has ruled that a severely anorexic woman who’s been committed to a state psychiatric hospital since 2014 has the right to refuse force-feedings. The 29-year-old Morris County woman, who weighs 69 pounds, informed the court earlier this month that she doesn’t want food or water and would instead like to enter palliative care. (11/21)

Health News Florida: FL CHAIN, Health Consumer Group, Lays Off All Staff 
Florida CHAIN, the state's most active advocacy group working on health-care access for all, announced Monday that it will lay off all five staff members because it has lost its main source of funds. The Palm Beach Post reports that the group lost a $375,000 grant from Community Catalyst, a Boston-based non-profit. Catalyst apparently rescinded the grant with the apparent intention of sending the money to states more likely to expand Medicaid than Florida, the Post reported. (Gentry, 11/21)

The Associated Press: London Girl’s Remains Cryogenically Preserved In Michigan
The remains of a 14-year-old London girl whose dying wish was to be cryogenically preserved with the hope of someday being brought back to life are being kept at the Michigan-based Cryonics Institute. “It was her wish to be cryopreserved, and her wish was granted,” Andy Zawacki, facility manager at the Cryonics Institute in the Detroit suburb of Clinton Township, said Monday. It is one of three full-service cryonics facilities in the world. The others are in Arizona and Russia. (Householder, 11/21)

The Washington Post: Democrats Will Hold Firm Against Paul Ryan’s Medicare Plan, Pelosi Vows
Democrats are wandering around in the wilderness once again, shut out of power in Washington after losing a close, hard-fought presidential battle. The last time this happened, after the 2004 elections, the newly reelected president, George W. Bush, over-read his mandate and launched an ill-fated effort to partially privatize Social Security, providing a rallying point for Democrats to begin turning things around. In an interview with me, House Dem leader Nancy Pelosi argued that history might repeat itself, if House Speaker Paul Ryan — with Donald Trump’s blessing — makes good on his hints to press forward with his plans to privatize Medicare. (Greg Sargent, 11/21)

The Wall Street Journal: The Bigger Story, And Agenda, Behind GOP Changes To Obamacare, Medicare And Medicaid
Early media coverage of the Republican health-care agenda has concentrated on plans to repeal and then replace the Affordable Care Act. The larger story is GOP preparations for a health policy trifecta: to fundamentally change the ACA, Medicaid and Medicare–all three of health care’s major programs–and in the process, fundamentally alter the direction of the federal role in health and core elements of the social contract. (Drew Altman, 11/21)

Stat: Take Politics Out Of Health Care Before Reforming It
A clear chronology of developments in health care policy links the shortcomings of Obamacare to Trump’s victory. Despite the law’s best intentions, 30 million Americans are still uninsured, vulnerable to bankruptcy if they fall ill or are suffering from diseases they cannot afford to treat. For the newly insured and those who switched to the health care exchanges, increasing premiums burden low-income working families. ... With a Trump presidency now imminent, we can reasonably expect that the Affordable Care Act will be fundamentally altered, even if more popular aspects of the law remain standing. Yet as we wait in this purgatory — uncertain of what direction our federal government will take on health care reform — we ought to take note of the law’s successes and challenges and critically assess the state of our conversations in health policy today. (Vishal Khetpal and Suhas Gondi, 11/21)

Huffington Post: Republicans Who Think Nobody Would Miss Obamacare Should Ask People Who Depend On It
Some of the Republicans agitating to repeal Obamacare say they aren’t worried about taking health insurance away from more than 20 million people. Their theory: The program is wildly unpopular and even the people with coverage wouldn’t miss it, no matter what takes it place. ... Anna Meyers would beg to differ. Meyers, 42, lives in the eastern part of North Carolina. She and her husband, 59, have been getting insurance through healthcare.gov for the last three years. Meyers also has a son, 14, who has autism. He gets coverage through Medicaid ― a program that Republicans say they would like to shrink just as soon as they are done with Obamacare. (Jonathan Cohn, 11/21)

The New York Times: Let’s Say Obamacare Is Repealed. What Then?
The election of Donald J. Trump gives the Republicans in Congress a chance to act on their often-stated desire to get rid of Obamacare, a wish that Mr. Trump mostly says he shares. Aaron E. Carroll and Austin Frakt, our health policy columnists, discuss: Then what? (11/21)

Forbes: New Data Shows 2015 Was A Financial Bloodbath For Obamacare Insurers
Data just released by the Obama administration shows just how much of a financial disaster 2015 was for insurers who chosen to sell policies on the Exchanges. The data comes from the government’s Risk Corridors program, which was supposed to essentially tax insurers who made any substantial money on the Exchanges and give to insurers who lost any substantial money. The new data shows that the amount insurers who made money in the individual market were required to contribute in 2015 was $89 million but the claims by losers against that money for that year amount to $5.3 billion. This is a ratio of about 60 to 1. (Seth Chandler, 11/21)

Forbes: A Taxpayer Bailout Of ObamaCare Insurers Just Got A Lot More Expensive
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) finally released the 2015 Affordable Care Act (ACA) risk corridor data. The data show the rapid deterioration of the ACA exchanges from 2014 to 2015. The ACA’s risk corridor program was intended to transfer funds from profitable insurers to unprofitable ones for the first three years of the exchanges (2014 to 2016). The program ran a $2.5 billion deficit for the 2014 plan year as far more insurers incurred losses than made profits. In 2015, the deficit increased to more than $5.8 billion—a 132% increase. (Brian Blase, 11/21)

Arizona Republic: VA's Single-Payer Disease Has No Cure
The Department of Veterans Affairs' beleaguered health-care system remains on life support, more than two years after President Obama promised to fix it. ... Substandard care and dangerously long wait times remain the norm for the VA health system, despite a much-touted federal reform effort and fierce public outrage. Unfortunately, in a single-payer system like the VA's, the rationing of health care is inevitable. No amount of federal oversight or public shaming can change that fact. (Sally Pipes, 11/21)

The Hill: Lawmakers Must Ask Tough Questions About The 21st Century Cures Act 
Now on Capitol Hill, members of Congress, along with lobbyists from the pharmaceutical and medical device industries and allied patient advocacy organizations, are touting miracle breakthroughs and a new era of medical innovation with the imminent vote on the 21st Century Cures Act. ... Many organizations representing patients, physicians, academic medical centers, and research societies are going along for the ride, as the legislation is tied to a huge boost in funding for the National Institutes of Health, our treasured biomedical research agency in the U.S. To those of us who have watched and studied the FDA for years, this legislation is the culmination of years of quiet, subtle deregulation—death to the FDA by a thousand cuts – as this new law includes worrying provisions that deftly and severely weaken the evidentiary requirements for the approval of new drugs and medical devices. (Gregg Gonsalves, Daniel Carpenter and Joseph Ross, 11/21)

The Wall Street Journal: A Trumpian Cure For The FDA’s Chronic Lethargy
Among the promises in President-elect Donald Trump’s “Contract with the American Voters” is a pledge to cut red tape at the Food and Drug Administration and speed up the approval of lifesaving medications. Some FDA critics have called for more-drastic measures, such as revoking the FDA’s authority to make approval decisions on drugs, or turning it into a privatized entity. But a scorched-earth approach is not the way to get fast and effective results. (Joseph V. Gulfo, 11/21)

Modern Healthcare: America's Pain
Last week's Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General's Report on Alcohol, Drugs and Health did a grave disservice to Americans rightfully upset about the rising tide of drug and alcohol dependency in their communities.The report failed to address the root causes of an epidemic that has spread to an estimated 27 million people who abuse prescription opioids or use illicit drugs. Nor did it explain why an estimated 66 million people — 1 of every 4 adults and adolescents — engage in binge drinking at least once a month. If drug companies, pain pill mills or overwhelmed primary-care physicians with uncontrolled prescription pads bore any responsibility for the tide of opioids that swept over some areas of the country, you wouldn't know it from this report. (Merrill Goozner, 11/19)

Miami Herald: Why We Need To Urgently Tackle Alzheimer’s Disease
Over the last 20 years there have been significant advances in our understanding of Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately, there is no cure. As scientific advances continue, our hope is to recognize and diagnosis Alzheimer’s disease as early as possible. It is believed that early intervention is one of our best hopes for stopping the progression of the disease or even curing it. Continued funding in research is essential. (Elizabeth Crocco, 11/21)