The New York Times: Number Of Uninsured Has Declined By 15 Million Since 2013, Administration Says
The number of people without health insurance continues to decline and has dropped by 15.8 million, or one-third, since 2013, the Obama administration said Tuesday. The decline occurred as major provisions of the Affordable Care Act took effect. The law expanded coverage through Medicaid and through subsidies for private insurance, starting in 2014. (Pear, 8/12)

USA Today: Federal Report: 7 Million Fewer Americans Uninsured This Year
The number of Americans without health insurance dropped from 36 million last year to 29 million in the first quarter of this year, according to the latest in a string of reports showing uninsured rates are on the decline. The newest report, released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics on Wednesday, contains early estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, which are based on data for 26,121 people from across the nation. The estimate of 29 million, which represents 9.2% of Americans, reflects the portion of respondents who reported being uninsured at the time of the interview. (Ungar, 8/12)

Politico Pro: Uninsured Rate Drops To 9.2 Percent, Survey Finds
The nation’s uninsured rate dropped from 11.5 percent last year to 9.2 percent in the first three months of this year, according to a new government estimate. The number of uninsured people in the United States declined to 29 million in the first three months of this year, a drop of 7 million people from 2014, according to the new figures from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. (Pradhan, 8/12)

Connecticut Mirror: New England Uninsured Rate Less Than Half The National Average
New England continues to have the lowest rate of residents without health insurance in the nation, even as the uninsured rate declined throughout the country, according to estimates based on federal survey data released Wednesday. (Levin Becker, 8/12)

Meanwhile, based on a recent Gallup poll, Kansas may not be keeping pace with other states in terms of expanding health coverage -

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Change In Kansas' Uninsured Rate Lags Other States
A recent Gallup poll shows that the percentage of uninsured Americans in some states has dropped dramatically since the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA). The drops are generally more dramatic in states that have embraced politically controversial portions of the law. In Kansas, which resisted those measures, the reduction in uninsured residents is small and within the poll's margin of error. Seven of the 10 states with the biggest reductions in uninsured rates implemented Medicaid expansion and established a marketplace while two did one or the other, according to Gallup. (Margolies, 8/11)

The New York Times: House Republicans, Seizing On Health Law, Challenge Executive Branch
Jo-Marie St. Martin, counsel to Speaker John A. Boehner and a ferocious defender of the rights of the House, quietly put the word out that the leadership was looking for potential lawsuit targets so it could challenge the White House in court. ... They settled on the health care law, now at the center of a little-noticed legal fight that could redefine the balance of power in Washington. A federal judge is expected to rule soon on whether the House can sue the executive branch for usurping its authority over spending — its vaunted “power of the purse” — in a case resulting from years of bitter struggle between the Obama administration and the Republican House over who controls which levers of power. (Hulse, 8/11)

Politico Pro: HealthCare.gov Glitch Affects Special Enrollment After Medicaid
HealthCare.gov has a new glitch that’s preventing some people who have lost their Medicaid coverage from getting a new Obamacare health plan through special enrollment. People who lose Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage are eligible to enroll in a plan outside of the regular signup season. But CMS has notified consumer groups that HealthCare.gov is blocking people from qualifying for a special sign-up window, even though they’ve indicated they’re no longer covered by Medicaid or CHIP. (Pradhan, 8/11)

CQ Healthbeat: Changes Needed To Health Law, Says Urban Institute Report
The left-leaning Urban Institute, advised by former White House health officials, recommended Tuesday that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services allow states to partially expand Medicaid by covering people with income up to the federal poverty line, rather than 38 percent above the poverty line. The suggestion was one of several in a report that described ways to improve the 2010 health care law. The report was noteworthy not only because it occasionally strayed from Obama administration positions and contained implicit criticism of the law but also because it provided a glimpse of what some Democrats would do to change the law if they could. (Doshi, 8/10)

On the topic of health exchanges -

Health News Colorado: Small Biz Fixes Delayed As Exchange Managers Again Promise Smoother System For Individuals
Dogged by technology failures last year that snagged at least 10 percent of customers, Colorado health exchange managers promised Monday that they’ll have a new streamlined IT system ready by Oct. 18, just two weeks before the Nov. 1 launch of the next open enrollment season. (Kerwin McCrimmon, 8/11)

And Fox News reports on the momentum behind legal challenges to the health law's contraception mandate -

Fox News: Christian Institutions Garnering Support In ObamaCare Challenge
Three Christian universities gained allies Monday in their battle against ObamaCare. Among their supporters: 16 state governments. Those states, along with a handful of other religious rights organizations, filed friend-of-the-court briefs to the Supreme Court supporting Houston Baptist University, East Texas Baptist University, and Westminster Theological Seminary. (8/11)

The Associated Press: Scientists Say Fetal Tissue Essential For Medical Research
The furor on Capitol Hill over Planned Parenthood has stoked a debate about the use of tissue from aborted fetuses in medical research, but U.S. scientists have been using such cells for decades to develop vaccines and seek treatments for a host of ailments, from vision loss to cancer and AIDS. Anti-abortion activists triggered the uproar by releasing undercover videos of Planned Parenthood officials that raised questions of whether the organization was profiting from the sale of fetal tissue. Planned Parenthood has denied making any profit and said it charges fees solely to cover its costs. (Binkley and Johnson, 8/11)

The Washington Post's Fact Checker: For Planned Parenthood Abortion Stats, ‘3 Percent’ And ’94 Percent’ Are Both Misleading
Three percent or 94 percent? Are abortions just a small portion of the array of Planned Parenthood’s services, as advocates of abortion rights say? Or is Planned Parenthood mainly an abortion provider that masquerades as a reproductive health organization, as opponents of abortion rights say? It depends on the measure you use to make your case. Both figures are being paraded around as controversy over Planned Parenthood’s fetal tissue donations continues. The Fact Checker obviously takes no stance on abortion rights, fetal tissue donations or defunding Planned Parenthood. Let’s decode these dueling abortion statistics. (Lee, 8/12)

Kaiser Health News: The Battle Over Planned Parenthood
Kaiser Health News correspondent Julie Rovner discusses the efforts to defund Planned Parenthood on NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook. (8/11)

Politico: Donald Trump Backs Off Planned Parenthood Defunding Push
Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to back off his demands to defund Planned Parenthood. After saying last week it’s worth having Congress shut down the federal government unless Planned Parenthood is stripped of its $528 million in government funding, the Republican presidential candidate changed his tune. (Collins, 8/11)

The Washington Post's The Fix: Analyzing Donald Trump’s Policy Specifics, As Presented On Fox News
"Earlier today, I asked Donald Trump to get specific about some of his policy positions," Fox News' Sean Hannity said during part 1 of his hour-long interview with Trump that aired Tuesday night. ... What follows are those responses, compacted but matching the verbiage and structure of his replies. Healthcare ... People will have health savings accounts. It costs the country and people very little. It's an amazing system. Prompted by Hannity, Trump adds that he'll cover catastrophic coverage and pre-existing conditions. ... Planned Parenthood ... Abortion is a small but brutal part of what Planned Parenthood does. They also serve women. Jeb Bush was so bad on women's health issues the other day! We have to help women. The answer: Maybe unless they stop with the abortions, we don't do the funding for the stuff that they want. (Bump, 8/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Jeb Bush And Hillary Clinton Keep Their Jabs To Each Other
Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton, facing stiff competition for their parties’ presidential nomination, are looking over the heads of their immediate rivals to trade barbs with each other. ... His speech follows broadsides from Mrs. Clinton about Mr. Bush’s stance on women’s health, immigration, his comment that Americans should “work longer hours” and his call to repeal the 2010 health law. ... The back-and-forth helps both candidates present themselves as leaders despite the very real threats from within their parties that could block their route to the nomination. It also offers a preview of what the general election would look like if, in fact, they become the nominees. (O'Connor and Meckler, 8/11)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: New Drugs For Ultra High Cholesterol Cause Pricing Debate
The debate about the appropriate price for medicine now includes a new group of drugs designed to treat ultra high cholesterol, called PCSK-9 inhibitors. Praluent - made by Regeneron and distributed by its partner Sanofi - is the first of the group to hit the market. It is meant to lower the LDL - "bad" cholesterol - of patients with hypercholesterolemia. Amgen is working on a similar drug that might be approved soon. (Sell, 8/11)

In other FDA news, Kim Kardashian's social media posts about a morning-sickness treatment may be violating federal drug-promotion rules -

The Associated Press: FDA Issues Warning Over Kim Kardashian's Drug Promotions
Reality TV star Kim Kardashian is no stranger to criticism, having spent the better part of the last decade in the public eye. But she’s probably never faced negative publicity like this before: The Food and Drug Administration says Kardashian’s social media posts violate federal drug-promotion rules. Kardashian recently began promoting a prescription pill to treat morning sickness through her social media accounts. Such endorsement deals are relatively common for celebrities. In posts to Instagram and Facebook earlier this month Kardashian talks about her struggles with nausea due to pregnancy. (Perrone, 8/11)

The New York Times' DealBook: G.E. Continues Sell-Off With Health Care Lending Business
General Electric continued its campaign to shrink its huge finance arm, announcing on Tuesday that it will sell its health care lending business to Capital One for about $9 billion. The transaction is the latest part of a sweeping move by the conglomerate to reshape its business, focusing more on its core industrial operations. (de la Merced, 8/11)

The Associated Press: GE Selling Health Care Finance Unit, Loans To Capital One
General Electric is selling its health care lending unit and related loans to Capital One for roughly $9 billion as it shrinks its GE Capital finance business. GE announced in April that it would sell most of the assets in the GE Capital subsidiary as it focuses on industrial businesses — making large, complicated equipment for other companies. The health care financial services unit involved in Tuesday's announcement provides capital financing to U.S. health care companies, developers and others. (8/12)

WRAL: Senate Approves Medicaid Changes, Rejects Expansion
Senators passed a package of changes to the state's health insurance program for the poor and uninsured on Tuesday, but not before once again rejecting a bid to expand Medicaid coverage to roughly 500,000 North Carolinians who are uninsured. The Senate voted 34-10 to return House Bill 372 to the House. Under the Senate version of the measure, North Carolina would use a blend of managed care companies and locally created "provider-led entities," or PLEs, to manage Medicaid. The House version of the bill relied exclusively on PLEs, and leaders there say the chamber is almost certain to reject the Senate version. That would trigger a conference committee to work out differences and draft a final bill. (Binker, 8/11)

Raleigh News & Observer: NC Senate Gives OK To Medicaid Revamp
The bill would change the current fee-for-service system to a per-member monthly allotment, meant to encourage patients and medical providers to control costs in the Medicaid program. It calls for a mix of commercial insurers and in-state health-care providers. It would create a new cabinet-level department of Medicaid, with a secretary appointed by the governor and confirmed by the legislature. (Jarvis, 8/11)

The Associated Press: Senate OKs Medicaid Overhaul, Bill Now Goes Back To House
The Senate's formula for overhauling how North Carolina's Medicaid program should pay for patient treatment has been approved with some Democratic support. Five Democrats joined all Republicans voting Tuesday to back the proposal, which would replace the current fee-for-service system with one that invites private insurance companies and regional hospital and doctor networks to enter into state contracts. (8/11)

Los Angeles Times: UCLA Sued Over Recent Hospital Records Hacking
UCLA Health System failed to properly secure its records and quickly notify as many as 4.5 million patients in a recent hacking incident, a new lawsuit contends. A Redlands law firm has filed a lawsuit on behalf of Los Angeles resident Miguel Ortiz, a patient of UCLA since 2011, seeking class-action status on behalf of all current and former patients of the health system. (Shively, 8/11)

The Texas Tribune: Families Of Disabled Children Sue Texas Over Medicaid Cuts
Relatives of children with disabilities are joining therapy providers in a lawsuit against the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, weeks before the agency is scheduled to slash payments to a therapy program for the poor. The families and therapy providers have asked a Travis County judge to stop the state from implementing the budget cuts on Sept. 1, alleging they will cause "immediate and irreparable injury" to thousands of kids in the state's Medicaid program. (Walters, 8/11)

Houston Chronicle: Suit Seeks To Block Cuts In Medicaid Therapy Rates
A group of home health providers and parents of disabled children has sued the Texas health agency, seeking to block deep cuts in Medicaid therapy payments set to take effect Sept. 1. The cuts would eliminate some $200 million in Medicaid spending on physical, occupational and speech therapy services, as directed by the Legislature in a rider tacked onto an appropriations bill. The cuts would primarily affect care for children with disabilities who require ongoing therapy, but they also could impact adults requiring therapy from injuries or surgery. (Hawryluk, 8/11)

KERA: Bringing Mental Health Care Workers To Rural Texas
There are dozens of counties in Texas without even one physician. There are even more without a psychiatrist. In total, more than 3 million Texans don’t have a psychiatrist. So how do you convince young medical school students to become psychiatrists, social workers and psychologists? And to move to places that have more cows than people? One state lawmaker says a bill to award dollar bills would be a good place to start. (Silverman, 8/11)

Tampa Bay Times: Ready For Another Medicaid Debate? Program Could Cost Florida Another $500 Million Next Year
Just weeks after a $1 billion hole in Florida's health care budget threatened to cause a government shutdown, another budget crisis could already be looming. State economists predict Medicaid will cost the state an additional $500 million in 2016-17, in large part because enrollment in the subsidized health care program is expected to grow. With the private health plans that cover Florida's Medicaid population already seeking more money from the state and hospitals requesting more for charity care, the need for an additional $500 million would be "impossible for the state to fulfill," Gov. Rick Scott said in a letter to state budget officials last week. (McGrory, 8/11)

News Service Of Florida: Scott Panel To Focus On Ambulatory Surgical Centers
A health care panel formed by Gov. Rick Scott will meet Wednesday and focus, in part, on ambulatory surgical centers --- an issue that has spurred debate in the Legislature.The House during a June special session approved a bill that would have allowed patients to stay at ambulatory-surgical centers for up to 24 hours, eliminating a regulation that currently prevents overnight stays. Also, the bill would have allowed the creation of "recovery care centers," where patients could stay for up to 72 hours after surgery. (8/11)

WBUR: How Much Is That Eye Exam? The Elusive Quest For Health Care Prices
The Pioneer Institute called the offices of 96 [Massachusetts] dentists, ophthamologists, dermatologists and gastroenterologists (the doctors who perform colonoscopies) last month, asking for the price of five basic services. The results show that prices vary widely. But getting the information wasn’t easy. (Bebinger, 8/11)

The Chicago Tribune: State-Funded Drug Aid Dries Up As Chicago's Heroin Problem Worsens
Illinois' state-funded drug treatment has dried up at the same time the Chicago area has developed the nation's worst heroin problem, a Roosevelt University report concludes. The report, to be released Tuesday, found that Illinois' per capita treatment admissions are among the lowest in the country, ahead of only Texas and Tennessee. The state has slashed treatment spending by nearly 30 percent since 2007, according to the report, and Gov. Bruce Rauner's proposed budget calls for further cuts. (Keilman, 8/11)

Arizona Republic: ASU Now First Of Its Kind Not To Offer Psychiatric Care On Campus
Among the 10 largest public, national universities in the U.S., ASU is the first to outsource psychiatric services. The other nine — all of which offer on-campus psychiatric care — include Ohio State University, University of Central Florida and, at the smallest, Pennsylvania State University’s main campus, which has more than 40,000 students. (White, 8/11)

The San Jose Mercury News: Senators Address Solutions To Foster Care System's Reliance On Psych Meds
In a sharp rebuke, the chairman of a powerful Senate committee on Tuesday admonished state officials for failing many of California's 63,000 foster children, who critics say are too often prescribed powerful psychiatric drugs with little follow-up or coordinated care. (Seipel, 8/11)

The Wall Street Journal: Different City, State Responses To Legionnaires’ Disease Outbreak On Display
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 Associated Press: 2 W.Va. Mental Health Treatment Centers Get Federal Funding
Two West Virginia facilities involved in mental health and substance abuse treatment are receiving a funding boost from the federal government. U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin says $1.6 million has been awarded to Southern Highlands Community Mental Health Center in Princeton. The Westbrook Health Services Integrated Health Care Program in Parkersburg will receive $400,000 in funding. (8/12)

Los Angeles Times: L.A. County To Relocate Some Inmates, Build Jail To Treat The Mentally Ill
Setting a future course for the troubled Los Angeles County jail system, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a plan to move at least 1,000 mentally ill offenders out of lockups and voted to build a state-of-the-art jail focused on mental health treatment. The moves come in response to a growing debate about how the county incarcerates its inmates — particularly the mentally ill, who make up 20% of the roughly 17,000 people behind bars. (Sewell and Chang, 8/11)

The Associated Press: Former Health Lab CEO Named In Federal Lawsuit
The co-founder and former chief executive officer of Richmond-based Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc. has been sued by the federal government for participating in what it calls an $80 million kickback scheme. (8/11)

The Richmond Times-Dispatch: Feds Sue Ex-HDL Chief, Allege $80M 'Kickback Scheme'
The co-founder and former chief executive officer of Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc. is being sued by the federal government for allegedly participating in an $80 million “kickback scheme” that the government claims defrauded federal health insurance programs of hundreds of millions of dollars. The lawsuit claims the defendants “knowingly and willfully” offered or paid $80 million in kickbacks to health care providers in the form of sham “process and handling” fees of $18 to $21 per blood sample. (Blackwell, 8/11)

Health News Florida: Medical Marijuana Group Collects $770K
A group seeking to ask voters in 2016 to legalize medical marijuana raised more than $770,000 in July, buoyed by contributions from its leader, Orlando attorney John Morgan, according to a newly filed finance report. "People United for Medical Marijuana" raised $770,534 during the month and spent $756,419, as it tries to collect enough petition signatures to get on the November 2016 ballot. The Morgan Firm PA contributed about $704,000 of the July total, with Coral Gables retiree Barbara Stiefel chipping in another $40,000, the report shows. (8/11)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: New Workplace Policies Let Parents Bring Babies To Work. All Day. Every Day.
The Washington Department of Health has instituted a policy that allows new parents to bring their babies to the office with them. Every day. As in Monday through Friday. In an effort to promote employee health, baby bonding and breast feeding, the agency enacted an “Infants at Work Policy” that allows moms or dads to tote the tots to work. Babies from 6-weeks to 6-months-old will be welcome at the health department office where they can sit on laps, snooze in a stroller or even attend a board meeting as their parents juggle the assignments of the day with diaper duty and all the rest of the chores that come with a bouncing bundle of joy. (Baker, 8/11)

USA Today: Don't Believe Obamascare Stories: Our View
For a program that critics have relentlessly denounced as a failure, Obamacare is doing pretty well, particularly at expanding Americans’ health coverage. A new Gallup report shows there’s now just one state (Texas) left where more than 20% of the people are uninsured .... But for critics there’s never good news, only fresh evidence that Obamacare is a ready-to-implode disaster. Their latest "proof" comes from reports that next year’s premiums for people who buy their insurance on individual health exchanges could spike by 20% to 50% or more in states such as Illinois, Oregon, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Minnesota and Tennessee. ... That does sound bad, and with open enrollment for 2016 beginning on Nov. 1, it would be alarming if that were the whole story. But it’s not. (8/11)

USA Today: Families Brace For Steep Hikes: Opposing View
American families, promised they would save $2,500 a year on health insurance premiums, are bracing themselves to see just how much their costs will increase again next year. Health insurers across the country are seeking premium increases of 20% to 40% or more. Some carriers requested only modest increases, largely because they priced premiums in line with expected medical expenses in the first year. But many others found enrollees are sicker and more costly than anticipated. (Grace-Marie Turner, 8/11)

The New York Times: Keep The Tax On High-End Health Plans
Congress is under pressure to repeal an impending tax on the so-called Cadillac health plans offered by many employers. Scores of legislators from each party have endorsed separate bills to repeal it, and candidates for office, pressed by lobbyists from labor unions, business groups and insurers, may join the call for repeal. The tax should probably be adjusted by Congress to eliminate inequities, but outright repeal would be a mistake that would undermine the viability of the Affordable Care Act. (8/12)

The New York Times: Harry Reid: Avoiding The Next Budget Crisis
While Republicans have kept virtually none of their promises about how they would run Congress, one promise they have kept is their vow to use essential appropriations bills to manufacture even more crises. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican Senate leader, laid out this strategy last year, saying that President Obama “needs to be challenged, and the best way to do that is through the funding process.”... The far right wants riders aimed at repealing the Affordable Care Act and defunding Planned Parenthood, among other things. Republicans have already tried repealing or undermining the health care law 60 times since 2011 and failed every time. The Supreme Court has upheld it twice. It’s time to move on. The same goes for efforts to defund Planned Parenthood, which would limit women’s access to contraceptives, breast cancer screenings, wellness visits and other critical services. (Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., 8/11)

Los Angeles Times: U.S. Courts Shut Down Religious Employers' Campaign Against Contraceptives
Ever since the federal government mandated that health insurance cover birth control under the Affordable Care Act without cost-sharing--that is, no co-pay charges or deductibles--Catholic and other religious employers have been trying to undercut the requirement. Fortunately, they've been batting zero at the appeals court level, most recently before the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New York, which last week knocked down an assertion by two Roman Catholic high schools and two Catholic healthcare systems that their religious rights are violated by even the requirement that they put their objections to contraception on the record so the government, their insurers, and their employees can make other arrangements. (Michael Hiltzik, 8/11)

Health Affairs: Title X: The [Linchpin] Of Publicly Funded Family Planning In The United States
Today, Congress has Title X—still the only federal grant program dedicated entirely to family planning and related preventive health care—in its sights for severe funding cuts or even elimination. The U.S. House of Representatives has proposed ending the program for the fifth year in a row, and the U.S. Senate is recommending a sizable reduction to Title X’s budget. In addition, while legislation aimed at defunding Planned Parenthood and its affiliates, whose health centers serve one-third of Title X clients nationally, failed to pass in the Senate in August, many in Congress remain committed to defunding the organization. These ideologically driven proposals come despite a wealth of evidence demonstrating the tremendous benefits of investing in Title X. (Kinsey Hasstedt, 8/10)

The Washington Post: The GOP’s Contempt For Women
[Donald] Trump’s ugly bombast is a distraction from a far more serious problem for the GOP. Three years after Romney lost the women’s vote by a double-digit margin, in part because of his support for defunding Planned Parenthood, the presidential debates last week made clear Republicans have only become more disrespectful toward women’s bodies, more deranged in their hatred of Planned Parenthood and more dismissive of female voters. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, 8/11)

The Wall Street Journal: The Five Plausible GOP Candidates
There are only five candidates with a plausible path to the Republican nomination: two sitting senators (Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz), two sitting governors (Scott Walker and John Kasich), and a former governor (Jeb Bush). ... Ted Cruz is running as the tea party’s Mr. Conservative—aggressively antigovernment except for national defense .... John Kasich is this generation’s compassionate conservative, who cites his faith as justification for expanding Medicaid and extending “unconditional love” to gays and lesbians. Scott Walker is the fighting conservative who fires supporters’ hopes that he will stick it to the liberals in Washington, as he did to public-sector unions in Wisconsin. (William A. Galston, 8/11)

Buffalo News: Test Program Expands Ability Of Medicare Patients To Receive Palliative Care
It will be a delicate balancing act, no doubt, but Medicare is beginning a valuable – indeed, inevitable – program to provide end-of-life counseling as part of a five-year experiment in 40 states. The demonstration program is meant to help patients with terminal illnesses plan for the end of their lives. Under current Medicare rules, patients must choose between medical treatments and palliative care. The demonstration project, which is to begin next year, will give patients access to both. The hope – here is where it gets delicate – is that by offering both services, more patients will receive hospice services that can improve the quality of their remaining days while also lowering what are some of the most costly aspects of medical care. (8/11)

Fortune: How To Tackle America’s Physician Shortage
Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in 2010, 16.4 million Americans have entered the healthcare system. This record number of insured individuals applies tremendous pressure on an already stretched system, but it also creates opportunities for innovation. ... Many health centers are responding to the pressure of serving more patients (including those with costly, chronic conditions) by engaging, training, and redeploying medical assistants (MAs) and other frontline health workers. With the right training, MAs can perform advanced tasks such as panel management, health coaching, scribing, and other clinical duties. This allows doctors and nurses to work at the top of their licensure by delegating clinical tasks to MAs and other frontline workers. (Barbara Dyer and Tom Strong, 8/10)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: At The Intersection Of Social Ills and Personal Health: Hospital Readmission Fines
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has documented that social factors, like income, education, and family, have a big impact on health. Some experts estimate that these factors account for as much as 40 percent of our health. Hospitals experience this reality every day when they care for patients struggling with socioeconomic challenges. Patients of limited means or who speak English as a second language often need different kinds of resources to achieve the best possible health results. Even with specialized services, these patients may end up less healthy than those who have better standards of living. (Paula Bussard, 8/12)

JAMA: Racial Bias In Health Care And Health
The health care system cannot eliminate racial/ethnic disparities in health. Health care professionals need to collaborate with other sectors of society to increase awareness about the health implications of social policies in domains far removed from traditional medical and public health interventions. Much of the contemporary disease burden is linked to behaviors that are potentially modifiable with access to timely information and the necessary resources and opportunities to facilitate the challenge of behavioral change. Many individuals live, learn, work, and play in disadvantaged contexts where it is nearly impossible to pursue healthy choices. (David R. Williams and Ronald Wyatt, 8/11)