The Associated Press: Report: More Young Adults Signing Up For Obama Health Law
Midway through sign-up season, more young adults are getting coverage through President Barack Obama's health care law. The number of new customers is also trending higher, officials said Tuesday in an upbeat report. Outside analysts who reviewed the administration's update said it reflects encouraging progress, but that may not dispel questions about the long-term future of the health insurance markets created under Obama's 2010 overhaul. Premiums have been going up and getting new sign-ups remains a challenge. ... And 2.1 million [enrollees] are under age 35, a coveted demographic because young adults tend to be healthy and their participation helps keep premiums in check. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 12/23)

The Wall Street Journal: HealthCare.gov Users Hit 8.2 Million
Some 71% of the site’s enrollees—around 5.8 million—had coverage renewed, and 29%—or about 2.4 million—had been first-time buyers, HHS said. Federal officials have seen a flurry of activity around a Dec. 15 deadline to buy or switch existing coverage that would take effect Jan. 1, and offered a two-day extension to accommodate the late crush on the site. (Radnofsky, 12/22)

USA Today: Healthcare.gov Enrollment Up About One Third Over Last Year
More than 8.2 million consumers signed up for health coverage through HealthCare.gov or had their coverage automatically renewed, as millions more selected plans through state-based market places, the Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday. It's about a one-third improvement from this time last year, when about 6.4 million had signed up for coverage or been automatically renewed. Healthcare.gov handles the enrollment for 38 states. (O'Donnell, 12/23)

The Hill: ObamaCare Sign-Ups Pass 8 Million, Outpacing Last Year's Total
The quicker pace likely indicates people are seeking to avoid the higher cost of being uninsured in 2016. People without insurance by tax season will face far steeper penalties, almost double the fee from the previous year. (Ferris, 12/22)

The Washington Post: 2 Million Current ACA Enrollees Ignore Advice To Return To HealthCare.gov
More than 2 million existing customers with insurance under the Affordable Care Act have had coverage renewed automatically for 2016 by HealthCare.gov, after they ignored government warnings to shop around to avoid surprise spikes in prices of health plans. (Goldstein, 12/22)

In other health exchange news, sick patients took a toll on co-op plans —

Modern Healthcare: Extremely Sick Newcomers, Risk Corridor Shortfalls Sink Co-Op Plans
Sick, costly patients who never had health insurance or had it only intermittently battered the finances of the not-for-profit co-op plans over the past two years, three co-op leaders said during an industry call this week. In many instances, those patients received expensive cancer treatments for the first time or got a transplant. (Herman, 12/22)

Georgia Health News: Exchange Enrollment Nears 500,000 In Georgia
Nearly a half-million Georgians have enrolled in a 2016 health plan through the insurance exchange or had their coverage automatically renewed, federal officials announced Tuesday. Georgia’s total of 498,901 as of Dec. 19 would appear to put the state on a faster pace than 2015 enrollment. By the end of that enrollment period in mid-February, roughly 540,000 Georgians had signed up or been renewed. (Miller, 12/22)

The Cleveland Plain Dealer: More Than 218,000 Ohioans Sign Up For Obamacare, Government Says
More than 218,000 Ohioans have signed up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act this year following a last-minute burst of enrollment before last week's deadline, the Obama administration announced Tuesday. Ohio ranks 12th nationally in its number of enrollees on healthcare.gov this year, according to a state-by-state breakdown released today by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Florida had the most new sign-ups, with more than 1.5 million. (Ross, 12/23)

The Arizona Republic: Feds Say More Than 155,000 Arizonans Signed Up For Health Plans
More than 155,000 Arizona residents have signed up for Affordable Care Act health coverage that is scheduled to begin Jan. 1, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Friday. That figure includes more than 60,000 Arizona residents who re-enrolled on the federal marketplace in the week ahead of the Dec. 17 deadline for people to complete enrollment to guarantee coverage next year. (Alltucker, 12/22)

The Connecticut Mirror: 100,314 Signed Up For Obamacare Coverage To Start 2016
Just over 100,000 people are signed up to receive private insurance coverage as of Jan. 1 through Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance exchange. But exchange officials expressed concern that thousands of current customers could lose their coverage or the federal tax credits that discount their premiums at the start of the new year. (Levin Becker, 12/22)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Kansas Marketplace Enrollment Jumps By 30,000 In One Week
More than 80,000 Kansans have signed up for 2016 coverage through the federal insurance marketplace — a bump of about 30,000 in the week before the deadline. The Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved reported 84,631 people in Kansas and 253,099 in Missouri had enrolled through healthcare.gov as of Saturday. The enrollments were close to the totals for last year’s sign-ups. (Hart, 12/22)

The New York Times: Hillary Clinton Proposes Doubling Spending On Alzheimer’s Research
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday proposed a $2 billion-a-year investment in Alzheimer’s research, more than double the amount in the recently passed appropriations bill, to combat the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. The plan, which would be paid for by changes in the tax code, emerged out of conversations with voters who regularly ask Mrs. Clinton about Alzheimer’s at town-hall-style events in Iowa and New Hampshire. (Chozick, 12/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Hillary Clinton Calls For $2 Billion in Alzheimer’s Research, Cure By 2025
The plan would set aside $2 billion a year for Alzheimer’s, tracking recommendations made by experts in the field, in an effort to find a cure in the next 10 years. The sum is about four times what the National Institutes of Health says it has spent annually on Alzheimer’s research in recent years. (Nicholas, 12/22)

USA Today: Clinton To Call For Alzheimer's Cure, Increase Spending To $2 Billion Annually
From 2000 to 2013, Alzheimer’s deaths increased 71%, while heart disease fatalities dropped 14%. Unlike cancer and heart attacks, there is no known cure. “Alzheimer’s is the red-haired stepchild among the top diseases threatening the aging and our health care system,” said Alzheimer’s pioneer Rudolph Tanzi, the neurology professor who discovered many of the genes, including the first ones, leading to Alzheimer's. (Przybyla, 12/22)

The Washington Post: Why Clinton’s Wildly Ambitious $20 Billion Plan To Cure Alzheimer’s By 2025 Matters
More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's today, and the number is expected to triple to 15 million by 2050. If the government's spending on the disease grows at the same rate, it would jump from $586 million in 2014 to $1 trillion in 2050. “This is a tsunami, an epidemic that could single-handedly crush Medicare, Medicaid… It’s an unmet medical need of the greatest type," Rudolph E. Tanzi, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School says. (Eunjung Cha, 12/22)

In other 2016 campaign news, The Washington Post fact checks Marco Rubio's health care claims —

The Washington Post's Fact Checker: Rubio’s Inaccurate Claim That He ‘Inserted’ A Provision Restricting Obamacare ‘Bailout’ Funds
Presidential candidate Marco Rubio has claimed that he inserted key language in the budget bill. In reality, in the sausage making of the law, Rubio didn’t make the sausage that has wounded the law. He had wanted to make a different sausage. But through deft marketing, he managed to slap his name on this one. So far, with the exception of a careful report in the Associated Press, much of the media have gotten this story wrong. (Kessler, 12/23)

NPR: FDA Approval Could Turn A Free Drug For A Rare Disease Pricey
Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, which makes Firdapse, has applied for approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under an orphan drug designation. That would give the company exclusive rights to market the drug for seven years. That should be good news for Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome patients. But the reality isn't so clear. That's because, for the last 20 years, many LEMS patients have received the same drug — known as 3,4-diaminopyridine, or 3,4-DAP — free of charge from Jacobus Pharmaceutical. (Kodjak, 12/23)

The Washington Post: Why Drug Spending Is So High, In Three Charts
On Monday, federal health officials released a database that details federal spending on 80 key medications that made up about a third of the total drug expenditures last year. There are three simple takeaways from this data dump. (Johnson, 12/22)

In other pharma marketplace news —

The Baltimore Sun: Cerecor's Shares Surge 25 Percent After CEO Replaced
Shares in Cerecor Inc. are up 25 percent since the Baltimore-based pharmaceutical company announced it was replacing its president and CEO. After spiking as high $4.14 each Tuesday morning, Cerecor shares settled to close at $3.89 a day after it announced Monday that Dr. Blake Paterson is resigning his executive positions and seat on the board. Paterson, an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine will remain as scientific advisor to the company, which is testing an antidepressant for patients who are not responding to other drugs. (12/22)

USA Today: Veterans Still Suffering From Poor Care Despite Fixes Touted In Washington
The VA has struggled to meet unprecedented demand as new waves of veterans with complex needs return from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time Vietnam veterans are aging and requiring more care. Its failures have played out in crisis after crisis in recent years, from the benefit-claims backlog that reached more than a half million applications in 2013 to the revelation last year that patient wait-time records were manipulated while veterans died waiting for care. Former VA secretary Eric Shinseki stepped down, President Obama installed a new secretary, and Congress passed legislation trying to fix the agency. But on the front lines, it can be hard to tell the difference. (Slack, 12/22)

The Associated Press: Utah Can Block Planned Parenthood Funds While Suit Proceeds
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that Utah can cut off federal funds to the state’s Planned Parenthood organization, a move the Republican governor ordered after the release of secretly recorded videos by an anti-abortion group. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups reversed an earlier decision temporarily ordering the money to keep flowing to the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. (Price, 12/22)

The Hill: Judge Sides With Utah Governor In Planned Parenthood Funding Battle
The funding is a fraction of Planned Parenthood’s $8 million budget in Utah, though organization officials have maintained that the funding is crucial and that Gov. Gary Herbert is trying to advance his own political agenda. Herbert announced this summer that he would be ending state contracts with Planned Parenthood after anti-abortion activists released undercover video footage that they say proves the organization was illegally profiting from fetal tissue donations. (Ferris, 12/22)

The Associated Press: HHS To Review Federal Oversight Of Fetal Tissue Research
At the request of Republican senators, the inspector general's office of the Department of Health and Human Services has launched a review of how federal officials oversee fetal tissue research — a subject in the spotlight since the release of undercover videos targeting Planned Parenthood. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who initiated the request, said Tuesday that the audit would cover all fetal tissue research supported by HHS grants and would examine how the agency enforced compliance with relevant federal laws. (12/22)

CNN: After Planned Parenthood Videos, Paul Touts HHS Probe Of Fetal Tissue Research
Sen. Rand Paul touted a victory on Tuesday in Republicans' war against Planned Parenthood, announcing the administration would audit grants for fetal tissue research. The presidential hopeful this month got a response from the Department of Health and Human Services to a letter he and 34 other senators sent this fall calling for an investigation. (Kopan, 12/22)

And in Texas, Planned Parenthood is dropped from an HIV prevention program —

The Texas Tribune: Texas Drops Planned Parenthood From HIV Prevention Program
Amid an ongoing battle over Planned Parenthood’s participation in the state Medicaid program, Texas health officials are cutting off funding to a Planned Parenthood affiliate for an HIV prevention program. In a notice received by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast late Monday, an official with the Department of State Health Services informed the Houston-based provider that it would not renew its contract for HIV prevention services. (Ura, 12/22)

The Associated Press: New Advice On Who Qualifies For Cholesterol-Lowering Statins
Considering a cholesterol-lowering statin to prevent a heart attack? Deciding who’s a good candidate requires calculating more than a simple cholesterol level. A government task force says the popular medications will be of most benefit to some people ages 40 to 75 whose risk of cardiovascular disease over the next decade is at least 10 percent. But Monday’s draft guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force left some wiggle room, saying certain patients who aren’t at quite as high a risk still might benefit and should weigh the pros and cons for themselves. (Neergaard, 12/22)

Reuters: U.S. Lawmakers Call For Action To Protect Drug-Exposed Newborns
Two senior U.S. senators are calling for swift federal action to help protect thousands of infants born each year to mothers who used opioids during pregnancy. Sen. Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, is calling for oversight hearings, in part to understand why a longstanding federal law directing states to safeguard the newborns is not being enforced. Sen. Charles Schumer, of New York, wants the Obama Administration to put “an emergency surge” of funds toward addressing the growing number of drug-dependent newborns. (12/22)

The New York Times: A Patient Is Sued, And His Mental Health Diagnosis Becomes Public
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the federal patient privacy law known as Hipaa, allows health providers to sue patients over unpaid debts, but requires that they disclose only the minimum information necessary to pursue them. Still, the law has many loopholes. One is that Hipaa covers only providers who submit data electronically. (Ornstein, 12/23)

Kaiser Health News: Hands Off That Frozen Pizza! Docs Advise Customers As They Shop
Hospitals and health clinics around the country are increasing their efforts to promote exercise and healthy eating. They’re offering yoga and cooking classes, sponsoring farmers’ markets and writing prescriptions for fresh fruits and vegetables. ... St. Joseph Hoag Health’s recent campaign is called “Shop with Your Doc” and is based at Ralphs supermarkets throughout Orange County. Grocery stores are an ideal place to teach people that they can become healthier by making small dietary changes and eating in moderation, said Vanessa Rosales, community affairs manager for Ralphs & Food 4 Less. (Gorman, 12/23)

Modern Healthcare: HCA Pays $2 Million To Settle Whistle Blower Case Over Heart Procedures
Hospital chain HCA has agreed to pay $2 million to settle allegations that doctors at one of its hospitals in Georgia performed unnecessary, low-quality heart procedures. Whistle-blower Dr. Michael Fenster first filed the False Claims Act case in 2010, but it wasn't made public until last week. Fenster, who was the executive director of the cardiovascular program at HCA's Fairview Park Hospital in Dublin, Ga., alleged that two Fairview doctors performed medically unnecessary procedures, leading to patient harm and death. (Schencker, 12/22)

The Associated Press: Illinois AG, Federal Trade Commission Oppose Hospital Merger
A proposed merger of two of the largest hospital systems in the Chicago area faces increasing opposition. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and the Federal Trade Commission on Monday sought to block the merger of Advocate Health Care and NorthShore University HealthSystem in U.S. District Court in Chicago. They are seeking a preliminary injunction to delay the merger until the FTC can complete a full antitrust review. (12/22)

The Seattle Times: Patient Awarded $1.5M In Harborview Negligence Verdict
A Port Angeles carpenter who lost the use of his left hand after a Harborview Medical Center resident allegedly failed to recognize and treat a serious complication has been awarded more than $1.5 million in a malpractice verdict. John Pluard, now 56, received $1.3 million in economic and noneconomic damages and his wife, Lisa Pluard, 51, received $275,000 in noneconomic damages in the Monday verdict in King County Superior Court. (Aleccia, 12/22)

The Associated Press: State To Delay Medicaid Reimbursement Cuts On In-Home Care
The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is delaying its decision to cut Medicaid reimbursement rates for in-home care for the developmentally disabled after receiving harsh backlash from disability providers who say the move will negatively impact care. The agency announced Monday that it will now implement the change in February rather than at the beginning of the new year. Last week, providers who offer in-home care at the "intense" level were told starting in January they would see about a 46 percent cut in the reimbursement they receive each day — the same level as in 2006. Rates were cut by 37 percent at the lowest level of support. (Kruesi, 12/23)

North Carolina Health News: Medicaid Policy Changing To Get Breastfeeding Help Covered
Breastfeeding is one of the most natural things a mother can do for her baby. But for some women, the task doesn’t come naturally. Babies can have trouble latching on, women can have difficulty with pain or milk flow, and frustration can quickly build. (Hoban, 12/20)

The Associated Press: Bribery Probe Nets $12M And More Than 2 Dozen Doctors
An ongoing federal investigation of a New Jersey medical laboratory has netted guilty pleas from more than two dozen doctors, the latest Tuesday from a physician who admitted taking cash bribes from lab employees. ... Prosecutors say the bribes were part of a long-running scheme operated by Biodiagnostic Laboratory. They say the company bribed doctors to refer patients and perform unnecessary tests, reaping millions of dollars. (12/22)

USA Today: Burden Of Lung Cancer Pushes Kentucky's Cancer Rates To Nation's Highest
About 10,000 Kentuckians a year are taken by cancer in a state where the disease consistently kills at the highest rate in the nation. Experts say the biggest culprit is lung cancer, which strikes and kills Kentuckians at rates 50% higher than the national average. But Kentucky’s death rates also rank in the Top 10 nationally for breast, colorectal and cervical cancers. (Ungar, 12/22)

Reuters: Tennessee Woman Pleads Not Guilty To Murder Charge For Abortion Attempt
A Tennessee woman accused of using a coat hanger to try to abort her 24-week-old fetus pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempted first-degree murder in a Nashville-area court on Tuesday, a sheriff's official said. Anna Yocca, 31, was indicted earlier this month for attempting to abort the fetus in a bathtub filled with water in September. (12/22)

Heartland Health Monitor: New E. coli Infection Turns Up In Kansas
A Johnson County resident is the latest person to fall ill with an E. coli infection that may be linked to Chipotle Mexican Grill. Federal health officials have identified five people, including the Johnson County resident, who have been infected with what they said was a “different, rare DNA fingerprint of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli026,” or STEC 26. (Margolies, 12/22)

The Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ohio Supreme Court To Decide Fate Of Malpractice Case Against Cleveland Clinic
A long legal battle between the Cleveland Clinic and a retired Air Force colonel who says he was injured by a group of Clinic surgeons is entering a potentially decisive stage before the Ohio Supreme Court. David Antoon and his wife have accused the doctors of botching a surgery to remove his cancerous prostate gland, leaving him impotent and incontinent, and unable to continue his job as a commercial 747 pilot. The Clinic denies any wrongdoing. (Ross, 12/23)

The Associated Press: Michigan Schools Try Out Gold Standard Of Concussion Tests
Sixty-two Michigan high schools are participating in a unique pilot program that does baseline testing of athletes in football and other sports to help with concussion diagnosis. Baseline testing — a combination of memory, reaction time, attention and stress assessments — is done in major pro sports because it is considered an objective and individualized tool. The NCAA recommends baseline testing of all college athletes. While all states have laws that address preventing concussions in youth sports, many are weak and none require baseline testing. (Schneider, 12/23)

Bloomberg: One And A Half Cheers For Obamacare
Politics aside, the success of Obamacare has always depended mainly on economics: If it can’t attract the right mix of customers, the program is doomed. On this score, the latest figures from the Department of Health and Human Services are encouraging, even if it's too soon to declare victory. More young people -- who on average are in good health, and who help defray the cost of insuring the sick -- are enrolling in Obamacare. Almost 1 million new customers age 34 or younger had signed up for coverage starting Jan. 1, 2016, an increase of almost 50 percent compared with the same period last year. (12/22)

The Tennessean: Will 2016 Be The Year For Medicaid Expansion?
Whether it's the 2015 year in review or 2016 year ahead, there is no bigger subject for Tennessee health care than Medicaid expansion. Hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans receive no health coverage, although the federal government has agreed to pay for it. Tennessee hospitals take Medicare cuts that eliminate their operating margins, but the payback in increased Medicaid coverage has evaporated. The Tennessee Assembly can't stomach a politically unpopular president, but their working class and health care constituents wonder, do you have a better plan? (Richard Cowart, 12/22)

news@JAMA: Replacing The Affordable Care Act And Other Suggested Reforms
A group of health policy analysts (the 3 of us plus 7 others ...) have collaborated on a set of proposals for replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and also reforming other major portions of health care delivery, such as the tax treatment of employer-sponsored health insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, and Health Savings Accounts. Because so much attention has been paid to the repeal of the ACA by those who have opposed it, we believe it is important to focus on a serious proposal that could both replace this law and provide additional measures of reform, especially to the health care entitlement programs. (Joseph Antos, James Capretta and Gail Wilensky, 12/22)

The Richmond Times-Dispatch: Progress On Health-Care Reform
A state committee tasked with reforming Virginia’s onerous regulation of medical providers recently decided to punt on the issue. It offered a series of suggestions for minimal changes to improve the Certificate of Public Need Law. But tweaking a bad law to make it slightly less bad falls far short of what’s needed: wholesale repeal. Fortunately, three state lawmakers are stepping in where the committee feared to tread. The COPN system restricts investments in new medical facilities and equipment. This limits consumer choice, restricts supply, and drives up costs — to the detriment of the public. (12/22)

The Washington Post: Bartenders Get Injured All The Time — And Their Employers Rarely Provide Insurance
Many workers in the industry have ... injury horror stories. [Bartender Willy] Shine got lucky. He had health insurance or was covered by workman’s comp for the most serious incidents. But most workers aren’t that fortunate, and many on-the-job injuries go untreated and unreported. As a result, the non-fatal injury rate published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is deceptively low. According to its data, only 3.6 of every 100 full-time workers in the industry will face an injury. “Everything is underreported,” said Saru Jayaraman, co-director of worker advocacy group Restaurant Opportunity Centers United and director of the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California at Berkley. “There’s such an overwhelming acceptance by workers on what is normal and acceptable and tolerable in our industry. You’re made to feel that it just goes with the job.” (Clair McLafferty, 12/22)

JAMA: Making Physical Activity Counseling A Priority In Clinical Practice
Given the overwhelming evidence of benefits from physical activity and the vital role of health professionals in motivating behavior change, the lack of physical activity counseling in clinical settings represents a lost opportunity to improve the health and well-being of patients, and with minimal cost. In this Viewpoint, we hope to motivate physicians and other health care practitioners to include physical activity counseling in patient encounters and provide tools for efficiently integrating this activity into busy clinical settings with constant time pressures. (Kathy Berra, James Rippe and JoAnn E. Manson, 12/22)

Health Affairs: Evaluating A New Era In Medicare Hospice And End-Of-Life Policy
January 1, 2016 will see three big policy changes in Medicare end-of-life policy. Attributing any changes in the overall Medicare program to the hospice reimbursement changes or the payment for advanced care planning will be a nontrivial exercise. Three areas need more attention. First, determining what level of evidence is “good enough” is a key concept that needs more clarity if we are to increase our evidence base in policymaking. Observational studies will be needed to answer questions that are not amenable to traditional clinical trials. ... Second, we will need good proxies for advance care planning payments that will allow for comparison with beneficiaries not participating in such discussions in Medicare claims. ... Finally, there will presumably be a full-scale evaluation of the Medicare Care Choices Model demonstration project as there have been with other CMMI projects. (Donald Taylor, Nrupen Bhavsar, Matthew Harker and Cordt Kassner, 12/22)