The New York Times: Court Strikes Down Obama Health Care Rule On Insurance Standards
A federal appeals court has ruled that consumers must be allowed to buy certain types of health insurance that do not meet the stringent standards of the Affordable Care Act, deciding that the administration had gone beyond the terms of federal law. The court struck down a rule issued by the Obama administration that barred the sale of such insurance as a separate stand-alone product. ... At issue is a type of insurance that pays consumers a fixed dollar amount, such as $500 a day for hospital care or $50 for a doctor’s visit, regardless of how much is actually owed to the provider. (Pear, 7/5)

The Hill: Another ObamaCare Co-Op Winding Down
The state of Connecticut is placing its nonprofit ObamaCare health insurer, called HealthyCT, under supervision and beginning a wind-down process due to financial struggles. The announcement is only the latest in a string of problems facing the nonprofit insurers set up under ObamaCare, known as co-ops. Republicans have seized on the troubles as evidence of problems in the health law as a whole. (Sullivan, 7/5)

The CT Mirror: State Deems Insurance Co-Op, HealthyCT, Financially Unstable
About 40,000 people will lose their health insurance in the coming months as a result of a state evaluation that has deemed the financial health of Connecticut’s nonprofit health care co-op unstable. The co-op, HealthyCT, was issued an order of supervision from the state's insurance department Tuesday after it became clear a new federal requirement for the provider to pay $13.4 million would leave its finances in disarray. The order prevents the co-op from issuing any new insurance policies – a measure designed to protect consumers. (Constable, 7/5)

Hartford Courant: Nonprofit Obamacare Insurer In Connecticut Going Out Of Business
HealthyCT, whose motto is"Plans for People. Not for Profit," learned Thursday that it had to pay $13.4 million to the federal government because of the risk adjustment rules that are part of the complex Obamacare system. Under risk adjustment, plans that cover more healthy people have to send money back to the government, which is then redistributed to other plans that have a sicker population. ... The company will wind down through the middle of next year. Once all the customers are gone, 72 Wallingford-based employees will be out of work, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit said. (Lee, 7/5)

The Associated Press: Report: VA Health Care Still Has 'Profound Deficiencies'
Two years after a scandal over long wait times for veterans seeking health care, the Department of Veterans Affairs still has "profound deficiencies" in delivering health care to millions of veterans, a congressional commission says in a new report. The Commission on Care says in a report to be released Wednesday that the VA delivers high-quality health care but is inconsistent from one site to the next, and problems with access remain. (7/6)

USA Today/The Arizona Republic: VA Panel Calls For Broader Health Care Choices For Vets
An independent commission assigned to come up with reforms for the Department of Veterans Affairs is calling for a transformation in health care for veterans with expanded options for community medical treatment and a new governing board to oversee the nation's largest health-care system. The report from the VA's Commission on Care contains 18 recommendations to achieve a "bold transformation of a complex system that will take years to fully realize," adding, "We believe these recommendations are essential to ensure that our nation's veterans receive the health care they need and deserve, both now and in the future." (Wagner, 7/5)

The Wall Street Journal: VA Health-System Overhaul Urged By Commission
The commission is recommending that the VA health-care system set up community networks staffed in part by independent providers that are credentialed by the agency. Facilities that have been identified for closing should be immediately sold or used for new purposes, according to the report. “The commission’s report includes a number of specific proposals that I look forward to reviewing closely over the coming weeks,” President Barack Obama said in a statement. “We will continue to work with veterans, Congress and our partners in the veteran advocacy community to further our ongoing transformation of the veterans’ health care system.” (Armour and Kesling, 7/5)

The Hill: Dems Threaten To Oppose Opioids Bill Without Funding
Democratic leaders are threatening to oppose a landmark anti-addiction bill without “significant” new money, upping the ante in Congress’s months-long battle over funding to combat opiod abuse. In a sharply worded letter to Republicans on Tuesday, Democrats called for at least $940 million to expand access to treatment. (Ferris, 7/5)

Politico Pro: Democrats Threaten Opioid Legislation Over Funding
The White House and congressional Democrats are threatening to hold up an opioid bill unless Republicans add new funding to the measure, a standoff that could end up stalling legislation important to several GOP lawmakers running for reelection this fall. The conference report released Tuesday to address the opioid epidemic is “really insufficient I think to make a dent in providing treatment for people who desperately need it,” White House drug czar Michael Botticelli said in a conference call with reporters. (Norman and Haberkorn, 7/6)

Morning Consult: Opioid Legislation Set To Go The Route Of Zika Bill
A conference committee considering legislation to address the nation’s opioid epidemic is poised to end in partisan gridlock, with neither side willing to budge on whether new funding should be included in the bill. Democrats have long called for more money to be allocated to fighting the epidemic through legislation, but Republicans have stuck to their mantra of dealing with funding through the appropriations process. Neither side appears likely to budge before Wednesday’s conference meeting. (Owens, 7/5)

The Associated Press: US To Raise Cap For Docs Prescribing Opioid Addiction Drug
The Obama administration is increasing the number of patients whom doctors can treat for opioid addiction with a medication called buprenorphine. The cap is being raised from 100 patients per doctor to 275 as the White House tries to pressure Congress to approve funds for opioid abuse treatment. Doctors seeking the higher cap will have to apply. The modest step being announced Wednesday comes the same day that House-Senate bargainers plan to meet to finalize a compromise package on drug abuse. (7/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Obama Administration Loosens Controls On Medication To Ease Opioid Cravings
The limits were put in place to try to keep tight control of the medication, which addicts sometimes buy and sell on the black market because it prevents painful withdrawal symptoms from heroin and other drugs. Federal officials believed that keeping a tight lid on prescribing would thwart this black-market trade. But the limits have left many patients unable to find a doctor who can prescribe them buprenorphine, a medication public-health officials call an important tool in combating the growing epidemic of opioid abuse and overdose deaths. (Whalen, 7/6)

The Columbus Dispatch: New U.S. Rule Eases Access To Anti-Addiction Drug Buprenorphine
Access to medication-assisted treatment for people addicted to heroin and pain pills will expand under a new U.S Department of Health and Human Services rule. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said in a conference call Tuesday that the department will allow qualified physicians to treat up to 275 patients, up from 100, with buprenorphine, a medication that blocks opioids from affecting the brain. As many as 17,000 new patients could be added in the first year, with thousands more treated in succeeding years, she said. (Johnson, 7/6)

Sacramento Bee: More Opioid Abusers Now Can Get Medication Help
More Americans will now have access to a drug that could help treat their opioid addiction, Sylvia Burwell, U.S. secretary of health and human services, announced Tuesday, even as she pushed for Congress to approve $1.1 billion targeted at the opioid epidemic. The drug, called buprenorphine, is one of three medications -- the others are naltrexone and methadone -- that the FDA has approved for treating addictions to the powerful painkillers. Health care providers who prescribe the drug now must cap the number of patients treated at 100 because of fears that misusers will divert the medication for street use. The new rule, effective Aug. 5, raises that patient cap to 275. (Mueller, 7/5)

The Tennessean: Feds To Raise Patient Load For Addiction Treatment
Federal officials are increasing the maximum number of patients a doctor can treat for painkiller and heroin abuse as a way to expand access to treatment. The number of patients to whom a doctor can prescribe buprenorphine, a narcotic that treats pain and opioid addiction, will increase to 275 starting later in the summer under a rule from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Currently, doctors can see up to 100 patients. (Fletcher, 7/5)

Meanwhile, Pfizer has agreed to make changes in its marketing strategy when it comes to opioids —

The Washington Post: Pfizer Agrees To Truth In Opioid Marketing
Pfizer, the world’s second- ­largest drug company, has agreed to a written code of conduct for the marketing of opioids that some officials hope will set a standard for manufacturers of narcotics and help curb the use of the addictive painkillers. Though Pfizer does not sell many opioids compared with other industry leaders, its action sets it apart from companies that have been accused of fueling an epidemic of opioid misuse through aggressive marketing of their products. (Bernstein, 7/5)

The Associated Press: FDA Approves First Dissolving Stent For US Patients
A medical implant that slowly dissolves into the body could be the answer to long-standing safety concerns with devices used to treat clogged arteries. But not so fast, say experts. Abbott Laboratories’ newly-approved Absorb stent comes with one important caveat: it hasn’t yet been shown to be safer than older metal implants. (Perrone, 7/5)

Modern Healthcare: Abbott Gains Approval For First Fully Dissolving Artery Stent
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first fully absorbable stent used to treat coronary artery disease. The plastic stent, already available in Europe and manufactured by Abbott Park, Ill.-based Abbott Vascular, is a scaffold that is implanted with a catheter to widen the artery to allow blood to pass through. But unlike conventional metallic stents, Abbott's new, biodegradable stent is gradually absorbed by the body over roughly three years, leaving little foreign material in the body. (Rubenfire, 7/5)

In other news, a Georgia company is working on a device that could potentially save limbs on the battlefield —

The Columbia Dispatch: Battelle Developing Wrap To Save Limbs On Battlefield
On the battlefield, a wound can go from bad to worse in seconds. Stopping the bleeding and keeping the wound clean are paramount. Away from the action, Battelle is working with Halyard Health, a Georgia-based medical-technology company, to develop a wrap that they hope will help preserve severely injured limbs. The Office of Naval Research has signed a four-year, $14.4 million deal with Battelle and Halyard to help troops survive catastrophic injuries. (Tate, 7/6)

The Hill: NIH To Study Zika In Olympic Athletes
U.S. researchers are launching a study of hundreds of American Olympic athletes and staffers this summer to learn more about the effects of the Zika virus, which has plagued South America. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Tuesday it is funding a study to determine what puts people at risk for infection and how long individuals can carry the virus. (Ferris, 7/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Sanofi Teams Up With U.S. Army On Zika Vaccine
Sanofi SA has formed a partnership with the U.S. Army to expand research and development of an experimental Zika vaccine that has shown promise in early laboratory studies and is among a few candidates expected to be tested on humans in the coming months. At least 15 companies and entities, including Sanofi, are racing to develop vaccines against the Zika virus, which is behind an epidemic in the Americas that the World Health Organization says constitutes a public health emergency because the virus is linked to birth defects in multiple countries. (McKay and Bisserbe, 7/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Brazilian Researchers Join With U.S. In Hunt For Zika Vaccine
A leading Brazilian biomedical research center is teaming up with the U.S. and the World Health Organization in the latest effort to develop a vaccine for the mosquito-borne Zika virus. The Butantan Institute [in Sao Paulo] has said it would partner with a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop the new vaccine for the virus, which spread across the Americas and raised concerns ahead of next month’s Rio Olympics Games in Rio de Janeiro. (Johnson and Jelmayer, 7/5)

Marketplace: Zika Is Moving Fast. But Congress? Not So Much.
A political fight has stalled federal funding to help combat the virus. And the fight is about contraception. Democrats and Republicans are deadlocked over whether the billion-dollar Zika fund could be used by private family planning clinics, like Planned Parenthood. (Tong, 7/5)

Morning Consult: Poll: Voters Support Zika Bill, But Less Sure On ‘Poison Pills’
As congressional leaders remain deadlocked over a legislative package to provide additional funding to combat the Zika virus, a new Morning Consult poll shows more than three-quarters of registered voters support the measure. In the national survey taken from June 30 through the July Fourth weekend, 76 percent of respondents said they either somewhat support or strongly support the bill, which stalled last week in the Senate. But slightly more respondents said they’d be less likely to support the measure if it included most provisions Democrats have labeled as “poison pills.” (McIntire, 7/5)

The Dallas Morning News: Debunked: Should You Avoid Getting Pregnant Because Of The Zika Outbreak?
Not according to the World Health Organization. This one’s complicated. So complicated that the WHO has had to clarify its position on Zika and pregnancy a few times. It's not unusual to update health advice during an outbreak, especially one where things are changing rapidly and a disease is spreading through a part of the world it's never been seen in before. (Yasmin, 7/5)

In other news, how the virus is affecting blood banks —

Kaiser Health News: Unintended Consequence: Blood Banks Could Feel The Squeeze From Zika Advisories
Enhancing mosquito control. Encouraging safe sex. Advising people to minimize travel to infected areas. As public health officials hustle to implement strategies like these to undermine the threat of the Zika virus, one such tactic could exacerbate a different health concern: maintaining the nation’s supply of donated blood. The Food and Drug Administration is encouraging blood banks -- which already often struggle to meet demand -- to turn away potential donors who might be at risk. Specifically, people who have traveled to a country where the disease is being spread, or had sex with someone else who did, should not donate for four weeks. The protocol is being followed by clinics across the country. (Luthra, 7/6)

Sacramento Bee: Blood Banks Face ‘Unprecedented’ Shortage Due In Part To Zika Restrictions
A network of blood donation centers in Northern and Central California has issued an urgent plea for donors to help alleviate what it says is an “extreme” and “unprecedented” nationwide blood supply shortage aggravated by the ongoing Zika epidemic in Latin America. BloodSource, which collects blood from Merced to Chico and distributes it to about 100 California hospitals, put out the “critical appeal” Tuesday morning, as the network’s reserves dropped to 5,000 pints below inventory levels needed to meet hospital demand, according to a news release. The biggest supplier of blood in the region, BloodSource aims to satisfy July demand of 25,400 pints. (Caiola, 7/5)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Doctors & Sex Abuse
In a national investigation, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution examined documents that described disturbing acts of physician sexual abuse in every state. Rapes by OB/GYNs, seductions by psychiatrists, fondling by anesthesiologists and ophthalmologists, and molestations by pediatricians and radiologists. Victims were babies. Adolescents. Women in their 80s. Drug addicts and jail inmates. Survivors of childhood sexual abuse. ... How do doctors get away with exploiting patients for years? (Teegardin, Robbins, Ernsthausen and Hart, 7/6)

Bloomberg: Personalized Medicine Gets Boost From Court Ruling On Patents
The business of diagnostic treatments and personalized medicine got a boost Tuesday after an appeals court made it harder to invalidate certain patents by claiming they simply cover laws of nature. Patents can be obtained for processes relating to laws of nature if they go at least one step further, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said. The Washington court, which specializes in patent law, overturned a ruling that a patent owned by closely held Rapid Litigation Management Ltd. was invalid, and revived an infringement suit against a unit of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (Decker and Bloomfield, 7/5)

Modern Healthcare: Court Backs More Expansive View Of What Biotech Firms Can Patent
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Tuesday in favor of In Vitro, which wanted its patent upheld for a process of repeatedly freezing and thawing a type of liver cell useful for testing, diagnostic and treatment purposes. A lower court had ruled In Vitro's process wasn't patentable because it covered a law of nature and laws of nature can't be patented. (Schencker, 7/5)

The Associated Press: Judge: Kansas Can't Cut Planned Parenthood's Medicaid Money
U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson in Kansas City, Kansas, issued the temporary ruling in a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri and the organization's St. Louis regional affiliate. Robinson wrote that Medicaid patients have "the explicit right to seek family planning services from the qualified provider of their choice." The court also noted that Planned Parenthood is likely to succeed on their claim that the state violated a free-choice provider provision in the Medicaid Act. (Hanna, 7/5)

Reuters: Judge Blocks Kansas' Attempt To Cut Planned Parenthood From Medicaid
A federal judge on Tuesday blocked Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's efforts to remove Planned Parenthood, a U.S. women's healthcare and abortion provider, from a government health insurance program for the poor in the state. U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson issued the 54-page order for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, ruling the state could not cancel Medicaid provider agreements with Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, or PPKM, and Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, or PPSLR. (Skinner, 7/5)

Kansas Health Institute: Judge Blocks Kansas Effort To End Medicaid Funding For Planned Parenthood
A federal judge blocked Kansas’ effort to cut off two regional Planned Parenthood affiliates’ Medicaid funding, ruling the move likely violates federal law. In a 54-page decision handed down Tuesday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Julie Robinson granted a preliminary injunction sought by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri (now known as Planned Parenthood Great Plains) and by Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region. (Margolies, 7/5)

The Associated Press: Apple Urges Organ Donation Via New iPhone Software
Apple wants to encourage millions of iPhone owners to register as organ donors through a software update that will add an easy sign-up button to the health information app that comes installed on every smartphone the company makes. CEO Tim Cook says he hopes the new software, set for limited release this month, will help ease a critical and longstanding donor shortage. He said the problem hit home when his friend and former boss, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, endured an "excruciating" wait for a liver transplant in 2009. (Bailey, 7/5)

In other news, WBUR offers several stories from the health technology realm —

WBUR: Digital Doctors And Virtual Medicine
Log on, the doctor is in. Online that is. Telemedicine is here, promising transformative ways to deliver fast., convenient, and high-quality healthcare. That’s the claim. What’s the reality? (Clayson, 7/5)

WBUR: Should You Take Aspirin? A New App Helps Your Doctor Advise You
Heart disease and stroke are leading killers, and I worry a lot about how to prevent them in my primary care patients. ...One new solution is a decision tool called Aspirin Guide, released in June by Dr. Joann Manson and her colleague, Dr. Sammy Mora, both researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. They created the app, available for the iPhone, along with developer Jeff Ames. (Poorman, 7/5)

WBUR: Patients With Depression Test App That Tracks Their Mood, Activity
[Marcia] Chesterfield is one of 30 Brigham and Women's patients who've agreed to test the Cogito Companion app. ...Many doctors and therapists already feel overloaded with paperwork and recording keeping. [David] Ahern says the app and others may free clinicians to handle more patients who need therapy because they won't need to see a provider weekly or twice a month. (Bebinger, 7/1)

The Washington Post: Could Your Cavity-Filled Tooth Repair Itself With Stem Cells In The Future?
Walking into a dentist’s office could be less of a frightening thing in the future if scientists Kyle Vining, of Harvard, and Adam Celiz, of the British University of Nottingham, have anything to do with it. ... Vining and Celiz have just won a prize at the Royal Society of Chemistry’s emerging technology competition for creating a synthetic biomaterial that stimulates stem cells native to your teeth to repair them. That’s right — the substance appears to somehow make that area regenerate pulp tissue and the critical bony material of your tooth known as dentin. (Cha, 7/5)

Stat: It's Been 20 Years Since Dolly. Where's My Clone?
Dolly, the first animal to be cloned from an adult of its species, was born 20 years ago today at the Roslin Institute in Scotland. When her creators announced what they had done, it triggered warnings of rich people cloning themselves for spare parts, of tyrants cloning soldiers for armies, of bereaved parents cloning their dead child to produce a replacement — and promises that the technique would bring medical breakthroughs. Which raises some questions: Why are there no human clones? Because of scientific, ethical, and commercial reasons. (Begley, 7/5)

PBS Newshour: Silly Rabbit! Junk Food Ads Contribute To Childhood Obesity, Study Says
Ronald McDonald, the Trix Rabbit and Sour Patch Kids are more than just benign cartoon characters. These child-centric marketing icons have contributed to the childhood obesity epidemic, according to a new study. ... The study found that kids consumed 30 more calories when exposed to just four minutes of junk food advertising relative to control groups. (Strum, 7/5)

PBS Newshour: Are Young Kids Losing The Brain-Boosting Benefits Of Playtime?
As kindergarten and pre-k have become more academically rigorous, some worry that the very youngest students may be missing out on crucial development through abundant playtime. But other educators believe setting high expectations for achievement helps kids, especially low-income students, excel. Special correspondent Cat Wise reports. (Wise, 7/5)

Wyoming Public Radio: When I Was Diagnosed With Bipolar Disorder, People Thought I Was Cursed
When I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2008, at the age of 24, all I wanted to know was whether I would be all right. It was the first time I had ever heard about the condition, and many people around me simply believed that I had been cursed. Even though my parents sought medical help, the psychiatrist who diagnosed me did not give any information about the illness, the side effects of the medication prescribed for me, or the manic and depressive bouts that I could expect. (Wafula, 7/5)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: More People Can Ask For Help In Dying, But Very Few Do
A new study led by University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Ezekiel Emanuel finds that only a tiny fraction of the dying want help speeding up the process. However, Emanuel is concerned about the reasons people are choosing to die - horrible pain is sixth on the list - and says doctors remain less supportive of assisted suicide than the general public. (Burling, 7/6)

The Baltimore Sun: Health Care For The Homeless Get $1.26 Million Federal Grant
Baltimore’s Health Care for Homeless Inc. will receive $1.26 million to provide housing assistance and support services to low-income people with HIV and their families as part of a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Cohn, 7/5)

KQED: Decades of Budget Shortfalls Frustrate L.A. County Coroner
The shortage of resources has serious public health implications, such as delaying health alerts to ambulance crews and emergency room doctors when there’s a spike in overdoses such as those occurring now with fentanyl and other opioids. Likewise, we rely on pathologists’ reports to head off disease such as the tuberculosis epidemic that broke out a couple years ago on L.A.’s Skid Row. Findings by coroners’ departments help to identify trends in another public health issue, violent crime. Finally, slowness in investigating questionable deaths causes additional anguish and sometimes financial hardship to friends and relatives of the deceased. (Richard, 7/5)

The Texas Tribune: Pay Caseworkers And Fosters More, New Chief Says
The new commissioner of the state’s embattled child welfare agency wants lawmakers to make a sizable investment in Child Protective Services and the state’s foster care system. ... Whitman, a former chief of the Texas Rangers who was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to his new post in April, sat down with The Texas Tribune to discuss the problems facing the Texas Department of Family and Protective services — and how he thinks a police officer’s perspective can help fix them. Among those troubles are a spike in the number of children sleeping in CPS offices and psychiatric hospitals, high staff turnover and a spate of high-profile child deaths. Whitman says his agency is hiring 20 “crime analysts” to help track down at-risk kids. (Walters, 7/6)

Concord Monitor: New 10-Bed Crisis Unit Opens At N.H. Hospital, A Year Behind Schedule
After a yearlong delay, New Hampshire Hospital opened a new 10-bed mental health crisis unit Tuesday. It’s meant to take pressure off local emergency rooms, where patients often languish for days while they wait for a bed to open up at the state-run psychiatric hospital in Concord. (Morris, 7/5)

Modern Healthcare: N.J. Hospitals Brace For $200 Million Cut To Charity-Care Funds
Although the New Jersey Legislature voted last month to add $50 million to subsidies for charity-care hospitals, Republican Gov. Chris Christie line-item vetoed the measure when he signed the fiscal 2017 budget on June 30, according to the New Jersey Hospital Association. (Teichert, 7/5)

Minnesota Public Radio: So, How Good Is That Allina Nurses Health Coverage?
Allina Health wants nurses at its Twin Cities area hospitals to move to its corporate health plans. Union nurses say no. It remains a stumbling block in contract talks, although experts say the corporate and nurses' plans are both generous. ... Measured against national insurance trends, all three of the health plans are good, said Cynthia Cox, associate director of health reform and private insurance at Kaiser. (Benson, 7/5)

Sacramento Bee: Sutter Health Launches Air/Ground Ambulance Transport Network
Sacramento’s Sutter Health has launched a new medical transport network to quickly serve critically ill, injured and fragile patients throughout Northern California. The network features air ambulances operated by McClellan-based California Shock Trauma Air Rescue, Calstar for short, and ground ambulances operated by American Medical Response, headquartered in Colorado. Sutter Health said it has stationed 12 critical care ground ambulances at 11 Sutter hospitals and helicopters at four Calstar air bases in Northern California. (Glover, 7/5)

San Antonio Express-News: Health Care Credit Rating Downgraded For BCBS Of Texas’ Parent Company
S&P Global Ratings has cut the credit grade of Health Care Service Corp., the parent company of health insurance giant Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, expecting a third year of marginal-to-weak profitability as insurers struggle to make money since President Barack Obama’s signature health care law took full effect in 2014. (O'Hare, 7/5)

Minnesota Public Radio: Hallberg's Picture Of Health: Medical Marijuana And Pain
A year into Minnesota's medical marijuana program, doctors are getting a new condition for which they can prescribe the treatment: intractable pain. Doctors on Friday began evaluating potential medical marijuana patients with intractable pain. Their treatments would begin in August. Dr. Jon Hallberg, MPR News' regular medical analyst, joined All Things Considered host Tom Crann to talk about how this change will work in a clinical setting. (MPR News Staff, 7/5)

Kaiser Health News: If You Want To Spend A Bundle On Your Bundle Of Joy, Go To Northern California
Everyone knows that real estate is no bargain in Northern California. It turns out that giving birth ain’t cheap either. New research on the cost of childbirth in the nation’s 30 largest metropolitan areas ranks Sacramento and San Francisco as the two most expensive for both vaginal delivery and Cesarean sections. Sacramento is No. 1, San Francisco No. 2. (Gold, 7/6)

Bloomberg: Bill Gates Calls U.S. Drug Pricing System ‘Better Than Most’
Billionaire Bill Gates, whose foundation seeks to spread modern medicine through the developing world and wipe out diseases of the poor such as malaria, said he supports the U.S. drug pricing system even as politicians have intensified their criticism of high costs. “The current system is better than most other systems one can imagine,” Gates said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “The drug companies are turning out miracles, and we need their R&D budgets to stay strong. They need to see the opportunity.” (Chen and Schatzker, 6/30)

Stat: Court Ruling On Biosimilar Launches Could Increase Health Care Costs
A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that biosimilar makers must always notify their brand-name rivals six months before launching expensive biologic medicines. The decision may have a significant impact on near-term health care costs, because it will effectively delay competition for these pricey drugs. (Silverman, 7/5)

ProPublica: Are Copay Coupons Actually Making Drugs More Expensive?
Drug coupons are a clever marketing tactic increasingly used by pharmaceutical companies for a counterintuitive purpose: to keep drug prices high. By forgoing or reducing patients’ payments for pricier brand-name drugs, they ensure more sales for which insurers foot the bulk of the bill. (The companies get nothing if people choose generics or don’t fill prescriptions at all.) The coupons also stymie insurers’ attempts to encourage consumers to factor price into their health-care decisions. And by making the true cost of a drug essentially unknowable, they are yet another example of how medical pricing remains opaque, despite the promise of the Affordable Care Act. (Ornstein, 6/30)

Stat: Gilead’s New Price Hikes On HIV Drugs Anger AIDS Activists
As part of a strategy to switch patients to newer HIV treatments, Gilead Sciences late last week raised prices on a pair of older HIV medications that face patent expiration. This sort of maneuver is often found in the pharmaceutical playbook, but is triggering still more criticism by AIDS activists of its overall pricing strategies. Here’s what Gilead did: the company raised the wholesale acquisition cost, or list price, for the two older medicines — Complera and Stribild — by 7 percent, to $2,508 and $3,469 a month, respectively. This follows price hikes of 7 percent and 5 percent last January, which Cowen analyst Phil Nadeau noted is a deviation from the typical annual price hikes that Gilead takes on its HIV drugs. (Silverman, 7/5)

The Associated Press: Insider Q&A: A Model For More Rational Drug Prices
Rising drug prices are creating anxiety for patients, politicians and physicians across the country, with little relief in sight. Last year the average price of an established brand-name drug jumped more than 16 percent, according to prescription benefit manager, Express Scripts Holding Co. Since 2011, prices have nearly doubled. Darius Lakdawalla, a health economist at the University of Southern California, says it's time to move to a more flexible, performance-based approach to drug pricing. His answers have been edited for length and clarity. (7/4)

Bloomberg BNA: Prescription Drug Costs 'Number One Driving Factor' For Rising Health Insurance Premiums
Continued increases in prescription drug costs are "the number one driving factor” for increasing health insurance premiums, according to testimony from Wyoming Insurance Commissioner Tom Glause, who was appointed by Gov. Matt Mead (R), at a subcommittee hearing on small business health care costs held by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. “Health care determines the cost of health insurance. Health insurance doesn’t dictate the cost of health care,” Glause said. (Hansard, 6/30)

Bloomberg: Drug Companies Need To Tell A Better Story, Regeneron Says
As U.S. politicians including presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump shower criticism on the pharmaceutical industry, drugmakers need to change their tune, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. Chief Executive Officer Len Schleifer said. "We are going to have to do a better job at explaining the value proposition of products we bring out,” Schleifer said at a Bloomberg pharma event in New York. “We need to be reasonable about the way we price these things.” (Bloomfield and Micklethwait, 6/29)

Morning Consult: Merck CEO Criticizes Trump And Clinton On Drug-Cost Debate
Ken Frazier, Merck’s chairman and CEO, said some policies advocated by both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump “are not good for innovation, not good for competition, and not good for patient access.” In an interview with Bloomberg’s David Westin, Frazier blamed the current spotlight on pharmaceutical drug costs partially on the “heat of the political system.” He said he hopes the conversation will pivot towards more productive conversation about the affordability of the health care system more broadly after the election. “I think the debate about health care today is polarizing. I think it falsely pits all pharmaceutical companies against society, and the reality is, society needs these drugs,” Frazier said. (Owens, 7/1)

Fortune: Martin Shkreli's Former Company, Back In Business, Vows No Crazy Drug Prices
One of Martin Shkreli’s former companies has emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is pledging to ditch its notorious ex-chief’s price hike plans for a rare disease drug. ... Shkreli originally became infamous for his other former company Turing Pharma’s 5,000% price hike for a drug used by cancer and AIDS patients. But before his arrest, he said he’d use KaloBios as a vehicle to nab another niche drug, this time for treatment of the parasitic infection Chagas disease, and dramatically increase its price to the $60,000 to $100,000 range after helping it win FDA approval (the drug is approved in other countries and is provided to patients in the U.S. on a special and selective basis). Those plans were thrown into disarray after Shkreli’s arrest and subsequent ousting from the company, and KaloBios was ultimately forced to declare Chapter 11. But the biotech announced today that it has emerged from bankruptcy and landed a deal to buy the Chagas treatment, benznidazole, for $3 million. And it’s planning to hew to the responsible pricing model that it pledged several months ago. (Mukherjee, 7/1)

Bloomberg: Make Hospitals Come Clean About Errors
Medical errors, by one count, are the third-leading cause of death for Americans. Surgery mistakes, misuse of drugs or equipment, delays in treatment and the like kill at least 100,000 a year, possibly as many as half a million. No one knows the exact number, and that points up an underlying problem: Hospitals almost universally resist confessing when a medical error hurts or kills a patient, because admitting fault can expose them to lawsuits. (7/5)

The Wall Street Journal: Where’s the Drug, FDA?
The Food and Drug Administration is sitting on a therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and the agency may have days to waste but the boys don’t. Bureaucratic malpractice on a safe and effective treatment is corroding the agency’s scientific credibility and the public’s trust. FDA in May delayed a decision on eteplirsen by Boston-based Sarepta Therapeutics. There is no treatment for Duchenne, a fatal disease that claims a boy’s ability to walk before organ failure in his 20s. Eteplirsen jumps over genetic code to produce a missing protein known as dystrophin. (7/5)

Star Tribune: Health Care As A Business Has Hurt Health Care As A Practice
It has been approximately 10 years since well-intended people suggested that medicine change to become more like a business. Presumably, they did so with the intention that health care would improve for both patients and those working in health care. After a decade of medicine in a business mode, we can now assess what changes have occurred with this new paradigm. I don’t intend on talking about all of them, only those that I feel are the most significant. (Dave Watkin, 7/5)

Bloomberg: Justices Haven't Ended Abortion Restrictions Yet
Last week’s landmark Supreme Court decision striking down Texas anti-abortion laws has emboldened abortion-rights activists, who now hope to lay waste to abortion restrictions all over the U.S. Their success or failure will depend on whether the Supreme Court proves willing to overhaul its abortion jurisprudence. And that's no sure thing. (Noah Feldman, 7/5)

The Columbus Dispatch: Ruling Should Aid Abortion Clinics
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down two onerous provisions in a Texas abortion law sends a clear and powerful message that medically unjustified restrictions that obstruct a woman’s access to abortion are unconstitutional. In its most sweeping decision on abortion since 1992, the court reaffirmed what it said at that time: If a law regulating abortion before the fetus is viable is more an obstacle to women than a benefit to them, then it violates the Constitution. (7/6)

STAT: To Manage Chronic Pain, Use The Whole Toolkit, Not Just Opioids
For people in pain, opioids are just one leg of a chair. The other three legs — which are often missing from the debate on opioid addiction — can support equal weight if the right medical expertise and infrastructure are in place. The American Society of Anesthesiologists calls this approach multimodal analgesia. It’s the foundation for my work at Stanford Medical Center and the affiliated VA Palo Alto Health Care System, and for other pain management specialists around the country. It is also part of legislation to be reviewed tomorrow by the House and Senate Opioid Conference Committee. (Michael Leong, 7/5)

Georgia Health News: Invest In Our State By Closing The Coverage Gap
My expertise lies in public health, not in finance or investments. However, it is my understanding that in order to reap rewards, one first has to invest. One example is my retirement account. I give up a small amount of money out of each paycheck so that I can experience a secure retirement down the road.This type of thinking can also be applied to the re-energized debate about closing the coverage gap here in Georgia. (Laura Colbert, 7/5)

Lexington Herald Leader: Blowing Up ADD Aging Without A Plan
The administration of Gov. Matt Bevin has gotten very good at blowing up state government-as-it-has-been but the learning curve on picking up the pieces after the explosion is way too slow. The state’s plan to cut off federal funds the Bluegrass Area Development District administers for aging and independent living services is a case in point. There is every reason to keep a wary eye trained on the Bluegrass ADD. Both its top management and the regional elected officials who oversee it have done little to inspire confidence. Truculent and defensive, they have chosen to spend a ton of money on self-promotion and lawyers rather than settling disputes with their funding source over allegedly misspent funds. (7/5)

The New York Times: Helpless To Prevent Cancer? Actually, Quite A Bit Is In Your Control
Americans seem very afraid of cancer, with good reason. Unlike other things that kill us, it often seems to come out of nowhere. But evidence has increasingly accumulated that cancer may be preventable, too. Unfortunately, this has inflamed as much as it has assuaged people’s fears. As a physician, I have encountered many people who believe that heart disease, which is the single biggest cause of death among Americans, is largely controllable. After all, if people ate better, were physically active and stopped smoking, then lots of them would get better. This ignores the fact that people can’t change many risk factors of heart disease like age, race and family genetics. (Aaron E. Carroll, 7/5)

The New York Times: Ugly Is The New Look For Cigarette Packs
When it was introduced in the late 1920s, Marlboro was a woman’s cigarette — “Mild as May,” said the ads. Ads showed glamorous and fashionable young women smoking. Marlboro left the market during the war. But in the 1950s, scientists began associating cigarettes with cancer, and smokers flocked to supposedly safer filtered cigarettes. To combat the view that a filter was for sissies, Philip Morris needed a new, masculine filtered cigarette. The company took Marlboro and fitted it with a filter — and a cowboy. (Tina Rosenberg, 7/5)

The New York Times: The Cholera Epidemic The U.N. Left Behind In Haiti
As Haitians were reeling from the devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, United Nations peacekeepers inadvertently compounded their troubles by bringing cholera to the island. Roughly 10,000 Haitians have died from the disease, which spreads easily in places with poor sanitation. The United Nations hasn’t acknowledged its responsibility and has vigorously fought legal efforts to secure compensation for victims. This is reminiscent of its slow response to allegations that peacekeepers in Africa had sexually abused scores of minors. (7/6)