The Associated Press: Senate Republicans Claim Progress On Health Care Legislation
President Donald Trump and GOP leaders insisted Tuesday the Senate will vote soon on legislation to repeal and replace "Obamacare." But even as senators headed toward the make-or-break vote before the Fourth of July, deep uncertainty remained about whether the emerging legislation would command enough support to pass. Meeting with Republican congressional leaders at the White House, Trump praised the House for passing its own version of the health legislation early last month, and encouraged the Senate to do to the same. (Werner and Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/6)

Los Angeles Times: Crunch Time As Senate Republicans Race The Clock On Obamacare Repeal — And The Rest Of Trump's Agenda
This week was expected to be a pivotal one for the healthcare overhaul, which lawmakers hope to finish before the July 4 break in order to move to other pressing issues. Among them is raising the debt ceiling to avoid defaulting on the nation’s bills, always a thorny political lift. But glum senators emerged from a series of closed-door meetings Tuesday no closer to an agreement than they have been after weeks of private talks. (Mascaro and Levey, 6/6)

The Wall Street Journal: GOP Senators’ Medicaid Clash Jeopardizes Health Deal
Republican senators left their first decision-making meeting on overhauling the nation’s health-care system Tuesday deeply divided over the fate of Medicaid, a fissure that threatens to thwart their ambitions to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. The divide among Senate Republicans over Medicaid was wide enough that some GOP lawmakers and aides said they now believe it may be impossible to broker a deal to unwind the health law known as Obamacare. Some senators are already preparing to move to another goal, an overhaul of the tax code. (Peterson and Armour, 6/6)

Politico: McConnell Whips Senate GOP Back In Line On Obamacare Repeal
Though senators said McConnell, his deputies and key chairmen and Senate staff did not present a clear-cut legislative framework to them after two key meetings, the Senate’s proposal for repealing and replacing Obamacare is slowly coming into focus as the Kentucky Republican presses for a vote before the July Fourth recess. Senate Republicans expect their bill to be more generous than the House-passed measure in almost every way: A longer runway for ending the Medicaid expansion, more money for insurance market stabilization to lower premiums and beefed up tax credits for Americans of lower income, senators said. But no decisions have been made on some key policy questions, including on handling Medicaid. (Everett, Haberkorn and Cancryn, 6/6)

The Hill: Fractured Republicans Get Options On Healthcare
Senators said a PowerPoint presentation at Tuesday’s Senate GOP lunch meeting left some key decisions unresolved. While aides said some details are starting to take shape, conservatives are already raising red flags. Most importantly, staffers said the bill would allow states to waive ObamaCare rules requiring insurers to cover a range of healthcare services, known as essential health benefits. But the measure would not allow states to waive rules preventing people with pre-existing conditions from being charged more, a departure from the House-passed bill. (Sullivan, 6/6)

And in the states —

Chicago Tribune: Illinois Democrats In Congress Ask Rauner To Speak Up On Health Care Overhaul 
Congressional Democrats from Illinois want Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner to speak out more forcefully in the national debate over repealing the Affordable Care Act. In a letter to the governor Tuesday, the lawmakers said they had "serious concerns" about what they called Rauner's "lack of vocal opposition" to a health care overhaul passed by the House last month. The two U.S. senators and 11 Democratic members of the House warned the measure would cause more than 1 million Illinoisans to lose insurance coverage. Illinois Republicans in the House voted for the plan, but GOP senators are crafting a separate bill to repeal and replace the health care law commonly known as Obamacare, with an uncertain timeline and prospects for approval. (Skiba, 6/6)

NPR: Patients Worry About Health Law's Fate In Arizona
For years, says Corinne Bobbie, shopping in Arizona for a health plan for her little girl went like this: "'Sorry, we're not covering that kid,'" Bobbie recalls insurers telling her. "'She's a liability.'" On the day I visit the family at their home in a suburb north of Phoenix, 8-year-old Sophia bounces on a trampoline in the backyard. It's difficult to tell she has a complex congenital heart condition and has undergone multiple surgeries. (Stone, 6/6)

Politico: House Obamacare Repeal Ruled To Be In Compliance With Senate Rules
The House-passed health care bill complies with Senate rules, Republicans said Tuesday, clearing an important procedural hurdle that otherwise could have halted the Obamacare repeal process. The Senate Budget Committee made the announcement Tuesday. The news means the House can send the repeal bill over to the Senate. (Haberkorn, 6/6)

The Hill: Budget Committee: House Healthcare Bill Can Move To Senate 
The Budget Committee approval may not matter much, as Senate Republican leaders have said they will be writing their own healthcare bill, though they may crib some ideas from the House bill. (Hellmann, 6/6)

CQ Roll Call: Budget Panel: House Health Bill Does Not Violate Budget Rules
A Senate Budget Committee aide confirmed that the panel's statement meant the parliamentarian found no "fatal" flaws in the House-passed measure that would strip the bill of its expedited path. This victory for Republicans could aid them with their goal of bringing their bill to the floor before the July Fourth recess. (Young and Lesniewski, 6/6)

The New York Times: Anthem Will Exit Health Insurance Exchange In Ohio
Anthem, one of the nation’s largest insurers and a major player in the individual insurance market created by the federal health care law, announced Tuesday that it would stop offering policies in the Ohio marketplace next year. Although its departure would leave a small number of people — roughly 10,500 who live in about a fifth of the state’s counties — without an insurance carrier, the move was seized on by Republicans as more evidence that the markets are “collapsing” under the Affordable Care Act. President Trump, meeting with congressional leaders on Tuesday, said it was more proof that insurers are “fleeing and leaving” the marketplaces and added that it was essential for Congress to pass a bill repealing the health law this summer. (Abelson, 6/6)

Cincinnati Enquirer: Major Insurer Anthem To Withdraw From Ohio Health Care Exchange
In 18 counties, including Muskingum and Coshocton, Anthem's pullout will leave no options for Ohioans who get insurance through the exchange. The 18 counties, which currently have 10,500 Anthem exchange customers, are concentrated in Appalachia and include some of the poorest in the state. (Balmert and Thompson, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Major Obamacare Insurer Pulls Out Of Ohio, Leaving Big Gaps In Coverage
Ohio had one of the country's most competitive insurance marketplaces. In 2016, there were 17 insurers selling on the exchange in Ohio, with four offering plans state-wide. In 2017, there were still 11 insurers participating in the exchange, but 20 counties had only one insurer, according to the Ohio Department of Insurance. (Johnson, 6/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Anthem’s Exit From Ohio Exchange Ups Ante For GOP Health Overhaul
Anthem said the market remains volatile and it cited the uncertainty surrounding key issues, including federal “cost-sharing” payments that help reduce costs for low-income ACA enrollees. Anthem’s decision was immediately seized on by both sides of the debate over the Republican health bill. Republicans, who have pointed to insurers’ withdrawals and rate increases as signs of trouble with the ACA, said the move was evidence of the need for new legislation. President Donald Trump mentioned the Anthem withdrawal at a White House meeting with congressional Republican leaders on Tuesday. (Wilde Mathews, 6/6)

Modern Healthcare: Anthem Exits Ohio Exchange, Citing Uncertainty And Shrinking Market 
For months, Anthem has been hinting that it may pull out of some Affordable Care Act exchanges, but Ohio marks its first retreat. The Indianapolis-based insurer sells policies on exchanges in 13 other states. Anthem covers about 1.1 million exchange members. (Livingston, 6/6)

The Cleveland Plain Dealer: Major Ohio Insurer Is Pulling Out Of Obamacare Market For 2018
Withdrawal from other states could follow. Anthem's Ohio decision was announced Tuesday because it followed the Monday state deadline for all insurers to make their intentions clear with rate filings. "Regarding other states, we remain in active dialogue with state leaders and regulators in hopes that we can find a sustainable path moving forward before we are required to make a decision," company spokesman Jeff Blunt said in an email. "As the individual marketplace continues to evolve, Anthem will continue to advocate solutions to ensure long-term stability in the market." (Koff, 6/6)

Columbus Dispatch: Anthem's Withdrawal To Leave 18 Ohio Counties Without An Obamacare Plan
“I think this will lead to increased uncompensated care,” said Steve Wagner, executive director of the Universal Health Care Action Network of Ohio, a nonprofit that promotes accessible and affordable health care. “Certainly, people will go without care, or defer it until it’s so critical they end up in the emergency department.” (Huson, 6/6)

The Hill: Anthem Pulling Out Of ObamaCare Market In Ohio 
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) issued a statement shortly after the announcement, saying “this is one more reason why the status quo on health care is unsustainable. The Affordable Care Act has failed to meet the promises that were made to Ohio families.” Rep. Patrick Tiberi (R-Ohio), who represents a county now at risk of having no ObamaCare insurers, said the healthcare law is "collapsing under its own weight." (Roubein, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Republicans, Stoking Insurer Panic, Cite Uncertainty As A Reason To Pass Health-Care Bill
After Senate Republicans wrapped up their health-care meeting with Vice President Pence, Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), one of the body’s few physicians, told reporters that the party got a new sense of urgency after Anthem, an insurer in Ohio’s Affordable Care Act exchange, announced that it was pulling out. Thousands of Ohioans, most in rural areas, could be left uninsured. “We need to stabilize the markets right now,”  Barrasso said. “While we were in there, another company pulled out, which shows the continued collapse of the Obamacare market. I mean, it happened during the policy meeting.” (Weigel, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Francis Collins Will Stay On As Head Of NIH
The White House announced Tuesday that Francis S. Collins will stay on as director of the National Institutes of Health, extending Collins’s tenure even as the administration proposes deep cuts to the government’s premier biomedical research center. Collins, a physician and geneticist, has led NIH since 2009. He is renowned for his leadership of the International Human Genome Project, which in 2003 sequenced the complete human genetic blueprint for the first time. (Bernstein, 6/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Francis Collins To Stay On As Director Of National Institutes Of Health
Dr. Collins, a noted geneticist who once headed the government’s Human Genome project and served previously as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, is 67 years old. He had previously been a professor of internal medicine and human genetics at the University of Michigan, where he worked with collaborators and helped identify genes involved in maladies such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease. President Barack Obama nominated Dr. Collins to be NIH director in July 2009, and he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate. (Burton, 6/6)

The Hill: Trump Will Keep National Institutes Of Health Director
Collins has broad support among Republicans who control the medical research agency’s purse strings. In fact, four key Republicans urged Trump to keep him in his role in a letter in December, writing that “his distinguished scientific experience, effective leadership skills, and long standing relationships with members of Congress, researchers, and advocates will service the nation and your administration well.” (Roubein, 6/6)

Stat: Trump Announces He Will Keep Francis Collins As NIH Director
The continuation announced Tuesday isn’t a guarantee that Collins will remain in place for any specific length of time, spokespeople for both the White House and the NIH confirmed. He continues to serve “at the pleasure of the President,” an NIH spokeswoman said. (Mershon, 6/6)

Politico: Trump Will Keep NIH Director
Collins, a guitar-playing, motorcycle-riding, born-again Christian, has written several books on science, medicine, and religion, and is a favorite of many Hill Republicans. (Allen, 6/6)

The Hill: Abstinence Education Advocate Named To HHS Post 
The Trump administration has named a national abstinence education advocate to a post at the Department of Health and Human Services. Valerie Huber, the president of Ascend, a D.C.-based professional association that advocates for abstinence education, will be the chief of staff to the assistant secretary for health at HHS, according to a staff email obtained by The Hill. (Hellmann, 6/6)

Forbes: How Donald Trump Shifted Kids-Cancer Charity Money Into His Business
The best part about all this, according to Eric Trump, is the charity's efficiency: Because he can get his family's golf course for free and have most of the other costs donated, virtually all the money contributed will go toward helping kids with cancer. "We get to use our assets 100% free of charge," Trump tells Forbes. That's not the case. In reviewing filings from the Eric Trump Foundation and other charities, it's clear that the course wasn't free--that the Trump Organization received payments for its use, part of more than $1.2 million that has no documented recipients past the Trump Organization. Golf charity experts say the listed expenses defy any reasonable cost justification for a one-day golf tournament. (Alexander, 6/6)

USA Today: Trump Profited From Kids Cancer Charity, Report Says
The Trump Organization took in healthy profits in recent years for hosting a charity golf event to benefit children's cancer research, despite claiming the use of the course had been donated Forbes reported Tuesday. Since 2007, President Trump's son Eric Trump has held an annual charity golf event at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, N.Y., to raise money for the Eric Trump Foundation on behalf of the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Forbes reported. To date, Eric Trump has raised more than $11 million — including $2.9 million last year — for the hospital's research, most of it through the golf tournaments, according to Forbes. (Cummings, 6/6)

CQ Roll Call: Drug Price Debate To Heat Up With House FDA Markup
Lawmakers from both parties plan Wednesday to offer controversial amendments to slash prescription drug prices when the House Energy and Commerce Committee marks up a Food and Drug Administration bill, but their chances of adoption appear slim. The amendments would address issues such as importation of cheaper drugs into the United States and the introduction of generic drugs. The committee will consider a bill (HR 2430) to renew the FDA’s authority to collect fees from the prescription drug and the medical device industries. The industry funding makes up roughly $2 billion of the FDA’s nearly $5 billion annual budget and pays the salaries of FDA employees who review applications. (Siddons, 6/6)

The Hill: Senate Panel To Hold Hearing On Drug Prices 
The Senate's health panel will hold a hearing next week on drug pricing, questioning experts about the prescription delivery system. The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee will hold the hearing June 13 at 10 a.m., according to a media advisory. The long-awaited hearing will focus on "the process of moving prescription drugs from the manufacturer to patients and how the drug deli system affects what patients pay when picking up their prescriptions," it says. (Hellmann, 6/6)

For more news on high drug costs, check out our weekly feature, Prescription Drug Watch, which includes coverage and perspectives of the issue.

Georgia Health News: Mystery Drug In Georgia Leads To Deaths, Hospitalizations
Powerful yellow pills sold by street dealers in Central and South Georgia have been linked to up to four deaths and the hospitalization of more than a dozen patients, the GBI and health officials said Tuesday. The pills were misrepresented to buyers as the prescription drug Percocet, an opioid pain medication, the Department of Public Health said Tuesday. (Miller, 6/6)

Reuters: Georgia Investigating Spate Of Opioid Painkiller Overdoses
The Georgia Department of Public Health said Tuesday that emergency responders in the central and southern parts of the state treated dozens of people over a 48-hour period. Some patients were unconscious or had stopped breathing and many had to be placed on ventilators. "Patients reportedly purchased yellow pills alleged to be Percocet, an opioid pain medication," the health department said in a statement. (Woodall, 6/6)

Stat: Mass Overdose In Georgia Leaves Up To Four Dead, Officials Say
“We’ve never seen this many overdoses in such short a time,” said Dr. Christopher Hendry, chief medical officer for Navicent Health. (Blau, 6/6)

Atlanta Journal Constitution: Death Toll Rises In Mass Overdose In Middle Georgia
As many as four people have died in the last 48 hours as a wave of opioid overdoses has swept through communities in middle Georgia, health officials said Tuesday afternoon. More than a dozen overdose cases have been reported so far in three emergency departments in Bibb County and some surrounding counties in the past two days, said Chris Hendry, chief medical officer at Navicent Health in Macon. (Cook, 6/6)

The Associated Press: DEA Warns Police Of Accidental Overdose Risks In Drug Fight
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday warned of a new problem presented by the nation’s drug abuse epidemic: the threat of law enforcement officers accidentally overdosing. Officers and paramedics are increasingly coming in contact with potent synthetic opioids that can be dangerous and deadly, a troubling side effect of the United States’ opioid crisis. (Gurman, 6/6)

Health News Florida: South Florida Cities To America: ‘Don’t Send Your Drug Users Here’
The overdose call comes in to Delray Beach Fire Rescue around 7:30 p.m. on a Friday. Firefighter-paramedics — they’re trained to do both — jump into action and rush to a nearby hotel. But before they can treat this victim, another call comes in. “We have another overdose,” says firefighter-paramedic Andres Colón, “a block away.” (Haden, 6/7)

The CT Mirror: Bills On Hate Crimes, Opioids Win Unanimous Final Approval
On the second-to-last day of the 2017 session, the evenly divided Senate turned to non-controversial House bills awaiting final action while legislators worked outside the chamber on potential compromises to deadlocked measures. The Senate has passed several of those bills since gaveling in Tuesday afternoon, including bills on hate crimes, opioids, eye care in the digital age and pregnant women in the workplace. (Pazniokas and Constable, 6/6)

California Healthline: A ‘Safe’ Space To Shoot Up: Worth A Try In California?
Tawny Biggs’ seemingly happy childhood in the northern Los Angeles County suburb of Santa Clarita, Calif., showed no outward sign that she would one day struggle with drug addiction. As Biggs tells it, she was raised with two siblings “in a very good family” by an assistant fire-chief dad and a stay-at-home mom. Her after-school hours were filled with hockey and soccer. But paradise was lost sometime during her late teens, when emotional problems, drugs and alcohol turned Biggs into a self-described “nightmare.” One night, when she was amped up on cocaine, her boyfriend gave her a hit of something different to help her sleep: heroin. (O'Neill, 6/7)

USA Today: Study: Even Moderate Drinking Might Be Bad For Aging Brains
Here’s one more reason to think before you drink: even a modest amount of booze might be bad for aging brains. A new study published Tuesday in the medical journal BMJ says moderate drinkers were more likely than abstainers or light drinkers to develop worrisome brain changes that might signal eventual memory loss. They also were more likely to show rapid slippage on a language test, though not on several other cognitive tests. (Painter, 6/6)

Stat: Even Moderate Drinking May Speed Brain Decline
The study only looked at a few hundred Londoners, mostly well-educated and middle-class, so it may not be representative of a wider population. Topiwala also pointed out there might have been “selection bias” in the sample — individuals had to get from London to Oxford in order to undergo the MRI scans and then spend an hour in a brain scanning machine and undergo other memory tests — which individuals who were alcohol dependent or had suffered brain damage from alcohol use might be less likely to do. (Swetlitz, 6/6)

The Washington Post: WHO Creates Controversial ‘Reserve’ List Of Antibiotics For Superbug Threats
The World Health Organization on Tuesday released new recommendations aimed at reducing the use of certain categories of “last resort” antibiotics as part of its ongoing efforts to combat the rise of superbugs. Public health officials pointed to the increasing rate of new strains of pathogens that are becoming antibiotic-resistant, saying these “nightmare bacteria” pose a catastrophic threat. Overuse of antibiotics in livestock as well as in humans is the main cause. (Cha, 6/6)

San Jose Mercury News: UCSF Study Links Chronic Pain To Dementia In Older Adults
Older people with persistent pain show quicker declines in memory as they age and are more likely to have dementia years later, indicating that chronic pain may be related to changes in the brain that contribute to memory loss, according to a new study from UC San Francisco. The study, published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine, appears to be the first to make this link. (Seipel, 6/6)

The Washington Post: 8 Things Doctors Are Buzzing About At The Biggest Cancer Meeting
With 38,000 oncologists converging on the sprawling McCormick Place for the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the halls in the convention center are as crowded as Manhattan sidewalks at Christmastime. Watch out or you'll get run over as attendees rush to the next meeting of the minds. (McGinley, 6/6)

NPR: Water Systems In Hospitals Can Spread Legionnaires' Disease
Nursing homes and hospitals need to do more to protect their patients from catching Legionnaires' disease from contaminated water systems in their buildings, federal health officials warned Tuesday. An analysis of more than 2,800 cases of Legionnaires' that occurred in 2015 found that 553 definitely or possibly occurred in a health care facility such as a nursing home or a hospital, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Sixty-six patients died from the disease. (Stein, 6/6)

The Associated Press: Delaware Protects Abortion Rights, Efforts Stall Elsewhere
As the battle over abortion rights continues to spread from Washington to state capitals, Delaware lawmakers have taken the lead in ensuring that abortion remains legal if Roe v. Wade is ever overturned. The state House on Tuesday gave final approval to a bill eliminating restrictions on abortion in current Delaware law, which has remained on the books despite being superseded for decades by federal law. (6/7)

Texas Tribune: Gov. Abbott Calls Special Session On Bathrooms, Abortion, School Finance
Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday called a special session of the Texas Legislature starting July 18 and promised to make it a sweeping one if lawmakers cooperate. ... Abbott also put anti-abortion legislation on the docket, including resurrecting Sen. Larry Taylor's Senate Bill 20, which would require women to pay a separate premium if they want their health plan to cover an elective abortion. Taylor's bill would have allowed health plans to cover abortions that are deemed medically necessary. The legislation did not make exceptions for cases of rape or incest. (Svitek, 6/6)

Columbus Dispatch: House Bill Would Keep Mentally Ill From Death Row
For the second year in a row, the Ohio Prosecuting Attorney’s Association voiced strong opposition to a bill that would keep severely mentally ill people from being executed on death row. If passed, House Bill 81 would bar the possibility of the death penalty for people who can prove they had a serious mental illness when they committed aggravated murder. The maximum penalty would be a life sentence. The proposal also would permit for current death row inmates to apply for resentencing. (Keiper, 6/7)

The Cannabist: Colorado Adds PTSD As A Qualifying Condition For Medical Marijuana, After Years Of Lobbying By Veterans
Post-traumatic stress disorder is now a qualifying condition for doctor-recommended medical marijuana in Colorado. Gov. John Hickenlooper on Monday signed Senate Bill 17 into law. The act opens the doors for Colorado residents to receive a doctor’s OK to use medical marijuana in the treatment of PTSD symptoms. Colorado doctors could begin to make those PTSD-specific recommendations in as early as a week — or enough time to provide for the state’s information technology office to update the forms, said Dr. Larry Wolk, executive director and chief medical officer for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. (Wallace, 6/6)

The CT Mirror: Paid Leave Bill Gets Air Time In Senate Before Being Tabled
The Senate devoted about an hour and a half Tuesday night to a symbolic debate on a bill to guarantee Connecticut workers between two and three months of paid family and medical leave. It was tabled at the end of the discussion. The bill had been a top priority for Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney, D-New Haven, who designated it Senate Bill No. 1. It gained little traction in a legislative session dominated by an ongoing budget crisis and concerns about the state’s business climate. (Constable, 6/6)

Health News Florida: Scott Approves Payments In Deaths, Injuries
The family of a Florida State University football player who died during a 2001 training session will receive the remainder of a legal settlement after Gov. Rick Scott signed 11 “claim” bills last week. Many of the claim bills, among more than 30 measures Scott signed into law Friday, came years after people were injured or killed and lawsuits were filed alleging negligence by government agencies. (6/6)

Sacramento Bee: Single-Payer Health Care Now Campaign Issue In California
State Sen. Toni Atkins stood on a stage outside the Capitol last month and made the case for a Democratic-backed bid to transform California’s health care system into something that’s never been done in the U.S. “People shouldn’t have to experience anxiety over whether they’ll be covered based on who’s in the White House,” Atkins, D-San Diego, told a crowd of nurses and health care advocates who were cheering her on. “It’s time to cover everybody once and for all.” (Hart, 6/7)

The Cleveland Plain Dealer: Reducing Hunger Among Ohio's Senior Citizens; State Ranks Among Nation's Worst
In Ohio, nearly 18 percent of residents age 60 and older struggle with food security. That makes the state one of the 10 worst in the country when it comes to the senior-hunger challenge, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Household Food Security Measure. The Center for Community Solutions, an Ohio think tank, in a recent report attributes the level of senior hunger in the state to low utilization of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). (Christ, 6/6)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Becoming National Leader In Hiring Disabled Workers
When Nate Kube lost a long-term convention center job, he struggled to find work — and his place. Kube, who has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, got a new start through a program called Project Search. Last year, the 26-year-old front desk agent became associate of the year here among the 1,500 employees of Kalahari Resorts and Conventions. (Stein, 6/6)

KCUR: New Rule May Worsen Backlog For Social Security Disability Claimants 
Right now, just about 45 percent of people who apply for Social Security disability benefits are accepted, and getting a hearing takes an average of nearly 600 days. The Kansas City office’s average hearing time is closer to 500 days, but its approval rate is slight lower at 40 percent. The backlog started snowballing about 10 years ago, around the time Jason Fitchner became acting deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration. He says that during the Great Recession, a lot of people who had disabilities applied but weren’t necessarily unable to work.  (Smith, 6/7)

Los Angeles Times: Advocates Denounce VA Delays In Developing Housing For Homeless Veterans At West L.A. Site
A week after officials disclosed a 57% rise in Los Angeles’ veteran homelessness, advocates say the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is delaying housing development on its West Los Angeles campus. A report to be released Tuesday from Vets Advocacy, a non-profit group created to oversee the development, accuses the federal agency of stalling development of a model community for 1,200 homeless veterans on its long-neglected 388-acre campus. (Holland, 6/6)

San Jose Mercury News: Cancer Patient Wanted To Kill Three Doctors: Authorities
A Stage 4 cancer patient angry that Bay Area doctors allegedly treated him like a “laboratory monkey” is suspected of setting out to kill three of them, armed with two handguns and Google maps of directions to their homes, according to authorities. Yue Chen, 58, also planned to kill himself after he carried out what he considered a revenge mission, but he failed to find any of the doctors, got lost and may have been on his way back to his Visalia home when he was arrested May 31 on Highway 101 in San Jose. (Gomez, 6/6)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Jefferson And Main Line Buy Montco Surgical Hospital
Jefferson Health System and Main Line Health have teamed up to buy a majority stake in Physicians Care Surgical Hospital in Royersford, the two health systems said this week. The price was not disclosed. Other partners in the specialty hospital are the Rothman Institute, which announced in 2012 that it was buying a 35 percent interest in Physicians Care, and NueHealth, which manages the facility. Main Line and Jefferson are co-owners of the Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization, which is designed to allow the providers to benefit financially if they figure out ways to provider lower cost and higher-quality care. Owning surgical hospitals makes it easier for the health systems to move procedures to settings that have lower costs than hospitals. (Brubaker, 6/6)

Columbus Dispatch: Nurses Find Ways To Help Even After Retirement
After working 32 years as a nurse, Diane McCarthy knows that every mom who has a sick newborn in the neonatal intensive care unit has a labor horror story that they just have to share with someone. Now that she’s a retired volunteer at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, McCarthy can finally let those mothers tell their stories, no matter how long it might take. And the 60-year-old Galena woman can do it while enjoying her favorite activities. (Pyle, 6/7)

San Francisco Chronicle: Pleasanton Man Used Hospice Company For Tax Fraud
A Pleasanton man was sentenced on Tuesday to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay just under half a million dollars in restitution after he used a hospice company to commit tax fraud. (Ioannou, 6/6)

The Associated Press: Man With HIV Charged With Murder In Infected Partner’s Death
A married man accused of not telling his longtime girlfriend that he was HIV-positive was charged with murder after the woman died of AIDS. A judge [in Toledo, Ohio] on Tuesday set bond at $1.5 million for Ronald Murdock, who was indicted last week in the February death of 51-year-old Kimberly Klempner. (6/6)

Miami Herald: Court Tells Miami 'Butt Doctor' To Halt Surgeries
A Florida appeals court on Monday ordered that a South Florida doctor stop performing plastic surgery after one of his patients died last week during a liposuction and fat transfer procedure at an office clinic in Doral. Osakatukei “Osak” Omulepu, 44, is barred from performing plastic surgery and must have a board-certified physician present for any other medical procedures, until Florida’s First District Court of Appeal rules on the state’s efforts to stop the doctor from practicing. (Chang, 6/6)

Tampa Bay Times: Health Department Issues Third Rabies Alert For Northern Hillsborough County
A Carrollwood-area apartment complex is the third area in northern Hillsborough County to be warned about rabies this year. The state Department of Health issued the alert for Tampa's 33624 area code after an orange domestic short-hair tabby cat inside the Pinnacle Heights apartment complex tested positive for rabies, the alert said. (6/6)

Morning Consult: With Spotlight On Obamacare, Public's Opinion Of Drugmakers Softens
Consumer perceptions of several major pharmaceutical companies have softened in recent months amid an industry push to counter public uproar over high drug prices, Morning Consult Brand Intelligence data show. Large drugmakers this spring have seen a decline in the the percentage of Americans who view them unfavorably, according to weekly national surveys of thousands of U.S. adults. (Reid, 6/5)

Stat: This Insulin Maker Is Running Out Of Money. Its Solution? Reality TV
The drug manufacturer MannKind has been burning through millions of dollars each month. It only has 3,000 patients taking its sole product, an inhalable form of insulin. It recently said it doesn’t have enough cash to get to the end of this year. So why, then, is the company sponsoring a reality TV show filmed here in this tropical resort town? ... Don’t expect the competitions typical of the genre: No one got voted off the island (though one cast member dramatically quit the show), and no one competed for a prize. Their goal is to turn their health around, with the help of lessons on everything from reading nutritional labels to recognizing a safe range for blood sugar levels. (Robbins, 6/5)

ProPublica: A Drug Quintupled in Price. Now, Drug Industry Players Are Feuding Over the Windfall.
Amid public concern over spiking drug prices, a powerful middleman is suing a tiny drugmaker over unpaid rebates and fees. The maker calls the suit baseless; analysts say the suit offers a window into an opaque world. (Ornstein and Thomas, 6/1)

The Associated Press: Insider Q&A: Drug Industry Learns To Listen To Patients
Drugmakers are finding they can improve how drug testing is conducted— and help their own bottom lines — by giving patients a voice before testing even begins. Pharmaceutical companies sometimes spend more than a decade trying to win approval for a new medicine, including running multiple rounds of tests on hundreds and even thousands of people. Now they are realizing that treating study participants better and listening to their concerns and insights can make the complicated process cheaper, produce results that are more accurate and help get drugs to market faster. (Johnson, 6/4)

Stat: AMA Will Vote On Requiring Drug Prices In Consumer Ads
In its latest bid to restrain pharmaceutical advertising, the American Medical Association will vote on a resolution to demand that drug makers disclose pricing in ads that are aimed at consumers.The proposal, which will be heard at the annual AMA meeting next week in Chicago, was made in response to concerns over rising drug costs and an unsuccessful bid by the medical organization to convince Congress to ban so-called direct-to-consumer advertising altogether. An AMA spokesman wrote us that this appears to be the first time AMA delegates will consider such a resolution. (Silverman, 6/6)

Stat: U.S. Could Save $825 Million From A Small Change In Immunotherapy Dosing, Study Says
Aflick of the prescriber’s pen could save $825 million a year on lung cancer care in the U.S. That’s the finding of a new study on the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab, marketed commercially as Keytruda by Merck. By switching to weight-based dosing — instead of a fixed dose of 200 mg — doctors could quickly reduce costs of the intravenous therapy without compromising its effectiveness, the study concludes. The finding could lead to changes in care for thousands of U.S. patients with lung cancer, which kills about 158,000 Americans a year. (Ross, 6/3)

Kaiser Health News: Daylight On Diabetes Drugs: Nevada Bill Would Track Insulin Makers’ Profits
Patients notched a rare win over the pharmaceutical industry Monday when the Nevada Legislature revived a bill requiring insulin makers to disclose the profits they make on the life-sustaining drug. In a handful of other states, bills addressing drug prices have stalled. Many of the 1.25 million Americans who live with Type 1 diabetes cheered the legislative effort in Nevada as an important first step in their fight against skyrocketing costs of a drug on which their lives depend. The cost of insulin medications has steadily risen over the past decade by nearly 300 percent. (Kopp, 6/7)

The Wall Street Journal: Study Questions Value Of Costly Cancer-Drug Combinations
A new study is stirring debate about whether the benefits of cancer drugs are worth their cost, particularly as drugmakers develop treatments that combine multiple pricey drugs. The study of about 4,800 women with an aggressive type of breast cancer found that adding Roche Holding AG’s drug Perjeta to the company’s older treatment Herceptin conferred a slight benefit versus Herceptin alone, after the women had undergone surgery to remove tumors. (Loftus, 6/5)

Stat: Spending On Cancer Drugs Is Forecast To Rise In The Single Digits
The growth in the price of cancer medicines in the U.S. averaged 3.6 percent last year, a drop from 4.7 percent in 2015, after accounting for rebates and discounts that drug makers paid to health insurers, according to a new report. Meanwhile, the plethora of new cancer drugs is projected to generate increased spending of 6 percent to 9 percent annually through 2021, when global costs are forecast to exceed $147 billion, which is in keeping with the nearly 9 percent compounded annual spending growth rate that was seen over the past five years, according to the market research arm of QuintilesIMS. (Silverman, 6/1)

Stat: More Health Plans Eye Deals For Drugs Based On Outcomes
As the cost of prescription drugs remains vexing, a new survey finds that more health plans are increasingly interested in paying for the highest-priced medicines based on patient outcomes. And the findings suggest that insurers are eager to exploit drug makers that are willing to strike such deals in order to win favorable insurance coverage. In these arrangements, a health plan may get an extra discount from a drug maker if a medicine does not help patients as much as expected, or a drug maker may get a credit toward a rebate provided to a health plan. The survey, released last week, found interest was particularly strong for hepatitis C and oncology drugs, although plans have started to use these arrangements for other types of drugs, as well. (Silverman, 6/1)

Bloomberg: Roche’s Pricey New Breast-Cancer Combo Barely Beats Old Drug
Roche Holding’s new breast cancer combination therapy barely outperformed a current gold-standard drug for the disease — the company’s own decades-old Herceptin — in its latest study. The results, presented Monday in Chicago at the world’s largest gathering of cancer researchers, are a disappointment and probably won’t justify moving a majority of patients to Roche’s pricey new combo treatment, doctors say. Researchers had warned that it would be tough to top Herceptin, which revolutionized treatment for women with an aggressive type of breast cancer called HER2-positive after Roche introduced it in 1998. (Kresge, 6/6)

Stat: Failure To Warn: An Early Warning System For Drug Risks Falls Flat
In 2007, after a number of dangerous medicines were pulled off the market, Congress ordered the Food and Drug Administration to set up an early warning system to detect other harmful drugs before more people died. The FDA responded by creating a system called the Sentinel Initiative, which mines insurance data and medical records to identify possible risks. But a system that was touted as a revolutionary way to glean valuable information from electronic health records and protect patients has had little measurable impact, according to a STAT examination and interviews with drug safety experts. Ten years and $207 million later, critics question whether Sentinel can adequately identify risks involving drugs that are already in consumers’ medicine cabinets. (Kaplan, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Before Price Gouging Law Takes Effect, Advocates Hunt For Evidence To Enforce It
Months before it takes effect, advocates are collecting ammunition to enforce Maryland’s new law against prescription drug- price gouging. The Maryland Citizens Health Initiative launched a website Sunday to collect examples of price increases that could potentially be used to build future cases against drug companies after the law takes effect in October. (Cox, 6/4)

The Wall Street Journal: What’s Behind The Biotech Sector’s Rebound
Biotech stocks took a pounding in 2016 but have bounced back since, with a range of exchange-traded funds benefiting from the resurgence. The biotechnology sector harnesses biological processes to create technologies and products for a wide variety of challenges, from expanding crop sizes to treating disease. Pharmaceutical-focused firms are a major component of biotech funds, with names like Celgene Corp. and Gilead Sciences Inc. often among their top 10 holdings. (Cowan, 6/4)

Stat: Nevada Governor Is Willing To Sign Revised Diabetes Drug Pricing Bill
In a blow to the pharmaceutical industry, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval says he is willing to support revised legislation that is designed to contain the cost of diabetes drugs. The bill will require drug makers to report pricing histories, disclose costs, notify state officials and insurers in advance of price hikes above inflation, and report rebates paid to pharmacy benefit managers, the middlemen that negotiate favorable insurance coverage. In addition, PBMs will also have to disclose rebates paid to health plans. (Silverman, 6/5)

The Associated Press: Drug Price Cap Fight Intensifies As Issue Heads To Fall Ballot
Debate is heating up over an initiative headed to Ohio's fall ballot that backers say is aimed at controlling drug prices. The Ohio Drug Price Relief Act is a citizen-initiated statute supported by the California-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation. It seeks to bar state agencies from buying drugs at prices higher than those paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which receives deep discounts. (6/4)

Kaiser Health News: Many COPD Patients Struggle To Pay For Each Medicinal Breath
After a lifetime of smoking, Juanita Milton needs help breathing. She’s tethered to an oxygen tank 24/7 and uses two drug inhalers a day, including Spiriva, which she called “the really expensive one.” “If I can’t afford it, I won’t take it,” Milton said. (Tribble, 6/5)

Boston Globe: Vertex Goes All-In On Its Effort To Conquer Cystic Fibrosis
Now comes the hard part for Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. After launching two drugs aimed at nearly 40 percent of the 75,000 patients worldwide who suffer from cystic fibrosis, the biotech is mounting an assault on a range of mutations causing the obstructive lung disease in the remaining patients. Until the Vertex medicines hit the market, there was no treatment for the life-threatening condition, which causes serious lung infections that can result in respiratory failure. (Wisman, 6/6)

Los Angeles Times: California Bill Would End 'Purely Profit-Driven' Practice Of Drug-Company Coupons
When it comes to fixing the dysfunctional U.S. healthcare system, state Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) knows there are bigger fish to fry than drug-company discount coupons. But as he told me: “You’ve got to start somewhere.” Wood’s anti-coupon bill, AB 265, was approved by the Assembly last week. The legislation is now making its way through the state Senate. (David Lazarus, 6/6)

The Wall Street Journal: How To Make Medicine More Expensive
Registering outrage over the high price of medicine is a national pastime, especially for politicians whose solution is always handing themselves more power. The latest examples come from Nevada and Maryland, where legislators are passing bills to punish drugmakers for no benefit to patients. On Friday Nevada Republican Governor Brian Sandoval vetoed a bill on diabetes medication. The bill swept through the legislature and may make a comeback, so it’s worth examining the details. (6/4)

The New York Times: Outcry Over EpiPen Prices Hasn’t Made Them Lower
A few weeks ago, after some particularly incompetent parenting on my part (nuts in the dessert, a rushed trip to an emergency room after my child’s allergic reaction), I visited the local pharmacy to fill an EpiPen prescription. You might recall EpiPen as last year’s poster child for out-of-control drug prices. Though this simple medical device contains only about $1 of the drug epinephrine, the company that sells it, Mylan, earned the public’s enmity and lawmakers’ scrutiny after ratcheting up prices to $609 a box. (Charles Duhigg, 6/4)

USA Today: Drug Costs Stratospheric In Large Part Due To Big Pharma
When I was a kid, I loved hearing the same fairy tales over and over. Ogres fell at the thrust of princely swords. Lovely damsels found their real mothers and the wicked stepmothers who condemned them to cleaning the scullery vanished into the claws of avenging crows. That sort of thing. Nowadays, all the repeated fairy tales are about health care. And I don’t like them a bit. (Tom Herzing, 6/1)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: In Washington, Everyone Is For Lower Drug Prices, But Only In Theory
One issue where most Americans — 76 percent of them — find common ground is the high price of prescription drugs. President Donald Trump campaigned on the issue and since his inauguration repeatedly has promised to bring drug prices down. Most Democrats and many Republicans in Congress agree. So why has nothing happened? In a word, money. Hundreds of millions of the dollars that Americans spend on drugs find their way into campaign funds and lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill. In the past decade, the pharmaceutical industry has spent more than $2.5 billion lobbying Congress. Opensecrets.org reports that in 2016, the industry spent $245 million on lobbyists; the next biggest industry sector, insurance, spent nearly $100 million less. (6/6)

Bloomberg: Roche Takes Another Cancer-Drug Hit
Roche Holding AG has been a dominant cancer-drug maker for years, meaning the annual meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is usually a showcase for it. Not this time. One of the company's leading cancer drugs, Perjeta, had an unexpectedly poor showing on Monday at this year's ASCO in Chicago. A much-anticipated trial of the drug in post-surgery breast cancer patients showed it has a low impact on the chance of cancer reoccurring when used with the company's blockbuster Herceptin, according to data from Roche. News of generally positive results in March boosted Roche ADRs by 6 percent. Monday's new details caused shares to fall as much as 8 percent Monday. (Max Nisen, 6/5)

Bloomberg: Merck's Grip On A Hot Cancer-Drug Market May Tighten
While you were hopefully having a lovely summer weekend, Eli Lilly & Co. investors were sweating over the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB), which may invalidate a patent on the company's lung-cancer drug Alimta as soon as Monday. They have reason to be anxious. Alimta was Lilly's third-largest medicine last year, accounting for nearly $2.3 billion in sales. A patent loss could hasten generic competition, which would be bad news when coupled with the company's other patent losses, setbacks in its drug pipeline, and competition in the diabetes market. The patent at issue expires in 2022, so losing it now could mean a lot of lost revenue for Lilly. The company can appeal the decision, but there's a chance Alimta generics could hit the market this year. (Max Nisen, 6/5)

Scranton Times-Tribune: No Easy Cure For Drug Costs
House Republicans weren’t the only ones celebrating recently over their ill-considered and ill-fated American Health Care Act. Pharmaceutical manufacturers, importers, distributors and retailers all had reason to pop corks because the bill did nothing to control drug costs while repealing a fee on manufacturers and importers that would save the industries about $2.5 billion a year. (6/1)

The Columbus Dispatch: Did Big Pharma Get Ohio Addicted?
America is awash in opioids. In Ohio, the crisis has reached epidemic proportions: More than 4,100 died last year from unintentionally overdosing — in parks, libraries, cars, homes, theaters, restaurants. And still, the toll is soaring. Coroners are running out of morgue space. Families have been devastated. Ohio’s child-welfare agencies, courts, hospitals, prisons and Medicaid system are overwhelmed. (6/4)

The Hill: When It Comes To Faster Access To Drugs, First Do No Harm
Over 60 percent of Americans want the government to take action to lower prescription drug prices — and Congress, for once, is listening to voters. Lawmakers are pushing forward two pieces of parallel legislation, the Senate’s Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act and another House bill the Fair Access for Safe and Timely (FAST) Generics Act of 2017. (Peter Pitts, 6/4)

The Wall Street Journal: The Senate’s Medicaid Moment
Senate Republicans are struggling to agree on health reform, and the biggest divide concerns Medicaid. The problem is that too many seem to accept the liberal line that reform inevitably means kicking Americans off government coverage. (6/6)

RealClear Health: Put Medicaid On Welfare
The American Health Care Act (AHCA), which was recently passed by the House of Representatives, proposes a radical change in Medicaid funding. Bill Clinton-era welfare reform served as a guide for the latest health care reform push—but to be successful, we must draw the correct lessons from those efforts in the 1990s. (Daniel Sutter, 6/7)

The Washington Post: Are Republicans Ready To Give Up On Repeal? Here’s What Might Happen Next.
Senate Republicans are moving into high gear on their effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, making it likely that within the next few weeks they’ll either pass something and keep the process hurtling forward, or abandon it altogether. Judging from what they’re saying, it looks like the latter is the most likely scenario: They fail to pass their version of repeal, then say, “Well, we tried,” shake that albatross off their shoulders, and move on to the rest of their agenda. It would leave many in the party infuriated, but it might be the best of the bad options available to them. (Paul Waldman, 6/6)

The Washington Post: Time For Democrats To Unite Around Medicare For All
“It’s an unbelievably complex subject,” President Trump said in February, discussing the Republican plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated.” It was a typically absurd proclamation for the president, who more recently bragged about how quickly he mastered “everything there was to know about health care. ”As complicated as health care is, the case against Trump’s health-care bill is simple. Trump promised to provide “insurance for everybody”; the American Health Care Act passed by the House last month would cause 23 million Americans to lose their coverage. (Katrina vanden Heuvel, 6/6)

Los Angeles Times: Trump's Sabotage Of Obamacare Has Just Claimed 10,000 New Victims
A major shoe dropped in the battle to preserve the Affordable Care Act on Tuesday, as Anthem, the nation’s second-largest health insurer, announced it is withdrawing entirely from the individual market in Ohio. The move will leave 18 counties without an insurer in the ACA exchanges, leaving an estimated 10,500 Anthem customers high and dry — most of them in Appalachia, among the poorest parts of the state. (Michael Hiltzik, 6/6)

Stat: We Need More Data Sharing To Improve Cancer Treatment
“You don’t all play well in the sandbox,” former vice president Joe Biden admonished the cancer care community at the Brainstorm Health conference last month. He was referring to health care providers’ widespread unwillingness, and to some degree inability, to share data. Fortunately, that’s changing. A seismic shift is now underway as more and more health care providers are sharing de-identified data and discovering in them incredible new ways to treat cancer. Now the challenge is for more providers to rapidly embrace data sharing. Doing so will fundamentally transform cancer care. (Thomas Brown and Jonathan C. Trent, 6/6)

Stat: Does Medicare's Free Annual Wellness Visit Do Any Good?
Prompted by the Affordable Care Act, Medicare followed the lead of private insurers in 2011 and began paying in full for a yearly checkup. This so-called annual wellness visit was designed specifically to address health risks and encourage evidence-based preventive care in aging adults. The visit is quite prescriptive, requiring a doctor or other clinician to run through a lengthy list of tasks like screening for dementia and depression, discussing care preferences at the end of life, and asking patients if they can cook and clean independently and are otherwise safe at home. Little is required in the way of a physical exam beyond checking vision, weight, and blood pressure. (Ganguli, 6/7)

Modern Healthcare: It's Now Or Never To Fix Next Year's Insurance Exchange Rates
As the ad hoc committee of 13 Republican senators rethinks the increasingly unpopular American Health Care Act, Congress and the administration face a more pressing question. Will they stabilize the individual insurance market for 2018? Preliminary rate filings for next year suggest that some states are entering the first phases of the much-dreaded death spiral, where rising rates and declining enrollments feed on each other to climax in a collapsed market. Where last year it was mostly rural areas that suffered from a dearth of carriers offering exchange plans, major urban areas like Kansas City and Knoxville, Tenn., are now among the regions reporting no insurers interested in offering coverage. (Merrill Goozner, 6/3)

Stat: The 'Kimmel Test' Could Be A Good Health Care Reform Yardstick For The GOP
“If your baby is going to die, and it doesn’t have to, it shouldn’t matter how much money you make,” pleaded Kimmel in an impassioned take on health insurance that has been viewed by millions. Not long afterward, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician who represents Louisiana, said that any Republican health care legislation would need to pass the “Jimmy Kimmel test.” Morally and politically, Cassidy is right. ... Can we Republicans pass the Kimmel test, improving on the AHCA while still ensuring the sustainability of American health care? Senate Republicans have expressed skepticism, but I believe we can. The key is to stay true to our roots by adhering to four conservative principles. (Michael Lee, Jr., 6/6)

The New York Times: I Lost My Voice, But Help Others Find Theirs
I can tell you the exact moment I realized my voice was broken. I was sitting in a cubicle inside Pulitzer Hall, the home of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. I was on the phone with a former top official at U.S.A. Hockey — a man whose name I knew well from having grown up a hockey fan. He was supposed to give me an interview for my master’s project, a large journalism assignment that most other graduate students would compare to a thesis. I was excited for the help and also excited to speak to someone so well known to me. Then he said it. “I’m sorry. I want to help you, but I can’t understand you.” (Alex Hubbard, 6/7)