Reuters: Nearly 11.7M Signed Up For Obamacare Health Insurance: HHS
Nearly 11.7 million people have either signed up or re-enrolled for insurance coverage under the U.S. healthcare reform law, more than the 9.1 million predicted by the Obama administration, health officials said on Tuesday. As of Feb. 22, about 8.8 million signed up in one of the 37 states that use online exchanges operated by the federal government and 2.85 million were in the 14 states, and Washington, D.C., that operate their own exchanges, the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement. (Abutaleb, 3/10)

McClatchy: Marketplace Enrollment Hits 11.7 Million For 2015
Nearly 11.7 million Americans chose a health plan or were re-enrolled in coverage through the nation’s health insurance marketplaces during the 2015 marketplace enrollment period, the Obama administration reported Tuesday. (Pugh, 3/10)

CNN Money: Obamacare's Second Round Attracts More Americans
Obamacare's second enrollment period, which ended in February for most Americans, went far more smoothly than the first, which was marred by technical trouble at the kickoff. (Luhby, 3/10)

The New York Times: 86 Percent Of Health Law Enrollees Receive Subsidies, White House Says
The Obama administration said Tuesday that 11.7 million Americans now have private health insurance through federal and state marketplaces, with 86 percent of them receiving financial assistance from the federal government to help pay premiums. (Pear, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Three States Would Be Hardest Hit If Supreme Court Upends Health-Law Subsidies
Florida, North Carolina and Texas would be among the states hardest hit if their health-insurance subsidies are struck down by the Supreme Court. Those states had the highest number of consumers who were eligible for tax credits when selecting a plan on the federal HealthCare.gov website, government data show. Affordable Care Act enrollment figures released Tuesday give the most up-to-date snapshot of which states would bear the brunt of any loss of subsidies. Nearly 7.7 million people who selected a plan using the federal site qualified for an average tax credit of $263 a month to help pay for premiums, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. (Armour, 3/10)

Los Angeles Times: More Than 85% Of Obamacare Enrollees Qualify For Subsidies
Reliance on government aid is higher in states where the federal government operates insurance marketplaces than in states like California that run their own systems. The legal challenge being considered by the Supreme Court would strip away subsidies in states that rely on the federal government, affecting as many as 7.7 million people, according to the report. In many of those states, consumers are getting subsidies that top $300 a month on average, according to the data. (Levey, 3/10)

The Associated Press: Federal Report: Health Insurance Aid In Doubt For Nearly 8M
Nearly 8 million people could lose up to $24 billion a year in health insurance subsidies in a Supreme Court case threatening President Barack Obama's law, according to a government report released Tuesday. The estimates by The Associated Press show what's at stake in the case. Health overhaul opponents argue that subsidies are illegal in some three dozen states where the federal government took charge of running the health insurance marketplaces, or exchanges. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/10)

Looking inside the numbers, news outlets also reported on some of the demographic information about who obtained coverage as well as state-specific numbers -

USA Today: More Young People But Fewer Minorities Pick ACA Plans
More than 4.1 million people under age 35 picked Obamacare health insurance plans so far in this open enrollment period, a small increase compared with the end of the 2014 period, the Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday. And HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell on Monday said nearly 11.7 million people enrolled in plans on state and federal exchanges through Feb. 22. Those numbers run through the end of a one-week enrollment extension for those delayed by issues with Healthcare.gov and its call center. Next week, a new tax-related extension takes effect for those facing penalties for not having insurance last year. (O'Donnell, 3/10)

The Seattle Times: Federal Data Put State's Exchange-insurance Rolls At 160,000 People
As government officials on Tuesday touted the enrollment of 11.7 million Americans in state and federal health insurance exchanges, the clear subtext of their announcement was the essential role that price subsidies played in the signups. The subsidies — which lowered the average monthly price of health insurance to $101 on the federally run exchanges — are at risk of vanishing depending on the upcoming decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. (Stiffler, 3/10)

Connecticut Mirror: Enrollment Rose, But Age Distribution Stayed The Same In CT Exchange
Although enrollment in private health plans sold through Connecticut’s health insurance exchange rose by 37 percent this year, the age distribution of customers was virtually unchanged, according to data released by the federal government Tuesday. (Levin Becker, 3/10)

Modern Healthcare: Exchange Enrollment Sees Limited Progress With Youth, Minorities
Nearly 11.7 million consumers have now elected or were automatically re-enrolled into plans on federally operated or state-based insurance exchanges, while the percentage of under-35 enrollees was essentially unchanged from the prior year, said HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell and other agency officials Tuesday. (Dickson, 3/10)

The Dallas Morning News: Texas Insurance Enrollees Continue To Climb, Despite Federal Challenge
Even as they await the Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act, federal health officials continue to praise the people who signed up for insurance coverage, including a record number of Texans. (Jacobson, 3/10)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: 350,000 Kansans And Missourians Signed Up For Healthcare.gov Coverage
Twice as many Kansans and Missourians signed up for health insurance this year under the Affordable Care Act compared with the first enrollment period last year, new figures released Tuesday show. More than 250,000 Missourians and nearly 100,000 Kansans selected plans on the federal insurance exchange, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (Smith, 3/10)

Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune: Governor’s Proposal To Expand Medicaid Dies In House
The state House on Tuesday officially killed the governor’s proposal to expand Medicaid to about 70,000 low-income Montanans. House Minority Leader Chuck Hunter of Helena made a motion on the House floor to reject the unfavorable committee report given to House Bill 249 Friday by a Republican-led committee. A vote by 60 representatives to reject it would have allowed the bill to be debated and voted upon on the floor. Instead it received only 41 votes, all from Democrats, while 59 Republicans voted against it. (Baumann, 3/10)

Kaiser Health News: Republican Lawmakers Sink Montana Governor’s Medicaid Expansion Plan
Obamacare’s tenuous toehold in Montana appears to be growing no firmer. Despite a hearing crowded with supporters of the Democratic governor’s Medicaid expansion bill, Republican legislators have dealt the measure a likely death blow. Republicans control both houses of the Montana legislature, which meets only every other year, and the health law has been controversial. The legislature refused to set up a state-run insurance marketplace before enrollment began and in 2013 it turned down a proposal to expand Medicaid. But statehouse Democrats were hopeful they could ally with enough moderate Republicans to gain a majority of votes in favor of their bill this year. (Whitney, 3/11)

The Missoulian: Montana House Officially Kills Governor’s Medicaid Expansion Bill
The Montana House on Tuesday officially killed Gov. Steve Bullock’s Medicaid expansion proposal, refusing on a party-line vote to overturn a committee report to reject it. All 59 House Republicans voted to adopt the House Human Services Committee’s do-not-pass recommendation on House Bill 249; all 41 Democrats voted against it. Democrats again castigated Republicans on the committee for voting late Friday night to kill the measure, which would accept federal money to expand Medicaid coverage to up to 70,000 low-income Montanans without health insurance. (Dennison, 3/10)

MIami Herald: Florida Senate Panel Pushes Medicaid Expansion Forward, But Still A Long Shot
A state Senate panel on Tuesday approved a sweeping proposal that would allow Florida to use billions of federal dollars to expand healthcare coverage to about 800,000 low-income residents — if it’s able to overcome two big hurdles. The bill (SPB 7044) won the unanimous support of the Senate Health Policy Committee and applause from the audience when it passed. “It’s a watershed day in the Florida Senate and, hopefully, in the Florida Legislature,” said Senate Democratic Leader Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa. (McGrory and Van Sickler, 3/10)

Health News Florida: Florida Health Choices To Become Medicaid Expansion Vehicle Under Senate Plan
Florida's small-business marketplace is in for major changes under the Senate's Medicaid expansion proposal. After a slow start getting up and running, Florida Health Choices could see its customer base grow exponentially under the Senate's plan. (Hatter, 3/10)

The Associated Press: Christie Touts Benefits Of Medicaid Expansion At Town Hall
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is touting the budgetary benefits of Medicaid expansion under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul. The potential Republican presidential contender, who has been a vocal critic of Obama's signature health care program, said Tuesday during a town hall event that Medicaid expansion has helped save New Jersey taxpayers significant money and benefited low-income residents as well as the state's bottom line. (Colvin, 3/10)

Al.com: Alabama's Medicaid Reform Takes Major Step Next Month
Six of the organizations vying to take over Medicaid will undertake care for 220,000 of its sickest patients on April 1, in the first test of a program officials hope could save millions of dollars. Six probationary regional care organizations are participating in an expansion of the Health Home program. Medicaid patients with 12 costly and chronic health conditions, including asthma, diabetes, HIV, cancer, mental illness, sickle cell disease and heart disease, will receive added support and coordination through primary care physicians and the regional care organizations. State officials want to reform Medicaid by transferring the risk and responsibility for patients to regional care organizations that will receive lump payments for individuals in the program. (Yurkanin, 3/10)

The Chicago Tribune: Former CIA Officer Named Get Covered Illinois Director
The new executive director of Get Covered Illinois is Karin Zosel, a former CIA intelligence officer and college director, the group said Tuesday. Get Covered Illinois helps enroll people in health insurance plans through Obamacare. As of February, the group has helped 947,776 people enroll in health plans and Medicaid. (Hirst, 3/10)

The Associated Press: Rauner Names Get Covered Illinois Director
Gov. Bruce Rauner has hired a Yale-educated former CIA intelligence officer to lead Illinois' health insurance enrollment efforts. Rauner's office announced Tuesday that Karin Zosel will be the new executive director of Get Covered Illinois, where she will oversee federal grant programs promoting insurance coverage. (3/10)

Minnesota Public Radio: Legislators Move MNsure Changes
Two bills that would change how the state’s health insurance exchange operates have cleared initial hurdles in the Minnesota House. ... [One] bill would require Minnesota officials to seek federal waivers to allow anyone to access those subsidies, whether they buy insurance through MNsure or directly from an insurance company. ... Meanwhile, the House Government Operations Committee unanimously approved a bill that would strip MNsure’s exemptions from some state technology rules. (Richert, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Abortion Fight Threatens Bill To Crack Down On Human Trafficking
Democratic concerns erupted Tuesday over abortion language embedded in a Senate bill to curb human trafficking that had previously appeared poised to glide to passage. Less than two months after House GOP leaders pulled a contentious bill barring abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy from the House floor, a fresh abortion fight across the Capitol threatened to derail the widely supported bill aimed at cracking down on human trafficking. (Peterson and Radnofsky, 3/10)

Politico: Human Trafficking Bill Hits Abortion Snag
Senate Democrats are threatening to pull their support from a bipartisan anti-trafficking bill set for Senate action this week. They are infuriated over an abortion-related provision that Democrats say was slipped in without their knowledge. The legislation passed the Senate Judiciary Committee in late February without opposition, but Democrats are now balking over language in it that would prohibit money in a restitution fund from being spent on abortions. (Everett and Kim, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Anti-Human-Trafficking Bill Gets Caught Up In Abortion Politics In Senate
Proving that there is virtually no issue that cannot get mired in partisan combat, an anti-human trafficking bill now under Senate consideration is in limbo after Democrats accused Republicans of sneaking anti-abortion language into the legislation before it hit the Senate floor. (DeBonis, 3/10)

Politico Pro: House Leadership Staff Talks SGR As Deadline Nears
Senior House staffers are engaged in discussions on long-term repeal of the Sustainable Growth Rate just weeks before the next cuts take effect on April 1. (Haberkorn, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Investors See Potential Opportunity In Marijuana Reform Bill
When Sens. Cory Booker (D., N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) and Rand Paul (R., Ky.) announced a bill Tuesday to reform federal marijuana regulation, they pitched it not just as a health, military veteran and states’ rights issue, but from a business angle. And they used words that investors in the developing marijuana industry have been waiting to hear for a long time. (Dunford, 3/10)

CQ Healthbeat: Efforts To Speed Drug Approvals May Hit Partisan Roadblocks
The Food and Drug Administration says it approves drugs at a faster clip than any other regulatory agency in the world. Some members of Congress want it to be faster – and some are urging it to consider checking its pace. Members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Tuesday asked for input from the heads of both the FDA and the National Institutes of Health to help guide legislation designed to get drugs into patients’ hands more quickly. (Gustin, 3/10)

Also, the Menendez investigation continues -

The Hill: Former HHS Chief Questioned In Menendez Ethics Probe
The government’s years-long ethic probe into Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) once led investigators to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), its former secretary disclosed Monday. Former HHS chief Kathleen Sebelius said she was questioned by federal investigators, after Menendez privately urged her to intervene in a multi-million billing dispute with his long-time political benefactor Dr. Salomon Melgen. (Ferris, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Obama To Visit VA Hospital In Phoenix, The Heart Of Last Summer’s Scandal
The president’s visit comes two months after he was criticized by Congress and veterans groups for not talking with Arizona veterans during a visit to the state, where he previewed his housing policies. Some members of Congress slammed Obama because he drove right past the hospital without stopping during that visit. The scandal over the medical center’s delays in providing care for veterans, some of them struggling with cancer, suicidal thoughts and other issues, sparked an investigation. It led to revelations that the problem was not limited to the Phoenix facility and that similar lapses were seen at scores of VA facilities. (Thibodeaux and Nakamura, 3/10)

The Associated Press: Obama To Visit Phoenix VA Hospital That Sparked Scandal
President Barack Obama will visit the Arizona veterans' hospital that prompted an overhaul of veterans' health care and led to the resignation of the VA secretary, his first visit since reports of mismanagement surfaced nearly a year ago. (3/10)

NPR: Veterans Choice Act Fails To Ease Travel Burdens For Vets In Need Of Care
Veterans who need to see a doctor often have to travel long distances – 40 miles or more – to get to a Department of Veterans Affairs facility. So last year, after scandals involving long wait times for vets, Congress tried to make getting care easier. The Veterans Choice Act gives veterans the option of using a doctor outside the VA system if VA facilities are more than 40 miles away, or there's more than a 30-day wait for an appointment. (Walsh, 3/11)

Arizona Republic: VA Crisis Slowly Changing Health-Care System For Veterans
The Department of Veterans Affairs' crisis in health care came to a head in April 2014 at a meeting of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla., told his panel, "It appears as though there could be as many as 40 veterans whose deaths could be related to delays in care" within the Phoenix VA Health Care System. The Arizona Republic reported the news the next day, along with allegations by a key whistle-blower. The Republic had been investigating the matter since late 2013. (3/10)

And from Wisconsin -

The Center for Investigative Reporting: Wisconsin VA’s Opiate Overprescription Harmed Patients, Report Finds
Doctors at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Tomah, Wisconsin, engaged in unsafe clinical practices while the hospital leadership created a culture of fear that compromised care and harmed the staff, according to a preliminary report released today. (Glantz, 3/10)

The Associated Press: Report: Specialty Drugs Drive Prescription Spending Jump
Prescription drugs spending jumped 13 percent last year, the biggest annual increase since 2003, according to the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits manager. Express Scripts Holding Co. said Tuesday that the jump was fueled in part by pricey specialty drugs that accounted for more than 31 cents of every dollar spent on prescriptions even though they represented only 1 percent of all U.S. prescriptions filled. (3/10)

CQ Healthbeat: Hepatitis Pills Contributed To 13 Percent Spike In Drug Spending
Costly new hepatitis pills helped drove a 13 percent increase in drug spending last year among insurer-managed plans in the United States, a rate not seen in more than a decade, according to a report from the pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts. A course of therapy to treat the liver-damaging hepatitis C virus could cost as much as $150,000 with the approvals of medicines such as Gilead Sciences Inc.'s Sovaldi and Harvoni and Johnson & Johnson's Olysio, Express Scripts said in the report, released Tuesday. (Young, 3/10)

Kaiser Health News: FDA Heads Into Uncharted Territory Of ‘Biosimiliar’ Drugs
Mark McCamish spent more than five years preparing for a presentation he gave at the Food and Drug Administration’s headquarters this winter. McCamish is in charge of biopharmaceutical drug development at the Sandoz division of Switzerland’s Novartis. He and his colleagues made the case to a panel of 14 cancer specialists and a group of regulators that a company drug code-named EP2006 should be approved for sale in the U.S. The drug, brand name Zarxio, is similar to but not quite identical to Amgen’s Neupogen, a medicine approved by the FDA back in 1991 to fight infections in cancer patients. (Gordon, 3/10)

Politico: Accompanying Apple Watch, A Medical Surprise
And now, Apple will enroll you in a clinical trial. In a surprise announcement that overshadowed the presentation of its new Apple Watch — for the health care industry, at least — the Silicon Valley giant on Monday unveiled a new biomedical platform called ResearchKit. The platform ... will allow any iPhone user to enroll in tests of new drugs and therapies by downloading apps from hospitals and providers who are recruiting patients. (Gold, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Maximus, Seeking To Expand Into Health IT Market, Acquires Acentia
Reston-based contractor Maximus said this week that it will acquire information technology contractor Acentia for $300 million cash as it seeks to expand more into the federal space. The deal signals a concerted step into the federal health IT market for a company better known for processing Medicare claims for state governments and running call centers for state health exchanges. (Gregg, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Medical Device ID Effort Hits Snag
The ideal way to protect the public from hazardous medical devices, the Food and Drug Administration says, is a brand-specific identification number on devices like implanted heart defibrillators and artificial hips. If one goes haywire, the thinking goes, doctors can quickly tap large insurance databases to find out whether the malfunction was rare—or part of a broader public-health threat. ... Congress passed this “unique device identifier” concept into law in 2007. ... But the overall safety effort has hit a barrier. The Obama administration’s Medicare agency, in a behind-the-scenes bureaucratic conflict, has dug in its heels and opposes the FDA’s plan. (Burton, 3/10)

The Washington Post: Three Years After Approval, Nationwide Network For First Responders Faces Challenges
The federal government is in the early stages of building the first nationwide public safety communications network for first responders, a project long sought by public safety advocates to address communication failures during the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Hurricane Katrina. Three years after Congress approved $7 billion for the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to launch the network, the First Responders’ Network Authority faces some challenges in planning for long-term funding and in internal controls to ensure that it operates with high ethics standards. (Rein, 3/10)

The San Jose Mercury News: Prime Healthcare Passes On Daughters Of Charity Deal
In a move that could disrupt the South Bay's hospital landscape for months and perhaps years to come, Prime Healthcare Services on Tuesday announced it has decided to pass on its $843 million deal to buy the Daughters of Charity Health System. ... Prime, the Southern California hospital company, called the conditions placed on the sale by state Attorney General Kamala Harris "so burdensome and restrictive that it would be impossible for Prime Healthcare -- or any buyer -- to make the changes needed to operate and save these hospitals." (Seipel, 3/10)

Reuters: Prime Pulls Offer For Struggling Hospitals In California After Requirements By State
Prime Healthcare Services said on Tuesday it has withdrawn its offer to buy the Daughters of Charity Health System in California due to conditions imposed by the state, a move the struggling hospital chain said could force it into bankruptcy. The state would have required Prime to invest $150 million in improvements over the next three years and guarantee all pension obligations for about 17,000 current and retired employees, as well as requiring all hospitals to operate as acute care hospitals and offer emergency services for 10 years. (Christie, 3/10)

The Associated Press: NY Expands Mental Health Safety Net For Releases Inmates
New York is expanding its efforts to make sure inmates who receive mental health treatment in prison aren't cut off from such care when they are released. Discharge planning that included medication, enrollment in Medicaid and initial clinic appointments had only extended to the 3,500 to 4000 inmates with a serious mental illness or who were getting treatment at the time of their release. (Virtanen, 3/11)

The Associated Press: Judge Outlines Plan For California To Regain Prison Control
A federal judge on Tuesday outlined a plan for California to end nearly a decade of federal control over its prison health care system. U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco acted after a court-appointed overseer reported that conditions have substantially improved since Henderson appointed a receiver to run the medical system in 2006. (Thompson, 3/10)

The Illinois News-Gazette: Managed Care Plans In Illinois Leaves People Driving Far
Since Cathy Siegel and her family signed up for health coverage through the Illinois Medicaid program last year, they've had to take a lot of road trips to see doctors in Decatur and Peoria. Many of the doctors they need in the local area don't accept the Medicaid managed care plan, Molina Healthcare, they were placed in by the state. The Siegels are among more than 11,000 Medicaid clients in five East Central Illinois counties — Champaign, DeWitt, Ford, Piatt and Vermilion — who either signed up for or were automatically enrolled by the state in a managed care plan through Molina that isn't accepted by Carle Physician Group, Carle Foundation Hospital or Christie Clinic. (Pressey, 3/10)

The Associated Press: New Mexico Senate Passes Bill To Address Medicaid Fraud Allegations
State officials would have to follow certain procedures before cutting off government funding for health care providers suspected of Medicaid fraud or overbilling under a measure passed Tuesday by the New Mexico Senate. The measure was spurred by the state's handling of allegations of fraud and abuse involving 15 nonprofits that provided behavioral health services to needy New Mexicans. Republican Gov. Susana Martinez's administration froze Medicaid payments to the providers while the attorney general's office launched an investigation. (Bryan, 3/10)

The Texas Tribune: Lawmaker: Women 'Will Die' Without Cancer Screening
A House Republican warned Tuesday that proposed changes to a women's health program — intended to gut funding for Planned Parenthood clinics — would put lives in danger. State Rep. Sarah Davis, R-Houston, objected to a Senate plan to alter the way money is distributed through a cancer screening program for low-income Texans. She convinced a House budget panel on Tuesday to approve a measure that takes aim at the plan, which she said could cause dozens of clinics — not just Planned Parenthood's — to close their doors. (Walters, 3/10)

The Marshall Project: Tending To Tsarnaev
On the evening of April 19, 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was rushed by ambulance to Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center after a gun battle with the FBI. Dr. Stephen Odom was the attending trauma surgeon on call. Boston and its surrounding towns had been on lockdown all day as police hunted Tsarnaev, and it was a tense time throughout the city — not least of all at the hospital, where several marathon bombing victims were recuperating from surgeries and amputations. Tsarnaev arrived with multiple gunshot wounds, “the most severe of which appears to have entered through the left side inside of his mouth and exited the left…lower face,” Odom told a judge in a hospital bedside court hearing on April 22. “This was a high-powered injury that has resulted in skull-base fracture, with injuries to the middle ear, the skull base, the lateral portion of his C1 vertebrae, with a significant soft-tissue injury, as well as injury to the pharynx, the mouth, and a small vascular injury that's been treated,” Odom explained to the judge. (Schwartzapfel, 3/11)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Mental Health Orgs Seek Grant Protection
Organizations that advocate on behalf of Kansas adults and children with mental illnesses are asking legislators to adopt a proviso that would protect their budgets for at least another year. (Ranney, 3/10)

NPR: States Aim To Restrict Medically-Induced Abortions
Of the million or so women who have abortions every year in the U.S., nearly a quarter end their pregnancy using medications. But just as states have been passing a record number of restrictions on surgical abortion, more are trying to limit this option as well. One of the country's strictest laws is in Ohio. To understand it, a little history helps. (Ludden, 3/11)

Minnesota Public Radio: Low Wages At Nursing Homes Hurting Care, Operators Say
Minnesota's nursing homes say they are caught in a problem of the state's making, and they are asking the state Legislature to help fix it. The homes say they can't pay staff competitive wages, and that's hurting care for residents. They'd like to be able to pay more, but they can't, because the fees they can charge residents are set by the state. (Greene, 3/11)

Georgia Health News: Is Tobacco Cessation Being Improperly Slighted?
State insurance officials are investigating whether health insurers are covering tobacco-cessation products as a free benefit, as required under the Affordable Care Act. (Miller, 3/10)

The Oregonian: Oregon Health Officials Failed To Collect $3 Million In Drug Rebates: Federal Auditors
A federal audit of nine months of Oregon Health Plan spending in 2010 found that the state failed to collect $3 million in drug manufacturer rebates. (Budnick, 3/10)

The Chicago Tribune: Chicago Nurse Charged With Medicare Fraud Over Home Health Requirements
A Matteson man who operates two nursing agencies has been charged with health care fraud for allegedly billing for skilled-nursing services that did not qualify for Medicare and involved patients obtained through illegal payments for referrals, federal prosecutors said. It alleges that the firms, Adonis Inc. and BestMed-Care Services Ltd., provided unnecessary nursing services to patients who were not confined to the home as required by Medicare. (3/10)

Bloomberg: Obamacare's Good News Only Tells Half The Story
Is Obamacare costing less than we expected? I've seen notes to that effect on the Web and social media, thanks to newly released estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. However, that's something of a misreading of the CBO document, which only covers the cost of the insurance coverage provisions in Obamacare. Those are obviously a huge part of the law. But they're not the only part of the law, and we don't have a CBO estimate for the rest. (Megan McArdle, 3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: Health-Care Deductibles Climbing Out Of Reach
Deductibles are an element of any insurance product, but as deductibles have grown in recent years, a surprising percentage of people with private insurance, and especially those with lower and moderate incomes, simply do not have the resources to pay their deductibles and will either have to put off care or incur medical debt. (Drew Altman, 3/11)

The Washington Post's Plum Line: More Evidence Republicans Will Probably Do Nothing If Supreme Court Guts Subsidies
Scott Walker has now supplied yet another piece of evidence that Republicans will likely find themselves unable or unwilling to act if the Supreme Court guts Obamacare subsidies for millions in three dozen states. In the process, he’s illustrated how such a Court ruling will likely set in motion a mad frenzy of buck-passing among Republicans over what to do about all those people — and how that might spill over into the 2016 presidential race. A spokesperson for Walker has now confirmed that should the Court rule that way, he will not view it as the state’s responsibility to fix the problem that results — and instead says that responsibility will fall to the federal government. (Greg Sargent, 3/10)

The New York Times' Room For Debate: Parents’ Beliefs Vs. Their Children’s Health
The spread of measles has called attention to parents who don’t vaccinate children because of religious beliefs. New York City is accommodating an Orthodox Jewish circumcision practice that can infect babies with herpes. Some states even let believers in faith healing deny life-saving medical care to their children. Should parents’ religious beliefs allow them to refuse medical care for their children or avoid standard medical practices? (3/10)

Los Angeles Times: Victims Deserve Better Than Nationwide Rape Kit Backlog
Every seven minutes a rape occurs somewhere in the United States, yet fewer than half of those reported to police result in an arrest, according to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports. One way to catch more rapists would be to eliminate the inexcusable nationwide backlog in laboratory testing of rape kits. How many are untested? No one knows, which is part of the problem. (3/10)

The New York Times: A Sensible Bill On Medical Marijuana
Three senators, two Democrats and a Republican, introduced a bill on Monday that would allow patients to use marijuana for medical purposes in states where it is legal, without fear of federal prosecution for violating narcotics laws. The bill makes a number of important changes to federal marijuana policies — and it deserves to be passed by Congress and enacted into law. Though this legislation would not repeal the broad and destructive federal ban on marijuana, it is a big step in the right direction. (3/11)

JAMA: Deciphering Cholesterol Treatment Guidelines
The publication of cholesterol treatment guidelines by the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association immediately met with considerable support as well some criticism related to their applicability in practice. The criticism was based primarily on 2 issues: eliminating numerical targets for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and non–high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non–HDL-C) and debate about the value of the new pooled risk calculator for treatment initiation decisions. ... All of these current guidelines emphasize the need for lifestyle changes and to intensify statin therapy as the highly preferred regimen in patients with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) or those at very high risk of developing CVD. ... Some have misconstrued the ACC/AHA position by assuming little need for lipid monitoring because there are no numerical lipid goals. ... In fact, lipid monitoring is essential. (Dr. Om P. Ganda, 3/10)