Latest KFF Health News Stories
Food Industry Must Phase Out Trans Fats Over Next Three Years
While partially hydrogenated oils were once promoted by doctors, the Food and Drug Administration now says the substances clog arteries and are unsafe. Use of artificial trans fats has dropped 78 percent over the last decade but they are still found in products like microwave popcorn, whipped topping and pie crusts. The Washington Post profiles the 100-year-old professor from the University of Illinois who led the charge to ban them.
Feds Paid Too Much For Nearly Half Of UnitedHealth’s Medicare Advantage Patients, Audit Says
Three years of confidential negotiations between the insurer and the federal government were recently released in an audit. Elsewhere, N.J. Sen. Robert Menendez loses his bid to move his trial over corruption charges from his home state to Washington, D.C.
Some ACOs Save Money By Adding Dentists
A handful of accountable care organizations are experimenting with dental care and find it reduces ER visits. Meanwhile, new rules allow ACO doctors to send patients directly to nursing homes and optometrists are pushing to be part of the joint ventures.
Majority Polled Say Prescription Drug Prices Are Too High And Point Finger At Drugmakers
This issue is also being examined by Politico, which convened a group of doctors, insurance and drug lobbyists, policy makers and patient advocates to discuss possible solutions and options. And the Philadelphia Inquirer profiles the chair of the University of Pennsylvnia’s department of medical ethics and health policy, who has been speaking out on controlling drug costs.
Insurers Ready Merger Deals After Health Law, Managed Care Lull
The largest U.S. insurers — UnitedHealth, Anthem, Aetna, Cigna and Humana — are all looking at combinations for teaming up, but any move faces significant antitrust scrutiny. In the meantime, stocks of UnitedHealth surge on Aetna takeover speculation, with Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini in line to make up to $131 million if he loses his job because of a merger.
Rep. Fred Upton Seeks Wide Bipartisan Support Of ‘Cures’ Bill To Encourage Senate Adoption
In other congressional news, Politico examines the House Republicans’ budget and finds that increased funding for NIH and the CDC would come at the expense of other domestic programs, including the elimination of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Lawmakers are also considering a host of other legislative action or policy changes like a mental health bill, allowing grant money to pay for needle exchanges and how to improve electronic health records.
Congressional Republicans Face King V. Burwell Conundrum
GOP lawmakers are now feeling health law heat as they wrestle with the challenge of what to do if the Supreme Court strikes down the overhaul’s subsidies in states that use healthcare.gov. Party leaders are expected to brief the rank and file about possible plans and courses of action. And, in the meantime, the House is planning a set of health law repeal votes in advance of the decision.
Waiting Game For States, Consumers As Supreme Court Weighs Subsidies
The Obama administration says it has no backup plan if the high court strikes some health law subsidies, but state-based fixes could save coverage for many. In Tennessee, the governor says his state will wait and see before creating a contingency plan. And advocates rally to put pressure on officials to help people keep subsidies.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Viewpoints: Last Big Test For Obamacare; Hospital ‘Sticker Shock’; Underage Drinking
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
News outlets report on health care developments in North Carolina, California, Connecticut, Washington, Michigan, New York, D.C., West Virginia and Ohio.
R.I. Nursing Homes Win Some Relief In Medicaid Plan But Hospital Cuts Remain
Elsewhere, California doctors treating low-income patients in the Medi-Cal managed care program are more likely to have earned poor grades on safety, cleanliness and other measures. And Tennessee asks a federal appeals court to throw out a lawsuit over thousands of applicants to the state’s Medicaid programs who were left in limbo.
Supreme Court Refuses To Reinstate N.C. Abortion Law
The law, which has been struck down by an appeals court, would have required doctors to show patients an ultrasound of the fetus and describe it before a woman could undergo an abortion.
VA Delves Deeper Into $54M Spent On Prosthetic Limbs
Warning signs were raised after officials noticed that each purchase cost for $24,999, one dollar below the purchase card spending limit. Elsewhere, Iowans try to help veterans adjust to civilian life.
Smoking Linked To More Cancer Deaths Than Previously Estimated, Study Finds
It’s not just lung cancer: A JAMA Internal Medicine study attributes cigarette use to almost half of the 346,000 deaths from 12 different types of cancers — including esophagus, colon and bladder — in individuals 35 years of age or older in 2011.
Medicare Advisers Urge Congress To Help Cover Seniors’ Rehab Services
An annual report by MedPAC, the panel that advises lawmakers on Medicare issues, called for easing a rule that says patients must be hospitalized for three days before qualifying for rehabilitation at a nursing facility.
CVS To Buy Target’s Drug Store Business For $1.9 Billion
The deal allows CVS to expand into parts of the country where its activities have been limited. It also shows the ambitions of a company that already has big momentum. CVS is the nation’s largest dispenser of prescription drugs and the biggest operator of health care clinics, The New York Times reports.
Merger Mania Seizes Health Insurance Industry
The two biggest health insurers by revenue, UnitedHealth Group and Anthem Inc., are seeking to buy smaller rivals in a bid to boost profits and cut costs.
White House Issues Veto Threat Over Bill To Repeal Medical Device Tax
Also in the news, House Republicans are planning to offset the cost of repealing the health law’s Independent Payment Advisory Board with funds from the overhaul’s preventive health fund — a move that could undermine the repeal effort’s ability to draw Democratic support.
Feds Unable To Verify Payments To Health Insurers Without Back-End System
Delays in completing the data system for the health exchanges means the government has been making billions in payments to insurance companies without being able to confirm how much it owes each insurer, according to an inspector general’s report.
