Latest KFF Health News Stories
Puerto Rico’s Health Care Crisis, Fiscal Collapse Becomes Prominent Issue On The Stump
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton will kick off a push on women’s issues, Ben Carson appeals to evangelicals with positions on abortion and health care while a presidential run by Vice President Joe Biden, still grieving his son, will be influenced by his “emotional energy.”
Mass. Hospitals Considering Merger In Effort To Combat Rising Health Costs
The negotiations between Beth Israel Deaconess and Lahey Health follow a number of high-profile mergers in recent months. In other health care business news, autoworker contract talks continue to look at a health-care co-op across the industry, a hospice chain in the South settles a whistleblower suit and Oscar, an insurance start-up, is profiled.
Cheaper? First New Biosimilar Drug Still Expensive — For Now
The price of Zarxio, made by Novartis, will likely be 15 percent lower eventually than Amgen’s Neupogen — but The Washington Post says that the actual spending on the drugs in the short term will be much closer. Pharmaceutical companies are bracing for a barrage of biosimilar drugs that could cut into their profits. Elsewhere, more seniors find themselves in the Medicare Part D “doughnut hole,” and a hedge-fund manager vows to keep challenging drug patents.
N.Y. Lawmakers Urge Congress To Extend Law Covering 9/11 Responders’ Health Problems
The law is slated to expire in October 2016. Also on Capitol Hill, the Senate Finance Committee chairman suggests that Congress might repeal the health law’s device tax through a special budgetary rule, and Democrats are calling for investigations of the antiabortion activists who released secretly recorded videos about Planned Parenthood.
Abortion Providers File Supreme Court Appeal Of Texas Law That Has Shuttered Clinics
In June, justices granted an emergency appeal to put a temporary hold on Texas’ new clinic regulations that would leave the state with only 10 abortion providers. If the court hears the case, it would result in the first major abortion ruling since 2007.
Financial Losses Prompt Highmark To Cut Health Plan Offerings On Obamacare Exchanges
In other news on state insurance plans, the California Association of Health Plans opposes legislation that would tax health plan participants while California Healthline reports on the success of the state’s takeover of a local health plan.
Administration Unveils Protections For Transgender Patients’ Health Services
The new guarantees are part of a wide-ranging proposed rule that would bar discrimination based on gender in insurance coverage, treatments and access.
First Edition: September 4, 2015
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Viewpoints: Concern About Firms’ Move To Self-Insurance; An Ice-Bucket Challenge Success?
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
Longer Looks: A Cancer Diagnosis; Oliver Sacks; Replicating Studies; The Return Of IUDs
Each week, KHN’s Shefali Luthra finds interesting reads from around the Web.
Health care stories are reported from California, Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, North Carolina, Minnesota, California and Nebraska.
Texas Abortion Providers Ask For Supreme Court Review Of State Restrictions
Meanwhile, in Ohio, the abortion rate dropped more than 8 percent between 2013 and 2014.
Fla. Lawmaker Renews Push To Expand Prescribing Powers For Some Nurse Practitioners
Elsewhere, Illinois legislators override the governor’s veto to allow Medicaid to pay for heroin addiction treatment, and the California right-to-die bill passed an early test vote Tuesday during a special legislative session.
Federal Judge Puts A Hold On La.’s Effort To Terminate Medicaid Contracts With Planned Parenthood
Meanwhile, bills have been advanced in the Wisconsin legislature that also target the reproductive health organization.
Wider Coverage, But Higher Cost In Ohio Insurance Plans
Ohio has the third-highest number of enrollees in high-deductible plans, trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans says. In Louisiana, the insurance department takes over Louisiana Health Cooperative after it’s revealed that the insurer has only $180,000 to pay off unexpectedly high claims, if they come.
Consumer Advocates Press Ark. Governor To Reinstate People Who Lost Medicaid Coverage
More than 53,000 state residents have lost their coverage because they failed to provide proof of their incomes within a 10-day deadline. In other news, Pennsylvania officials finish up an overhaul of the state’s Medicaid system, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer profiles the difficulties of a woman who finds a part-time job and then loses her Medicaid benefits and can’t afford private insurance.
States Wrestle With Shortages In The Mental Health Workforce
Access issues are particularly acute in rural areas and in states like Texas.
PrEP Pill Keeps San Francisco Clients HIV-Free
Kaiser Permanente says not one of the 657 patients on a drug regimen meant to stop new cases of the disease contracted the virus. In the meantime, a study says needle exchanges in Washington, D.C., prevented 120 new cases of HIV.
Hillary Clinton Targets ‘Quiet Epidemic’ Of Drug Abuse With $10B Plan
Funding for addiction treatment, prevention programs and criminal justice reforms are part of her proposal. “Plain and simple, drug and alcohol addiction is a disease, not a moral failing,” the Democratic candidate wrote in an op-ed.
With the Department of Veterans Affairs’ open applications going back nearly 20 years, and with many records undated, the report estimates that a third of those who applied for health care are now dead. Meanwhile, in another hit to veterans seeking care, a torrential storm damaged the Phoenix VA hospital, forcing patients to be moved and appointments postponed.
