First Edition: May 28, 2015
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizaitons.
Kaiser Health News:
A Top Medical School Revamps Requirements — To Lure English Majors
You can’t tell by looking which med students at Mount Sinai were traditional pre-meds in college and which weren’t. And that’s exactly the point. Most of the class majored in biology or chemistry or some other “hard” science; crammed for the MCAT (the Medical College Admission Test) and did well at both. But a growing percentage came through Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s “Hu-Med” program, which stands for Humanities in Medicine. They majored in things like English, history or medieval studies. And they didn’t even take the MCAT because Mount Sinai guaranteed them admission after their sophomore year of college. (Rovner, 5/27)
Kaiser Health News:
Asthma Visits Rising Among Kids In California ERs
Children in California increasingly are flocking to emergency rooms for treatment of asthma, despite millions of dollars spent on programs to control the disease. Statewide, the rates of ER visits for asthma symptoms rose by about 18 percent for California children ages 5 to 17 and by 6 percent for children under 5 between 2005 and 2012, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of the latest available rates by county. (Ostrov, 5/28)
The Wall Street Journal:
Midsize Businesses Seek Relief From Federal Health Law
Employer groups and insurers are pushing to keep businesses with 51 to 100 workers exempt from a provision of the federal health law that they say could significantly increase their costs. For these midsize employers, the Affordable Care Act’s requirements for what health plans must cover—and how they are priced—are set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2016. (Radnofsky and Janofsky, 5/27)
The Wall Street Journal:
West Coast Port Contract Has Employers Covering ‘Cadillac Tax’
The U.S. West Coast port labor contract ratified by dockworkers will require shipping companies and terminal operators to cover the tax on high-cost health plans beginning in 2018 under the Affordable Care Act, widely called the “Cadillac tax.” Health care benefits were an important part of the negotiations that culminated in an agreement in February and last week’s vote by the cargo handlers in favor a five-year contract that included wage increases, pension upgrades and substantial health care coverage. (Phillps, 5/27)
The Wall Street Journal CFO Report:
How One Supermarket Chain Is Tackling Health-Care Costs
The “Cadillac Tax” isn’t the only reason executives are looking to shed health-care costs; low-margin businesses don’t have much choice but to arrest the increases and trim fat wherever they can. As CFO Journal reported Tuesday, finance executives are turning their attention to the controversial provision of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which is scheduled to take effect in 2018 and penalizes companies whose benefits are deemed overly generous. But even modest grocers whose benefits won’t trigger a levy can’t afford to ignore the burgeoning costs of coverage. (Murphy, 5/27)
The Associated Press:
Health Law Court Case Winner Could Be Political Loser
The party that wins the impending Supreme Court decision on President Barack Obama's health care law could be the political loser. If the Republican-backed challenge to the law's subsidies for lower-earning Americans prevails, the GOP would have achieved a paramount goal of severely damaging "Obamacare." But Republican lawmakers would be pressured to help the millions of Americans who could suddenly find government-mandated medical coverage unaffordable — and they'd face blame from many voters if they failed to provide assistance. ... Should the Obama administration win, ... some say they'd have lost a potentially powerful cudgel for the 2016 campaigns. (Fram, 5/27)
The Associated Press:
First Hearing In House Lawsuit Over Obama Health Law
Obama administration attorneys are urging a federal judge to throw out an election-year lawsuit by House Republicans over the president's health care law. Attorneys for the House counter that their unusual suit deals with critically important issues related to the separation of powers and should be allowed to continue. (Werner, 5/28)
The Washington Post:
White House Has Been Aided Recently By Ruling In Contraceptives Case
When a split Supreme Court last June exempted some companies from providing female employees with some contraceptive coverage because of the employers’ religious objections, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg sounded the alarm. The 5-to-4 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby was one of “startling breadth,” Ginsburg wrote. ... But in what many expect to be the next major test of the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate — a challenge over whether the government has done enough to accommodate the objections of religiously affiliated nonprofit organizations such as universities, hospitals and charities — the Hobby Lobby decision so far has aided the Obama administration. (Barnes, 5/27)
The Wall Street Journal:
Antitrust Lawsuits Target Blue Cross And Blue Shield
Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurers cover about a third of Americans, through a national network that dates back decades. Now, antitrust lawsuits advancing in a federal court in Alabama allege that the 37 independently owned companies are functioning as an illegal cartel. A federal judicial panel has consolidated the claims against the insurers into two lawsuits that represent plaintiffs from around the country. One is on behalf of health-care providers and the other is for individual and small-employer customers. (Wilde Mathews, 5/27)
Los Angeles Times:
Scope Maker Olympus Expects To Settle U.S. Claims Over Marketing
The manufacturer of endoscopes at the center of a string of deadly superbug outbreaks has set aside nearly $450 million for an expected settlement of a U.S. investigation into its marketing of medical products.
Olympus Corp. of Japan did not disclose the details of what federal officials have been investigating other than saying the focus is on possible violations of laws that ban companies from paying kickbacks to doctors and other potential customers. (Petersen, 5/27)
The Washington Post:
More People With Alzheimer’s Are Becoming Activists — Which Brings Its Own Challenges
When Michael Ellenbogen calls for a more aggressive fight against Alzheimer’s disease, he speaks with passion that comes from experience. As someone who was diagnosed with early-onset dementia, Ellenbogen can convey firsthand the pain and frustration at what he sees as insufficient government support for research to find a cure or better treatments. But to some, Ellenbogen’s passion recently went too far. ... Ellenbogen, a former telecommunications manager, is one of a small but growing number of people with Alzheimer’s disease who are shaking off the stigma of the neurodegenerative illness to become public advocates in the campaign for a cure. But his experience shows the unusual challenges people with dementia sometimes face in the public arena. (Kunkle, 5/27)
The Washington Post:
After Her Husband’s Parkinson’s Diagnosis, She Invented A Product To Improve His Life–And The Lives Of Millions
Maura Horton has always been her husband’s cheerleader. ... But after Don was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, a chronic and progressive movement disorder, in his 40’s and Maura found herself feeling helpless in the face of his degenerative disease’s affects. So she has stepped into a new role—one that she never imagined for herself: Founder and CEO of MagnaReady, which makes adaptive clothing for people who struggle with fine motor skills. People like her husband. (Tenety, 5/28)
The New York Times:
H.I.V. Treatment Should Start At Diagnosis, U.S. Health Officials Say
People with H.I.V. should be put on antiretroviral drugs as soon as they learn they are infected, federal health officials said Wednesday as they announced that they were halting the largest ever clinical trial of early treatment because its benefits were already so clear. The study was stopped more than a year early because preliminary data already showed that those who got treatment immediately were 53 percent less likely to die during the trial or develop AIDS or a serious illness than those who waited. (McNeil Jr., 5/27)
The Associated Press:
Where They Stand: Rick Santorum On Key Campaign Issues
A look at where former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum stands on some key issues as he opens his race for the Republican presidential nomination: ... Santorum supports making changes to the Medicare and Social Security programs to reduce costs. ... While in the Senate, Santorum was the leading supporter of a successful effort to ban a certain type of late-term abortion, sometimes referred to as partial-birth abortion. He supports an exemption to an abortion ban if the life of the mother is at stake. (Lucey, 5/27)
NPR:
Supreme Court Says Locals Can Make Pill-Makers Pay For Drug Disposal
Many of us have old prescription drugs sitting around in medicine cabinets — so what's the best way to get rid of them? Some folks simply toss old pills in the garbage, or down the toilet. Both of those options can lead to medications in the ocean, bays or rivers. Three years ago Alameda County, across the bay from San Francisco, became the first county in the nation to require pharmaceutical manufacturers to pay for safe disposal of prescription drugs. Drug companies sued and lost in lower courts. Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case, meaning that drug makers will now need to pay for collection and disposal of unused drugs. (Shafer, 5/27)
The Associated Press:
NY Assembly Votes For Universal Health Coverage
The New York Assembly voted 89-47 on Wednesday for legislation to establish publicly funded universal health coverage in a so-called single payer system. All New Yorkers could enroll. Backers said it would extend coverage to the uninsured and reduce rising costs by taking insurance companies and their costs out of the mix. (Virtanen, 5/27)
NPR:
Federal Appeals Court Blocks Arkansas Ban On Abortion After 12 Weeks
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit has blocked an Arkansas law that bans abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy. The case was filed by two doctors on their own and their patients' behalf. (Chappell, 5/27)
The Associated Press:
Abortion Ban Based On Heartbeat Rejected By Appeals Court
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with doctors who challenged the law, ruling that abortion restrictions must be based on a fetus' ability to live outside the womb, not the presence of a fetal heartbeat that can be detected weeks earlier. The court said that standard was established by previous U.S. Supreme Court rulings. (5/27)
Los Angeles Times:
Pentagon Mistakenly Sends Live Anthrax To As Many As Nine States
The Army mistakenly sent live anthrax samples from a testing facility in Utah to commercial laboratories in as many as nine states, including California, as part of an effort to improve field testing for biological threats. Pentagon officials said the accidental transfer of the potentially deadly biological agent Bacillus anthracis, better known as anthrax, had not caused any known infections. (Hennigan,5/27)