First Edition: February 17, 2015
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Figuring Out If A Doctor Is In Your Network Is Harder Than You Think
“Is this doctor in my insurance network?” is part of the litany of questions many people routinely ask when considering whether to see a particular doctor. Unfortunately, in some cases the answer may not be a simple yes or no. (Andrews, 2/17)
Politico:
Website Glitches Extend Obamacare Enrollment
For the second year, Obamacare enrollment isn’t exactly over when it’s over. The regular open enrollment season ended at midnight Sunday but the Department of Health and Human Services on Monday announced a one-week “special enrollment” period ending Feb. 22 for people trying to enroll through HealthCare.gov who encountered technical glitches or faced long waits through the call center on the final weekend. Most states have outlined similar policies. There’s also a growing chorus urging a separate special enrollment period around the April 15 tax filing deadline. (Villacorta, 2/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Health Exchanges Extend Deadlines For Insurance Sign-Ups
Washington state on Monday became the first state to extend the sign-up deadline for health insurance until mid-April, allowing uninsured people to get health plans while filing their tax returns. Other states and the federal government’s HealthCare.gov insurance exchange, which serves 37 states, said they, too, are considering extending through the tax season the sign-up period that officially ended Sunday night. (Radnofsky and Armour, 2/16)
USA Today:
Deadline To Sign Up For Health Care Extended For Some
Americans who couldn't enroll in federal health care insurance plans over the weekend because of computer glitches or long waits will now have until next Sunday to sign up, federal officials announced early Monday. (Ungar, 1/16)
The New York Times' Upshot:
Enrollment Period For Health Insurance Ends; Now The Tax Penalties Start
The Affordable Care Act’s second open enrollment period ended on Sunday. Well, almost. Some computer problems over the weekend have led the administration to give a one-week extension to people who tried and failed to sign up. But its tax penalty season has just begun. ... for people who don’t understand how Obamacare works, unpleasant surprises are likely. Say you didn’t buy insurance last year, because you missed the deadline or you were unaware that subsidies would help make it affordable. You let this year’s enrollment period slide by for similar reasons. Only after it’s too late to sign up will you learn that you’ve been hit with a hefty fine for last year and will face a bigger one for next year. (Margot Sanger-Katz, 2/17)
The Associated Press:
Democrats Seek Relief From Health Law Penalties
The official sign-up season for President Barack Obama's health care law may be over, but leading congressional Democrats say millions of Americans facing new tax penalties deserve a second chance. Three senior House members strongly urged the administration Monday to grant a special sign-up opportunity for uninsured taxpayers who will be facing fines under the law for the first time this year. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/16)
The New York Times:
Senate Democrats Lobby For A Reprieve For Some Who Failed To Get Insurance
Senate Democrats urged President Obama on Sunday to allow extra time for some people to sign up for health insurance as hundreds of thousands of Americans raced to beat the enrollment deadline. More than 10 million people selected or were assigned to health plans in the latest enrollment period. Federal officials reported a final surge over the weekend, with more than 60,000 people using HealthCare.gov at times on Sunday. (Pear, 2/16)
The Associated Press:
Millions In Health Coverage Gap Seek To Avoid Tax Penalty
With Sunday's deadline to enroll through the exchange looming, [Stephanie] Daugherty met with an exchange adviser, or navigator, at her Fort Worth community college to see if she might qualify for federal subsidies. She doesn't, but she also learned she may not have had to pay the penalty, after all. Daugherty and millions of other low-income, working adults who fall into a so-called coverage gap — ineligible for either federal subsidies or Medicaid — may qualify for an exemption to the penalty. In Texas and nearly two dozen other conservative states that chose not to expand their Medicaid coverage under the federal health care overhaul, nonprofit groups and volunteer tax advisers are trying to help people avoid the penalty for not having insurance. (Schmall, 2/14)
The Washington Post:
Millions At Risk Of Losing Coverage As Justices Take Up Challenge To Obamacare
Erin Meredith, a fifth-generation Republican who lives in Austin, was no fan of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which she considered just another wasteful government handout. She didn’t sign up for a health plan until late last year, when she felt she had no other choice. ... Now that she has coverage, she doesn’t want to lose it. ... Meredith is one of about 6 million people whose subsidized insurance hangs in the balance as the Supreme Court takes up a case that poses the most serious challenge to the Affordable Care Act since the court found the law constitutional more than two years ago. (Sun and Chokshi, 2/16)
Reuters:
Obamacare Rescue Ruled Out By Some States, Others Weigh Options
Five Republican state governors say they will not rescue a crucial part of Obamacare if it is struck down by the Supreme Court, underlining the prospect for a chaotic aftermath to a ruling that could force millions of Americans to pay much more for coverage or lose their health insurance. ... In its ruling expected by June, the high court could bar the federally run insurance marketplace from providing the subsidies in at least 34 states. That could throw the insurance system into turmoil as states respond in starkly different ways. In response to Reuters' queries, spokespeople for the Republican governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina and Wisconsin said the states were not willing to create a local exchange to keep subsidies flowing. (Morgan, 2/17)
Bloomberg:
Paul Ryan Seeks 'Bridge' Out Of Obamacare After Court Ruling
House Republicans won’t agree to fix Obamacare if the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the law bars health-insurance subsidies for millions of people, said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. Republicans are developing a “contingency plan” to address the states whose residents would lose subsidies while lawmakers work on a full replacement for the Affordable Care Act, Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, told reporters Friday in Washington. (Rubin and Cook, 1/13)
The Associated Press:
Questions On Plaintiffs Unlikely To Derail Health Law Suit
Despite questions about four challengers' legal right to bring their lawsuit, the Supreme Court probably will not be deterred from deciding whether millions of people covered by the health care overhaul are eligible for the subsidies that make their insurance affordable. ... given its decision to take up the health law even in the absence of the usual requirement that lower courts be divided on an issue, several legal experts doubted the plaintiffs' situations would derail the case. (Sherman, 2/14)
The Associated Press:
Sketches Of Challengers To Health Care Law Subsidies
A look at the four Virginia residents who are suing the Obama administration over the health care overhaul. They all are eligible for subsidies that would significantly reduce the cost of their health insurance premiums, but say they would rather not have to purchase the insurance. (1/14)
Los Angeles Times:
Republican Lawmakers Hold The Line Against Obamacare At State Level
As President Obama fights in Congress and the courts to preserve the nation's sweeping healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act faces still another threat to its viability: Republicans in statehouses, many bucking governors of their own party eager to accept its flow of federal dollars. [The state lawmakers] have proved far more effective at thwarting the 2010 healthcare law than their Republican counterparts in Washington, who have voted more than 50 times to repeal all or part of the program many call Obamacare, largely to no avail. (Barabak and Levey, 2/16)
The New York Times:
Health Care Success For Midwest Co-Op Proves Its Undoing
CoOportunity Health was one of 23 nonprofit cooperatives created under the Affordable Care Act to generate more competition and choice in insurance markets dominated by huge for-profit companies. Many of these newcomers to the industry, seeded with hundreds of millions of dollars in federal loans, struggled to attract customers after the law’s online insurance exchanges opened in 2013. But CoOportunity had seemed to flourish, with over 120,000 customers in Iowa and Nebraska — far more than the 15,000 it had anticipated — by the end of last year. Its success apparently helped doom it. CoOportunity’s many customers needed more medical care than expected, according to Nick Gerhart, Iowa’s insurance commissioner, and it had priced its plans too low. (Goodnough, 2/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
How Suspect Device Got Surgeon Group’s Blessing
Last May, as controversy mounted over a surgical device called the power morcellator, a professional association for surgeons issued a report defending the tool. A month earlier, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had warned the device risked spreading cancer in surgeries such as hysterectomies. ... Doctors read the report closely for guidance on use of morcellators, which cut up and remove tissue through small incisions. What they didn’t know: An AAGL executive officer who received consulting fees from a morcellator maker had weighed in before publication. (Walker and Levitz, 2/16)
Los Angeles Times:
Rampant Medication Use Found Among L.A. County Foster, Delinquent Kids
Los Angeles County officials are allowing the use of powerful psychiatric drugs on far more children in the juvenile delinquency and foster care systems than they had previously acknowledged, according to data obtained by The Times through a Public Records Act request. The newly unearthed figures show that Los Angeles County's 2013 accounting failed to report almost one in three cases of children on the drugs while in foster care or the custody of the delinquency system. (Therolf, 2/16)
The Washington Post:
Months After Scandal, VA Secretary Vows Department Is Making Progress
Seven months after taking the helm of the embattled Department of Veterans Affairs, Robert McDonald insisted during his first Sunday show interview that he has already brought new accountability measures to a scandalized department. “We’re making fundamental changes in the department…900 hundred people have been fired since I became secretary,” McDonald told Meet the Press’s Chuck Todd on Sunday morning. “We’ve got 60 people who we’ve fired who have manipulated wait times, we’ve got about 100 senior leaders who are under investigation now…so we’re holding people accountable.” (Lowery, 2/15)
The Washington Post:
It Was Meant To Reduce Wait Times, But Veterans Say New Choice Cards Are Causing More Problems
Veterans and some VA doctors say that the new “choice card” program, meant to reduce long patient wait times, is confusing and causing more stress. The choice card issued by the embattled Department of Veterans Affairs was meant to end long wait times for veterans after last summer’s scandal revealed that those who fought for their country were dying while waiting for care. The card gives veterans who have been waiting more than 30 days for appointments or who live more than 40 miles from a VA facility the chance to see a private doctor. (Wax-Thibodeaux, 2/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Where Are The Mental-Health Providers?
Millions of Americans with mental illness are hearing a loud and clear message: Get help. There’s still one question: Who is going to treat them? The shortage of mental-health providers in the U.S. has long been considered a significant problem. But it is becoming more acute as people are encouraged to seek treatment, or find they are able to afford it for the first time as a result of new federal requirements that guarantee mental-health coverage in insurance plans. (Radnofsky, 2/16)
The New York Times:
Vaccinations Are States’ Call
Now, with a measles outbreak that has affected 121 people in 17 states and Washington, D.C. — and an unusually high number of cases last year, 644 — people who refuse to vaccinate their children have become a focus of resentment and concern. Laws that allow parents to opt out of immunization are also coming under scrutiny. Can the government go further? Can officials require that citizens receive vaccines? The answer, legal experts say, is yes. The authority to require vaccination belongs to the states. (Grady, 2/16)
Politico:
In Whooping Cough, An Epidemic But Different Vaccine Issues
It’s an epidemic that has killed 32 babies and infected at least 100,000 Americans — most of them children — since 2012. But vaccine-averse parents aren’t the real culprits behind the spread of whooping cough. Inadequate vaccines are. The disease has returned in recent years with a ferocity that’s unlikely to abate anytime soon. Even Americans who thought they were protected have fallen ill. Yet whooping cough’s resurgence hasn’t triggered the public attention and congressional hearings that several dozen measles cases traced to Disneyland provoked in barely a month. (Allen, 2/15)
The Wall Street Journal:
Doctors Learn To Talk Vaccines
As pediatricians struggle to confront the emergence of diseases such as measles and pertussis, or whooping cough, many are re-evaluating how best to respond to parents at a time when the culture of medicine has shifted from doctors as patronizing know-it-alls to listeners who engage parents as partners. Some like Dr. [Paul] Offit say that when it comes to a public-health issue such as vaccines, the matter is black and white. Doctors need to be more assertive about insisting on the vaccine schedule outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, they say. (Reddy, 2/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Innovation Is Sweeping Through U.S. Medical Schools
Critics have long faulted U.S. medical education for being hidebound, imperious and out of touch with modern health-care needs. The core structure of medical school—two years of basic science followed by two years of clinical work—has been in place since 1910. Now a wave of innovation is sweeping through medical schools, much of it aimed at producing young doctors who are better prepared to meet the demands of the nation’s changing health-care system. (Beck, 2/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
How To Make Surgery Safer
Surgery can be risky by its very nature, and the possibility of error or negligence makes it even more so. According to an analysis last year in the journal Patient Safety in Surgery, 46% to 65% of adverse events in hospitals are related to surgery, especially complex procedures. Despite years of prevention efforts, procedures are still performed on the wrong body part and surgical tools are sewn up in patients. Now the movement to make things safer is taking on new urgency, as advocates inside and outside the surgical community push for a range of changes, and the cost of mishaps mounts. (Landro, 2/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
In Image Guided Operating Suites, Surgeons See Real-Time MRI, CT Scans
Surgeons sometimes fly blind when operating on hard-to-reach anatomical parts or hard-to-see conditions. For visual references inside the brain or body, they often rely on images and scans taken before an operation. A growing number of hospitals are equipping operating suites with magnetic resonance imaging, CT scanners and other technology that enables surgeons to scan a patient in real time, without having to move them from the operating table. The resulting real-time 3D visuals—known as “intraoperative imaging”—help surgeons excise tumors and tissue with greater accuracy, reducing risks such as nicked nerves from an errant knife and the potential need for repeat surgery. (Landro, 2/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
Remote Patient Monitoring Lets Doctors Spot Trouble Early
[A] merging of wireless technology and medical care is still in its infancy, but health systems that began pilot programs with the technology in recent years say they see signs that it is keeping patients healthier. By enabling doctors to continuously monitor patients, they say, the systems can detect problems well before they grow serious. (Rockoff, 2/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
The Challenges Of Palliative Care For Children
Palliative care is increasingly used to help seriously ill adults and seniors. Now medical centers are creating teams that specialize in a more challenging task: delivering palliative care for young children. Despite a popular misconception, palliative care isn’t just about keeping patients comfortable until they die. Rather, palliative-care teams complement the usual array of physicians, specialists and clinicians, helping patients by managing pain, treating symptoms and ensuring that they have the best possible quality of life. Pediatric palliative care is modeled on the principles of adult palliative care. But because so much about treating seriously ill children is different from caring for adults, it presents its own unique set of challenges. (Sadick, 2/16)
The Wall Street Journal:
How To Detect Infectious Diseases Like Ebola Faster
Now a handful of companies have received emergency clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to market faster diagnostic tools for Ebola that were in the works when the epidemic in West Africa erupted. One of the tools, from a company called BioFire Defense, uses the same kind of machine—polymerase chain reaction, or PCR—as the test that Ms. Meyler underwent. But BioFire’s system automates much of the process, so results are available in about an hour, instead of the usual four to six. ... Other companies are crafting machines to seek out common diseases. Alere Inc. of Waltham, Mass., has a flu test that delivers results in about 15 minutes, versus about 90 minutes for other tests. (McKay, 2/16)
The Washington Post:
Jindal, Antiabortion Activists Block Planned Parenthood In New Orleans
Planned Parenthood began construction here last year on a clinic that would perform abortions and provide other medical services for women. “High-Quality, Affordable Health Care for New Orleans,” a sign promised. “Seeing Patients Early 2015.” That sign is now crumpled on the ground behind a chain-link fence at the project’s abandoned construction site, victim of efforts by Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) and other abortion opponents to block the clinic. The push against the project began last year, when the Catholic archbishop of New Orleans wrote a public letter threatening to blacklist contractors on the clinic from any of the church’s numerous real estate projects. (Bridges, 2/14)
The Washington Post:
NPR Host Diane Rehm Emerges As Key Force In The Right-To-Die Debate
For [Diane] Rehm, the inability of the dying to get legal medical help to end their lives has been a recurring topic on her show. But her husband’s slow death was a devastating episode that helped compel her to enter the contentious right-to-die debate. “I feel the way that John had to die was just totally inexcusable,” Rehm said in a long interview in her office. “It was not right.” (Rosenwald, 2/14)