First Edition: February 22, 2016
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Urging Openness About Superbug Infections, Doctor Omits Cases In Own Hospital
As superbug outbreaks raised alarm across the country last year, a prominent doctor at a Philadelphia cancer center wrote in a leading medical journal about how to reduce the risk of these often-deadly patient infections. Dr. Jeffrey Tokar, director of gastrointestinal endoscopy at Fox Chase Cancer Center, pointed to recent outbreaks from contaminated medical scopes and discussed steps doctors and hospitals should take to ensure patient safety in his Sept. 22 article in the Annals of Internal Medicine. (Terhune, 2/22)
USA Today:
Are You Prepared For New Obamacare Tax Forms?
For tax year 2015, millions of Americans will be getting a new tax form related to health care reform measures. Will you know what to do with yours when it arrives? The Affordable Health Care Act, colloquially known as “Obamacare,” mandated three new tax forms to be used as a kind of proof of insurance so taxpayers may avoid paying a penalty for failure to be covered. (Reeves, 2/19)
The New York Times:
Donald Trump In Triage Mode After Shocking Conservatives With Health Care Comments
He has broken with many Republicans on taxing the rich, threatening trade wars and keeping Planned Parenthood alive. On Friday, Donald J. Trump faced criticism for an even bolder act of conservative heresy: embracing the core tenet of the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Trump has to date offered only bits and pieces of his health agenda, generally presenting a vow to repeal “Obamacare” and replace it with “something great.” (Rappeport, 2/19)
Politico:
Jeb Bush Drops Out Of White House Race
Jeb Bush, unable to muster enthusiasm for his presidential bid beyond the family network that helped him raise a record sum exceeding $150 million, is suspending his campaign following a disappointing finish in South Carolina. The decision follows a string of underwhelming primary finishes for the former Florida governor, including in New Hampshire where he invested heavily and bet on a massive ground organization but still finished behind Donald Trump, John Kasich and Ted Cruz. (Stokols, 2/20)
The Associated Press:
Economic Policies Highlight Partisan Divide Among Governors
[Arkansas Gov. Asa] Hutchinson said the possibility of a recession also highlights the need for states to have more flexibility to manage their Medicaid budgets. A rise in the number of people on Medicaid can be an early warning sign of a recession, the economists said. Arkansas is among the GOP-led states that have expanded Medicaid under Obama's health care overall, accepting an infusion of federal dollars. Gov. Dan Malloy of Connecticut, the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, noted that some Republican governors took a firm stand against expanding Medicaid in their states, only to change their minds. (Nuckols, 2/20)
The Washington Post:
Va. Lawmakers: Pay Raise For Teachers, But No Medicaid Expansion
House and Senate finance committees on Sunday unveiled dueling two-year budget proposals that reject Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s vision for Medicaid expansion but pour big money into his top priorities: education and economic development. The spending plans take different approaches to giving schools greater flexibility in how they spend tax dollars and give lawmakers and businesspeople more authority to shape the state’s approach to diversifying and growing the economy. (Portnoy, 2/21)
The Associated Press:
Virginia Lawmakers Unveil State Budget Proposals
And neither chamber includes any budget items related to expanding Medicaid, a long-sought goal of the governor that Republicans have steadfastly opposed. McAuliffe’s spending plan assumed Virginia will expand Medicaid in the next two years, which his administration projects would save the state about $150 million in mental health, prisoner health, and indigent care costs. (Suderman, 2/21)
Indianapolis Star:
Pence Seeking Help From Congress In Medicaid Dispute
Gov. Mike Pence wants Congress to get involved in his dispute with the Obama administration over the evaluation of Indiana’s alternative Medicaid program. Pence has accused the administration of hiring an evaluator that is biased against Indiana’s approach. (Groppe, 2/20)
The Wall Street Journal:
Are HSAs The New 401(k)? Money Managers Hope So
An unexpected winner from rising health care costs? Wall Street. More Americans are setting aside money in health-savings accounts for medical bills that their company plans no longer cover. Money managers are eyeing this new pool of assets as an opportunity. HSAs are primarily offered by banks and act as checking account-like pools that preserve balances. As they grow, however, some savers are increasingly interested in investments beyond money market funds that could generate greater returns over time. This is a welcome opportunity for asset management firms at a time when they are seeing net 401(k) withdrawals for the first time. (Martin and Krouse, 2/19)
The Wall Street Journal:
Big Pharma’s Delicate Dance On Drug Prices
Drug makers are enjoying a research-and-development revival after a fallow period. Last year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved 45 new drugs, more than double the number in 2006. But the industry also faces growing criticism of the prices it charges for new drugs—some cancer therapies cost as much as $150,000 a year—as well as repeated price increases for older drugs. Critics say high prices are putting drugs out of reach for many patients and straining health-care budgets. (Loftus, 2/21)
The Wall Street Journal:
Federal Regulators Propose Increase To Medicare Advantage Rates
Federal regulators proposed what they said was a slight rise in payments for insurers that offer private Medicare plans, a closely watched figure as this coverage becomes increasingly central to the companies’ business. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimated that the Medicare Advantage rate proposal represented a 1.35% increase on average for 2017, though the agency said the insurers would likely see overall revenue increase about 3.55% as they deliver—and bill for—more intensive services. (Wilde Mathews, 2/19)
Modern Healthcare:
CMS Proposes 1.35% Medicare Advantage Rate Hike For 2017
The proposal is a major shift from last February, when initial benchmark rates were cut by an average of 0.95% before factoring in risk score trends. In addition to pay bumps, several major policies are embedded within the CMS' advance rate notice, including changes that will help insurers with many low-income seniors, known as dual-eligibles because they qualify for Medicare and Medicaid. The CMS included changes to the Medicare Advantage risk-adjustment model and quality ratings system that will, in essence, boost taxpayer funding for plans that enroll higher amounts of poor seniors. (Herman, 2/19)
Modern Healthcare:
OMB Receives CMS Rules Overhauling Medicaid
The CMS has sent a sweeping finalized rule that will overhaul the managed Medicaid program to the Office of Management and Budget for review. The 653-page proposed version of the rule suggested the biggest changes in Medicaid managed-care regulations in more than a decade. It would cap insurer profits, require states to more rigorously supervise the adequacy of plans' provider networks, encourage states to establish quality rating systems for plans, allow more behavioral healthcare in institutional settings and encourage the growth of managed long-term care. (Dickson, 2/19)
The New York Times:
Pivotal Nursing Home Suit Raises a Simple Question: Who Signed the Contract?
[I]n September 2009, [Elizabeth] Barrow was found dead at a local [Massachusetts] nursing home, strangled and suffocated, with a plastic shopping bag over her head. The killer, the police said, was her 97-year-old roommate. ... More than six years after the killing, Mrs. Barrow’s only son, Scott, is still trying to hold the nursing home accountable. “The woman had a history of problems,” Mr. Barrow said of the roommate in an interview this month. “She should not have been living in that room with my mother.” Mr. Barrow was barred from taking Brandon Woods to court in 2010 because his mother’s contract with the nursing home contained a clause that forced any dispute, even one over wrongful death, into private arbitration. (Corkery and Silver-Greenberg, 2/21)
The Washington Post:
Agonizing Over The Right To Die
Maryland, a state where lawmakers abolished the death penalty and made same-sex marriage legal, would seem fertile ground for an aid-in-dying bill. But the state also has deep Catholic roots and a large African American population, and both of those communities have long opposed assisted suicide for the terminally ill. At a hearing Friday on a bill that would make Maryland the sixth state to legalize aid in dying, dozens of witnesses waited hours to testify. There were terminal patients who said they deserve the option to legally end their lives and caregivers who described loved ones committing suicide to cut short their suffering. There were religious leaders and disability advocates who argued that “every life” is precious, and a young woman who survived brain cancer as a child after doctors said she had little time to live. (Wiggins, 2/20)
The New York Times:
Governors Devise Bipartisan Effort To Reduce Opioid Abuse
Alarmed at an epidemic of drug overdose deaths, the National Governors Association decided over the weekend to devise treatment protocols to reduce the use of opioid painkillers. The guidelines are likely to include numerical limits on prescriptions, or other restrictions, governors said. (Pear, 2/21)
Arkansas Online:
2 State Hospitals Settle Medicare Cardiac-Implant Suit
Arkansas Heart Hospital has agreed to pay $900,000 to settle claims that it billed Medicare for implanting cardiac devices in situations that violated the program's payment guidelines, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday. The Little Rock hospital was among 51 hospitals that entered settlements during the "final stage" of a nationwide investigation into devices implanted from 2003 through 2010, the Justice Department said in a news release. The settlements announced Wednesday involved hospitals in 15 states and totaled more than $23 million, the release says. (Davis, 2/19)
Los Angeles Times:
$17,000 Bitcoin Ransom Paid By Hospital To Hackers Sparks Outrage
The malware ransom attack on Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center — which prompted the facility to pay a $17,000 ransom in bitcoin to the hacker who seized control of the hospital's computer systems — is part of a larger problem that is generating outrage. The hospital attack has prompted a California state senator to propose making it an extortion crime for a hacker to infect a computer system with so-called ransomware. (Winton, 2/19)
The Associated Press:
Review: SC Medicaid Agency Exposed Data To Cybertheft Risk
A four-decade-old computer system and poor safety measures at South Carolina's Medicaid agency exposed the personal health information of roughly 1 million residents to risk of cybertheft, according to a federal report released Friday. The findings by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General include that the Medicaid agency did not — at the time of its evaluation in 2013 — have a security plan for its computer system, had no encryption for laptops and had not properly trained employees. The report purposefully did not give specifics. (Adcox, 2/19)
Newsday:
5 LI Hospitals Settle Suit In Medicare Cardiac Devices Case
Five Long Island hospitals are among more than 500 nationwide to reach settlements of more than $270 million in a cardiac devices case with the Department of Justice — one of the biggest whistle-blower lawsuits to date. The settlements stemmed from a suit filed in 2008 alleging health care fraud in hospitals that inserted implantable cardioverter defibrillators, or ICDs, in Medicare patients before the federal government deemed it proper. (Ochs, 2/18)
The Washington Post:
Va. Bill To Restrict Abortion Fizzled. Here’s Why Abortion Foes Are Oddly Upbeat.
This session, Virginia House Republicans failed to pass a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, a top priority. But they are surprisingly upbeat, encouraged by signs in Virginia and across the country that their long-term strategy for restricting access to the procedure is picking up steam. (Portnoy, 2/21)
Los Angeles Times:
A Milder 'B' Strain Might Be Keeping California's Flu Numbers Low
Though more people in California have been falling sick with the flu in the past few weeks, the season so far is proving milder than in recent years. Experts suggest several reasons: the available vaccine is a good match for the flu strains going around, the virus may not be spreading rapidly because of unusually warm weather, and the outbreak might not have peaked yet. (Karlamangla, 2/19)