January 25, 2016
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Check The Fine Print: Some Work-Based Health Plans Exclude Outpatient Surgeries
Last year regulators blocked companies with millions of lower-wage workers from claiming that coverage with no inpatient hospital benefits met Obamacare’s strictest standard for large employers. Now that those so-called “skinny plans” aren’t allowed, insurance administrators and many cost-conscious employers are purporting to meet the rules with a new version that excludes another major category: outpatient surgery. The new plans may not survive regulatory scrutiny any more than the old ones did, some experts believe. (Hancock, 1/25)
The Associated Press:
Tally No: House Postpones Coming Votes, Cites Snow Storm
The House has postponed votes this coming week — including one on overriding President Barack Obama’s health care veto — because of the snowstorm. Senators plan to begin work Wednesday evening, extending a delay imposed even before the storm hit. (1/24)
The New York Times:
‘Hillarycare’ Failed, But Hillary Clinton Reminds Voters She Tried
After weeks of criticizing Bernie Sanders’s plan for a single-payer “Medicare for all” health care system as budget busting and unrealistic, Hillary Clinton over the past few days has a new message for voters: Universal health care was her idea first. “Now, before it was called Obamacare, it was called Hillarycare, as some of you might remember,” Mrs. Clinton said at a town-hall-style event in Clinton, Iowa, on Saturday. “We share the same goal, universal health care for every single American,” Mrs. Clinton said of her rival Mr. Sanders. “But we have a real difference about how to get there.” (Chozik,1/23)
USA Today:
Sanders' 'Medicare For All' Plan May Not Help Working Seniors
Bernie Sanders’ plan to deliver “Medicare for all” may be a good deal for many Americans, but it might be bad for working seniors already enrolled in the government health plan. Under his plan, the nation’s 8.5 million seniors over the age of 65 and already eligible for Medicare would get hit with tax increases. With more of the nation’s baby boom generation working into traditional retirement years, the concern is that the costs to seniors are higher than Sanders' plan suggests. (Przybyla, 1/24)
The Wall Street Journal:
Amid ‘Establishment’ Tussle With Clinton, Sanders Affirms Commitment To Abortion Rights
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders on Friday proclaimed his commitment to abortion rights and to increasing funding for women’s health care, days after a tussle with rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign over whether a prominent women’s health care provider was part of the Democratic “establishment” he is challenging. “I am a very strong supporter of Planned Parenthood,” the Vermont senator said at a rally at a high school on Friday, the 43rd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that established a legal right to abortion. “I have a lifetime voting record of 100%.” (Haddon, 1/22)
The New York Times:
Hillary Clinton And Bernie Sanders Battle For Party’s Future
The race between Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders is not just about the White House anymore. It has intensified into an epochal battle over their vastly different visions for the Democratic Party. Mr. Sanders, a New Deal-style liberal from Vermont, last week became the party’s first top-tier candidate since the 1980s to propose broad-based tax increases. He argues that only muscular government action — Wall Street regulations, public works jobs, Medicare for all — will topple America’s “rigged” economy. Mrs. Clinton, a mainstream Democrat, has started contrasting herself with Mr. Sanders by championing a “sensible, achievable agenda” and promising to build on President Obama’s legacy in health care, the economy and national security. (Healy, 1/24)
The Wall Street Journal:
In Reversal, Campaign Says Ted Cruz Does Have Health Insurance
Ted Cruz has health insurance, and he had it all along, his campaign said Friday night, reversing what the presidential candidate said a day earlier. Mr. Cruz told a Manchester, N.H., audience on Thursday that he was currently uninsured — which he said infuriated his wife –after Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas canceled many individual policies, including his. As a result, Mr. Cruz said he was now looking to buy a new plan at sharply higher premiums, a turn of events he attributed to the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare. Mr. Cruz has been a harsh critic of the health law. (Radnofsky, 1/22)
The Wall Street Journal:
Cigna Faces Halt In Medicare Advantage Enrollment
Cigna Corp. said Friday that enrollment into its Medicare Advantage and prescription-drug plans has been halted by the government, posing a challenge to the insurer as it aims to wind up its acquisition by Anthem Inc. In a letter to Cigna, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said it imposed the sanctions because of problems with the insurer’s coverage-appeals process, among other issues, and the agency cited a “longstanding history of noncompliance” with requirements. Connecticut-based Cigna was also blocked as of 11:59 p.m. EST Thursday from marketing its Medicare plans. (Wilde Mathews, 1/22)
Reuters:
U.S. Government Suspends Enrollment In Cigna Medicare Advantage
The U.S. government has suspended new enrollment in Cigna Corp's Medicare Advantage health insurance and prescription drug plans, saying Cigna had "widespread and systemic failures" that prevented patients from accessing medical services. The government said Cigna did not handle complaints and grievances properly from patients who had been denied coverage for health benefits or drugs, according to a Jan. 21 letter from its regulator, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. (Humer, 1/22)
USA Today:
Cigna Temporarily Banned From New Medicare Plans
U.S. regulators have temporarily banned health insurer Cigna from offering certain Medicare plans to new patients after a probe uncovered issues with current offerings. ... The sanctions, which took effect at the end of the day Thursday, do not affect patients who are already enrolled. CMS said could not provide an estimate for how many patients were affected. (Bomey, 1/22)
The Associated Press:
Many Children With Medicaid Not Getting Required Dental Care
Three out of four children covered by Medicaid in four states didn’t receive all required dental care over a recent two-year period, according to a federal report that recommends a government push to improve access to care. One in four such kids didn’t see a dentist at all, the Health and Human Services inspector general’s office said Monday. Among the reasons were that there were too few dentists accepting Medicaid patients and a lack of education about the importance of proper dental care. (Johnson, 1/25)
The New York Times:
Employee Wellness Programs Use Carrots And, Increasingly, Sticks
It may be an offer employees simply can no longer refuse. Workers increasingly are being told by their companies to undergo health screenings and enroll in wellness programs, as a way to curb insurance costs. Many employees now face stiff financial penalties — often in the form of higher premiums — if they do not have their cholesterol checked or join programs to lose weight or better manage diabetes. (Abelson, 1/24)
NPR:
Fight To Lower Drug Prices Forces Some To Switch Medication
Express Scripts and its rivals including CVS/Caremark and OptumRX manage prescription drug coverage for insurers and employers. They're trying to spark price wars among drug makers by refusing to pay for some brand-name medications unless they get a big discount. The result is that average costs for many drugs are falling. At the same time, consumers are being forced to change medications, sometimes to brands that don't work as well for them. (Kodjak, 1/25)
The Washington Post:
Drug Shortages In American ERs Have Increased More Than 400 Percent
Of the nearly 1,800 drug shortages reported between 2001 and 2014, nearly 34 percent were used in emergency rooms. More than half (52.6 percent) of all reported shortages were of lifesaving drugs, and 10 percent of shortages affected drugs with no substitute. The most common drugs on shortage are used to treat infectious diseases, relieve pain, and treat patients who have been poisoned. (Blakemore, 1/22)
The Wall Street Journal:
To Fight Growing Threat From Germs, Scientists Try Old-Fashioned Killer
The liquid treatment [is] a cocktail of about one billion viruses called bacteriophages, which are the natural-born killers of bacteria. Little known among doctors in the West, phages have been part of the antibacteria arsenal in countries of the former Soviet Union for decades. Doctors in the U.S. and much of Europe stopped using phages to fight bacteria when penicillin and other antibiotics were introduced in the 1940s. Now, though, Western scientists are turning back to this Stalin-era cure to help curb the dramatic growth of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. (Naik, 1/22)
:
Massachusetts Chief’s Tack In Drug War: Steer Addicts To Rehab, Not Jail
NPR:
U.S. Lags Behind Other Countries In Reducing Stillbirths
Stillbirth remains largely hidden from society, and the tragic loss of a fetus late in pregnancy remains far too common. ... In the U.S., the stillbirth rate is 3 per 1,000 births, putting it 22nd among 186 countries. What's more, that rate has barely budged in 15 years, declining just 0.4 percent. That's slower progress than was seen in all but a handful of countries. In sheer numbers, that means there were 11,260 stillbirths last year in the U.S., if you use the World Health Organization's definition: fetal death after 28 weeks of pregnancy. (Hobson, 1/22)
The Associated Press:
Case Seeking Cancer Screenings For Smokers Heads To Trial
A decade after a group of smokers from Massachusetts sued Philip Morris USA to try to force the cigarette maker to pay for lung cancer screenings, the case will finally be heard by a jury. Smokers in the class-action lawsuit allege Philip Morris manufactured a defective cigarette knowing it could have made a safer product with fewer carcinogens. They are not seeking money, but instead want to compel Philip Morris to pay for highly detailed, three-dimensional chest scans that can detect signs of early-stage lung cancer that may be too small to show up on traditional X-rays. (1/25)
The Washington Post:
McAuliffe Administration Seeks Extra $110 Million To Boost Services For Disabled
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s administration is seeking an extra $110 million over the next three years to provide more services to residents with severe disabilities to comply with a federal court settlement. The money would intensify the state’s efforts to move people off a waiting list for services that currently has about 10,100 names. It would fund 855 Medicaid waivers for residents who do not have them and pay for an overhaul of how the state awards those waivers to better prioritize services for people in immediate need of aid. (Olivo, 1/23)
The Associated Press:
Kansas Court Refuses State’s Ban On Common Second-Trimester Abortion Method
The Kansas Court of Appeals refused Friday to allow the state’s first-in-the-nation ban on a common second-trimester abortion method to take effect, saying in a split decision that the Kansas Constitution protects abortion rights independent of the U.S. Constitution. The 7-7 ruling was released on the anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision. Tie votes from the appeals court uphold the lower-court ruling being appealed. (1/22)