First Edition: January 30, 2015
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
Mixed Results For Obamacare Tests In Primary-Care Innovation
Medical homes are a simple, compelling idea: Give primary-care doctors resources to reduce preventable medical crises for diabetics, asthmatics and others with chronic illness — reducing hospital visits, improving lives and saving money. But it’s not so easy in practice. New reports show that two big experiments run by the health law’s innovation lab, known as the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, delivered mixed early results in enhancing primary care. The programs reduced expensive hospital visits in some cases but struggled to show net savings after accounting for their cost. (Hancock, 1/30)
Kaiser Health News:
Insurance Choices Dwindle In Rural California As Blue Shield Pulls Back
After the insurance exchanges set up under the Affordable Care Act first went live in late 2013, Lori Lomas started combing the website of Covered California on a hunt for good deals for her clients. Lomas is an agent at Feather Financial, in the Sierra Nevada mountain town of Quincy, California; she’s been selling health policies in rural communities for more than 20 years. But in 2013, she noticed a troubling change that surprised her: For many clients, insurance options decreased. (Bartolone, 1/30)
The Wall Street Journal:
Republicans To Block Legislative Fix To Health-Care Law
Congressional Republicans say they won’t move to preserve consumers’ health insurance tax credits if the Supreme Court strikes them down, raising the stakes in the latest legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act. The high court is set to consider in March whether the wording of the 2010 health law means people can only get tax credits to lower their health premiums if they live in one of the handful of states running its own insurance exchange. A decision is expected by June. (Radnofsky, 1/29)
The Associated Press:
Republicans: House To Begin Work On Health Care Alternative
The House will vote next week to repeal the health care law Republicans have vowed to undo. They'll also direct work to start on a replacement bill the GOP promised more than four years ago. The House voted more than 50 times in the past two years to repeal the law in whole or in part. Next week's vote will be the first for such a bill in the new Congress. It will also be the first time the legislation will go to a Republican-controlled Senate. (1/29)
The Associated Press:
House Democrats Vow To Explain Their Vision Better In 2016
[Rep. Steve] Israel's new role is to oversee messaging for House Democrats. He told reporters his colleagues will stick to the party's well-known priorities: a higher minimum wage, tax increases on the rich, and advancing the president's health care law and other measures largely associated with Obama. This time, they're counting on Obama's rising popularity — and fading headlines on Ebola and terrorist beheadings — to help persuade voters they'd be better off with a Democratic-run Congress. (Babington, 1/30)
Los Angeles Times:
Obamacare Enrollment In California: Anthem Leads, Kaiser Draws Closer
Insurance giant Anthem Blue Cross leads Obamacare enrollment in California, but Kaiser Permanente is gaining on its archrival. Anthem Inc., the nation's second-largest health insurer, has signed up 353,635 people, or 29.1 percent of Covered California enrollment through Jan. 15. That figure includes 2014 renewals and new enrollees since November. (Terhune, 1/29)
The New York Times:
Medicare Payments Surge For Stents To Unblock Blood Vessels In Limbs
At a time of increasing scrutiny of procedures to open blocked heart arteries, cardiologists are turning to — and reaping huge payments from -- controversial techniques that relieve blockages in the arms and legs. Unlike heart procedures, which must be done in a hospital or outpatient facility, where oversight is typically more intense, the opening of the peripheral arteries and veins of the arms and legs can be done in a doctor’s office. (Creswell and Abelson, 1/29)
The Associated Press:
Obama Proposes 'Precision Medicine' To End One-Size-Fits-All
President Barack Obama is calling for an investment to move away from one-size-fits-all-medicine, toward an approach that tailors treatment to your genes. The White House said Friday that Obama will ask Congress for $215 million for what he's calling a precision medicine initiative. The ambitious goal: Scientists will assemble databases of about a million volunteers to study their genetics — and other factors such as their environments and the microbes that live in their bodies — to learn how to individualize care. (Neergaard, 1/30)
The New York Times:
Obama To Unveil Research Initiative Aiming To Develop Tailored Medical Treatments
President Obama on Friday will announce a major biomedical research initiative, including plans to collect genetic data on one million Americans so that scientists can develop drugs and treatments tailored to individual patients’ specific characteristics, administration officials said. (Pear, 1/30)
The Washington Post:
Congressional Commission Releases New Plan To Overhaul Military Pay And Retirement
A congressionally mandated commission on Thursday called for an overhaul of the military’s compensation and retirement system, recommending changes so that future service members will contribute to their own retirements and could choose private-sector healthcare plans. (Lamonthe, 1/29)
The Wall Street Journal:
Commission Recommends Changes To Military Benefits
A special commission looking at Pentagon spending called Thursday for scrapping the centerpiece of the military health-care system and trimming guaranteed retirement benefits for career officers, as part of a broad plan that could save the Defense Department billions of dollars. After 18 months of research, the independent commission concluded that the Pentagon’s pay and benefit system “is fundamentally sound and does not require sweeping overhaul.” But the 280-page report lays out a series of politically charged changes that are certain to face strong resistance in Washington. (Nissenbaum, 1/29)
The Washington Post:
2015 U.S. Measles Outbreak Already At 84 Cases, More Than In A Typical Year
The 2015 measles outbreak already has spread to 84 people, more than health officials typically see in an entire year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. Most of the cases are traceable to an outbreak at Disneyland and another theme park in Southern California that began in late December and now has spread to six other states, including Utah, Washington, Oregon and Colorado. In all, measles has reached 14 states, according to Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. (Berstein, 1/29)
NPR:
Rise In Measles Cases Marks A 'Wake-Up Call' For U.S.
After a few cases here and there, measles is making a big push back into the national consciousness. An outbreak linked to visitors to the Disneyland Resort Theme Parks in Orange County, Calif., has sickened 67 people in California and six other states according to the latest count from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So far this year there have been 84 measles cases in 14 states. That's already more cases than the U.S. typically sees in a year, the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat told reporters on a conference call Thursday. "This is a wake-up call to make sure measles doesn't get a foothold back in our country." (Hensley, Rizzo and Hurt, 1/29)
The Washington Post:
Amid Measles Outbreak, Anti-Vaccine Doctor Revels In His Notoriety
It’s 6:30 p.m. in eastern Arizona, and an energetic doctor who has gained notice due to his disdain for vaccinations has just gotten home. It’s been a busy day. He’s already spoken to USA Today. He just did a segment on CNN. And he’s closely monitored his Facebook page, which has collected 4,000 “likes” in the span of 48 hours. But Jack Wolfson always has time to discuss vaccinations — his hatred of them and his abhorrence of the parents who defend them. (McCoy, 1/30)
The New York Times:
As New York Moves People With Developmental Disabilities To Group Homes, Some Families Struggle
For John Cosentino, 50, an intellectually disabled adult with profound autism and self-injurious behavior who does not speak, this routine has been his refuge. He has lived at the sprawling, state-run center in East New York off the Belt Parkway since he was a teenager. Sometime this year, however, his routine will abruptly end, and he, like the other remaining residents of the institution, will probably enter a group home. (Robbins, 1/29)