First Edition: October 24, 2014
Today's early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Kaiser Health News:
The Latest In Public Health Funding: Tapping Investors
The plan is to create a “social impact bond,” a contract in which Wall Street and other investors agree to support programs with goals such as taxpayer savings and improved health outcomes. If the programs can demonstrate with solid evidence that they have met those goals, the investors recoup their principal and get a return, typically from the government. The asthma project is among the first to focus on improving health outcomes. But a rising number of 'pay for success' projects are planned or underway around the nation, including in Ohio, Connecticut, South Carolina and Massachusetts. One seeks to expand early childhood education in Utah, for instance, and another to reduce homelessness in Colorado. (Gorman, 10/23)
The Associated Press:
Analysis: In Senate Battle, GOP’s Weapon Is Obama
Struggling to preserve their Senate majority, Democrats are attacking Republicans over Medicare and Social Security in Louisiana, spending cuts in Arkansas, offshore jobs in New Hampshire and women’s issues in Colorado. Republicans have a one-size fits-all counter-argument. It’s Barack Obama, a two-term president they’ve turned into a political punching bag and pummeled at will while Democrats avert their eyes. (Espo, 10/24)
The Associated Press:
Hagan And Tillis In A Battle Of ‘Extremes’ In NC
But Hagan, 61, has put Tillis on the defensive with a barrage of attacks on his record as House speaker in North Carolina’s legislature. She casts the businessman-turned-politician as architect of an untenable rightward march on everything from education funding and labor laws to abortion, ballot access and Medicaid expansion. (Barrow, 10/24)
Politico Pro:
North Carolina Blues To Raise ACA Plan Rates By Double Digits
Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina is set to raise rates for its Obamacare plans by 13.5 percent on average in 2015, the company announced this week, reigniting a controversial campaign issue in a battleground state weeks before the November election. Individuals that want to keep their pre-ACA plans next year — made possible by the Obama administration’s plan cancellation “transition” that allows the plans to be renewed until October 2016 — will see an even larger average rate increase of 19.2 percent, the company said. (Pradhan, 10/23)
The Associated Press:
US Announces $840M To Improve Medical Care
The Obama administration is announcing an $840 million grant program to help doctors and hospitals improve the quality of care delivered to patients. Patrick Conway, Medicare’s chief medical officer, said Thursday the goal is to identify ways of delivering care that improves results for patients, and then rapidly foster the spread of those ideas throughout the system. The administration also hopes at least some approaches will save money. (10/23)
Politico Pro:
Burwell Outlines New Health Care Quality Initiative
HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell asked family physicians Thursday for their help with lowering costs and improving quality while offering $840 million in grants to help them figure out how to do that. “We want to partner with those who are working to improve the coordination of care — both inside and outside their offices,” said Burwell, explaining the new initiative. “And we intend to build networks of clinicians who learn best practices from each other and build new networks.” (Wheaton, 10/23)
The Washington Post's Wonkblog:
Primary Care Doctors To Patients: Don’t Forget About Us
With an estimated 25 million new people becoming insured over the next few years, a coalition of family physicians has a message for the country: Don't forget about us. The timing is right for the group, which on Thursday announced a five-year, $20 million campaign aimed at promoting the importance of primary care. The flood of newly insured patients presents a big opportunity for primary care doctors, when you consider this: just one-third of uninsured adults said they have a regular doctor, about half the rate of the insured population, according to a 2013 Kaiser Family Foundation survey. (Millman, 10/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
Lawmakers Push For Increased Funding For Biomedical Research
A bipartisan pair of senators is putting together a proposal to significantly increase federal funding for biomedical research, an issue that has taken on greater urgency in light of the Ebola outbreak. Aides to Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, met with industry representatives this week to discuss their plan to boost funding for biomedical research by $1 billion annually over 10 years, according to people familiar with the discussion. (Peterson and Armour, 10/23)
The Wall Street Journal:
New York Doctor Tests Positive For Ebola
A doctor who had returned to New York City recently after treating Ebola patients in West Africa tested positive for the virus on Thursday, officials said, setting up a new front in the nation’s attempt to control the spread of the deadly disease. Craig Spencer, a 33-year-old physician who had worked with Doctors Without Borders in Guinea until returning to the U.S. a week ago, is the fourth patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S. and the ninth to be treated here. (Dawsey, Tangel and McKay, 10/24)
Los Angeles Times:
Rep. Darrell Issa's Latest Issue: Ebola
As the Obama administration works to calm public anxiety over Ebola, congressional Republicans will take fresh aim Friday at its missteps in responding to the disease and its strategy for containing the virus. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee inquiry comes after lawmakers have already berated the administration, registering their outrage at its refusal to ban travel from African nations afflicted by Ebola and its failure to stop a nurse infected with Ebola from boarding a commercial airline in Texas. ( Halper, 10/24)
The New York Times:
Administration’s Ebola Response Draws Scrutiny Of House Committee
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform — known for partisan fireworks under the leadership of Darrell Issa, Republican of California — will turn its focus on Friday to the Obama administration’s handling of the Ebola crisis. Some Republican members of the committee have already called for a change in the administration’s approach to the epidemic (Siddons, 10/24)
USA Today:
House Oversight Panel Examines Response To Ebola Crisis
A House oversight panel on Friday will examine how well federal agencies are coordinating their response to the Ebola crisis. The hearing by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is the third Congress has held on Ebola since the Oct. 8 death of Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas. Duncan was the first person to die of Ebola in the United States. Two of his nurses contracted the virus and are recovering. (Kelly, 10/24)
The Wall Street Journal:
House Panel To Convene Ebola Hearing
Lawmakers are expected to focus on protections for U.S. troops and aid workers deployed to West Africa to help treat Ebola as a House panel convenes Friday morning for a hearing on the U.S. response to the disease, the day after a physician in New York tested positive for the virus. The Republican-led House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hear testimony from two Defense Department officials, as well as Rabih Torbay, the senior vice president for international operations of International Medical Corps, a nonprofit group caring for Ebola patients in Liberia and Sierra Leone. (Radnofsky and Hughes, 10/24)
Politico Pro:
Insurers Oppose California, South Dakota Ballot Measures
A pair of ballot initiatives in California and South Dakota is putting health insurers on edge about November. One would give a state regulator power to shoot down health insurance premium increases. The other would require insurers to include any willing provider in their networks. Proposition 45 in California would require health insurance rate changes in the individual and small group markets to be approved by the state’s insurance commissioner before taking effect, going further than the Affordable Care Act. In South Dakota, Initiated Measure 17 would require insurers to include all providers who are willing, qualified and meet conditions for participation, something the insurance industry and business groups say will make costs skyrocket. (Pradhan, 10/23)
Los Angeles Times:
New Class Of Abortion Providers Helps Expand Access In California
Ever since the Planned Parenthood health center here opened, the six cushioned recliners in the recovery room had been in steady demand every Friday. That's when a physician would rotate through to perform abortions for four hours. When everyone in the crowded waiting room knew why the woman next to her was there, when they all had to walk past a cluster of antiabortion protesters. (Romney, 10/23)
Los Angeles Times:
UCLA Health System Fined By Federal Officials Over Banned Doctor
Federal officials fined UCLA Health System $470,000 for allowing an anesthesiologist who was banned from Medicare and other federal programs to treat patients and bill the government for their care. Dr. John Edward Miller, an anesthesiologist at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, was excluded from federal programs from April 2009 to November 2013 while working there, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The information was obtained by The Times under a Freedom of Information Act request. (Terhune, 10/23)