Kaiser Health News - States

Health Law's Insurance Exchanges Are Not Mirror Image Of Mass. Version

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:33:00 GMT

Some of the state's features that advocates say helped consumers make their insurance-purchasing decisions were not included in the the federal health law.

Boston Globe: U.S. Won't Mirror Mass. On Health Exchanges
When millions of Americans around the country sign up for insurance under President Obama's sweeping health care law in October, the system they encounter will lack some of the key protections and cost controls that Massachusetts consumers receive. Massachusetts, the first state in the nation to implement near-universal health coverage, served as the model for major aspects of the groundbreaking health care overhaul law. But under lobbying pressure from the insurance industry, the Obama administration has decided not to adopt features of the Massachusetts plan that advocates say have helped consumers more easily make cost-effective choices (Jan, 5/20).

In Minnesota, a glitch pushed back the deadline for its online health insurance marketplace --

MPR News: Glitch Pushes Back MNsure Deadline
A computer glitch at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has forced the postponement of a state deadline Friday connected to Minnesota's new online health insurance marketplace, called MNsure. Insurers now have an extra week to submit health insurance policies for approval to sell them on MNsure. The state is already under a tight time crunch to complete the massive project by the Oct. 1 deadline to be up and running. But the state Commerce Department says a computer system problem at the federal level means insurers can't complete all the required steps in time to meet the state deadline (Stawicki, 5/17).

MPR News: MNSURE Board Picks Ex-CEO As Chairman
The former head of a health care software company will lead a powerful board that is playing a major role in shaping the state's new online health insurance marketplace, MNSURE. The seven-member board chose Brian Buetner, former CEO of Minneapolis-based mPay Gateway, to chair the MNSURE board of directors. Buetner is a former executive with health insurance Giant UnitedHealth Group. The board also chose a vice chairman, Peter Benner, a former AFSCME executive director (Stawicki, 5/19).

GOP Nominee For Va. Lt. Gov. Likened Planned Parenthood To KKK; Ark. Judge Halts Abortion Ban

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:33:00 GMT

A man nominated Saturday for lieutenant governor of Virginia made comments last year that likened Planned Parenthood to the KKK. In Arkansas, a judge delayed a law that would ban most abortions there after 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Politico: Virginia Pick Compared Planned Parenthood To KKK
E.W. Jackson, a black minister and activist nominated for lieutenant governor Saturday, posted a four-minute video on YouTube last fall exhorting African-Americans to vote Republican. In the video message, he accused the "civil rights establishment" of selling out their Christian values in order to support Democratic policy positions on gay marriage and abortion. ... "The Democrat Party has created an unholy alliance between certain so-called civil rights leaders and Planned Parenthood, which has killed unborn black babies by the tens of millions. Planned Parenthood has been far more lethal to black lives than the KKK ever was," Jackson says in the video (Burns, 5/19).

Los Angeles Times: Judge Temporarily Delays 12-Week Abortion Law In Arkansas
An Arkansas law that bans most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy was temporarily blocked by a federal judge on Friday. In a ruling from the bench, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Webber Wright in Little Rock granted a preliminary injunction preventing the Arkansas law from going into effect as scheduled, a member of the court staff said by telephone. It was scheduled to start Aug. 16 (Muskal, 5/17).

State Rejections Of Medicaid Expansion Likely To Widen Health Disparities

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:32:45 GMT

The Los Angeles Times reports that states opting against expanded eligibility -- among them, some of the nation's unhealthiest -- could fall even further behind as the Affordable Care Act is implemented. News outlets also offer reports from Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, California, Florida and Virginia.

Los Angeles Times: Medicaid Opposition Underscores States' Healthcare Disparities
Republican opposition in many statehouses to expanding Medicaid next year under President Obama's healthcare law — opposition that could leave millions of the nation's poorest residents without insurance coverage — will likely widen the divide between the nation's healthiest and sickest states (Levey, 5/18).

The Associated Press: Brewer Wrestled With Decision On Medicaid Expansion
The weekend before Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer made her State of the State address in January, she practiced two versions of her speech: one with a Medicaid expansion and one without. The Republican governor ended up announcing during her Jan. 14 address that she wanted to expand the state's Medicaid program - known as the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System - bucking many conservatives in her party to embrace Medicaid expansion (5/20).

Arizona Republic: Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer Staking Legacy On Medicaid
Inside a Sun City West clubhouse one recent afternoon, Republican Gov. Jan Brewer stood before fellow Republicans, many of whom she once represented as a state lawmaker or county supervisor. She was there to explain why she had bucked many conservatives in her party to embrace Medicaid expansion, a signature piece of Democratic President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul. It was a tough sell for some in this crowd — just as it has been with many GOP state legislators, who are divided on whether to accept billions in federal funds under the Affordable Care Act to provide health coverage to tens of thousands of uninsured Arizonans (Wingett, 5/19).

Arizona Republic: Medicaid Q&A With Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer
Gov. Jan Brewer, amid the most important policy debate of her governorship, spoke with The Arizona Republic last week about why she wants to expand Medicaid in Arizona. Question: Why are you fighting so hard for Medicaid expansion? Answer: This is something I had great difficulty with — I was such an opponent of “Obamacare.” I did everything … within my power to fight it. And we lost. Elections have consequences: Obama won, and the Supreme Court upheld the health care, so it’s here. Medicaid is just a small portion of Obamacare, and that’s what I keep trying to tell people — and the voters of Arizona have voted twice for expansion (Wingett Sanchez, 5/19).

CQ HealthBeat: On Medicaid: One State Moves Closer To Expansion, One Stalls
Arizona senators moved Medicaid expansion one step closer to reality in that state this week while the effort fell short in Michigan. Both states are led by Republican governors who announced earlier this year that they support expansion (Adams, 5/20).

Journal Sentinel: Taxpayers Will Pay More Under Scott Walker Health Plan, Study Says
Gov. Scott Walker's proposed rejection of a federally funded expansion of state health programs would add some $50 million in costs to state taxpayers over the next two years, according to the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office. The new report from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau immediately became part of the debate over Walker's budget proposal for Medicaid programs, which is currently before lawmakers on the Joint Finance Committee. The budget panel is rewriting Walker's bill and will send it to the Assembly and Senate early next month for their consideration (Stein, 5/17).

Sacramento Bee: Big Capitol Fight On Medi-Cal Looms Among Democrats
As he presented his revised 2013-14 budget to the Legislature last week, Gov. Jerry Brown warned against expanding spending beyond his administration's conservative revenue estimates. Citing darkening economic and revenue forecasts, Brown called on fellow Democrats in the Legislature to restrain themselves – and indirectly threatened to veto anything he considers to be too expansive (Walters, 5/20).

PolitiFact/Tampa Bay Times: Weatherford Overreaches With Claim That Medicaid Expansion Drives Deficit
The Florida House did the nation a favor by refusing to expand subsidized health insurance to 1 million low-income Floridians, argues Speaker Will Weatherford. ... Does the Medicaid expansion drastically raise the deficit? PolitiFact Florida wanted to check it out (Sanders, 5/19).

Columbus Dispatch: Medicaid Expansion Could Be On Ballot In 2014
As supporters of Medicaid expansion in Ohio grow increasingly impatient with legislative inaction, talk, both publicly and privately, is turning toward alternatives such as a 2014 ballot issue. “In the balance is health care for hundreds of thousands of Ohioans and the jobs that would be attached to those,” said Anthony Caldwell, spokesman for Service Employees International Union District 1199. The SEIU is part of a broader coalition, the Ohio Alliance for Health Transformation, whose leaders still hope for legislative action before lawmakers pass the two-year budget in late June. Gov. John Kasich proposed expanding Medicaid to cover about 275,000 Ohioans who earn up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level (Siegel and Candisky, 5/18).

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Hospitals Face Anxious Period On Medicaid
Virginia hospitals face an anxious summer and fall as state lawmakers begin to take a hard look at reforming — and potentially expanding — the state’s Medicaid program for the poor, elderly and disabled. Next month, a new legislative commission will meet for the first time to review Medicaid reforms required under the state budget that will take effect July 1. Accomplishment of those reforms will determine whether the Medicaid Innovation and Reform Commission agrees to extend the program to hundreds of thousands of uninsured Virginians — many of whom now go to emergency rooms for care that ultimately is paid for by taxpayers (Martz, 5/19).

In related news, Kaiser Health News reports on how the Obama administration is encouraging states to streamline enrollment of adults in Medicaid -

Kaiser Health News: Feds Make It Easier For States To Enroll Poor Under Health Law
The Obama administration is making it easier for states to sign up the poor for health coverage – and to help those people stay covered. On Friday, it informed state officials that they could simplify enrollment in Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor, to handle the onslaught of millions of anticipated enrollees next year when the health care law expands coverage. The administration said the changes are geared to states that are expanding their programs, but they may also be adopted by others (Galewitz, 5/18).

Viewpoints: Sebelius' 'Ethical Line'; As Tricky Phase Of Health Law Approaches, Concerns About Exchanges Opening On Time

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:32:21 GMT

The Washington Post: Kathleen Sebelius Dances On An Ethical Line
One of the biggest questions hanging over the health-care system is how many young Americans will sign up for coverage once the Affordable Care Act begins to phase in this October. If too few buy insurance on the markets that the government is creating, insurance companies would be stuck covering primarily the old and the sick. They would have to pay out more per customer. Their customers, in turn, would have to pay more to those companies for coverage. The stakes for the Health and Human Services Department, which is overseeing the transition, are tremendous. But they are not high enough to justify HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius dancing around serious ethical lines (5/18).

The Washington Post: Obamacare's Tricky Next Phase
Thought you had seen the last of the fighting over the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare? Since its passage in 2010, after all, it has survived Supreme Court review, innumerable challenges from House Republicans and Mitt Romney’s unsuccessful campaign to evict its author from the White House. Nonetheless, with the heart of the reform set to take effect next year, its most contentious days may lie ahead (5/19).

The Wall Street Journal: Navigating The ObamaCare Maze
On Oct. 1, millions of Americans are supposed to be able to go online and acquire health insurance on electronic exchanges in the states where they live. But here is a question that is being increasingly asked by people in the insurance industry: What happens if the exchanges aren't ready on time? (John C. Goodman, 5/19).

The Washington Post: Is The Health Care Spending Slowdown For Real?
We all know that Stein's Law will someday apply to health-care spending, which has risen from 5 percent of the economy (gross domestic product) in 1960 to almost 18 percent now. What we don't know is how and when its share of the economy will stabilize. Will this result from spending controls imposed by Washington; or from delivery-system "reforms" that spontaneously cut "waste"; or from rationing, which limits spending by denying people treatment; or by some combination of these? As for when, could it be now? (Robert J. Samuelson, 5/19).

Tampa Bay Times: Paying For Benefits, Getting None
Economists like myself are accustomed to seeing politicians act in ways that don't make economic sense. That being said, the decisions many are making about health care policy are truly dumbfounding. Florida recently failed to pass a budget that included the expansion of Medicaid that is part of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and will be implemented on Jan. 1, 2014. In so doing, Florida joins 24 other states that are "opting out" of expanding Medicaid. Not surprisingly, most of the South is in that group. The economic consequences of opting out are likely to be large (Alan Green, 5/19).

Austin American Statesman: A Texas Solution For The Affordable Care Act
Because the governor is hesitant to expand Medicaid, the legislature will probably adjourn without taking full advantage of the dollars available to Texas to cover the uninsured through the Affordable Care Act. Fortunately there is more than one way to skin a cat, which in this case means a way to pull down all the dollars in the affordable care act through a market solution rather than by expanding traditional Medicaid, and it can be done before the legislature meets again in 2015 (Anne Dunkelberg, 5/19).

Bloomberg: Oregon's Radical Health Overhaul Blazes New Trail
The past few years have seen two remarkable health-care experiments in the Beaver State. One is the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, the first randomized, controlled trial comparing Medicaid -- or any kind of health insurance -- with being uninsured. The other is (Gov. John) Kitzhaber's effort to rebuild the state's Medicaid program around community health rather than individual fee-for-service treatments. The health-insurance experiment has gotten all the attention. But it's the Medicaid reforms that really matter (Ezra Klein, 5/17).

Oregonian: Getting More Doctors, Nurses Into Rural Oregon Should Win Legislature's Support
Oregonians living in rural settings can have a hard time finding adequate and prompt medical care. It's either far away, too expensive or both. Finding an available doctor or a trained nurse practitioner close to home in Grant or Tillamook counties, to name just two of more than a dozen Oregon counties rated by the U.S. government as medically underserved, could be more of a trial than the runaway fever in need of attention (5/19).

Arizona Republic: Refusing Medicaid Expansion Means Abandoning Neighbors
But when (Timothy Leffler) lost his position at the Arizona State University School of Music because of state budget cuts, he faced dire circumstances. Leffler has type 2 diabetes. As a single adult without children, he narrowly qualified for Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System coverage just before the state froze enrollment. Soon after, he was diagnosed with severe hereditary neuropathy, which started in his feet and moved to his hands and arms. It's a very painful disease with no cure. He will need medication for the rest of his life. And he will be one of 60,000 Arizonans to lose such coverage on Dec. 31, if the state Legislature refuses Medicaid restoration (John Linder and Martha Seaman, 5/19).

Star Tribune: Minnesota Program Cuts Costs For Poor -- Compassionately
Ezekiel Allen's weary voice and his long list of medical challenges -- schizophrenia, a back injury, bipolar condition, high blood pressure, brain polyps, dental troubles, migraine headaches -- make him sound far older than his 45 years. Homeless for a number of years, Allen didn't see a doctor regularly for far too long. When the pain of his conditions became overwhelming, the Minneapolis man would get medical care from one of the costliest venues — an emergency room (5/19).

The New York Times: Angelina Jolie's Disclosure
Very few women fall into such a high-risk category. But for those who do, the test may be lifesaving. ... The health care reform law requires private insurers to cover genetic counseling and, if appropriate, BRCA testing, without a co-payment, in recently issued policies. ... Generally, neither private nor public insurance will cover the tests for women whose family history does not suggest increased risk, and that makes good sense (5/17).

Los Angeles Times: Health Care For Angelina Jolie -- And Everyone Else
We applaud Times columnist Robin Abcarian for shining the light on the inequities in our healthcare system in response to Angelina Jolie’s recent announcement about her prophylactic mastectomy. When Jolie made her medical decision, she had at her disposal the resources to pay for the procedures and the best doctors; not everyone has the same ability. At the Cancer Legal Resource Center (CLRC), our attorneys hear from individuals who experience great difficulty undergoing the same procedures as Jolie because they fear discrimination based on the results of genetic tests, and because their insurance won't cover the care they need (Anya Prince and Jen Flory, 5/18).

Los Angeles Times: A Birth Control Double Standard
In the uproar about making the morning-after contraceptive known as Plan B available to our daughters, there has been no similar outcry about condoms and our sons. Anyone of any age can walk into a drugstore -- as well as most grocery and big-box stores -- and buy condoms. If you want to remain anonymous, you can pay cash; no ID is required. If you're too embarrassed to face the checkout clerk, use the self-check aisle or, for $17.97, get a box of 100 -- flavored or with "added sensations," even -- delivered to your door in a plain brown box (Meg White Clayton, 5/20).

Des Moines Register: Dental Board's Actions Protect Dentists, Not The Public
Some licensing boards are obviously important to protect public safety by ensuring workers have certain minimum education and training. Yet the licensing boards, often composed largely of industry insiders, may limit competition. ... Among the most egregious examples of this: In 2009, the Legislature approved an amendment to Iowa law that ensured only dentists can provide teeth-whitening services. ... That’s right. You can whiten your own teeth with a mouth tray and gel purchased at a drugstore. You can go online and buy exactly the same products dentists use in their offices. And if you lived in most other states, you could set up a business offering this cosmetic procedure to the public -- and many people have. But not in Iowa (5/19).

State Roundup: Okla. Gov. Pushes Funding Fix To Cover 9,000 On Medicaid

Mon, 20 May 2013 04:00:00 GMT

A selection of health policy stories from Oklahoma, Texas, California and Massachusetts.

The Associated Press: Fallin Urges Last-Minute Health Care Fix
Gov. Mary Fallin proposed a last-minute legislative change Friday to the state's Insure Oklahoma program that would direct $50 million in state tobacco taxes to pay for more than 9,000 people who are expected to lose their health insurance under the program. Insure Oklahoma currently uses federal Medicaid funding, state tobacco tax revenue and payments from workers and employers to provide health insurance to about 30,000 low-income Oklahomans, but the federal government notified Oklahoma last week that the program must change in order to qualify for federal funding (Murphy, 5/18).

The Associated Press: Legislators Devote New Funding To Mental Health
For the first time since (Texas) state lawmakers made historic budget cuts a decade ago, legislators are dedicating hundreds of millions more dollars to mental health care. (Haven for Hope in Bexar County) serves as a model of the services and success they aim to accomplish. ... As Republicans and Democrats in the Texas House and Senate hash out the details of the state’s 2014-15 budget — there are fights over water, roads and education — one issue they are not arguing about is support for mental health. "One thing we could all agree on was mental health was, to a large extent, a driver of crime," said state Rep. John Zerwas, R-Simonton (Grissom and Rocha, 5/19).

The Texas Tribune: House OKs Bill To Expand Mental Health In Managed Care
Managed care plans would be required to offer more mental health services to Medicaid recipients under a bill tentatively approved by the House on Friday. … The majority of mental health services -- such as medication management and counseling -- are already provided to Medicaid recipients through managed care (Aaronson, 5/17).

Los Angeles Times: City Of San Francisco, Worker Unions Protest Kaiser Premium Hike
It's a trend many public employees can relate to: Health insurance premiums climb year after year, while at the bargaining table workers have agreed to kick in more for pensions, take salary cuts and sign on to furlough days. But when Kaiser Permanente -- which insures 45,000 public workers here -- proposed another hike for 2014, San Francisco's Health Service System teamed up with labor unions to say "no more" (Romney, 5/19).

Los Angeles Times: St. John's Picks Providence Health & Services In Bidding War
After months of controversy, the owner of St. John's Health Center said it plans to sell the landmark Santa Monica hospital to Catholic chain Providence Health & Services. The hospital has been at the center of an intense competition that featured bids from UCLA Health System, other Catholic hospital chains and Los Angeles billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong (Terhune, 5/17).

The Texas Tribune: Texas On Track To Restore Cancer Research Funding
The Legislature is on track to restore financing for the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. In an effort to restore public trust in the beleaguered agency, budget negotiators made the agency's financing for 2014-15 biennium -- $595 million -- contingent upon the passage of Senate Bill 149, which the House tentatively approved on Friday (Aaronson, 5/17).

Medpage Today: No Hike In Mass. Hospital Use Post Health Reform
Health care reform in Massachusetts did not increase overall use of inpatient resources, but other states may not be so lucky, researchers found. Before and after a reform, the average number of quarterly admissions per hospital was 1,502 and 1,557, respectively -- translating into a nonsignificant net change of 0.3 percent when compared with controls, according to Amresh D. Hanchate, PhD, an economist at the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, and colleagues (Kaiser, 5/17).

California Healthline: Assembly Approves Race, Ethnicity In Quality Reporting
The Assembly yesterday passed a bill that requires state officials to include race and ethnicity when compiling health care quality data. AB 411 by Assembly member Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) would not create any kind of difficulty for state officials, since that data already exists, according to Pan. The point is to make state officials use it, Pan said. … The information is already being collected by the state Department of Health Care Services so it's not really much more work to mine that data for health disparities by race or ethnicity, Pan said (Gorn, 5/17).

First Edition: May 20, 2013

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:26:54 GMT

Today's headlines include reports about the policy and political issues currently surrounding the health law's implementation.

Kaiser Health News: With High Deductible Health Plans, It Pays To Shop Around For Care
Reporting for Kaiser Health News, in collaboration with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Michelle Andrews writes: "When Maria and Vadim Brodsky's then 7-year-old daughter needed an MRI two years ago to examine a tumor in her head, they took her to a hospital in their health plan’s network and were dismayed to receive a $4,500 bill. The couple had a $6,000 deductible on their family plan. And even though the bill was reduced to $3,000 — the price the provider and insurer had agreed to by contract — the Brodskys had to cover all of it" (Andrews, 5/20). Read the story.

Kaiser Health News: Feds Make It Easier For States To Enroll Poor Under Health Law
Kaiser Health News staff writer Phil Galewitz reports: "The Obama administration is making it easier for states to sign up the poor for health coverage – and to help those people stay covered. On Friday, it informed state officials that they could simplify enrollment in Medicaid, the federal-state program for the poor, to handle the onslaught of millions of anticipated enrollees next year when the health care law expands coverage. The administration said the changes are geared to states that are expanding their programs, but they may also be adopted by others" (Galewitz, 5/18). Read the story.

Kaiser Health News: Capsules: Audio: 42 Percent Of Americans Unaware Health Law Exists (Audio)
Kaiser Health News staff writer Mary Agnes Carey joined NPR's "Tell Me More" Friday afternoon to discuss the state of the health law and other health policy issues – including a new poll saying 42 percent of Americans don't know that the Affordable Care Act actually still stands (5/17). Check out what else is on the blog.

Kaiser Health News also tracked weekend news coverage, including reports that Republicans are pressing the link between the health law and the IRS scandal (5/19).

The New York Times: Potential Donors to Enroll America Grow Skittish
The Obama administration's efforts to raise private money to carry out the president's health care law have provoked such a strong partisan uproar that potential donors have become skittish about contributing, according to several people involved in the fund-raising program (Pear, 5/19).

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Republicans Seek To Link IRS Scandal And Tax Agency's Role Implementing Obama Health Overhaul
Political scandals have strange ways of causing collateral damage, and Republicans are hoping the furor over federal tax enforcers singling out conservative groups will ensnare their biggest target: President Barack Obama’s health care law. There is a link, but it may only be coincidence. No one appears to have connected the dots factually, and it’s unclear whether they will (5/18).

The Wall Street Journal: Employers Eye Bare-Bones Health Plans Under New Law
Employers are increasingly recognizing they may be able to avoid certain penalties under the federal health law by offering very limited plans that can lack key benefits such as hospital coverage. Benefits advisers and insurance brokers—bucking a commonly held expectation that the law would broadly enrich benefits—are pitching these low-benefit plans around the country. They cover minimal requirements such as preventive services, but often little more. Some of the plans wouldn't cover surgery, X-rays or prenatal care at all. Others will be paired with limited packages to cover additional services, for instance, $100 a day for a hospital visit (Weaver and Mathews, 5/19).

Politico: Obamacare Allies Eye Ballot Initiatives
Obamacare backers stymied by conservative legislatures in red states may have a new approach: letting the voters break logjams with state ballot initiatives in 2014. Frustrated by conservative opposition to extending Medicaid even in states where Republican governors have embraced it, the president's allies are strategizing about asking voters to do what their elected leaders have not: accept billions of federal dollars to cover millions of poor people under Obamacare (Cheney and Millman, 5/19).

The Washington Post: McConnell Predicts Obamacare Will Be 'Biggest Issue' Of 2014 Election
The Senate's top Republican predicted Sunday morning that President Obama's health care law will be the biggest issue of the 2014 midterm elections (Sullivan, 5/19).

Los Angeles Times: Obama Budget Would Cut Deficits, Report Says
President Obama's proposed mix of tax hikes and spending cuts would reduce future budget deficits more quickly than under current laws, according to a report issued Friday that could rekindle the dormant budget wars in Washington. The outlook from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office comes as the government is set to reach its debt limit on Saturday, forcing the White House and Congress back to the negotiating table to work out a long-term budget plan that raises taxes, cuts spending -- or some combination of the two (Mascaro, 5/17).

Los Angeles Times: Anthrax Drug Brings $334 Million To Pentagon Advisor's Biotech Firm
Over the last decade, former Navy Secretary Richard J. Danzig, a prominent lawyer, presidential advisor and biowarfare consultant to the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security, has urged the government to counter what he called a major threat to national security. Terrorists, he warned, could easily engineer a devastating killer germ: a form of anthrax resistant to common antibiotics. … Danzig did this while serving as a director of a biotech startup that won $334 million in federal contracts to supply just such a drug, a Los Angeles Times investigation found (Willman, 5/19).

Los Angeles Times: City Of San Francisco, Worker Unions Protest Kaiser Premium Hike
It's a trend many public employees can relate to: Health insurance premiums climb year after year, while at the bargaining table workers have agreed to kick in more for pensions, take salary cuts and sign on to furlough days. But when Kaiser Permanente — which insures 45,000 public workers here — proposed another hike for 2014, San Francisco's Health Service System teamed up with labor unions to say "no more" (Romney, 5/19).

Los Angeles Times: St. John’s Picks Providence Health & Services In Bidding War
After months of controversy, the owner of St. John's Health Center said it plans to sell the landmark Santa Monica hospital to Catholic chain Providence Health & Services. The hospital has been at the center of an intense competition that featured bids from UCLA Health System, other Catholic hospital chains and Los Angeles billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong (Terhune, 5/17).

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Viewpoints: Health Law's Effect On Patient Safety; Angelina Jolie's Surgery Is The Ultimate 'Choice'

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:33:02 GMT

The New York Times: Learning From Litigation
Much of the discussion over the Affordable Care Act has focused on whether it will bring down health care costs. Less attention has been paid to another goal of the act: improving patient safety. Each year tens of thousands of people die, and hundreds of thousands more are injured, as a result of medical error (Joanna C. Schwartz, 5/16).

The New York Times: The Murky World Of Hospital Prices
Last week, the federal government made public a vast trove of information on the list prices charged by hospitals for a large array of procedures commonly performed on hospitalized patients. It was a good start toward providing greater transparency in hospital billing, which has long been shrouded in secrecy. But it fell short of providing full information that patients need to make informed decisions about which hospitals to use and which insurance to buy (5/16).

The Washington Post: Bill Gates: 'Death Is Something We Really Understand Extremely Well'
"I always use this chart of childhood death," Bill Gates says. "In 1960, 25 percent of kids died before the age of 5. And now we're down below 6 percent of kids dying before the age of 5." We're sitting in a bare conference room at his foundation’s D.C. headquarters. Gates is in town to talk to members of Congress about his top priority this year: Global health -- and, in particular, the total eradication of polio. He wants to drive that 6 percent even lower, and he believes he can. Wiping out a disease like polio sounds impossible. But it's actually, Gates tells me, completely achievable (Ezra Klein, 5/17).

Reuters: A Woman's Choice
We use that word so often: choice. It has become the code word for abortion, alas, and thus a lightening rod for activists on both sides of that continuing battle. But this week Angelina Jolie redeemed the word and the idea behind it -- that a woman has a right to choose what happens to her body, however tough that choice sometimes is (Anne Taylor Fleming, 5/16).

Philadelphia Inquirer: Angelina Jolie's Lesson For Obamacare
Angelina Jolie's announcement that she underwent a double mastectomy to protect against a genetic form of breast cancer inspired widespread surprise and admiration. With her op-ed revelation in the New York Times, she put herself forward as a role model for millions of women who face a similar dilemma. Such candor and forthrightness are rare among celebrities. Yet, she is extremely fortunate in one respect. She has the financial resources to afford both the testing that found her heightened risk and the consequent surgery. As she noted in her op-ed, many women do not (Robert Field, 5/17).

Tampa Bay Times: Politics And My Double Mastectomy
During the same week that Angelina Jolie announced that she had a preventive double mastectomy as a precaution against her genetic predisposition toward breast cancer, House Republicans are likely to vote for the 37th time to repeal or replace Obamacare. These two events have more in common than you think. That's because, for everyone except the mega-wealthy like a Hollywood star, having Jolie-like health care options depends on good, affordable health insurance. And having access to that kind of coverage depends on reasonable and caring leaders in Washington -- something the Republican caucus is missing, as proved by the anticipated vote (Robyn E. Blumner, 5/16).

Fox News/Washington Examiner: ObamaCare Is About Power
Members of the House of Representatives are scheduled to vote Thursday to repeal all of ObamaCare. Given that the House voted to repeal the law last year, some commentators and observers have questioned the need for another repeal vote. However, the scandals coming to light over the last week perfectly make the case for why Congress must eradicate the law from the statute books (Jim DeMint, 5/16).

New England Journal Of Medicine: Expanding The Role Of Advanced Nurse Practitioners – Risks And Rewards
As the 2014 expansion of coverage mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) looms larger, one question with no ready answer is how health care providers, policymakers, and payers will cope with an expected surge in patient demand for services. A shortage of primary care physicians to treat newly insured persons is the most immediate health workforce issue, but when added to the nation's population growth and more aging patients who require treatment, finding a practitioner may become an even more daunting challenge (John Iglehart, 5/16).

Tampa Bay Times: Hypocrisy In The House
Republican state lawmakers on Tuesday didn't want to talk about 1 million of the state's poor who don't have health insurance. Or about how Floridians and their health care system inevitably absorb the cost when the uninsured are in crisis. They tried to change the subject when asked at a Suncoast Tiger Bay meeting in St. Petersburg about news reports that juxtaposed Republican House members' generous taxpayer-covered health insurance with their votes to reject federal Medicaid expansion dollars to cover 1 million uninsured -- and pump $51 billion into the state economy. Floridians shouldn't so easily dismiss the hypocrisy (5/14).

Orlando Sentinel: Costly Expansion Wouldn't Improve Floridians' Health
The state Legislature's decision this year to reject Medicaid expansion was the correct decision for Florida. There is little evidence that growing the health care program for the poor would improve the health of state residents. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine is all the proof that Sunshine State legislators needed to reject Medicaid expansion. Those lamenting the failed implementation of this part of the federal Affordable Care Act in Florida can look to Oregon to see that Floridians won't be missing out on much (Bob Williams, 5/17).

Orlando Sentinel: Misrepresentations Blocked Care For A Million Floridians
Despite the support of Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Senate, the 2013 legislative session ended with the Florida House unilaterally blocking the extension of health coverage to more than a million low-income, uninsured Floridians. Approving "Medicaid expansion" (or a comparable Senate-backed alternative) would have provided low-wage workers, parents and patients priced out of coverage with desperately needed access to care and protection from financial ruin. It would have infused $51 billion of our tax dollars into the economy, created 120,000 private-sector jobs, saved the state more than it would cost, and enabled service-sector employers to avoid hundreds of millions in penalties. In short, a "win-win-win." The only remaining impediment was purely political (Greg Willowe, 5/17).

Cincinnati Enquirer: Kentucky Expands Medicaid, Why Not Ohio?
By virtue of Kentucky’s Medicaid laws, Gov. Steve Beshear was able to expand that state's program without going through the Kentucky General Assembly. Good for him and good for Kentucky. ... But in Ohio, the Republican-controlled General Assembly is taking a lifetime to ponder the issue (5/16).

State Highlights: State Medicaid Investigators Get More Money To Investigate Fraud

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:32:00 GMT

A selection of health policy stories from Texas, Kansas, Georgia, Wisconsin and California.

CQ HealthBeat: OIG Final Rule Allows Medicaid Investigators To Use Data Mining
State Medicaid fraud investigators will be able to get federal matching funds to electronically search for potential fraud, under a final rule to be published on Friday. The rule, which will be published by the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, is expected to save the federal government about $34.3 million from fiscal 2014 through fiscal 2023 in fraudulent claims that would have been paid (Adams, 5/16).

The Texas Tribune: End-Of-Life Bill Sparks Anger, Accusations
Political powerhouse Texas Right to Life is working overtime to try to defeat a compromise measure aimed at improving state laws governing "end of life" medical decisions. But with time running out to get Senate Bill 303 passed, the fight over the legislation has shifted from political to personal. Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, a family physician who has worked for years to craft legislation acceptable to faith-based groups, the disability community and medical professionals, said Texas Right to Life is acting like "the woman that went to Solomon and wanted the baby to be cut in two" (Aaronson, 5/17).

The Texas Tribune: House Backs Bill To Protect Medicaid Providers’ Rights
Medicaid providers would have clearer due process rights during fraud investigations under a measure the House gave tentative approval to on Wednesday. The bill would also codify the state's rules for withholding payments to providers during such investigations (Smith and Aaronson, 5/16).

Kansas Health Institute: Governor's Mental Health Initiative Panned At Manhattan Meeting
Karen McCulloh spent much of Wednesday afternoon listening to state officials explain how Gov. Sam Brownback's mental health initiative might work. She said she didn't hear much that she hadn't heard before. … Brownback has said his initiative, much of which remains undefined, is meant to "strengthen" the state's mental health system and better serve those most at-risk of hospitalization or incarceration (Ranney, 5/16).

Georgia Health News: Albany Hospital Merger Slowed By Latest Ruling
U.S. District Court Judge Louis Sands has issued a temporary restraining order against further moves by Phoebe Putney Health System to consolidate with the former Palmyra Medical Center in Albany. The ruling had been sought by the Federal Trade Commission. Phoebe Putney officials said in a statement that the judge's action won't alter day-to-day operations at the former Palmyra, which was purchased from HCA and has been renamed Phoebe North (Miller, 5/16).

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Uninsured, Low-Income Visits To Hospital
More than 1 million visits to Wisconsin's hospitals were by patients who were uninsured and low-income in 2011 -- an increase of more than 30 percent since 2006, according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association Information Center's annual Guide to Wisconsin Hospitals. The Wisconsin Hospital Association Information Center also reported that 70 percent of surgeries and procedures now done at the state's 148 hospitals don't require an overnight hospital stay and are done in outpatient departments. The figure shows that the traditional measure of inpatient stays no longer is a valid way to gauge a hospital's patient volume and size (Boulton, 5/16).

California Healthline: Increasing Medical Residencies Could Help Inland Empire
As the Inland Empire grapples with a shortage of primary care physicians, experts say the solution hinges on creating more medical residencies. New state legislation could help. AB 1176 proposes to increase the number of primary care medical residencies in underserved regions, such as the Inland Empire. The new slots would be funded by levying a fee on insurers (McSherry, 5/16).

CMS Examines Interaction Between Medicaid And Health Insurance Exchanges

Fri, 17 May 2013 13:31:40 GMT

Also in the news, developments on Medicaid expansion from Arizona, Ohio and Iowa.

CQ HealthBeat: At MACPAC, Discussion Of Interaction Between Medicaid And Exchanges
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has put out most of the rules to implement coverage changes under the health care law, but a top official said Thursday that the public should expect more guidance on such issues as outreach and the enrollment of lawmakers and their staffs into the new marketplaces that will start accepting people in October. Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the deputy director for policy and regulations at the CMS Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, offered few new details in her wide-ranging remarks to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (Adams, 5/16).

The Associated Press: Arizona Senate Passes Budget With Medicaid
The Republican-controlled Arizona Senate on Thursday passed an $8.8 billion state budget that embraces a signature part of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, with a handful of Republican members teaming up with Democrats to push through Gov. Jan Brewer's top priority of the session. The Medicaid expansion proposal will add 300,000 Arizonans earning between 100 percent and 138 percent of the federal poverty level to the current 1.2 million people now on the state's insurance plan for the poor (Christie, 5/16).

Arizona Republic: Arizona Senate Backs Medicaid Expansion
The Arizona Senate on Thursday approved expanding the state’s Medicaid program, capping a rancorous debate that had split the Republican Party and had been building since January, when Gov. Jan Brewer issued a surprise call to increase Arizona’s health care program for the poor. A handful of Senate Republicans teamed with Democrats to approve the fiscal 2014 budget plan and overcome a flood of amendments intended to scuttle Medicaid expansion, pushing through the governor’s top legislative priority on a 19-11 vote after three hours of debate (Pitzl and Reinhardt, 5/16).

Columbus Dispatch: Legislators Mull Medicaid Changes Rather Than Expansion
Ohio Medicaid recipients could face time limits and work requirements under alternatives being discussed in the legislature to Gov. John Kasich’s proposed expansion of tax-funded health care for the poor and disabled. Republican leaders also are considering taking thousands of pregnant women, disabled workers and children off the Medicaid rolls and putting them into yet-to-be-established health exchanges (Candisky and Siegel, 5/17).

Des Moines Register: Medicaid Proposal Too Bitter A Pill For 27 States
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad isn’t alone in scorning the Obama administration’s prescription for government health coverage for those who can’t afford private insurance, and he’s not alone in seeking another way to cover some of them. Iowa is one of the last states to decide, for this year, what to do about the hefty sums of federal money at stake for enlarging the pool of poor people eligible for Medicaid. More than half of the states have decided against a deal that the White House had thought they couldn’t refuse (Jacobs, 5/17).

Meanwhile, here's the latest on on the health exchange front in Colorado and California -

Health Policy Solutions (a Colo. news service): New Health Insurance Era Dawns With 19 Companies Competing
Coloradans hunting for health insurance will have 19 companies competing for their business with up to 1,000 different plans that could be offered through the state’s new health exchange and on the open market. Starting in 2014, for the first time, insurance companies selling to individuals won’t be able to exclude people with pre-existing health conditions. That’s one of the reasons consumers and competitors are eagerly awaiting plan details and costs, which Colorado authorities plan to unveil Wednesday. For now, Colorados Commissioner of Insurance Jim Riesberg says he’s pleasantly surprised that 19 health insurance companies want to vie for business here (Kerwin McCrimmon, 5/16).

California Healthline: How Exchange Hopes To Reach Enrollees
Covered California exchange officials on Tuesday awarded $37 million in outreach grants to 48 community-based organizations. Those groups all have a wide reach, and represent a much bigger bloc of community organizations, according to Peter Lee, executive director of the California Health Benefit Exchange, now known as Covered California. … Lee said applicants were encouraged to aim high, because the exchange wants to reach as many people as possible and so much of the target market -- a multi-cultural, low-income and multilingual population -- is difficult to reach (Gorn, 5/16).

In Many State Legislatures, The Medicaid Expansion Saga Continues

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:43:03 GMT

News outlets offer updates on the future of uncertain Medicaid expansion plans in Texas and Arizona as well as a progress report from California.

The Texas Tribune: An Update On Medicaid Expansion
We've highlighted Medicaid expansion in Texas a couple of times during the legislative session, from those hoping to pick up Medicaid coverage to lawmakers for and against Texas joining in the Affordable Care Act program. State Rep. John Zerwas, R-Simonton, worked this session to pass legislation that would let the state negotiate with the federal government on expansion. His final bill got out of committee but didn’t get to the House floor before last week’s deadlines (Philpott, 5/15).

The Texas Tribune: Budget Deal May Not Come Until Thursday
Budget negotiations stretched late into the night on Wednesday, but lawmakers said privately they didn’t expect to announce a deal until Thursday. House Appropriations Chairman Jim Pitts said earlier in the evening that lawmakers were working to resolve some "pending items" and that he hoped to secure a deal by midnight (Aaronson and Batheja, 5/15).

Arizona Republic: Senate Debates Brewer's Plan To Expand Health Care Program For Poor Today
Dueling rallies at the Capitol on Wednesday over expansion of Medicaid eligibility foreshadowed what’s expected to be a long, vitriolic fight today in the state Senate about the future of Arizona’s health care program for the poor. Gov. Jan Brewer’s Medicaid plan is expected to be offered as an amendment to a budget-related bill during debate on the fiscal 2014 spending plan, which is scheduled to begin this morning, officially putting the enormous health care policy package in play and moving the governor one step closer to realizing her top legislative priority (Reinhart, 5/16).

KQED/State Of Health: Brown Backs State-Run Medi-Cal Expansion
Gov. Jerry Brown’s revised budget plan is a mixed bag for health advocates and some county officials. Brown said the state would take the lead on a key provision of the federal health law — expanding Medi-Cal to more than one million Californians. Brown scrapped earlier plans to consider a more complicated, county-based system. But Brown anticipates recouping more than $300 million from the counties next fiscal year – money that pays for public health programs and care for the uninsured. Brown’s rationale? With the full implementation of federal health reform next year, more people will enroll in Medi-Cal and fewer people will show up to county emergency rooms (Kim, 5/15).

California Healthline: State Still Looks To Dun County Funds In Medi-Cal Expansion Proposal
The optional expansion of Medi-Cal will be administered using a state-based approach rather than the county-based plan being considered by California officials, the governor said yesterday when he proposed his May revise, the mid-year revision of the state budget. That comes as welcome news to county health officials who have cautioned for months that a county-based system would be more confusing and costly than a state-based approach (Gorn, 5/15).

California Healthline: What The Oregon Study Says (Or Doesn't) About Medicaid
The results of the so-called Oregon Health Study, which appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this month, prompted a firestorm of commentary from health care and health policy experts. Many health care blogs have weighed in on the study, and a deep gulf has emerged between those who think the findings confirm the mission of the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid and those who think the results are proof that the program is ineffective (Wayt, 5/15).

State Roundup: N.D. Abortion Clinic Sues To Stop New Law

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:42:00 GMT

A selection of health policy stories from North Dakota, Connecticut, California, Massachusetts, Texas, Oregon, Oklahoma and North Carolina.

The New York Times: North Dakota's Sole Abortion Clinic Sues To Block New Law
The running battle over the regulation of abortions entered a North Dakota courtroom on Wednesday, as the state’s sole abortion clinic sued to block a new law that it says could force it to shut down. The law, requiring doctors performing abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, was promoted by anti-abortion legislators, who argued that it would mean better care for women who suffer medical emergencies (Eckholm, 5/15).

CT Mirror: Big Health Care Savings Help Counter Shrinking State Budget Revenues
State officials trying to close a last-minute hole in the next budget got some good news Wednesday in the form of major savings in health care costs for retired state employees. The Legislature’s nonpartisan Office of Fiscal Analysis issued a memo indicating it has reduced its projected cost of providing health care to retired state workers in the fiscal year that begins July 1 by $140.6 million, and in 2014-15 by $166.5 million. The nonpartisan office is boosting the projected health care costs for current employees by $46.7 million in the next budget and by $36.4 million in 2014-15, but the net savings over the next two years still totals $224 million (Phaneuf, 5/15).

HealthyCal: Counties Still Not Prepared To Offer Expanded Mental Health Care
More than one million people in California suffer from mental illness -- the largest number of any state. When the final phase of the new federal health care law starts in January of next year, more California residents than ever before will be able to seek help for problems ranging from depression, anxiety, and addiction to schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. But mental health providers in the state’s Central Valley are unprepared for an influx of thousands of patients (5/16).

Boston Globe: State Health Insurers Post Mixed Financial Results
The state’s biggest health insurers reported mixed first-quarter financial results Wednesday, with two notching income gains, one registering lower earnings, and one posting a loss. While all of the health insurance companies said they were working to hold down premiums as they rolled out new products and shifted doctors and hospitals to risk-sharing payments, each cited unique factors influencing financial performance in the three months ending March 31 (Weisman, 5/15).

Los Angeles Times: 13 Health Care Workers Arrested In Protest At UC Regents Meeting
Thirteen people were arrested Wednesday at the UC regents meeting during a sit-down protest by health care workers threatening to strike at the system's medical centers. The University of California regents left during the protest while UC police cleared the room, handcuffing the protesters and leading them out of the hall at the Sacramento Convention Center (Gordon, 5/15).

The Texas Tribune: Senate Backs Bill On Psychotropic Drugs For Foster Kids
Lawmakers in both chambers have now endorsed legislation that would require guardians of foster children to take greater caution before giving psychotropic drugs to the children. The Senate on Wednesday approved a version of the "informed consent" measure that is slightly different than the one approved by the House in April (Aaronson, 5/15).

Lund Report: Oregon House Passes Assessments For Hospitals And Nursing Facilities
The House passed assessment taxes on hospitals and long-term care facilities by a wide 54-5 margin Tuesday, ensuring Oregon’s health and human service budgets will raise over a billion dollars from providers in coming years and leverage $1.4 billion from the federal government next biennium for Medicaid. Hospitals are compensated for their assessments with higher reimbursements for the Oregon Health Plan while nursing homes are paid for the use of their beds by Medicaid patients. … House Bill 2216 extends an expanded hospital assessment of 5.32 percent for two years. A previous bill, House Bill 2056, was attached to that version, which extends the long-term care facility assessment for six years, while expanding it to include all nursing homes except the Oregon Veterans Home (Gray, 5/15).

Lund Report: Single-Payer Activists Keep Dream Of Universal Health Care Alive In Oregon
Wes Brain was uninsured last winter when a tonsillectomy showed signs of throat cancer. He qualified for the high-risk Oregon Medical Insurance Pool, which the state has administered through Regence BlueCross BlueShield. But gaining access to that insurance soon proved a big obstacle for the Ashland resident, when Regence erroneously told him he hadn't submitted his driver's license. … Eventually, his policy was approved. He paid $2400 -- three month’s premium. His doctor ordered a PET scan for March 1. But then Regence came back and told him no, he’d have to wait until March 1 to even begin authorization (Gray, 5/15).

Stateline: Oklahoma's "Life-Preserving" Law Raises Questions For Doctors
University of Tulsa law professor Marguerite Chapman has been studying end-of-life issues in Oklahoma for three decades and has come to a conclusion: "It's getting almost to the point that you need a government permit in order to die in this state." Certainly, dying has gotten a lot more complicated here, the result of a unique measure passed by the Oklahoma legislature and signed into law last month by Republican Gov. Mary Fallin. Modeled after legislation written by the National Right to Life Committee, the law says that patients who are disabled, elderly or terminally ill cannot be denied life-preserving treatments if they or their health proxies want it (Ollove, 5/16).

North Carolina Health News: Bill To Compel Insurers To Cover Autism Treatment Advances
For kids with autism in North Carolina, it’s possible to get insurance coverage for the process of diagnosing the developmental disorder. But for the bulk of those kids, getting an insurance company to cover treatment is another matter (Hoban, 5/15).

Oregonian: Mental Health Staff In Oregon Prison System Push For Big Raises
A group of unionized mental health workers in the Oregon state prison system wants a pay raise that even they acknowledge is big enough to cause a public relations problem. About 50 mental health specialists who handle inmates with addictions and other mental health problems want to be reclassified because their job descriptions have changed, including a requirement of a master's degree. Under their current proposal, they're seeking raises between 25 percent and 26 percent, which would result in a maximum salary of more than $80,000, according to a memo obtained by The Oregonian (Esteve, 5/15).

Viewpoints: Controversy Taints IRS Efforts On Health Law; Another Chance To 'Gut' The Overhaul In The Courts; Salt Wrongly Accused

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:26:29 GMT

The Wall Street Journal: Your Next IRS Political Audit
Even as the politicized tax enforcement scandal expands, the Internal Revenue Service continues to expand its political powers thanks to the Affordable Care Act. A larger government always creates more openings for abuse, as Americans will learn when the IRS starts auditing their health care in addition to their 1040 next year (5/14).

The Washington Post's The Plum Line: Why Washington Scandal-Mania May Save Medicare And Social Security
Liberals who are dreading the scandal-mania that is taking hold should note that it contains a potential upside: It could make a Grand Bargain that includes cuts to Medicare and Social Security benefits even less likely than it already is. That's because when scandal grips Washington, a president actually needs his core supporters more than ever to ward it off, making it harder to do anything that will alienate them (Greg Sargent, 5/14).

New Republic: The Supreme Court Is About To Get Another Chance To Gut Obamacare
(Michael) Carvin's legal argument, which originated with CATO Institute economist Michael Cannon and Western Reserve law professor Jonathan Adler, is that, due to a drafting glitch in the ACA, only state-run exchanges, not federal ones, can provide tax credits and subsidies to enable lower-income individuals to afford ACA-mandated health insurance. ... So, could rejectionists have any basis for hoping to overturn Treasury's rule? Yes, they could. All the Obama administration's arguments, however well-founded, could be shoved aside, if the case reaches the Supreme Court, and the Court's conservative bloc deploys a "methodology," long touted by Justice Antonin Scalia, for interpreting statutes. Scalia's approach, which he calls "textualism," holds that judges must tease out the meaning of individual statutory words or phrases in isolation, rather than giving weight to the statute's overall structure, design, purpose, or legislative history (Simon Lazarus, 5/13).

The New York Times' Economix: Patterns Of Changes In Health Insurance
A number of industries can expect big changes in employee health insurance in the next year or two, while others will continue with business as usual (Casey B. Mulligan, 5/15).

Arizona Republic: Fiscal Risks Of Not Expanding Medicaid
Opponents of Gov. Jan Brewer's Medicaid expansion proposal are recklessly minimizing the risk to the (state) of not participating. Arizona is in an unusual position regarding this issue. Most states offer very little Medicaid coverage to childless adults. So, for them, expanding coverage to 133 percent of the federal poverty level is a very big step. And even the 10 percent of that expansion they will end up having to pay under Obamacare is a big bill (Robert Robb, 5/14).

Politico: Fixing The VA-DOD Health System Fiasco
As health care plans nationwide enter the home stretch of implementing electronic records under the framework of the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act, and military service disability claims backlogs grow in size and attention, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Pentagon need a much more coherent approach to modernize and deploy their electronic health record systems (Peter Levin, 5/15).

Medpage Today: Hospitals In Crisis: The Effects Of Obamacare
Under the Affordable Care Act's Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, hospitals that readmit certain patients within 30 days of discharge could face significant penalties. Under the Affordable Care Act's Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, hospitals that readmit certain patients within 30 days of discharge could face significant penalties. The question is whether hospitals really have that much control over factors leading to readmission and whether they are really at fault (Dr. Sreedhar Potarazu, 5/14).

The New York Times: Doubts About Restricting Salt
After years of warnings to cut sodium consumption to reduce heart attacks and strokes, it is disturbing to learn how little evidence exists that such reductions would actually be beneficial to health. There is even emerging evidence that some groups in the population could suffer harm from levels that are too low (5/14).

Los Angeles Times: Doctoring In A Family Way
New policies proposed in April by the Residency Review Committee for Family Medicine, or RRC, the group that outlines requirements for physician training programs nationwide, threaten to interfere with that comprehensive care and to decrease reproductive health access for women like Jennifer. The proposed RRC changes would eliminate the current requirement that family medicine residents learn full-scope reproductive healthcare. Instead, the decision to teach these skills would be up to the discretion of individual residency programs. Family doctors would no longer be required to learn how to prescribe birth control, place intrauterine devices or contraceptive implants, provide options counseling for women with unintended pregnancies or diagnose and manage miscarriages (Alison Block, 5/15).

USA Today: Angelina Jolie, Breast Cancer Fighter: Our View
While her message was brave and important, it's equally important to note that Jolie is among an extremely small percentage of women with an unusually high risk of breast cancer due to her family history and her gene mutation. Only about 1 percent of women test positive for mutations to the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes that signal elevated risk for breast and ovarian cancer, and most women who develop breast cancer can be successfully treated with less radical treatment if the cancer is caught early (5/14).

Health Policy Solutions (a Colo. news service): The Ethically Slippery Slope Of Assisted Suicide
While New Mexico and other states are grappling with the question of whether to allow doctors to write prescriptions for drugs that terminally ill patients can take to commit suicide, countries such as Belgium and The Netherlands are pushing the envelope in distressing ways. For those who claim there is no evidence of a slippery slope in abuse of physician-assisted suicide once implemented, I offer several problems presented by the Belgium and Netherlands experiments. In these countries, it is legal for physicians to directly euthanize patients (Dr. Anthony Vigil, 5/14).

Health Policy Solutions (a Colo. news service): Making Sense Of Variation In Health Care Pricing
Some have been outraged by the seemingly pointless variation in charges the Medicare data shows. However, some variation in the base charges for hospital services does make sense. Facilities and providers alike need to charge differently depending on how sick and complicated their patients are, whether they have additional overhead costs because they are a teaching facility, number of patients receiving charity care, etc. The more important task, though, is to figure out where variation is not adding value and to identify opportunities to get health care spending under control (Phil Kalin, 5/15).

Hospitals: Calif. Bidding War Intensifies; Va. System Eyes Children's Facility

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:25:00 GMT

The business of hospitals makes news in California -- where sides are engaged in a bidding war to buy a famed Santa Monica hospital; Virginia -- where pediatricians eye a new children's hospital; and Oregon, where lawmakers passed a new hospital tax.

Los Angeles Times: St. John's Bidding War Escalates
A high-stakes bidding war has erupted for St. John's Health Center, a storied Santa Monica hospital, with a local billionaire teaming up with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles on an unsolicited offer. The latest bid, expected to be formally announced Wednesday, comes from former drug-company executive and health care entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, who said in a statement the bid has the support of the archdiocese (Terhune, 5/15).

Richmond Times-Dispatch: Pediatricians Work Toward Children’s Facility
In the past three years, Bon Secours Virginia Health System has boosted the number of pediatric specialists in its physician network to 77, probably double what it was before, as its builds its St. Mary’s for Kids brand. … The "hope" he refers to is the prospect that Richmond will one day have an independently operated, free-standing children’s hospital that would consolidate most pediatric care in the region under that facility’s umbrella. For such an entity to stand a chance of financial success in Richmond, the major hospital systems -- Bon Secours, VCU Health System and HCA -- would have to stop offering most pediatric services at their hospitals (Smith, 5/15).

Oregonian: Oregon House Passes Hospital Tax, But It’s Still Part Of Senate PERS Debate
The Oregon House approved a major piece of the Oregon Health Authority’s budget Tuesday, including provisions extending taxes on hospitals and long-term care facilities, but the bill appears destined to be held up by Senate Republicans. The two taxes were drawn into a larger debate over taxes and public pension spending last week after Republicans cast protest votes against House Bill 2216 in the Legislature’s budget committee (Gaston, 5/14).

Miss. Dems Continue Work To Keep Medicaid Expansion Plans Alive; GOP Lawmakers Offer Proposals To Compete With Ariz. Gov.'s Expansion Vision

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:24:45 GMT

In addition, Florida health experts say that state's decision not to pursue the expansion is "bad for business."

The Associated Press: Dems Work On Miss. Medicaid Expansion
Democrats in the Mississippi Legislature say they're working on proposals to keep Medicaid alive and funded in the budget year that starts July 1. They say they're doing this in case Republican Gov. Phil Bryant calls a special session before the end of June. However, Bryant said last week he believes he can run Medicaid without legislative authorization — even with no budget in place (5/15).

Arizona Republic: 2 New Ideas For Medicaid In Arizona
After four months of pondering Gov. Jan Brewer’s plan to broaden Medicaid eligibility under the federal health-care overhaul, Republican leaders of the Arizona House and Senate released competing plans on Tuesday almost simultaneously. Neither is likely to pass muster with the governor, because one would not expand the state’s Medicaid program and the other sends the entire matter to the ballot. But the proposal from Senate President Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, contained in his fiscal 2014 budget plan, set the legislative wheels in motion after months of inaction (Reinhart, 5/14).

Health News Florida: Health Experts On Medicaid Rejection: 'Bad For Business'
The Florida Legislature's decision against expanding Medicaid will saddle the state’s employers with higher health care costs and was "bad for business," health care experts told business leaders on Tuesday. Florida corporations have been "too quiet" about Medicaid expansion and other health care issues, and should make elected officials aware of their displeasure before the damage gets worse, said William Kramer, a national health policy leader in San Francisco who works with corporations (Lamendola, 5/15).

Calif. Health Exchange Awards $37 Million For Health Law Education Efforts

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:24:00 GMT

The grants will go to 48 organizations to help the state explain benefits, show consumers how to access insurance and encourage small businesses to participate.

Los Angeles Times: California Health Insurance Exchange Announces Grants
Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange, announced $37 million in grants Tuesday to begin the massive task of educating millions of Californians about the new healthcare law. The grants will go to 48 organizations, including universities, nonprofit groups, health foundations and unions. They will help state officials explain the new benefits, show people how to access insurance, and encourage small businesses to enroll (Gorman, 5/14).

CQ HealthBeat: Health Insurance Exchange Helpers Prepare In California
When enrollment in the health care law’s new insurance exchanges opens in October, the prospects for success will turn on a crucial element: people who actually understand health insurance coverage and can explain it in plain language to consumers. Many Americans who will be signing up may never have had insurance in the past or aren’t fluent in English or might have trouble figuring out which plan will be best for their pocketbook and health condition (Norman, 5/14).

And in Maryland -

The Associated Press/Washington Post: State Officials Urge Faith Leaders To Spread Word About New Health Insurance Options
Maryland health advocates urged religious leaders on Tuesday to learn more about how federal health care reform will be implemented in the state so they can pass information on to uninsured congregants. About 150 leaders gathered for the first summit of its kind in the state (5/14).

Vermont Lawmakers OK Doc-Assisted Suicide

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:23:38 GMT

The state will become the first to use a legislative vote to legalize physician-assisted suicide after the governor, who has expressed his support for the measure, signs the bill.

The Wall Street Journal: Lawmakers in Vermont Approve Assisted Suicide
Vermont is poised to become the third state in the nation to allow physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients who want to die. State lawmakers on Monday night approved an assisted-suicide bill, which now awaits the signature of Gov. Peter Shumlin, a first-term Democrat who has said he would sign it, likely within a week. Once enacted, Vermont would be the first state to decriminalize assisted suicide through a legislative vote (Gershman, 5/14).

Politico: Vermont OKs Assisted Suicide Bill
The approval of an assisted suicide bill in Vermont brings to a close a 10-year battle in the state over the issue and delivers the third state-level victory for advocates seeking to advance the policy nationwide. But the national implications for the bill -- which won legislative approval Monday night and allows doctors to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to some terminally ill patients -- are tough to pinpoint (Cheney, 5/15).

Medpage Today: Vermont Passes Assisted Suicide Bill
Vermont will soon become the fourth state to allow physician-assisted suicide now that state lawmakers there have passed a bill allowing the practice. The bill, the Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act, next heads to the desk of Gov. Peter Shumlin (D), who is expected to sign the bill into law, having previously expressed his support for it. Taking effect July 1, the law would absolve healthcare professionals licensed in the state of civil or criminal liability if a terminally ill patient self-administers a lethal dose of a drug meant to treat their condition. The physician is required to have examined the patient, who must be expected to live no more than 6 months (Pittman, 5/14).

Medicaid: Lawsuit Alleges Conn. Application Backlog Breaks Federal Law

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:23:00 GMT

Medicaid doctors continue to wait for their pay raise -- five months after they were supposed to get it. In Connecticut, some allege a backlog of applications for the program breaks federal law, and are suing to stop it.

Kaiser Health News: Capsules: Most Doctors Still Waiting On Medicaid Pay Raise
Five months after primary care doctors who treat Medicaid patients were supposed get a big pay raise, most physicians have yet to see it. Only three states have implemented the pay raise -- Nevada, Michigan and Massachusetts, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians (Galewitz, 5/14).

CT Mirror: Suit Hammers Huge Medicaid Backlog, Long Waits
Every month, thousands of poor state residents go without health care coverage while their applications for Medicaid linger, without being approved or denied, for longer than federal law allows. The numbers "tell the whole story," attorney Sheldon Toubman said Tuesday at the start of a trial in Hartford centered on allegations that the state Department of Social Services doesn't have enough workers to handle Medicaid applications within federally required time frames (Becker, 5/14).

State Roundup: Veto Of Medical Charity Tax Break Scrutinized In Ga.

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:23:00 GMT

A selection of health policy stories from California, Georgia, New York, Florida, California and Kansas.

Los Angeles Times: Gov. Jerry Brown Unveils Cautious Budget For Deficit-Free State
But Brown vowed to continue to resist pressure from fellow Democrats and interest groups to restore some money to adult dental care and to doctors who treat the poor. … Sacramento will oversee the expansion this year of Medi-Cal, California's health care program for the poor, to more than 1 million Californians who do not have health insurance now. Under Brown's plan, the newly insured would be offered the same benefits as those already covered by the public program, a shift from January. Then, the governor did not include stays in rehabilitation facilities and other long-term care for those who will become eligible for Medi-Cal for the first time next year (Megerian, 5/14).

Sacramento Bee: Gov. Jerry Brown Takes Cautious Approach On California Budget
Gov. Jerry Brown, dismissive of a surge in state tax revenue that stirred optimism at the Capitol, moved Tuesday to blunt appeals for increased spending, downgrading his budget proposal from January. The budget revision -- an annual exercise opening a month of negotiation with the Legislature -- threatened to strain Brown's relationship with Democratic lawmakers and with social service advocates who called Brown's estimates overly conservative and who are lobbying to restore programs cut during the recession (Siders, 5/14).

Georgia Health News: Veto Sidetracks Tax Break For Medical Charities
Among Gov. Nathan Deal’s five vetoes this year, probably the most surprising one targeted a bill that would have given sales tax breaks to charitable medical clinics, federally qualified health centers, food banks and other charities. The measure, House Bill 193, had overwhelming legislative support. It passed the House unanimously during the 2013 legislative session, and the Senate approved it 52-2. The legislation would have restored sales tax exemptions for community health centers and volunteer charity clinics – tax breaks that had sunset (expired automatically) in 2010 (Miller, 5/14).

The New York Times: Archbishop Presses Cuomo Over Abortion
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan declined on Tuesday to say whether Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was "a Catholic in good standing," as he ratcheted up his criticism of the governor's continued advocacy for abortion rights (McKinley, 5/14).

NPR: How A Florida Medical School Cares For Communities In Need
Brown helps direct FIU's Neighborhood HELP program. It's part of the school's curriculum that connects medical students with families in neighborhoods where medical care is scarce. Students visit families in their homes where they conduct examinations and provide basic care. But some things are better done in a clinic. So the medical school bought its own RV. "We're able to bring free basic primary care to our households relatively close to their community," Brown says (Allen, 5/15).

Health News Florida: Prescription Drug Deaths Drop In Tampa Bay
New data reveals the Tampa Bay area's prescription drug problem is on the decline. The number of accidental drug deaths in at least four local counties has dropped since 2010. Pinellas, Pasco, Hillsborough and Hernando counties have all seen a decline in drug overdoses over the last two years (Saleh, 5/15).

HealthyCal: Poor Health Care Moving From Prison To Jails
California’s sweeping criminal justice reform plan was meant to sharply reduce the state’s prison population. But the changes may have also had the unintended consequence of passing along to county jails the biggest problem associated with overcrowding -- poor health care. The reform, also known as prison realignment or AB 109, transferred authority for people convicted of certain non-violent felonies from the state to the counties in 2011 (Flynn, 5/15).

Kansas Health Institute: Kansas Drug Disposal Program Collects 6,000 Pounds Of Medications In First Year
Pharmacist Lori Murdock said she often heard the question even from people who weren’t her customers: How do we get rid of our old drugs? As the owner of Cedar Creek Pharmacy in this western Johnson County community, Murdock responded by signing up a couple months ago for the medication disposal program run by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (Sherry, 5/14).

California Healthline: Stop-Loss Bill Heads For Senate Floor Vote
The Senate Committee on Appropriations yesterday approved a bill to ban a certain type of selection criteria when insurers issue stop-loss health care coverage to small employers. … The bill would end the practice of cherry-picking healthy employees from the pool of workers within small businesses by stop-loss insurers, said Beth Capell, legislative advocate for Health Access California (Gorn, 5/14).

First Edition: May 15, 2013

Wed, 15 May 2013 11:33:15 GMT

Today's headlines include reports about how the latest Congressional Budget Office projections could further stall efforts to reach a grand bargain that includes changes to Medicare and other entitlement programs.

Kaiser Health News: Doctors Transform How They Practice Medicine
Kaiser Health News staff writer Ankita Rao reports: "The buzz, and anxiety, in the medical profession is palpable – trade magazines tout new coping strategies, doctor groups discuss the transformation of practices. Physicians are experimenting with business models and new practice techniques, hoping to find work that is both financially and personally rewarding" (Rao, 5/15). Read the story.

Kaiser Health News: Capsules: GOP Raises Concerns About 'Sebelius Shakedown'; Most Doctors Still Waiting On Medicaid Pay Raise; Angelina Jolie, Genetic Testing, And The ACA
Now on Kaiser Health News’ blog, Mary Agnes Carey reports on reactions from Republican lawmakers regarding health law fundraising activities: "Senate GOP leaders Tuesday took issue with Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for soliciting money from private groups to implement the law. Noting the Internal Revenue Service scrutiny of conservative political organizations, the Republicans also said the IRS can’t be trusted to implement the health law" (Carey, 5/15).

In addition, Phil Galewitz reports on the status of a much-awaited Medicaid pay raise: "Five months after primary care doctors who treat Medicaid patients were supposed get a big pay raise, most physicians have yet to see it. Only three states have implemented the pay raise — Nevada, Michigan and Massachusetts, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians" (Galewitz, 5/14).

Also on Capsules, Diane Webber reports on some questions and answers about genetic testing and inherited cancer risks: "Dr. Otis Brawley, the chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, is on the record with a quick post on Angelina Jolie's startling announcement in a New York Times op-ed that she has had a prophylactic double mastectomy to cut her inherited risk of breast cancer. Jolie's mother, actress Marcheline Bertrand, died of cancer at age 56, and Jolie found through genetic testing that she carries the BRCA1 gene. Brawley, who has been an outspoken critic of overtesting, answers many important questions that Jolie's decision raises" (Webber, 5/14). Check out what else is on the blog.

The New York Times: U.S. Budget Deficit Shrinks Far Faster Than Expected
In revising its estimates for the current year, the budget office also cut its projections of the 10-year cumulative deficit by $618 billion. Those longer-term adjustments are mostly a result of smaller projected outlays for the entitlement programs of Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, as well as smaller interest payments on the debt. The report noted that the growth in health care costs seemed to have slowed — a trend that, if it lasted, would eliminate much of the budget pressure and probably help restore a stronger economy as well. The C.B.O. has quietly erased hundreds of billions of dollars in projected government health spending over the last few years (Lowrey, 5/14).

Los Angeles Times: Federal Deficit Shrinks At Surprising Rate
Three major factors account for most of the long-term improvement: a better economy, a continued slowdown in the rate of medical inflation — which reduces the cost of Medicare and Medicaid — and higher taxes that Congress approved as part of the "fiscal cliff" deal in January, the budget office said. In addition, the automatic budget cuts that took effect this spring have reduced spending in the short term. … The numbers have an important political impact. Republicans have pushed for big reductions in government programs this year, arguing that the country could face a debt crisis if spending is not curtailed. The Obama administration and congressional Democrats have argued that big new reductions have less urgency because the budget picture is already getting better. The new figures from the budget office, which both parties rely on as a nonpartisan arbiter, will probably give more impetus to the Democrats' position (Lauter, 5/14).

The Washington Post: CBO Sees Brighter Economy With Budget Deficit To Plunge To $642 Billion This Year
After 2015, the CBO forecasts that deficits will gradually begin rising again as the baby-boom generation taps into Social Security and Medicare. Although borrowing will stabilize, the national debt will remain at historically high levels, the CBO said, stuck above 70 percent of the economy throughout the next decade. … Still, the improvement in the short-term forecast has removed the air of crisis that has hovered around the budget deficit since President Obama took office. On Tuesday, some analysts urged congressional Republicans to call an end to their fixation on budget cutting (Montgomery, 5/14).

The Wall Street Journal: Deficit Is Shrinking Quickly
A rapidly shrinking federal budget deficit is upending bipartisan talks to reach a federal budget deal, illustrating the conundrum Washington faces with an improving near-term fiscal outlook but continued longer-term pressures tied to aging baby boomers. … The White House and Republicans have been locked in a budget fight since 2011, leading to a number of piecemeal deals that have reduced the deficit by both raising taxes and cutting spending. White House officials have said they want more tax increases while Republicans have called for structural changes to Medicare and Medicaid, the two sprawling government health-care programs, while saying they won't back new tax increases. Earlier this year, a bipartisan effort was under way to lock in more deficit cuts, particularly later in the decade, but those talks have stalled in recent weeks, in part because of the shrinking deficit (Paletta, 5/14).

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Projected Lower Deficit This Year Could Further Slow Any Demand For Big Budget Deal
Now, the improving picture seems likely to make it more difficult for events to force Washington’s exhausted budget combatants closer to a deal. For starters, it means that the deadline for increasing the government’s borrowing cap has been postponed until October or November, the CBO said. It had been expected that lawmakers would have had to act this summer to increase the so-called debt limit, which could have been a catalyst for a broader budget deal (5/14).

The New York Times’ Political Memo: For Republicans, Incentives To Strike A Budget Deal With Obama
Ask around the White House and the Capitol, and you will quickly find reasons to doubt that Republicans will compromise with President Obama on a budget deal that includes more tax increases and spending cuts in social programs. … Delaying steps to rein in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the subjects of Republican doomsday warnings for years, means delaying significant attempts to curb the size of the government. The longer the delay, the sharper and more immediate the changes Washington must eventually make to ease the long-term fiscal squeeze (Harwood, 5/14).

The New York Times: House To Vote Yet Again On Repealing Health Care Law
The 37th time won’t be the charm. But House Republicans are charging forward anyway this week on a vote to repeal President Obama’s signature health care overhaul, which will put the number of times they have tried to eliminate, defund or curtail the law past the three-dozen mark (Peters, 5/14).

The Washington Post’s Fact Checker: How Many Pages Of Regulations For 'Obamacare'?
Rep. Richard Hudson this week offered such an astonishing figure — 33,000 pages of "Obamacare" regulations! — that we immediately wanted to know more. But it turns out that Rep. Hudson got a little bit ahead of himself. An aide said that he misspoke and meant to say 13,000 pages. "Whether it is 13,000, 22,000 or 33,000, it is too many," the aide added. But then it turns out that Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has actually tweeted a photograph of this stack of paper. By his math, the Obama administration has issued 20,000 pages of regulations "associated" with the new law (Kessler, 5/15).

The Wall Street Journal: Health-Law Costs Slow Some Fast-Food Chains
Some restaurant operators are scaling back expansion plans because of uncertainty about the expense of insuring employees under the new federal health-care law. The concerns are especially acute among smaller operators who are more likely to be on the cusp of the Affordable Care Act's requirements for increased coverage of workers. The doubt is adding to anxiety over other rising costs for items like ingredients at a time when diners are cutting back on eating out (Jargon, 5/14).

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Doctors And Nurses Among Nearly 100 Charged In $223 Million Medicare Fraud Busts In 8 Cities
Nearly 100 people, including 14 doctors and nurses, were charged for their roles in separate Medicare scams that collectively billed the taxpayer-funded program for roughly $223 million in bogus charges in a massive bust spanning eight cities, federal authorities said Tuesday. It was the latest in a string of similar announcements by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Attorney General Eric Holder as federal authorities crack down on fraud that’s believed to cost the program between $60 billion and $90 billion each year (5/14).

The New York Times: Covering The Rising Cost Of Long-Term Care
A 2013 report by Genworth Financial, an insurance provider based in Waltham, Mass., estimates the national median daily cost of a private room in a nursing home at $230 a day, an increase of 3.6 percent over 2012 — some $6,900 per month. Sharing that room is only $27 less a day, according to the report (Kelly, 5/14).

Los Angeles Times: Gov. Jerry Brown Unveils Cautious Budget For Deficit-Free State
But Brown vowed to continue to resist pressure from fellow Democrats and interest groups to restore some money to adult dental care and to doctors who treat the poor. For upcoming contract negotiations with the state's big public-employee unions, the governor said the state "is aiming low." … Sacramento will oversee the expansion this year of Medi-Cal, California's healthcare program for the poor, to more than 1 million Californians who do not have health insurance now. Under Brown's plan, the newly insured would be offered the same benefits as those already covered by the public program, a shift from January. Then, the governor did not include stays in rehabilitation facilities and other long-term care for those who will become eligible for Medi-Cal for the first time next year (Megerian, 5/14).

Los Angeles Times: St. John's Bidding War Escalates
A high-stakes bidding war has erupted for St. John's Health Center, a storied Santa Monica hospital, with a local billionaire teaming up with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles on an unsolicited offer. The latest bid, expected to be formally announced Wednesday, comes from former drug-company executive and healthcare entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong, who said in a statement the bid has the support of the archdiocese (Terhune, 5/15).

The New York Times: Archbishop Presses Cuomo Over Abortion
Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan declined on Tuesday to say whether Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo was “a Catholic in good standing,” as he ratcheted up his criticism of the governor’s continued advocacy for abortion rights (McKinley, 5/14).

Politico: Vermont Oks Assisted Suicide Bill
The approval of an assisted suicide bill in Vermont brings to a close a 10-year battle in the state over the issue and delivers the third state-level victory for advocates seeking to advance the policy nationwide. But the national implications for the bill — which won legislative approval Monday night and allows doctors to prescribe lethal doses of drugs to some terminally ill patients — are tough to pinpoint (Cheney, 5/15).

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