AJMC Staff

A California law that requires clinics to notify women that abortions paid for by the state are available has been ruled a violation of free speech rights; half of all workers in the United States have health insurance with a deductible of at least $1000, which is up from 22% in 2009; a new study found that more seniors insured by Medicare are dying at home instead of a hospital.

A look at what considerations small businesses need to weigh before buying insurance through an association health plan; a new survey of adult survivors of childhood cancer found that they are less concerned about their future health than their siblings; the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy is looking into a case in which a woman prescribed a drug to end her pregnancy was denied it by the pharmacist.

Twenty-five percent of Texas children—who are citizens—have at least 1 US parent who is not, and the fear of being discovered by immigration officials is causing families to drop out of Medicaid and other assistance programs for which they are eligible; the House of Representatives passed bipartisan opioid legislation; Michigan Governor Rick Snyder signed a bill implementing work requirements in Medicaid.

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A Trump plan to consolidate government would change responsibilities of FDA, HHS, and other agencies; a new website spotlights gaps in pandemic preparedness; health insurer Cigna announced a plan to reduce opioid overdoses.

Although the Trump administration has slowly been chipping away at the Affordable Care Act (ACA), health insurers are feeling more confident in the ACA marketplaces; New York and Massachusetts are suing the administration over the fact that association health plans can bypass many of the ACA's requirements; a new flu vaccine was slightly more effective in seniors during last winter.

The Trump administration is proposing to halt the public disclosure of hospital infections on the CMS Hospital Compare website; the American Medical Association (AMA) is opposing the proposed merger between CVS Health and Aetna after an analysis of the impact; and health experts are warning about the short- and long-term health impacts of the current zero tolerance immigration policy.

A conservative coalition is pushing a plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), but centrist Republicans getting ready for the midterm elections have no interest in it; the World Health Organization has unveiled the 11th version of its International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11); doctors in Puerto Rico are seeing a stunning rise in the number and severity of asthma cases that they attribute to destruction caused by Hurricane Maria last September.

Oral arguments were held in a closely watched case involving Medicaid work requirements in Kentucky; an advisory panel to Francis Collins, MD, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), recommended ending a controversial $100 million study looking at the health effects of moderate drinking; the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is warning that migrant children who are forcibly taken from their parents are at risk of long-term health effects.

The federal government does not have to pay insurers money as part of an Affordable Care Act (ACA) program that enticed them to participate in the markets; there is a hepatitis A outbreak among drug users and the homeless occurring in 6 states; teenagers in the United States are not only exhibiting less risky behaviors, such as smoking and doing drugs, but they are also drinking less milk.

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The Trump administration and advocacy groups meet in federal court Friday over whether the HHS secretary has the authority to allow Kentucky to set a work requirement and other conditions on people receiving Medicaid; the New England Journal of Medicine retracted a notable paper about the benefits of following a Mediterranean diet and replaced it with one with softer language; California’s nonprofit hospitals are providing significantly less free and reduced-cost medical care, a union report says.

The Department of Justice (DOJ)’s legal brief in the Texas case against the Affordable Care Act (ACA) could have far-reaching ramifications besides ending protections for people with pre-existing conditions; 1 in 5 Medicare patients sent from the hospital to a nursing home boomerang back within 30 days, often for potentially preventable conditions; Anthem, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, and UnitedHealth Group are among insurers scrutinizing the cost of emergency department (ED) visits.

Republican and Democratic members on the House Energy and Commerce Committee questioned whether the FDA's criminal investigators are effective at blocking illegal drugs, including unapproved opioids, at US ports of entry; public health officials worry proposed HHS changes to move family planning funding toward groups that may not provide reproductive health and sexual health services will cripple other federal efforts to curb a rise in sexually transmitted diseases; leaders of a now-shelved, controversial study examining whether moderate drinking is beneficial for human health may have violated federal law.

This year's flu season was the deadliest season for children in nearly a decade; pre-cut melons are likely the source of the latest salmonella outbreak; and the FDA has reprimanded AbbVie over failing to properly probe patient death complaints.

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Researchers have developed an inexpensive blood test they say can predict a pregnant women’s due date and potentially identify women at risk for of preterm birth; Virginia's governor has expanded Medicaid in the state; and the American Medical Association is expected to take a stance on over-the-counter birth control this weekend.

President Trump has signed off on a bill to expand private care access for veterans; the Michigan House passed a revised Medicaid work requirement bill; and HHS will allow insurers to use a workaround for 2019 prices.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a vote for the Creating and Restoring Equal Access to Equivalent Samples (CREATES) Act; the FDA is targeting websites illegally marketing and selling opioids; and the White House has dropped its proposal to cut Ebola funding amid the outbreak in Congo.

A state judge in Maine ordered Goveror Paul LePage’s administration to stop stalling and implement a Medicaid expansion; the National Institutes of Health reported on a treatment that eradicated cancer from a patient who had untreatable, advanced breast cancer; citing changes to the Affordable Care Act, insurers are proposing double-digit rate hikes for 2019.

Heath advocates in other states are hopeful about Medicaid expansion after Virginia expanded healthcare for the poor last week; prices of drugs containing estradiol have doubled in the past 5 years; an entrepreneur from Colorado is pitching a plan to save a tiny, bankrupt rural hospital in California by using the 26-bed hospital to bill insurers for lab tests via telemedicine.

Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, wrote FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, to make clear the intent of the federal “right-to-try” law he authored; the number of opioid prescriptions has fallen by 22% between 2013 and 2017; inadequate record-keeping, policy gaps and limited research are leaving military veterans in limbo and struggling to get care from the Department of Veterans Affairs if their claims for brain injuries are related to the use of weapons in training instead of in combat.

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President Donald Trump has signed the so-called "right-to-try" bill into law, and claimed that it would result in lower drug prices within weeks; New Jersey will implememt a statewide individual mandate requiring residents to have health insurance or pay a fee; in the United States, poor people are dying younger, with low socioeconomic status leading to people being sicker and dying earlier.

WellCare Health Plans will expand its government-sponsored health plans by purchasing Meridian; the Virginia Senate appears to have enough votes Wednesday to expand Medicaid to 400,000 low-income residents; Planned Parenthood will stop providing medication abortions in Arkansas after the Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to a state law.

Whole-genome sequencing, which looks at a bigger genetic picture than targeted gene panels, is offering new hope for the 3% of infants born with rare genetic diseases; there are a growing number of patients taking specialty drugs being hit with sticker shock as they find their expensive medications are no longer shielded by co-pay assistance programs; veterans groups are praising the nomination of Robert Wilkie to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as a stabilizing next step for the troubled agency.

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As the Congo grapples with a new outbreak of the Ebola virus, HHS Secretary Alex Azar has promised to provide aid if the outbreak spreads; providing workers with free e-cigarettes did not help them quit smoking any more than the usual smoking cessation methods did; hospitals in California that haven’t met targets for safety and quality could be excluded from the state’s insurance exchanges health plans.

The “right-to-try” bill heads to President Trump’s desk for signing after passing the House of Representatives; the FDA said certain gene therapies in development can qualify for quicker review, starting with hemophilia; brand-name drug makers have raised prices by double-digit percentages since 2012, with 47 drugs costing Medicare and Medicaid nearly $12 billion in 2016.