The Wall Street Journal: Federal Regulators Issue Medicare Advantage Rates For 2017
Federal regulators said Monday that payments to insurers that offer private Medicare plans to older Americans would rise slightly, but somewhat less than the government indicated earlier this year. The increase represents a boost for companies who offer the plans under Medicare Advantage, the program in which beneficiaries can get Medicare policies from private companies, which are then reimbursed by the federal government. ean Cavanaugh, deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the Medicare Advantage payments would increase 0.85% on average for 2017, and that insurers would likely see overall revenue increase about 3.05%, in a final rule published Monday. (Radnofsky and Armour, 4/4)

Reuters: U.S. To Raise Payments To Insurers For Medicare Advantage 2017 Plans
Each year, the government sets out how it will reimburse insurers for the healthcare services their members use. Payments vary by region, the quality rating earned by the health plan and the relative health of the members. The proposal is always subject to industry lobbying and often changes before it is finalized. (Humer, 4/4)

The Associated Press: Modest Payment Increase For Medicare Advantage In 2017
Medicare says private insurance plans serving as an alternative for 17 million beneficiaries will get a modest payment increase next year. ... Medicare Advantage plans cover nearly one out of three beneficiaries, a steadily growing share of the program. They offer lower overall costs for many patients, in exchange for some limitations on choice. (4/4)

Bloomberg: U.S. Increases 2017 Medicare Advantage Rates Less Than Expected
The Obama administration has been pushing to contain costs for Medicare Advantage since the Affordable Care Act became law in 2010. At the time, the U.S. was spending about 10 percent more for each Medicare Advantage beneficiary than for the traditional Medicare program. Spending per Medicare Advantage recipient is about 2 percent higher this year, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, known as MedPAC, which advises Congress on payment policies. (Tracer, 4/4)

Modern Healthcare: Final Medicare Advantage Rates Largely Shun Health Plan Lobbying
The federal government has lowered average payments for 2017 Medicare Advantage plans, and it also modified several of the program's policies after weeks of unremitting lobbying from the health insurance industry. Overall, the Obama administration showed a commitment to proposals the powerful industry vehemently opposed. One of the most notable policy changes within the CMS' 250-page policy document was the decision to phase in cuts to employer-sponsored Medicare Advantage plans over two years instead of instituting the cuts in 2017. That policy was not nixed altogether, much to the chagrin of insurers. (Herman, 4/4)

Morning Consult: After Intense Lobbying, Administration Slows Retiree Health Plan Changes
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will still decrease payments to Medicare employer retiree plans, but will implement the policy change over a two-year period rather than immediately this August. The Monday announcement comes as part of the finalized 2017 payment rates for Medicare Advantage plans, and after insurers, some unions, employers and lawmakers urged the agency not to finalize the proposal. While the agency did not completely reverse course, the two-year transition will somewhat mitigate the effects on insurers, Sean Cavanaugh, CMS’ deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare said on a press call Monday. (McIntire, 4/4)

The New York Times: Despite Fears, Affordable Care Act Has Not Uprooted Employer Coverage
The Affordable Care Act was aimed mainly at giving people better options for buying health insurance on their own. There were widespread predictions that employers would leap at the chance to drop coverage and send workers to fend for themselves. But those predictions were largely wrong. Most companies, and particularly large employers, that offered coverage before the law have stayed committed to providing health insurance. (Abelson, 4/4)

Meanwhile, researchers say the Internal Revenue Service is wasting an opportunity to help get people subsidies for the federal exchanges, and Republicans put health law programs on the chopping block to woo their conservative wing —

Kaiser Health News: IRS Could Help Find Many Uninsured People, But Doesn't
Nearly a third of people without health insurance, about 10 million, live in families that received a federal earned income tax credit (EITC) in 2014, according to a new study. But the Internal Revenue Service doesn’t tell those tax filers that their low and moderate incomes likely mean their households qualify for Medicaid or subsidies to buy coverage on the insurance exchanges. That’s a lost opportunity to identify people who are eligible but not receiving government assistance to gain health coverage, the researchers say. (Galewitz, 4/5)

The Associated Press: GOP Appeals To Conservatives With Health Care, Immigrant Cuts
Trying to win over conservatives, House Republicans are sweetening their budget proposal by putting several programs on the chopping block, including President Barack Obama's health care law and tax credits for children of immigrants living in the country illegally. But cuts to programs like food stamps are on hold and a drive to cap medical malpractice awards has faltered before a GOP-controlled committee, though cuts to Medicaid and a popular program that provides health coverage to children have advanced. (4/5)

Arkansas Online: Cut Managed-Care Plan For Now, Governor Urged
House and Senate leaders told the governor late Monday that they don't want to consider a proposal to privatize parts of Medicaid administration in a special session set to begin Wednesday. In a letter to Gov. Asa Hutchinson, House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, and Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe, said "there's not a consensus on the cost-savings strategy for traditional Medicaid at this time." J.R. Davis, a spokesman for the governor, said the governor will review the letter, consider the request and make a decision today. (Fanney, 4/5)

Arkansas News: Legislative Leaders Ask Governor To Drop Managed Care From Special Session
Hutchinson said previously there will be two — and only two — items on his call for a special session starting Wednesday: A proposal to continue and modify the state’s Medicaid expansion program and a proposal to allow the state to contract with a private company or companies to manage parts of the traditional Medicaid program as a cost-saving measure. In letters to the governor, House Speaker Jeremy Gillam, R-Judsonia, and Senate President Pro Tem Jonathan Dismang, R-Beebe, said there is no consensus in either chamber on the latter proposal. (Lyon, 4/4)

KUAR: Legislative Leaders Ask Governor To Limit Session To Arkansas Works
Hutchinson said the [managed care] model is needed in order to produce savings when the state would begin sharing in the cost of Arkansas Works – 10% by 2020. The legislation would limit managed care to the areas of behavioral health and for services for the developmentally disabled, excluding the state’s human development centers for more seriously disabled residents. (Brawner, 4/4)

Modern Healthcare: Future Of Arkansas' Medicaid Expansion Unclear As Lawmakers Start Special Session
Arkansas political observers aren't betting the farm on whether the Republican-controlled Legislature will approve Gov. Asa Hutchinson's plan for renewing and modifying the state's widely acclaimed Medicaid expansion to low-income adults. Hutchinson, a Republican, has called lawmakers to Little Rock for a special session starting Wednesday to vote on his plan, dubbed Arkansas Works, a revised version of his Democratic predecessor's so-called private option version of expansion that helped cut the state's uninsured rate by more than half. About 225,000 people have received coverage under the existing program. (Dickson, 4/4)

The Wall Street Journal: New Rules On Tax Inversions Threaten Pfizer-Allergan Deal
The Treasury Department imposed tough new curbs on corporate inversions Monday, shocking Wall Street and throwing into doubt the $150 billion merger between Pfizer Inc. and Allergan PLC, which was on track to be the biggest deal of its kind. The Treasury move, which was more aggressive than anticipated, sent Allergan’s shares tumbling 19% in after-hours trading and could stall a trend in corporate deal-making that has seen companies searching for ways to escape the U.S. tax net. Pfizer shares edged 0.9% higher. (Rubin and Hoffman, 4/4)

STAT: Treasury’s New Rules On Tax Inversions Raise Questions About Pfizer-Allergan Deal
After months of anticipation, the US Department of Treasury issued new rules about so-called tax inversions that raised uncertainty about the $160 billion merger deal between Pfizer and Allergan. The rules are designed to curb inversions, which effectively reduce federal revenue and, as a result, have been widely criticized as unpatriotic and detrimental. In these deals, a US company buys a foreign company and reincorporates headquarters overseas where corporate taxes are lower. The acquiring company can reduce taxes by adding debt to its US unit and shifting profits overseas. (Silverman, 4/4)

In other pharmaceutical news —

Reuters: Makers Took Big Price Increases On Widely Used U.S. Drugs
Major drug companies took hefty price increases in the U.S., in some cases more than doubling listed charges, for widely used medications over the past five years, a Reuters analysis of proprietary data found. Prices for four of the nation's top 10 drugs increased more than 100 percent since 2011, Reuters found. Six others went up more than 50 percent. Together, the price increases on drugs for arthritis, high cholesterol, asthma and other common problems added billions in costs for consumers, employers and government health programs. (Humer, 4/4)

The Associated Press: Gilead Paying Up To $1.2B For Nimbus Unit, Drug Candidate
Biologic drugmaker Gilead Sciences Inc. said Monday that it will buy a subsidiary of Nimbus Therapeutics LLC and its experimental pill for an increasingly common metabolic disorder that causes life-threatening fat buildup in the liver. Gilead, based in Foster City, California, will pay $400 million for Nimbus Apollo Inc. Parent company Nimbus Therapeutics, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, could receive another $800 million if Nimbus Apollo’s drug development program meets certain milestones in testing results and medicine approval and sales. (Johnson, 4/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Why Walgreens Hasn’t Escaped Its Rut
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. isn’t afraid to be bold. The largest U.S. drugstore chain is in the middle of many of the pharmaceutical industry’s major story lines. The company signed a 20-year agreement in December with embattled Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pact it has since defended. It is trying to finalize its $9.4 billion acquisition of drugstore rival Rite Aid Corp., a deal that is facing regulatory scrutiny. And it is also a major partner of controversial upstart Theranos Inc., a relationship it has threatened to terminate. What’s more, Walgreens formed a key partnership in February with UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s OptumRx, a benefit manager. And it has said it won’t shy away from more big deals. (Russolillo, 4/4)

WBUR: Colonoscopies, Mammograms And Childbirth Are Americans’ Most-Shopped Health Services
The idea of comparing prices and quality when we are in the market for health care is pretty new territory in our country of avid shoppers. But more and more employers and insurers are giving patients tools that let them put in the name of a test or procedure and see who charges what. (Bebinger, 4/4)

Kaiser Health News: By Not Discussing Cost Issues, Doctors, Patients May Miss Chances To Lower Out-Of-Pocket Expenses
Talking about money is never easy. But when doctors are reluctant to talk about medical costs, a patient’s health can be undermined. A study published in Monday’s Health Affairs explores the dynamics that can trigger that scenario. Patients are increasingly responsible for shouldering more of their own health costs. In theory, that’s supposed to make them sharper consumers and empower them to trim unnecessary health spending. But previous work has shown it often leads them to skimp on both valuable preventive care and superfluous services alike. (Luthra, 4/4)

The Hill: Alexander: Cures Bill Deal Could Be Reached By End Of The Week
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said Monday that a medical innovation bill could be ready for the Senate floor as early as next week. The bill is the Senate’s companion to the House-passed 21st Century Cures Act, which seeks to speed up the Food and Drug Administration’s approvals of new drugs and devices and boost funding for medical research. (Sullivan, 4/4)

The Associated Press: Senate: Few Answers On US Theft That Risked Data Of Millions
Senate investigators indicated Monday they've received few answers from the Obama administration after a laptop and portable hard drives — likely containing names and Social Security numbers of millions — were stolen from a federal building in Washington state. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the Republican chair of the Senate government affairs panel, asked Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell on Monday if the drives stolen from the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement in Olympia, Washington, were ever recovered. (4/5)

Kaiser Health News: Patients’ Assessment Of Their Health Is Gaining Importance In Treatment
For Erin Moore, keeping her son’s cystic fibrosis in check requires careful monitoring to prevent the thick, sticky mucous his body produces from further damaging his lungs and digestive system. Moore keeps tabs on 6-year-old Drew’s weight, appetite, exercise and stools every day to see if they stray from his healthy baseline. When he develops a cough, she tracks that, too. It’s been nearly a year since Drew has been hospitalized; as a baby he was admitted up to four times annually. Erin Moore credits her careful monitoring, aided by an online data tracking tool from a program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center called the Orchestra Project, with helping to keep him healthy. (Andrews, 4/5)

In other health IT news, Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital has rolled out a new electronic health records system —

The Boston Globe: It’s An Epic Upgrade At Mass. General
If things seem a little slow at Massachusetts General Hospital this week, blame the computers. Mass. General, a flagship teaching hospital of Partners HealthCare, launched a new electronic health records system over the weekend, part of a $1.2 billion upgrade over several years across the Partners system. (Dayal McCluskey, 5/5)

The New York Times: Hillary Clinton Roundly Criticized For Referring To The Unborn As A ‘Person’
Hillary Clinton faced criticism from both sides of the abortion debate on Monday after she waded into the fraught argument about when life begins by describing the unborn as a “person.” Mrs. Clinton, the leading Democratic presidential candidate, made the comment during an interview Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” after she was asked about abortion restrictions and the rights of the unborn. “The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights,” Mrs. Clinton said. She added: “That doesn’t mean that we don’t do everything we possibly can, in the vast majority of instances to, you know, help a mother who is carrying a child and wants to make sure that child will be healthy, to have appropriate medical support.” (Rappeport, 4/4)

The Associated Press: Missouri GOP Combs Past For Planned Parenthood Censure Rules
Missouri Republicans are looking back more than a century for guidance as they consider whether to hold a regional Planned Parenthood CEO in contempt of the Senate — a rare judgment that could carry jail time. Senators from both parties have raised questions about how they'd carry out a process that may include testimony before the entire chamber, arrests and sentencing decisions. They've found little direction from recent history; so far, legislative librarians say the last contempt proceeding they've found occurred in 1903. (4/4)

The Associated Press: Fever: Federal Report Says Global Warming Making US Sick
Man-made global warming is making America sicker, and it's only going to get worse, according to a new federal government report. The 332-page report issued Monday by the Obama administration said global warming will make the air dirtier, water more contaminated and food more tainted. It warned of diseases, such as those spread by ticks and mosquitoes, longer allergy seasons, and thousands of heat wave deaths. (Borenstein, 4/5)

In other public health news, one man's quest to prove spinal cord injuries aren't a life-long sentence offers a glimmer of hope, and researchers in Hawaii are utilizing data in their fight against Zika —

STAT: A Dogged Quest To Fix Broken Spinal Cords Pays Off With New Hope For The Paralyzed
There are tiny rat treadmills in the lab. And jars of Nutella, also for the rats. There are video cameras, heaps of electrodes, and instruments for slicing frozen brain tissue. And in the center of it all: Reggie Edgerton, a 75-year-old physiologist [ at the University of California, Los Angeles] who has spent four decades on a stubborn quest to prove, in the face of scientific ridicule, that severed spinal cords can be jolted back to life — and that paralyzed patients need not be paralyzed forever. Now, he’s got the data to prove it. (McFarling, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Hawaii Researchers Focus On Data To Combat Zika Virus
As the Zika outbreak takes hold in Latin America, researchers thousands of miles away in Hawaii are using data to figure out where it might spread next. In the last three months, researchers from the University of Hawaii at the Pacific Disaster Center have focused on combating the mosquito-spread virus. So far, the Maui-based center has worked to map the spread of Zika, which can help health officials and local governments figure out where to target mosquito eradication efforts or increase access to health services. (Starleaf Riker, 4/5)

STAT: ‘Truly Terrifying:’ China Floods US With Deadly Fentanyl, As Overdoses Spike
The dozen packages were shipped from China to mail centers and residences in Southern California. One box was labeled as a “Hole Puncher.” In fact, it was a quarter-ton pill press, which federal investigators allege was destined for a suburban Los Angeles drug lab. The other packages, shipped throughout January and February, contained materials for manufacturing fentanyl, an opioid so potent that in some forms it can be deadly if touched. When it comes to the illegal sale of fentanyl, most of the attention has focused on Mexican cartels that are adding the drug to heroin smuggled into the United States. But Chinese suppliers are providing both raw fentanyl and the machinery necessary for the assembly-line production of the drug powering a terrifying and rapid rise of fatal overdoses across the United States and Canada, according to drug investigators and court documents. (Armstrong, 4/5)

Reuters: Narcotic Fentanyl Linked To At Least 10 California Overdose Deaths
At least 42 drug overdoses in the past two weeks have been reported in northern California, 10 of them fatal, in what authorities on Monday called the biggest cluster of poisonings linked to the powerful synthetic narcotic fentanyl ever to hit the U.S. West Coast. The rash of overdoses, which Sacramento County public health authorities began to report on March 24, have been centered in and around the California capital. Nine of the fatal cases were reported there, with the tenth occurring in neighboring Yolo County. (Gorman, 4/4)

North Carolina Health News: From Nayarit To Your Neighborhood: Heroin’s Path To A Ready Local Market
Law enforcement officers, health care providers, behavioral health specialists and a variety of other concerned people gathered in Asheville last week to get a ground-level view of the why, where, how and what next of heroin in Western North Carolina. And what they heard was a lesson in customer service – a lesson that comes from Mexican drug dealers. (Sisk, 4/5)

The Washington Post: Study Finds Surprising Reason Why More Black, Latino Children Aren’t Insured
Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) were developed to give society’s most vulnerable kids a chance at health care. But there’s a catch: In many states, parents must sign their kids up for the programs to receive coverage. And to sign their kids up, parents must know that their kids are eligible in the first place. A new study published in the International Journal for Equity in Health found a distressing information gap among parents of uninsured Latino and African American kids. (Blakemore, 4/4)

Des Moines Register: Managed Care Handoff ‘Smooth,' Branstad Says
Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday the official shifting of 560,000 poor and disabled Iowans to privately managed Medicaid health care has gone off without any major hiccups so far. “By the reports that we’ve received, the transition to managed care has been smooth and went off without any major disruptions to Medicaid patients or the providers that are serving them,” Branstad said. (Pfannenstiel, 4/4)

Radio Iowa: Branstad Says It’s Been ‘Relative Smooth’ Transition To Medicaid Privatization
Last Friday, about 3,000 calls were made to the state “call center” created to help figure out benefits for Iowa Medicaid patients and the health care professionals who treat them. Friday was the day Iowa’s 560,000 Medicaid patients were switched to a private managed care system. Governor Terry Branstad describes the transition as “smooth." (Henderson, 4/4)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Registry Aims To Link Medicaid Patients, Personal Care Workers
A statewide registry is in the works to make it easier for Medicaid patients to find qualified, reliable personal care workers. That’s good news for Bill Stovall of Topeka and others like him who help direct care for their family members. (Hart, 4/4)

Winston-Salem Journal: Audit: N.C. Medicaid Overpayment Estimated To Cost $835M Last Year
The state Department of Health and Human Services has been cited again by the State Auditor’s Office with lack of effective oversight, this time involving an estimated $835 million in Medicaid overpayments to doctors and hospitals. The state Medicaid program covers about 1.9 million North Carolina residents and is a $14 billion-a-year program. (Craver, 4/4)

Charlotte Observer/Raleigh News & Observer: Magnitude Of NC Medicaid Errors In Dispute
DHHS processed about 127 million claims for payments totaling $11 billion last year, according to the audit. Auditors looked at a sample of 396 payments and found errors in 50 of them, with total overpayments of $4,288. The errors amount to $835 million when projected to cover the entire caseload, the audit said. DHHS spokeswoman Kendra Gerlach challenged that figure in a statement, saying the cost was lower. (Bonner, 4/4)

Albuquerque (N.H.) Journal: Insurer Might Drop UNMH From Medicaid Coverage
When Alexander Hernandez of Los Lunas received a letter recently telling him his Medicaid coverage might drop his doctors, it was jaw-dropping news. His insurance provider, UnitedHealthcare, had written to tell the 79-year-old he might no longer have access to University of New Mexico Hospital and its providers. “The whole reason he is alive is because of his health care team,” his caregiver Ann Piro said, adding that Hernandez has had a kidney transplant and a triple bypass, and is also diabetic and on oxygen. (Sinovic, 4/4)

Modern Healthcare: Uphill FTC Fight Starts This Week For Big Chicago-Area Health Systems
Two Chicago-area health systems may have a tough time persuading a federal judge this week to allow their merger to move forward in one of the biggest healthcare deals to be challenged by the Federal Trade Commission in years. Advocate Health Care and NorthShore University HealthSystem will face the FTC in federal court in Chicago in a hearing scheduled to begin Wednesday. A judge will weigh the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction to pause the merger while the FTC holds administrative hearings to determine whether the deal should be allowed. (Schencker, 4/4)

The Connecticut Mirror: Bristol Project Becomes Focus Of Tensions Between State, Hospitals
In the latest volley in a longstanding dispute over the financial health of Connecticut hospitals, state budget director Benjamin Barnes on Monday questioned Bristol Hospital’s plans to build a new medical office building and recruit staff, noting that hospital supporters had recently warned that state funding was needed to avoid compromising the community’s health and access to care. (Levin Becker, 4/4)

Marketplace: The Future Of Hospital Care Could Look A Lot Like Home
For more and more people, hospitals are just too expensive, but admissions – or what executives call "heads in beds" - is how the doors stay open. So will these hospitals keep making money if they have to radically change their business model? For one answer, let’s go to Denver where nurse practitioner Drew Dawkins shakes a few Tylenols into a cup. Dancer-like, he twists and glides past the EKG machine, a case of meds, even a printer, toward his patient. (Gorenstein, 5/5)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital In Drug-Ravaged Appalachia Provides Hope And Jobs
Adventist Health System, which was losing millions a year on the [54-bed Jellico Community Hospital] ..., announced in May 2014 that it wanted out. Fortunately for Jellico and area residents, a white knight rode to their rescue. Last May, Community Hospital Corp., a Plano, Texas-based not-for-profit company whose mission is to preserve access to healthcare in rural communities, took over the hospital and its clinic in nearby Williamsburg, Ky. The management team at CHC—which owns five acute-care hospitals and 10 long-term-care hospitals and manages or provides strategic support for 13 others across the country—analyzes the needs of each rural hospital it takes under its wing and applies its expertise to turning them around. (Meyer, 4/2)

The Washington Post: Bowser’s Pick For St. Elizabeths CEO Resigns Amid Questions About Qualifications
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s recently installed pick to lead the city’s long troubled public psychiatric facility has resigned amid questions over his qualifications, including a brief stint leading a hospital later deemed unsafe by federal authorities. James Edward Kyle on Monday stepped down as chief executive of St. Elizabeths Hospital after just a month on the job, said a spokesman for Bowser (D). The mayor had no comment and Kyle offered no reason for his resignation from the post, which pays $171,000 a year, the spokesman said. Kyle could not be reached for comment. (Nirappil, 4/4)

The Dallas Morning News: Parkland’s Strategic Plan Calls For Cutting Costs, Improving Care, Through Innovation
Imagine a world where a simple email or FaceTime session could take the place of a doctor’s visit. In the near future, Parkland Memorial Hospital leaders envision a reality in which patients can electronically visit with certain specialists. That’s among the timesaving, cost-cutting measures that Parkland CEO Dr. Fred Cerise described Monday as the hospital unveiled its new strategic plan. (Martin, 4/4)

Heartland Health Monitor: KU Hospital Partners With KVC To Add Adult Psychiatric Beds
The University of Kansas Hospital said Friday that it is partnering with KVC Health Systems to provide adult psychiatric care in Wyandotte County. Under the arrangement, KVC Prairie Ridge Hospital’s 12 adult psychiatric beds in Kansas City, Kan., will become part of KU Hospital. It will be called The University of Kansas Hospital Adult Services at KVC Prairie Ridge, according to a news release. (Sherry, 4/4)

North Carolina Health News: Yadkin County Reaches Settlement With Former Hospital Operator
Yadkin County officials announced Monday they’ve reached a legal settlement with the former operator of the Yadkin Valley Community Hospital. The hospital, located in Yadkinville, about 30 miles west of Winston-Salem, has been closed since the operator, HMC/CAH Consolidated Inc., shut it down in May 2015 despite a temporary restraining order instructing the company to keep it open. In June, a federal judge ruled that HMC/CAH owed the county for expenses incurred. (Sisk, 4/4)

Meanwhile, Arizona hospitals and pharmacies are working together to address the problem of incorrect prescription drugs —

The Arizona Republic: Incorrect Prescription Medicine Use Is A Big Problem; Goodyear Hospital Has A Solution
According to a 2013 study by the National Council on Patient Information and Education, a coalition of health-care organizations, as many as 30 percent of people never fill their prescriptions. Less than half take their medications for chronic conditions as prescribed. (Boehm, 4/4)

Stateline: Enlisting Public Libraries To Help Fight Homelessness
Every weekday morning, people line up outside the central library in the nation’s capital and wait for it to open. ... Public libraries have long been havens for people with nowhere else to go. Now, a growing number of library systems are adding services for patrons who are homeless, hungry, or suffering from drug addiction or mental illness. For the District of Columbia, that means hiring a social worker, partnering with nonprofits and organizing social hours. (Quinton, 4/4)

The Connecticut Mirror: Study: State Employee Wellness Plan Increased Use Of Preventive Care
A wellness program added to the state employee health plan as part of a controversial 2011 concession package led to significant increases in the use of preventive care and a drop in certain emergency room visits, but it’s still too soon to say if it will save the state money, according to a study published Monday in the journal Health Affairs. (Levin Becker, 4/5)

The Cleveland Plain Dealer: Cleveland Clinic Study Finds Bariatric Surgery Highly Effective In Treating Type 2 Diabetes
Clinic doctors released the final results of a five-year study showing that Type 2 diabetes patients who underwent bariatric surgery fared much better than those who received conventional medical therapy. (Ross, 4/4)

The Columbus Dispatch: New Moms Getting Neighborhood Help To Combat Infant Mortality In Columbus
Last week, 16 women of wide-ranging ages and backgrounds gathered in a classroom at Ohio State University Hospital East to learn how to help their neighbors navigate a complicated health-care system and advocate for the treatment they need. (Kurtzman, 4/4)

The Wall Street Journal: How Not To End Cancer In Our Lifetimes
President Obama calls the quest to cure cancer the “moon shot” of his presidency. But if the federal government has its way, this rocket may never leave the launchpad. The reason is sweeping changes proposed by the Obama administration to the rules that govern the use of human tissue in research. The government says the changes are needed “to modernize, strengthen, and make more effective the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects.” But the changes would protect no one and serve only to slow the pace of innovation and discovery, thus harming countless patients and making a cure for cancer less likely. (Laurie H. Glimcher, 4/4)

The New York Times' Upshot: Sicker Patients Seem At A Disadvantage With Medicare Advantage
New evidence suggests Medicare Advantage may not serve some sicker Medicare beneficiaries as well as it does healthier ones. Medicare Advantage’s private health insurance plans offer at least the same benefits as the public, traditional Medicare program for older Americans, as well as some who are disabled or have certain diseases. The private plans may also offer additional benefits not available from traditional Medicare — like coverage for hearing aids and eyeglasses — and lower patient cost sharing. These features make Medicare Advantage attractive and help explain why the program is surging in popularity. (Austin Frakt, 4/4)

STAT: How I Learned To Overcome My Bias Against For-Profit Medicine
[W]hen it came time for me to find a “real job” after my residency, I assumed it would be in a nonprofit organization with a laser-like focus on transforming underserved health. Imagine my astonishment, then, to discover my life’s work in Iora Health — a private sector, venture-backed, for-profit primary care startup. (Ali Khan, 4/4)

Forbes: Medicaid Not Big Enough? Obama Administration Proposes $100 Billion More Spending
Despite substantial and growing federal deficits, largely driven by unsustainable healthcare commitments, the Obama Administration is proposing more than $100 billion in new Medicaid spending over the next decade. No major area of federal spending has increased more dramatically since President Barack Obama took office than Medicaid, and recent evidence indicates that the program is failing both enrollees and taxpayers. Instead of spending more on the program, Congress should reject the president’s new Medicaid proposals. (Brian Blase, 4/4)

The National Review: Why Is Obamacare Regulating Health Savings Accounts Out Of Existence?
Almost six years to the day after the Affordable Care Act was enacted, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has taken steps to kill health savings accounts (HSAs) in the state health-insurance exchanges. It was bound to happen at some point, although some may be surprised that it took this long. In case you missed it, final regulations published on March 8 will make it impossible to offer HSA-qualified plans in the future. Whether this is by accident or design, the outcome is clear. (Roy J. Ramthun, 4/5)

The Wall Street Journal: The Little Sisters Vs. Notre Dame
In the Bing Crosby classic “The Bells of St. Mary’s,” a nun teaches a bullied boy to fight back, even though she herself believes in turning the other cheek. This coming Saturday, the Little Sisters of the Poor have an opportunity to do the same. Two weeks ago, the Sisters were in the Supreme Court battling the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate. This weekend, they will be at Notre Dame to accept an award from the Center for Ethics and Culture for their work upholding the worth and dignity of every human life. (William McGurn, 4/4)

The Charlotte Observer: An Abortion Test For North Carolina
Time and time again, as Republicans have looked for ways to make abortions harder to get in North Carolina, they’ve offered the same smirk-inducing rationale for doing so: It’s for the protection of women. It’s an all-purpose justification, used by both lawmakers drawing up legislation and Gov. Pat McCrory as a deflection for breaking campaign promises not to restrict abortion. But now, the Food and Drug Administration has provided a new test of that safety claim. We’re not optimistic that N.C. Republicans will pass. (4/4)

Forbes: Trump Was Right On Target About Abortion -- And The Utter Moral Incoherence Of Pro-Lifers
He is surely right that a woman who breaks a law involving killing ought to be punished, but that the dominant pro-life position demonizes abortion providers not women and, that the pro-life stance is to try and have their cake and eat it too by portraying the woman making the decision as a ‘victim.’ Trump, in a dialogue worthy of any penned by Plato about Socrates has, unintentionally, pinpointed the utter moral incoherence of the dominant pro-life position. (Arthur Caplan, 4/3)

Los Angeles Times: Forget Cops. Should Doctors And Teachers Wear Body Cameras?
Consider health care, another interaction which produces potentially life-or-death outcomes. In general, African Americans and other people of color receive inferior medical treatment, leading to higher death rates. David R. Williams, a professor of public health at Harvard, who has researched this issue writes that blacks and other minorities receive fewer diagnostic tests, fewer treatments, and overall poorer-quality care — even after adjusting for variations in insurance, facilities, and seriousness of illness. Leaving aside patient outcomes, there are also highly credible accusations that medical staff have groped and sexually abused sedated patients. Body cameras on doctors and nurses might well prevent such incidents, or provide evidence if they did occur. (Steven Strauss, 4/4)

The Washington Post: Sending Nurses To Work With Poor Moms Helps Kids. So Why Don’t We Do More Of It?
A high school senior learns that she’s pregnant — and she’s terrified. But a registered nurse comes to visit her in her home for about an hour each week during pregnancy, and every other week after birth, until the baby turns 2. The nurse advises her what to eat and not to smoke; looks around the house to advise her of any safety concerns; encourages her to read and talk to her baby; and counsels her on nutrition for herself and her baby. (Topher Spiro and Lanhee J. Chen, 4/5)

Modern Healthcare: Yelp Provides Untapped Insight Into Patient Experience
Excessively pricey bills, long waits for staff, rude doctors and difficulties setting up appointments drove people to rant about their hospitals on Yelp, according to a study published online Monday. While those issue frustrate patients, most are not tracked on government surveys and ratings programs meant to capture patients' experiences in U.S. hospitals. (Sabriya Rice, 4/4)

The New York Times' Opinionator: Walking Together For Health And Spirit
In early 2013, the Rev. Theresa S. Thames stumbled upon a Facebook page titled “GirlTrek: Healthy Black Women and Girls.” “It saved my life,” she said. Thames, then 33, was dangerously overweight and fighting depression. She sent the site her contact information and received an email from Vanessa Garrison, co-founder of GirlTrek, an organization that inspires black women to change their lives and communities by walking. Garrison learned that Thames was a pastor and invited her to lead a prayer at an event in Washington commemorating the 100th anniversary of Harriet Tubman’s death. (David Bornstein, 4/5)

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Pathway Out Of Poverty For Child Care Workers
The editorial “Breaking the poverty cycle” (March 23) regarding training child care workers is on target in many ways. It is without a doubt important to increase the quality and training of child care workers, particularly those in low-income settings and communities with high levels of toxic stress. A wealth of research, as well as For the Sake of All and the Ferguson Commission, concur that quality care and education play a key role in assuring children succeed in school and in life. Training the mostly single mothers in the pilot project to provide quality care and also enrolling their children in high-quality settings is a win-win undertaking. But we can’t afford to be complacent about our efforts. (Ruth Shresman, 4/5)

The Seattle Times: Are Supervised Drug Injection Sites A Wild Idea?
[S]ome policymakers are considering taking the radical step of creating safe places where people can inject illicit drugs under supervision. Sound wild or perhaps asinine? Maybe. But if one takes the time to learn about experiences with supervised injection sites, it might seem crazier not to implement this very simple public-health intervention. (Thomas Kerr, 4/3)