The Associated Press: Report: 2015 US Drug Spending Up 5 Percent, Half 2014's Rise
Spending on prescription drugs for insured Americans rose about 5 percent last year, driven by both greater medication use and higher prices, mainly for very expensive drugs termed specialty medicines. Still, the increase was half the rate in 2014, which saw the biggest price jump since 2003. A report by the largest U.S. prescription benefit manager, Express Scripts Holding Co., also found the average price of brand-name drugs already on the market increased by 16.2 percent in 2015 and has jumped 98.2 percent since 2011. One-third of brand-name prescription drugs had price increases exceeding 20 percent last year. (3/14)

NPR: Cancer And Arthritis Drugs Drive Up Spending On Medicines
Spending on prescription drugs in the U.S. rose 5.2 percent in 2015, driven mostly by increased costs of expensive specialty medications to treat conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, according to data from the largest manager of employers' drug benefits. Spending on specialty medications rose 18 percent, while spending on standard prescription drugs rose less than one percent, according to a new report by Express Scripts. The report is based on the prescription drug spending for the company's 80 million covered patients. The measure — called "drug trend" in pharmaceutical industry parlance — includes increases in the use of medications and price hikes. (Kodjak, 3/14)

The New York Times: Marijuana-Based Drug Found To Reduce Epileptic Seizures
An experimental drug derived from marijuana has succeeded in reducing epileptic seizures in its first major clinical trial, the product’s developer announced on Monday, a finding that could lend credence to the medical marijuana movement. The developer, GW Pharmaceuticals, said the drug, Epidiolex, achieved the main goal of the trial, reducing convulsive seizures when compared with a placebo in patients with Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy. GW shares more than doubled on Monday. (Pollack, 3/14)

The Wall Street Journal: Marijuana-Derived Epilepsy Drug Shows Gains
GW Pharmaceuticals PLC said its marijuana-derived drug for children with severe epilepsy significantly cut the number of seizures they suffered during a Phase III trial, possibly paving the way for the first U.S. approval of a drug of its kind. The drug, called Epidiolex, reduced the frequency of seizures by 39% in children with a severe form of epilepsy known as Dravet syndrome, compared with a 13% reduction in a control group, over a treatment period of 14 weeks. (Roland, 3/14)

The Associated Press: Trump Health Plan Would Increase Uninsured By 21 Million, Study Finds
An independent analysis of Donald Trump's recently released health care plan finds it would increase the number of uninsured by about 21 million people while costing nearly $500 billion over 10 years. The estimates released Monday by the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found that repealing Obama's health care law would leave 22 million more people uninsured in 2018, and Trump's replacement plan would only provide coverage to about 1.1 million of those. (3/14)

Los Angeles Times: Trump Health Plan Would Increase Deficit And Leave Millions Uninsured, Report Says
Donald Trump's recently released plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act would drive up the federal deficit by nearly $500 billion over the next decade and cause 21 million Americans to lose health coverage, according to a new independent analysis. Trump’s “Healthcare Reform to Make America Great Again” plan, which the GOP presidential front-runner outlined on his campaign website last month, does not include much detail. (Levey, 3/14)

In other 2016 election news, Bernie Sanders proposes a new HIV/AIDS initiative and Theranos' chief executive will hold a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton —

The Wall Street Journal: Bernie Sanders To Unveil HIV/AIDS Research Initiative
Sen. Bernie Sanders, who criticized opponent Hillary Clinton for her recent comments on former first lady Nancy Reagan and AIDS, will propose his own platform Monday to spur development of drugs that treat the disease. Mr. Sanders, who is advocating a single-payer health system, will propose establishing a $3 billion annual fund to reward developers who come up with new treatments for HIV and AIDS. The candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination wants to award money from the HIV/AIDS prize fund and permit generic competition for the newly developed drugs immediately after they are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. (Armour, 3/14)

STAT: Beleagured Theranos CEO To Hold Fundraiser For Hillary Clinton
The blood-testing company Theranos has been immersed in controversy in recent months, accused of violating government standards and overhyping its technology. Despite the public storm, Theranos Chief Executive Elizabeth Holmes will be hosting a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton on Monday at the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., according to the technology news website Re/code. (Boodman, 3/14)

Kaiser Health News: Three Changes Consumers Can Expect In Next Year’s Obamacare Coverage
Health insurance isn’t simple. Neither are government regulations. Put the two together and things can get confusing fast. So it’s not surprising that federal regulators took a stab at making things a bit more straightforward for consumers in new rules unveiled in late February and published Tuesday in the Federal Register. Because those rules are part of a 530-page, dizzying array of changes set for next year and beyond, here are three specific changes finalized by the Department of Health and Human Services that affect consumers who buy their own health insurance in one of the 38 states using the online federal insurance exchange. (Appleby, 3/15)

Health News Florida: Care Affordable, Floridians Say, But Becoming Less So
Across the country and in Florida, most say their health care is a good value, according to a national poll by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "But then again, when you look more in depth, what you see is a third of Floridians said that their health care became less affordable over the last two years,” said Harvard professor and study co-director Robert Blendon. (Watts, 3/14)

Politico: Democrats To Link Court Vacancy To Late-Term Abortion Bill
Senate Democrats are trying to turn the GOP's refusal to move on the Supreme Court vacancy into the latest episode of the “war on women.” Led by some of their most senior female members, Senate Democrats will take to the floor Tuesday to launch a new messaging offensive that ties the battle over replacing Justice Antonin Scalia to a GOP-led hearing on late-term abortions scheduled to occur later Tuesday. The new tactic, led by Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the sole woman in Democratic leadership, is an attempt to galvanize women in the Supreme Court vacancy fight, particularly as the high court takes up critical abortion cases. (Kim, 3/15)

The Associated Press: Abortion Rights Advocates Ask Pence To Veto Restriction Bill
Abortion rights advocates say Indiana Gov. Mike Pence should veto a bill that would ban abortions sought because the fetus has a genetic abnormality such as Down syndrome. About 30 activists spoke out against the measure Monday at the Statehouse and delivered a petition with about 2,700 signatures asking Pence to reject the bill. After the measure was passed last week, a national group representing gynecologists wrote a letter to Pence also urging a veto. (3/14)

The Washington Post: Getting Painkillers Seems Easy. Getting Help To Fight Painkiller Addiction Is Hard.
Addiction to prescription painkillers and heroin has grown so deadly that the Obama administration wants to spend more than $1 billion over the next two years fighting it. Nearly all of the money would go to making anti-addiction medications, including buprenorphine, more available. Yet in the midst of the worst epidemic of unintentional drug overdose in U.S. history — mortality rates are four to fives times as high as in the mid-1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — it can be harder to get drugs to treat an addiction than it is to get the drugs that feed it. (Vestal, 3/14)

The Associated Press: Massachusetts Governor Chokes Up At Painkiller Bill Signing
An emotional Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday signed what he called the most comprehensive law in the nation to combat an opioid addiction scourge, including a seven-day limit on first-time prescriptions for opiate painkillers. The Republican governor struggled to maintain his composure while recalling families he had met — some standing behind him at the Statehouse ceremony — who had lost loved ones to a "deadly, merciless epidemic" and others who were desperately seeking help for a family member. (3/14)

WBUR: Baker Signs Compromise Opioid Bill Into Law
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has signed into law a compromise bill that seeks to alleviate the state’s opioid crisis. The Republican governor signed the legislation Monday morning at the State House, surrounded by a bipartisan group of lawmakers and various health and public safety officials. The Democratic-led state House and Senate both unanimously passed the measure last week. (3/14)

Meanwhile, STAT wants court records unsealed so it can look at how OxyContin was marketed —

STAT: STAT Goes To Court To Unseal Records Of OxyContin Maker
STAT is asking a Kentucky court to make public sealed documents that could provide new information on how Purdue Pharma marketed its potent pain pill OxyContin — including what top executives knew about how addictive it was, and whether they downplayed the risks. (Armstrong, 3/15)

The New York Times: Centers To Treat Eating Disorders Are Growing, And Raising Concerns
Their websites show peaceful scenes — young women relaxing by the ocean or caring for horses in emerald pastures — and boast of their chefs and other amenities. One center sends out invitations to a reception with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Another offers doctors and therapists all-expense-paid trips to visit and experience their offerings, including yoga classes. Several employ staff who call mental health professionals, saying they would love to have lunch. The marketing efforts by these for-profit residential care centers are aimed at patients with eating disorders and the clinicians who treat them. The programs have proliferated in recent years, with some companies expanding across the country. (Goode, 3/14)

The Associated Press: More Doctors Prescribing Exercise Instead Of Medication
When Dr. Michelle Johnson scribbles out prescriptions, the next stop for many of her patients is the gym, not the pharmacy. Doctors treating chronic health problems increasingly are prescribing exercise for their patients - and encouraging them to think of physical activity as their new medication. (Ngowi, 3/14)

The New York Times: Women Who Brought Zika Fears Home With Them
The Zika virus is not yet known to be circulating in the continental United States. But already, fear of the infection has come home for many pregnant women and their families who journeyed abroad before the risks were known. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported that nine pregnant women were known to have become infected while traveling. Yet many more are coping with the possibility of exposure, reaching out to their doctors for blood tests and ultrasounds, obsessing on news coverage and trying to manage their worry. (Beil, 3/14)

NBC News: Patients Carry Superbugs On Their Hands, Study Finds
Hospitals may be cracking down on handwashing for doctors, nurses and other staffers, but they're missing a big source of superbug spread, a new study finds: Patients. Researchers at the University of Michigan found close to a quarter of the patients they tested had some sort of drug-resistant germ on their hands when they were discharged from the hospital to a post-acute care facility such as a nursing home, rehabilitation center or hospice. (Fox, 3/14)

NPR: Bad Luck Or Bad Genes? Dealing With BRCA And 'A Cancer In The Family'
Oncologist Theodora Ross discusses the hereditary nature of cancer and her own predisposition to breast and ovarian cancer, which led her to have a double mastectomy and to have her ovaries removed. (3/14)

Health News Florida: Fight Over Medicaid Dental Changes Head To Governor Rick Scott
A decade ago, a group of providers sued the state, charging Florida’s Medicaid program shortchanged medical and dental care for kids. Proponents said Medicaid Managed Care was supposed to make it better, but five years into the new system, the legislature is poised to remove dental coverage for kids and roll it into a separate program. The Florida Department of Health, along with the United Way, goes around to elementary and middle schools, performing routine cleanings and dental sealants for second and sixth graders. That’s when adult molars start coming in. At Tallahassee's Sable Palm Elementary School, the brightly colored furniture of the teachers' break room has been transformed into a dental clinic, where six kids are laying backs down, feet up, as dentists hover over them with a range of hoses, humming machines, and bright lights. (Hatter, 3/13)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Legislators Want To Postpone Waiver Integration
Legislative support is growing for a further delay of a plan to combine Medicaid waiver services — part of a recent pattern of the Republican lawmakers pushing back against Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration. A subcommittee of four members of the House Health and Human Services Committee recommended last week that the administration postpone the waiver integration one year to Jan. 1, 2018. (3/14)

The Virginian-Pilot: Effort To Require Nursing Facilities To Allow Camera Monitoring Delayed
If nothing else, Jane Casey has received an education during the past three years on the Byzantine world of lawmaking. In 2013, the Suffolk resident lobbied legislators to change the law to allow electronic cameras in nursing facilities so families could monitor their relatives’ care. (Simpson, 3/13)

The News Service Of Florida: Scott Signs Bill Aimed At Unscrupulous Guardians
Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday signed a bill aimed at better protecting elderly Floridians from unscrupulous guardians. The measure (SB 232), filed by Sen. Nancy Detert, R-Venice, calls for the Department of Elder Affairs to certify and oversee professional guardians. Under the bill, the Statewide Public Guardianship Office at the Florida Department of Elder Affairs will expand to become the Office of Public and Professional Guardians. It will establish standards for public and private guardians, receive and investigate complaints and penalize guardians who breach the standards. (3/13)

Kaiser Health News: Fear Of Future Health Problems Plagues Porter Ranch, Calif., Gas Leak Victims
Kavita Ramchandani loved everything about evenings in her backyard: how the full moon lit up the sky, the way the breeze seemed to talk to her, the smell of the pine trees. She bought the single-story hillside house in this upscale Los Angeles County suburb after emigrating from India, and from the first night it felt like home. Then last fall, gas started leaking from a well at a nearby storage facility, and Ramchandani, 53, began wheezing, getting nose bleeds and persistent headaches. She left her home in January. Now, she says, the house just feels foreign. And scary. (Gorman, 3/15)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Feds: Kansas Mental Health Screenings Require Reforms
Federal officials found fault with the way Kansas had screened people for admission to psychiatric hospitals, but left the door open for the state to divert patients if it reforms the screening procedure. Gov. Sam Brownback vetoed a section in Senate Bill 161 that would have reinstated a requirement that Medicaid recipients be screened before admitting them for inpatient psychiatric treatment. Brownback said he supports the screenings, but the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have threatened to reduce state funding for health programs by up to $1.8 million because of the requirement. (Hart, 3/11)

The Associated Press: Health Care Transparency Bill Passes Florida Senate
The Florida Senate passed a bill on Thursday that would give residents more transparency on the costs of health care. The bill (HB 1175), which passed 27-1, requires Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration to contract with a vendor for a website that will show cost and quality of care. (3/14)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: IBC Offering Telemedicine
Independence Blue Cross said it is offering telemedicine services to certain employer groups through MDLIVE, a national company that connects patients with primary-care physicians by telephone, video or mobile app. MDLIVE physicians, who will be paid through a contract MDLIVE has with IBC, can make diagnoses and prescribe medicines. (Brubaker, 3/14)

The San Antonio Express-News: A Hometown Hospital's Fight Gets Ugly In Insurance Negotiations
In this place of tall pines and fried catfish, where the Texas twang rolls sweet and slow, a hometown hospital took a swing at three of the nation’s largest insurers. The legal brawl it unleashed gives a rare glimpse into just how antagonistic the business of health care can become these days. Last summer, just shy of its 65th birthday, East Texas Medical Center filed a lawsuit in state district court in Smith County alleging that Aetna Health, Cigna Healthcare and, especially, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas have plunged the hospital into financial jeopardy by repeatedly shutting it out of the most common and popular group health insurance networks. (Deam, 3/14)

Los Angeles Times: Hillary Clinton Had Trouble Explaining Obamacare To A Layperson. Here's Why.
During a CNN Town Hall appearance Sunday night, Hillary Clinton was presented with an Obamacare riddle ... Clinton did what she could to explain the pros and cons of the Affordable Care Act, which she supports and for which she has proposed several improvements. But under the circumstances her hands were mostly tied, thanks to the inherent difficulties of analyzing any family's health insurance situation in less than five minutes. (Michael Hiltzik, 3/14)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: In Pa. And N.J., Affordable Care Act Is Anything But
What good is health-insurance coverage if you can't afford to use it? That's not a rhetorical question. It's the reality facing thousands of people who are required to purchase health insurance on the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) exchanges. As if rising premiums - which increased by an average of 14.6 and 13.1 percent in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, respectively, in 2016 - weren't already hard enough, skyrocketing deductibles have rendered many plans "all but useless," according to a recent report in the New York Times. (Nathan Nascimento, 3/14)

The Cleveland Plain Dealer: Ted Cruz Is The Pro-Life Choice For President
In the last 20 years, Americans have been trending pro-life. A 2014 Gallup Poll notes that, in 1995, 56 percent described themselves as pro-choice and only 33 percent as pro-life. As of 2014, those numbers were 47 percent pro-choice and 46 percent pro-life. Other recent studies find as many as 58 percent of Americans oppose all or most abortions. (Jeff Farto, 3/13)

STAT: Obama's Medicare Drug Payment Overhaul Is Unproven. But It's Worth A Shot.
Imagine going to your doctor for an injection, but instead of administering a medicine that costs $500, the physician chooses a $3,000 alternative. In an era of growing angst over the cost of medicines, this might seem counterintuitive. But doctors often have an incentive for choosing pricier drugs: a higher reimbursement from the government. (Ed Silverman, 3/15)

Los Angeles Times: Why Are Doctors And Health Clinics In The Business Of Selling Prescription Drugs?
[L]ast week the Obama administration proposed a new approach aimed at encouraging the use of the most effective medicines, not the most expensive ones. The proposal was quickly denounced by doctor groups and drugmakers, who argued that it could harm patients. But what it really targets is a bad business model that makes heatlhcare needlessly expensive. (3/14)

Bloomberg: Pharma's Price Fears Get Real
The drug pricing debate in the United States has created plenty of smoke. Now for the fire.The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services (CMS) this week proposed a pilot pricing model to cut spending on expensive drugs. The rules apply to Medicare Part B, which covers infused or injected drugs administered to older Americans in doctors' offices and hospitals. It would reduce payments to doctors for more-expensive drugs while boosting reimbursements for cheaper options. The industry and some doctors are, unsurprisingly, unthrilled. (Max Nisen, 3/11)

The Tampa Bay Tribune: Federal Government Can’t Replicate Private Drug Development
Cancer mortality is at an all-time low. That’s the good news. The bad news is that cancer still kills one in five Americans. We want better cancer treatments — and cures — for our loved ones and ourselves. Ideally, the innovation responsible for the past and future progress against cancer and other diseases would come cheap. In reality, however, it is expensive — and necessarily so. Unfortunately, politicians such as Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton have pounced on that fact to call for government price controls on drugs produced by private pharmaceutical companies. (Thomas P. Stossel, 3/14)

The New York Times' Upshot: Ban Drug Ads On TV? Some Positive Outcomes Would Be Lost
If you’ve watched any television, you’ve seen drug ads — a lot of them. Drug companies spend several billion dollars a year on direct-to-consumer advertising. Count them and there are 80 drug ads an hour. Do drug ads provide useful information, as the pharmaceutical industry maintains? Or do ads just promote wasteful use of expensive new drugs, justifying regulation to rein them in? Those questions have taken on new importance as spending on drug ads has grown. Gilead Sciences, for example, spent $100 million on an ad campaign for its hepatitis C drug, Harvoni — the one that costs as much as $1,100 a pill. (Austin Frakt, 3/14)

The New York Times: Congress Should Allocate Money To Fight Zika
Republicans in Congress are refusing to allocate emergency funding to fight the Zika virus because, they say, the Obama administration could transfer money that was previously budgeted for the response to Ebola. This is a senseless and dangerous idea. Last month, President Obama asked Congress to provide $1.8 billion to help research the Zika virus, develop a vaccine, give assistance to countries like Brazil that are on the front lines of the outbreak and prevent cases in the United States. This is a modest sum and there is no good reason for Congress to refuse to allocate the money. A delay could put many thousands of people at risk. There have already been Zika cases in Puerto Rico and other territories and the virus has been observed in people in Texas, Florida and other states after they traveled to affected countries. (3/15)

The Des Moines Register: Informed Consent Misinforms About Abortion
In the never-ending quest to single out women seeking abortions, lawmakers in many states adopted “informed consent” statutes. These require health providers to give patients a state-authored informational packet before a pregnancy can be terminated. A new study by researchers at Rutgers University found the information distributed to women is medically inaccurate about one-third of the time. (3/14)

The Washington Post: Michigan Evaded The EPA On Flint. We Can’t Let That Happen Elsewhere.
This week, I will testify along with Gov. Rick Snyder and others from Michigan and Flint about the health crisis in the city. This conversation is needed because what happened in Flint should not have happened. The crisis is the result of a state-appointed emergency manager deciding that, to save money, Flint would stop purchasing treated drinking water from a source it relied on for 50 years and instead switch to an untreated source. The state of Michigan approved that decision, and it did so without requiring corrosion control. These decisions resulted in Flint residents being exposed to dangerously high levels of lead. (Gina McCarthy, 3/14)

The Des Moines Register: Iowans Should Trust Science In Marijuana Debate
Iowans may be deceived by the controversy surrounding claims of marijuana's miracle cures. This is not about possible medicines for children. The deception is that Iowa must rush to market without heed to the overwhelming advice of medical professionals warning that we should not bypass the Food and Drug Administration and good science in developing medicines. (Peter Komendowski, 3/14)

The Washington Post: The Day I Helped My Autistic Son Register To Vote
A while back, someone at a conference told me that intellectually disabled people with guardians could not vote. I believed it and stuffed away thoughts about taking my severely autistic son, Nat, to get registered. It was one more stinging “no” in his life. I should be used to it by now, but I’m not. Recently, however, I noticed the Twitter hashtag #CripTheVote, which is a rallying call to political candidates to take note of this huge constituency. As a disability rights advocate, I retweeted dutifully. The shadow of sadness for Nat never quite cleared, though, and one day I found myself angry about it: Why couldn’t Nat vote? Who was to say that he couldn’t make such decisions for himself? (Susan Senator, 3/14)

STAT: Is Do-It-Yourself CRISPR As Scary As It Sounds?
Media reports about the gene-editing technique called CRISPR-Cas9 have generated some doomsday scenarios that the technology would be used, as Wired magazine wrote, to create “designer babies, invasive mutants, species-specific bioweapons, and a dozen other apocalyptic sci-fi tropes.” So hearing the term “do-it-yourself CRISPR” might really conjure up visions of biohackers creating new disease-causing organisms that escape into the environment and kick off pandemics. (Patrick Skerrett, 3/14)

The Arizona Republic: Wait ... We Pay Health Care Costs For Killers?
Yes, we pay for the health care coverage of killers. And rapists. And child molesters. Armed robbers. Drug dealers. Spousal abusers. Thieves. Con men. And so on. We pay it for anyone in prison. We give them a place to live. We feed them. And when they get sick, we take care of them. At least we’re supposed to. (E.J. Montini, 3/14)