The Associated Press: Health Insurance Gains Low Due To Obama's Law, Not Economy
There’s growing evidence that most of the dramatic gain in the number of Americans with health care coverage is due to President Barack Obama’s law, and not the gradual recovery of the nation’s economy. That could pose a political risk for Republicans running against “Obamacare” in the GOP primaries as they shift to the general election later this year. While the health care law remains highly unpopular in the party, the prospect of taking away health care coverage from millions of people could trigger a backlash if the eventual GOP nominee’s plan to replace it is seen as coming up short. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/21)

The Associated Press: Disputed Health Law Rule Would Broaden Transgender Rights
Big companies are pushing back against proposed federal rules they say would require their medical plans to cover gender transition and other services under the nondiscrimination mandate of President Barack Obama's health care law. Civil rights advocates representing transgender people say the regulation, now being finalized by the Health and Human Services Department, would be a major step forward for a marginalized community beginning to gain acceptance as celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner tell their stories. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/22)

STAT: The Next Obamacare Sales Pitch: How Medical Care Will Get Better
The Obama administration is trying once again to address a criticism that has dogged the president ever since his health care bill passed six years ago: they need to sell it better. And this time, they’re paying a lot more attention to the medical side — the parts that no one outside of a narrow circle of health care wonks really understands. (Scott, 3/22)

Modern Healthcare: Changes To Risk-Adjustment Program Are Coming, Now Or Later
A controversial federal health program that helps insurers withstand the ebbs and flows of the new insurance exchanges will be put under the microscope this week with the hope of making it fairer in the long term. The CMS will host a public meeting Friday in which health insurers, state officials and others will offer their input on how to change the Affordable Care Act's risk-adjustment methodology for 2018 and beyond. Under the permanent risk-adjustment program, which is a zero-sum game, the federal government redistributes money from plans that have lower-cost, healthier members to companies that have higher-cost, sicker members. (Herman, 3/19)

Modern Healthcare: White House May Have Advantage In Upcoming ACA Contraception Case
Experts say the White House may have some advantages going into a U.S. Supreme Court case centering on questions of religious freedom and the Affordable Care Act's requirement that employers provide birth control coverage to employees. But the government will also face questions about whether it truly has shown a compelling interest in making sure all women get contraception coverage. The justices are taking up the issue on Wednesday. (Schencker, 3/21)

Fox News: ObamaCare Returns To Supreme Court, As Religious Charities Fight Contraception Mandate
President Obama’s signature health care law once again is coming before the Supreme Court, this time in a case involving nuns who say the law’s contraception mandate violates their religious freedom rights. (Mears, 3/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Valeant Starts CEO Search, Alleges Improper Financial Conduct
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. moved to replace its longtime chief executive, part of a series of steps to regain credibility and show investors it is committed to a fresh start after months of failed attempts. Valeant’s decision to look for a successor to CEO Michael Pearson comes just three weeks after it decided to take him back following an extended medical leave to treat severe pneumonia that he began around Christmas, a stretch during which the drugmaker’s woes mounted. (McNish, Hoffman and Benoit, 3/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Valeant: Pearson Is Out, Ackman Is In, Controversy Continues
The drama at Valeant just won’t stop. Embattled pharmaceutical giant Valeant Pharmaceuticals International said Monday morning that it was replacing is chief executive, J. Michael Pearson, and adding hedge-fund manager William Ackman to its board. But that move created even more controversy for the company, as the directors failed in an attempt to make room for Mr. Ackman by pushing its former chief financial officer, Howard Schiller, off the board. (Holm, 3/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Schiller Responds To Valeant Claim Of ‘Improper Conduct’
A former Valeant executive–and current board member–isn’t going away quietly. Among a long list of big announcements Monday, embattled pharmaceutical giant Valeant Pharmaceuticals International said that an internal committee had found that former Chief Financial Officer Howard Schiller had engaged in “improper conduct” that had contributed to the company’s need to restate its results. In a statement released through his lawyers, Mr. Schiller is refuting that claim, saying “at no time did I engage in any improper conduct that relates to any restatement of revenue the Company is considering.” (Holm, 3/21)

Bloomberg: Schiller May Be Forced To Pay Back Valeant Up To $26.1M
Howard Schiller, the embattled Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. director, may be forced to pay back some of the $26.1 million in incentive compensation he received as chief financial officer in 2014. Schiller, who was CFO until July 2015, was awarded restricted stock worth $23.7 million and a cash bonus of $2.4 million in 2014, according to Valeant’s most recent proxy statement. Under the company’s clawback policy, Valeant can reclaim that money. (Melby and Ritcey, 3/21)

Reuters: Valeant's Harsh Words On Ex-Executives May Play Into Government Probes
A move by Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc to single out two former top executives over its accounting problems is likely a bid to win leniency with government agencies investigating the drugmaker, according to accounting and securities experts. Valeant on Monday said Chief Executive Michael Pearson was leaving the company, and billionaire investor William Ackman, one of the company's biggest shareholders, would take a seat on its board, as Valeant tries to rectify accounting problems and save its business. Valeant is under investigation by both state and federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission. (Rosenberg and Lynch, 3/21)

The Wall Street Journal: One Person Still In The Green On His Valeant Bet: Michael Pearson
When Valeant Pharmaceuticals International named Michael Pearson as its new chief executive back on Feb. 1, 2008, the company noted in its announcement that he would be “personally purchasing a minimum of $3 million in company stock.” It’s unclear when or how much stock Mr. Pearson bought at the time and whether he held onto it. But based on that day’s closing price, $3 million worth of shares bought then would be worth about $6 million today, when the company said it was looking for a successor to replace Mr. Pearson as CEO. (Becker, 3/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Sequoia Fund Sold 1.5 Million Shares Of Valeant Pharmaceuticals
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.’s largest stakeholder said a fund it manages sold about 1.5 million shares of the drug maker’s stock last week, when the company’s share price fell more than 60%. Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb Inc.’s Sequoia Fund Inc. sold the Valeant shares to reduce investors’ taxes by booking capital losses, said David Poppe, executive vice president at Ruane, Cunniff. The fund’s shares in question were purchased in October, Mr. Poppe said. (Krouse, 3/21)

The Wall Street Journal: ValueAct’s Not-So-Invisible Role In Valeant’s Business And Pay Model
For much of the past decade, ValueAct Capital Management LP‘s discussion of its investment in Valeant Pharmaceuticals International went beyond touting its returns. The hedge fund often lauded the pharmaceutical company’s business model and executive-compensation structure, of which it was a key architect. No longer. (Farrell, 3/21)

News outlets look at what all this means for the future of the company —

The Wall Street Journal: A Valeant Breakup: Is It Inevitable Now?
The book has closed on the roll-up story at Valeant Pharmaceuticals International. Bond and equity holders now need to ask whether a breakup should follow. Valeant said Monday Chief Executive Michael Pearson would leave, once a successor is identified. The activist investor William Ackman, who owns 9% of the company, is joining the company’s board. As far as it goes, this news is an incremental positive for shareholders. They will now have more aggressive board representation during a period of potential conflict between Valeant’s debt and equity holders. (Holm, 3/21)

The New York Times: A Shake-Up At Valeant Signals The End Of An Era
As recently as last summer, J. Michael Pearson styled himself as a brash and bold executive with a new way of thriving in pharmaceuticals: buying other companies, slashing costs and sharply raising prices on undervalued drugs. The strategy had worked for years, as Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the company he ran, became an investor favorite. But by the end of 2015, Mr. Pearson and his company’s strategy were emblematic, on Capitol Hill and elsewhere, of high drug prices and the pharmaceutical industry’s worst impulses. (Thomas and Pollack, 3/21)

Marketplace: Valeant's Story: A Cautionary Tale
The controversial company Valeant Pharmaceuticals is in the middle of what one analyst called a soap opera. On Monday, the company announced that its current CEO is stepping down, a big-name investor is joining the board of directors and its financial future is in question. While this all may be rough news for investors, it could be good news for all of us who buy prescription drugs. (Gorenstein, 3/21)

USA Today: Secret Deals May Mean Consumers Pay More For Drugs
Secret deals often prompt drug benefit companies to cover brand-name prescriptions when equally effective generic or even over-the-counter medications are available, several drug pricing experts say. These companies, known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), negotiate deals with drug makers that include rebates and other compensation to encourage certain drugs and come up with lists of drugs that their insurance plans will cover. Employers and insurance companies then determine which drugs to encourage on these formularies. (O'Donnell, 3/21)

The Chicago Tribune: Walgreens Builds Stake In Drug Wholesaler
Walgreens is strengthening its relationship with AmerisourceBergen, the drug wholesaler that supplies its stores, spending $1.2 billion to purchase a 15 percent stake in the Pennsylvania-based company. Walgreens Boots Alliance, based in Deerfield, entered a 10-year deal with AmerisourceBergen in 2013 and started building its stake in the company at the same time. It has options to purchase another 10 percent next year. (Janssen, 3/18)

Reuters: Gilead Shares Look Cheap But Investors Fret Over Growth
Shares of Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O) are trading at ultra cheap levels as investors broadly shed biotech holdings and question what the company could do for an encore after several years of torrid growth. To an extent, Gilead is a victim of its own success. The company, the largest biotech by market value at $120 billion, built upon a leading HIV medicine franchise by adding hepatitis C treatments that revolutionized care for the serious liver disease. (Krauskopf, 3/21)

In other pharmaceutical news —

The Wall Street Journal: New Migraine Drugs Are On The Horizon
Researchers are unlocking some of the mysteries surrounding migraines, raising hopes for a new class of treatments. Millions of patients who experience migraines would benefit from better medicines, researchers say. Drugs taken to treat the debilitating headaches don’t work in all patients. Meanwhile, drugs taken to prevent attacks were developed to fight other conditions, like high blood pressure, and have limited effectiveness. (Rockoff, 3/21)

NBC News: Americans Mix It Up Too Much With Drugs, Study Finds
More people than ever are taking bunches of medications and supplements that could interact in ways that make them worse instead of better, researchers reported Monday. (Fox, 3/21)

Reuters: UK Cost Agency Backs J&J Cancer Drug In Change Of Heart
A cancer drug originally discovered in Britain has finally been endorsed for treating advanced prostate cancer before chemotherapy on the country's state health service in a change of heart by the cost agency NICE. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said on Monday it was now recommending Zytiga, which is sold by Johnson & Johnson, following the submission of new evidence on the drug's benefits. (Hirschler, 3/21)

The Wall Street Journal: Anthem Sues Express Scripts Over Drug Pricing
Health insurer Anthem Inc. sued Express Scripts Holding Co. for about $15 billion in damages, alleging that the pharmacy-benefit manager violated their contract through excessive charges and failures in its operations. The lawsuit, filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks damages tied to what Anthem said was Express Scripts’ unduly high pricing for drugs. Anthem also asked for a judgment that it could terminate its deal with Express Scripts, which stretches to 2019, but the insurer said it hasn’t determined if it would actually end the contract. (Wilde Mathews, 3/21)

NPR: Anthem Sues Express Scripts For A Bigger Slice Of Drug Savings
The battle over drug prices escalated Monday when health insurance giant Anthem Inc. sued Express Scripts, a manager of drug benefits, to get a bigger share of savings on prescription medicines. Anthem is looking for a change in its contract with Express Scripts, which handles drug benefits for 80 million people. The insurer says it's overpaying for pharmaceuticals and not benefiting from rebates the pharmacy benefit manager has negotiated with drugmakers. (Kodjak, 3/21)

The Washington Post: Anthem Sues Express Scripts Over Prescription Drug Pricing
Insurers contract with middleman companies like Express Scripts, which negotiate rebates and discounts on prescription drugs on behalf of the people they insure and pocket some of the savings for themselves. Anthem entered into a ten-year agreement with Express Scripts in 2009 that included a provision for a periodic review of pricing, to ensure that the prices Anthem received were competitive with others in the marketplace. According to the lawsuit, Express Scripts' current pricing for the contract now exceeds competitive pricing by $13 billion, plus an additional $1.8 billion through a transition period after the contract is terminated. (Johnson, 3/21)

The Associated Press: Anthem Sues Express Scripts Over Cost Of Prescriptions
Anthem said in a statement that Express Scripts was obligated to negotiate in good faith to make sure Anthem received competitive pricing, but that it had refused to do so. A spokesman for Express Scripts said that Anthem’s lawsuit had no merit, and that it had “consistently acted in good faith and in accordance with the terms” of its deal with Anthem. (3/21)

Bloomberg: Express Scripts Incoming CEO Wants Anthem To Stay, Despite Suit
Express Scripts Holding Co.’s incoming chief executive officer is trying to keep its biggest customer, after health insurer Anthem Inc. sued to recoup billions of dollars in what it called excess payments for drugs and threatened to end their relationship. “We don’t intend to lose Anthem. We’ll get through this,” Express Scripts President Tim Wentworth, who will take over as CEO in May, said in an interview. “We think we have done a great job for Anthem.” (Tracer and Langreth, 3/21)

Will the deal prompt other insurers to look closely at their contracts with pharmacy benefits managers? Modern Healthcare examines that and other possible reactions to the suit —

Modern Healthcare: Will The Anthem-Express Scripts Battle Change The PBM Landscape?
Anthem's legal strike against Express Scripts Holding Co. may spur other health insurance companies to re-evaluate their contracts with pharmacy benefits managers to see if they are getting shortchanged on drug savings. It could also allow Anthem and others to consider integrating drug benefits under their own corporate umbrellas. At a minimum, observers expect more calls for transparency throughout the drug pricing process, which often is shrouded in secrecy in the name of “trade secrets” and has become one of the most divisive issues in healthcare. (Herman, 3/21)

The Washington Post: The FDA, For Only The Second Time Ever, Wants To Ban A Medical Device. Here’s Why.
Powdered medical gloves — the kind used in surgery or to examine patients — would be ordered off the market under a new proposal by the Food and Drug Administration. That would put the gloves in an exclusive club — only one other device has been banned by the agency: prosthetic hair fibers in 1983. When an already approved device turns out to pose higher-than-expected risks, the agency usually tries to correct the problem by adding a warning to the label or changing how the device is used. But in the case of the gloves — and the hair fibers — the FDA concluded that no labeling fixes would do the trick. (McGinley, 3/21)

The Associated Press: FDA Moves To Ban Most Powdered Surgical Gloves
Federal health officials are moving to ban most surgical gloves made with powder, a feature designed to make them easier to wear, but which actually poses health risks to patients and health professionals. The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that the powder added to some latex gloves can cause breathing problems, wound inflammation, and scar tissue on internal organs when used during surgery. The agency proposed the ban Monday in a federal filing. (Perrone, 3/21)

NBC News: Food And Drug Administration Proposes Banning Powdered Surgical Gloves
The Food and Drug Administration proposed banning powdered surgical gloves Monday, saying the powder can carry dangerous allergens into the air. The FDA has been warning about the gloves for nearly 20 years. Powder makes the gloves easier to take on and off and absorbs sweat — but it can get into the air and even into surgical openings. (Fox, 3/21)

In other FDA news —

Modern Healthcare: MitraClip Recall Shines Spotlight On Surgeon Training, Testing Concerns
Abbott's recent recall of its new $30,000 heart valve repair device called the MitraClip led to an intensive educational campaign to retrain surgeons in proper implantation techniques. The speedy action will likely prevent thousands of injuries. But the voluntary action has also renewed concerns by patient safety advocates that some new devices are being thrown on the market without sufficient clinical testing or adequate training.The rapid response by Abbott and the Food and Drug Administration comes at a time when quality and safety researchers are increasingly concerned about the cascade of new medical devices and equipment being introduced into day-to-day practice. (Rubenfire and Rice, 3/21)

The Associated Press: FDA Approves New Injection To Combat Anthrax
Federal health officials have approved a new injectable drug to treat patients who have been exposed to the deadly toxin anthrax. The Food and Drug Administration said it approved Anthim on Friday to treat inhalation anthrax, which can cause serious injury and death. The condition occurs when anthrax bacterial spores are inhaled. (3/21)

CQ Healthbeat: Medicine Man Tackles Food Challenges At FDA
Before joining the Food and Drug Administration as a deputy commissioner in February 2015, Robert Califf, a cardiologist by training, spent most of his career running a clinical trial institute at Duke University. His expertise in clinical research was considered good preparation to lead an agency where those trials are ultimately analyzed as evidence in drug and device approvals. But with his elevation to FDA commissioner last month, he added a few new areas to his portfolio, including the agency’s $1 billion food safety mission. And while that area is outside of Califf’s traditional expertise, in a March 16 interview with CQ he described the many parallels he sees between food safety and the regulation of medical products. (Siddons, 3/21)

Politico Pro: Health Care Industries See Threats From Both Cruz And Trump
The health care establishment that’s benefited from Obamacare is grappling with a disturbing truth. Either of the two leading candidates for the GOP presidential nomination could be the industry’s Enemy No. 1 — for totally different reasons. (Pradhan and Demko, 3/21)

CBS News: Hillary Clinton Explains Her Stance On Obamacare For Undocumented Immigrants
Hillary Clinton on Monday night explained the way she would at least partially expand access to Obamacare to undocumented immigrants. "There are two steps here," the Democratic presidential front-runner said in a televised town hall on CNN. "If someone can afford to pay for an insurance policy off the exchanges that were set up under the Affordable Care Act, I support that." (Condon, 3/21)

The New York Times: Fighting Heroin, Ithaca Looks To Injection Centers
Even Svante L. Myrick, the mayor of [Ithaca, New York], thought the proposal sounded a little crazy, despite the fact that it was put forth by a committee he appointed. The plan called for establishing a site where people could legally shoot heroin — something that exists nowhere else in the United States. “Heroin is bad, and injecting heroin is bad, so how could supervised heroin injection be a good thing?” Mr. Myrick, a Democrat, said. But he also knew he had to do something drastic to confront the scourge of heroin in his city in central New York. (Foderado, 3/22)

Earlier KHN coverage: Boston’s Heroin Users Will Soon Get A Safer Place To Be High (Bebinger, 3/3)

STAT: Interactive: Explore The Spike In Overdose Deaths In The US
A new STAT-Harvard poll finds that 41 percent of Americans know someone who has abused prescription painkillers in the last five years — and 1 in 12 say they know someone who died from an overdose. (Bronshtein, 3/22)

Elsewhere, a measure before Connecticut lawmakers would limit prescriptions, and Kansas gets federal grants to help expand its opioid addiction treatment offerings —

The Connecticut Mirror: Bill Would Limit New Opioid Prescriptions To Seven-Day Supplies
New prescriptions for opioid medication to address non-chronic pain would be limited to a seven-day supply under a proposal state legislators from both parties are backing – one of several bills aimed at curbing a drug epidemic that killed, on average, more than one person per day in Connecticut last year. (Levin Becker, 3/21)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Kansas Health Centers Plan To Expand Opioid Abuse Treatment
More than $1.4 million in federal grants will help four Kansas health centers enhance their treatment programs for opioid abuse. In announcing the grants earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said abuse of and addiction to opioids, such as heroin and prescription painkillers, “is a serious and increasing public health problem.” (Hart, 3/21)

Meanwhile, KHN looks at the debate around the release of patient records for alcohol and drug abuse treatment —

Kaiser Health News: Debate Arises Over HHS Plans For Privacy Rules On Addiction Treatment
What’s more harmful to patients being treated for drug or alcohol abuse: risking their health by keeping other medical providers in the dark about their substance abuse treatment? Or risking their jobs, homes and child custody arrangements by allowing potentially damaging treatment details to be electronically shared among an array of medical providers? Advocates have painted the possible patient outcomes in starkly different terms as they consider the federal government’s recently proposed update to guidelines that govern the release of patient records for alcohol and drug abuse treatment. (Andrews, 3/22)

Kaiser Health News: More Sickle Cell Patients Survive, But Care Is Hard To Find For Adults
When Janoi Burgess was a child, he thought doctor appointments were fun. But when he turned 21, the South Florida resident could no longer go to his pediatric specialist. Instead, he “bounced around” to various adult primary care doctors, none of whom seemed well-versed in the details of his condition. When he had a painful sickle cell crisis two years later, his only choice was to go to a hospital emergency department, where, he says, he waited three hours for pain medication. Burgess’ experience is not unusual among many adults with sickle cell anemia, which affects up to 100,000 people in the United States, most of them African Americans. For many years, most people with sickle cell died in childhood or adolescence, and the condition remained in the province of pediatrics. During the past two decades, advances in routine care have allowed many people to live into middle age and beyond. (Marcus, 3/22)

In other public health news —

The Washington Post: Our Kids Caught A $1,000 Cough. Be Careful: Yours Can Get It, Too.
One winter week, my 7-year-old twins started with stuffed noses and sore throats. We did what parents typically do: We broke out the throat spray, the cough syrup, the decongestant. Instead of going away, the problem got worse. The pediatrician did a test for strep, which came back negative. After that, he just shrugged and told us it was a viral infection, probably stemming from an allergy to dust and pollen. (Cunha, 3/21)

The Associated Press: Veterans Are Using Pot To Ease PTSD, Despite Scant Research
A growing number of states are weighing whether to legalize marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. But for many veterans, the debate is already over. They're increasingly using cannabis even though it remains illegal in most states and is unapproved by the Department of Veterans Affairs because major studies have yet to show it is effective against PTSD. (3/22)

NPR: Houston Prepares Now For Zika's Potential Arrival This Summer
On March 10, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee held a news conference at the Good Neighbor Healthcare Center in the part of Houston she represents. "What we're doing here today is having an intense briefing on the Zika virus with health professionals, working with the mayor and the city of Houston, the state and the country, to formulate the kind of partnership that can respond immediately," said Jackson Lee, a Democrat. Then she stepped aside, as the mayor, the assembled health officials and civic minded clergy all delivered a version of the same message: The Zika virus is coming to Houston, and we'd better get ready. (Palca, 3/21)

Morning Consult: In Press Conference, Obama, Castro Touch On Health Care Collaboration
President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro held a joint press conference Havana Monday, marking the first visit by a U.S. president to Cuba in nearly 90 years. Their remarks focused on U.S.-Cuban relationships, though Obama praised Cuban doctors for their work in West Africa fighting Ebola and touted the how Cuban and American physicians worked together both there and in Haiti to fight Cholera during his remarks. He also pointed to how researchers in both countries may work together against the spreading of viruses and diseases. (McIntire, 3/21)

NPR: Baltimore Struggles To Protect Children From Lead Paint
When a doctor found that Kenicer Carty's 1-year-old daughter had a dangerously high level of lead last year, it triggered an alarm of sorts. Officials sent an inspector to Carty's 1930 row house in northeast Baltimore. It turned out that every single window had hazardous chipping lead paint. ... Baltimore banned lead paint in 1950, nearly 30 years before the rest of the country. Grassroots activism emerged early here, with a volunteer effort among parents in 1986. That became the national Coalition to End Childhood Lead Poisoning, which spawned the Green and Healthy Homes Initiative. Baltimore has seen a dramatic decline in cases of lead poisoning, down 86 percent since 2002. But despite these decades of effort, hundreds of Baltimore children are still poisoned every year. (Ludden, 3/21)

Reuters: Michigan Outlines Flint Recovery Plan
Michigan's government on Monday released goals to help the city of Flint recover from a health crisis caused by the lead contamination of its drinking water. The plan, involving several state agencies, is meant to address water infrastructure shortcomings and the health of children who have tested for high lead levels in their blood, expand support in Flint schools and boost economic development for the city, Governor Rick Snyder said. (3/22)

The Associated Press: Michigan Governor Plans Stricter Lead-Test Rules After Flint
Gov. Rick Snyder said Monday he wants Flint and the entire state to have more stringent lead-level regulations than what federal rules require, following the city’s water contamination crisis. In the long term, Michigan will comply with a “much higher standard,” according to a state document laying out the next steps in Flint in four areas — water supply and infrastructure, health and human services, education, and economic development. (Eggert, 3/21)

The Associated Press: Alabama Governor Says He Will Veto Budget Over Medicaid Funding
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said Monday that he will veto a general fund budget lawmakers are expected to approve this week over what he called an "unacceptable" appropriation for Medicaid. The Alabama Senate on Tuesday is expected to give final approval to a budget that is $85 million short of the amount Bentley says is needed to adequately fund the state's Medicaid program. "Legislators just don't understand it, and I don't think they want to," Bentley said during a press conference in Monroeville to highlight problems with rural broadband and health care access. (3/21)

Al.com: Bentley Says Lottery Probably Only Way To Raise Money For Medicaid
Gov. Robert Bentley told doctors and other employees at Monroe County Hospital today that a lottery is probably the only realistic option for raising more money for Medicaid. The governor said he thought voters would approve a lottery overwhelmingly if it made its way to the ballot, by "70 percent." ... The governor said the 94-bed hospital is an example of a strong and vital rural facility that could take a hit if Medicaid's funding request is not met. The Medicaid Agency has said it would have to cut payments to doctors and trim optional programs. Bentley said rural doctors would be affected. (Cason, 3/21)

The Associated Press: Medicaid, SNAP Crackdown: Records, Audits Eyed
The Mississippi Senate passed a narrower version of a bill Monday that would require an electronic records system for Medicaid and a regular audit of Medicaid recipients. House Bill 1116 would hire an outside company to build a computerized record of Medicaid recipients’ information. The Senate version, approved Monday by a committee, requires that Medicaid officials periodically verify recipients’ financial information and residency to determine if they’re still eligible for aid. Any recipient found to have left Mississippi would stop getting aid within three months after they left. (Benchaabane, 3/21)

The Boston Globe: Health Costs May Rise As Small Hospitals Struggle
Massachusetts community hospitals are losing business to larger urban teaching hospitals, a trend that threatens to undermine the state’s campaign to curb health care spending. In its first report on the issue, the state’s Health Policy Commission said Monday that community hospitals are being squeezed by lower payments from insurers and the choice of many patients to be treated at big Boston hospitals, even for routine medical care. (Dayal McCluksey, 3/21)

STAT: As Virtual Doctor Visit Takes Off, Debate Over Who Should Pay Heats Up
When is a video chat with a doctor equivalent to an office visit? State legislators across the US have been grappling with that question as hospitals press for insurance companies to fully cover virtual appointments — and insurers balk at those demands. But the political wrangling, including a heated debate now at the Massachusetts statehouse, hasn’t stopped the growth of telemedicine. (Bailey, 3/22)

Marketplace: Hospital Mergers Within State Borders Drive Up Costs
There’s a growing – and troubling – body of evidence that hospital mergers lead to higher prices. In other words, insurers, employers — we all tend to pay more for C-sections, heart surgery and hip replacements as hospitals get bigger and more powerful. (Gorenstein, 3/21)

The Chicago Tribune: Presence Health CEO Tending To Ailing Hospital Chain
Michael Englehart, president and CEO of Presence Health, is not a doctor. But he's caring for a sick patient — his hospital chain. In an unusually frank discussion Wednesday, Englehart said he's surprised at what he has uncovered since starting Oct. 1. His diagnosis is ugly. Billing and collection failures. Weak internal accounting controls. Outdated technology. (Sachdev, 3/18)

Marketplace: Study Says Patients Can Manage Complex Care At Home — And Cut Costs
The Holy Grail in health care is finding a way to cut costs and improve outcomes. Researchers at Parkland Hospital in Dallas say they’ve uncovered a way to do both — so that patients who typically have to stay in the hospital for more than a month can go home and care for themselves. (Silverman, 3/21)

The Oregonian: FamilyCare Is Ready To Settle With Oregon Health Authority
A coordinated care organization embroiled in a months-long dispute with the Oregon Health Authority issued a news release on Monday saying it is ready to settle. The statement by FamilyCare followed dueling news releases on Friday, stemming from a public threat by the state to terminate its relationship with the organization. (Terry, 3/21)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Legislature Moves To Protect Tobacco Settlement
The Kansas Legislature moved Monday toward ratifying agreements with American Indian tribes meant to ensure the state continues to receive money from a legal settlement with major tobacco companies. The 1998 multistate settlement on tobacco-related Medicaid costs provides roughly $60 million a year that Kansas uses to fund children’s programs. One of the stipulations of the settlement is that Kansas enforce taxes and regulations on small-scale tobacco manufacturers who did not join the settlement so they aren’t able to grab significant market share from the large manufacturers who did. (Marso, 3/21)

The San Jose Mercury News: Right-To-Die Law Debated At Morgan Hill Town Hall Meeting
They know California's landmark right-to-die law, set to kick in June 9, is for the terminally ill. And they support that effort. But what most of the dozen people at a town hall meeting on Monday in Morgan Hill wanted to know is why their friends and relatives suffering from Alzheimer's or dementia cannot take advantage of the law. (Seipel, 3/21)

The Sacramento Bee: Got A Health Care Grievance? There’s A Place To Complain
Your health insurance company denied your treatment. Or it won’t provide the prescription drug you need. Or you’ve got a billing dispute. Or your longtime doctor was dropped from your health plan. When you’ve got a complaint about health care, where are you gonna go? The MyPatientRights.org site is one starting point. (Buck, 3/21)

The Kansas Health Institute News Service: Senate Advances Bill Requiring Parental Consent To Withhold 'Life-Sustaining' Treatment
The Senate on Monday advanced a bill that would forbid hospitals from withholding life-sustaining treatment from children without permission from a parent or guardian. Senate Bill 437 would prohibit a physician or health care facility from withholding life-sustaining treatment or placing a do-not-resuscitate order on someone younger than 18 without parental permission. If the parents disagreed, they could petition a district court to settle the case, with the presumption in favor of continuing treatment. (Hart, 3/21)

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Angry Vos Vows Another Run At Bill To Help Limit Seizures
Frustrated with last week's failure of a bill to help children with chronic seizures, the head of the state Assembly said he's going to push the proposal as soon as possible next session. (Stein, 3/21)

Reuters: Family Of Colorado Inmate Files Wrongful Death Suit, Says He Was Denied Medication
A mentally ill prisoner who was found naked and dead in a Colorado jail cell two years ago was denied his psychiatric medication and physically abused by staff at the lock-up, lawyers for the inmate's family said Friday. John Patrick Walter died in the Fremont County jail in April 2014, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his family in U.S. District Court in Denver on Thursday. (3/18)

The Associated Press: Puerto Rico Doctor Ordered To Pay AFLAC $2M In Restitution
A Puerto Rico doctor found guilty in a multimillion-dollar federal fraud case has been ordered to pay a U.S. insurance company more than $2 million in restitution. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Monday that Dr. Anibal Pagan Romero also was sentenced to 10 years in prison as part of a case in which hundreds of other people were prosecuted. (3/21)

The Sacramento Bee: California Ballot Proposal To Require Parental Notification For Abortion Fizzles
The campaign to qualify a November constitutional amendment requiring parental notification for abortions ended last week, the latest in a string of ballot failures for the effort’s sponsors. (Miller, 3/21)

The Wall Street Journal: An Empty Obama-Clinton-Sanders Plan On Drug Costs
President Obama’s latest budget includes proposals—echoed or one-upped on the presidential-campaign trail by Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton—that would require pharmaceutical companies to release data on the cost of research and development (R&D) and the extent of discounts offered to insurers for each drug brought to market. Yet the key numbers already are disclosed freely—and we know how to get better value from medicines and improve their affordability to patients. (John C. Lechleiter, 3/21)

The Columbus Dispatch: Experiments Could Lead To Smaller Drug Bills
Federal officials poked a medical hornet’s nest recently with an ambitious attempt to do what many American taxpayers — and patients — demand: tame rising prescription-drug costs in Medicare. Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services rolled out a proposal to test new ways of reimbursing doctors who administer drugs in their offices and in hospital outpatient departments. These drugs include cancer medications, antibiotics and certain eye care treatments — about $19 billion a year in Medicare spending. (3/22)

The Cincinnati Inquirer: Medicare Part D Helps People With Disabilities
The future looks bright for Ohioans with disabilities. Thanks to the Ohio Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act, individuals with disabilities have the ability to save money tax-free to pay for expenses related to their disability. (Sara Hart Weir and Chip Gerhardt, 3/21)

The Washington Post: I Needed To Find Care For My Elderly Aunt. What I Found Was An Eldercare Crisis.
The call came right after lunchtime. “I’ve fallen again.” My great-aunt Emma sounded frustrated and frail. Her arm hurt too much to move, she said, let alone pick up the bag of groceries she’d just bought. It might be broken. Could I come pick her up and drive her to the emergency room? ... Unfortunately, our medical system caters to extremes, taking care of you most quickly if you are critically ill, covering you financially only if you’re destitute. Emma’s X-rays revealed a clean break in her upper arm — they put her in a sling and sent her home with ibuprofen — but what happened after showed me how difficult it is for the elderly and their families to navigate health care in this country. (A.K. Whitney, 3/22)

Bloomberg: Valeant Sold Some Drugs Twice
The crazy news out of Valeant continued this morning with a wild press release announcing, among other things, that Chief Executive Officer J. Michael Pearson is going to leave, but not yet, and that the board asked former Chief Financial Officer Howard Schiller to resign from the board, "but Mr. Schiller has not done so." (Matt Levine, 3/21)

STAT: You Can Complain About TV Drug Ads. They May Have Saved My Life
It’s easy to find fault with ads for prescription drugs, as STAT recently did. Few people get to hear about the good that can come from these ads. For some people — including me — they provide the information and motivation to take life-saving action. (Deborah Clark Dushane, 3/21)

Lexington Herald Leader: Don’t Let Pharmacists Replace Innovative Drugs Designed To Fight Chronic Diseases
Ulcerative colitis is a chronic, painful disease that affects 1.6 million people across the United States. In 2008, I became one of them. I’ll be the first to admit that living with this illness has not been easy. Symptoms include nausea, headaches, intestinal cramps, vomiting, uncontrollable diarrhea, intestinal bleeding, joint pain and insomnia. Each day brings a new set of challenges. (Cheryl Portman, 3/21)

USA Today: Obamacare Attacks Religious Liberty: Little Sisters Mother Provincial
When I first answered God’s call to join the Little Sisters of the Poor and vow myself to Him and to the care of the elderly, I never dreamed of the happiness I would experience in serving, living with and caring for the aging poor until God calls them to Himself. I also never thought one day, I would be walking up the white marble steps of the Supreme Court to attend a legal proceeding in which the high court will decide whether the government can force my order to help offer health care services that violate my Catholic faith and that are already available through existing government exchanges. (Loraine Maguire, 3/22)

USA Today: Raise Cigarette Sales Age And See: Our View
When California lawmakers voted this month to raise the legal age to buy cigarettes from 18 to 21, they joined Hawaii and more than 100 localities in seeking a new way to prevent vulnerable teenagers from getting hooked. Almost everyone who smokes started by age 18, research shows. (3/21)

USA Today: 21 For Cigarettes, But 18 For Pot?: Opposing View
Should you have to be 21 to buy beer and cigarettes, but 18 to smoke marijuana? If a measure that passed the California Legislature is signed into law, that’s exactly what will happen. The measure would raise the legal age to buy cigarettes to 21, the same as it is for alcohol. (Mike Gatto, 3/21)

The Hill: Stop The Over-Prescription Of Opioids
Without guidance, we end up with a tragic cycle that just won’t go away: Thousands of men and women go in for routine treatments — treatments that don’t require more than a small dose of pain medication, for just a few days — and they leave with far more or far stronger medicine than they need. They become addicted, or they give the extra pills to a friend or family member who misuses the medication, or they leave them unguarded in a medicine cabinet for a child to take. (Kirsten Gillibrand and Shelly Moore Capito, 3/21)

The Baltimore Sun: The Effects Of Opioid Overprescription Are Evident In The Emergency Room
The waiting room is full tonight. People fidget in their chairs. Some sleep. Most wear blank expressions. They've done this before. Some know the providers by name. "A true addict will wait as long as it takes to get a prescription," remarks a doctor. Some of tonight's patients will wait 14 hours to be seen by a provider. (Emily and Connor Narciso, 3/19)

Los Angeles Times: The Zika Virus Doesn't Respect Borders. It's Time For Immediate U.S. Action
President Obama recently proposed a $1.8 billion emergency funding package to assist federal agencies in managing the Zika outbreak abroad and preventing it from spreading domestically. Stopping or slowing this mosquito-borne disease, which has now been reported in more than 20 Latin American countries and 20 U.S. states, would seem to be a non-partisan priority — if not for humanitarian reasons, then for unadulterated self-interest. Mosquitoes don't respect international borders and when they seek out bloodmeals they don't discriminate on the basis of party affiliation. Nevertheless, the request for Zika funding inexplicably ran into trouble almost immediately. (May Berenbaum, 3/21)

The Columbus Dispatch: Be Prepared To Fight Zika
The Ohio Department of Health will be able ease a lot of minds — and more importantly, better protect the health of others — by being able to test for the Zika virus at its Reynoldsburg lab, greatly cutting the time worried Ohioans must wait for results. Those who feared they had contracted the mosquito-borne virus previously waited an average of 19.5 days as blood specimens were sent to a federal lab. Now, results should be reported within 48 hours. (3/22)

Des Moines Register: E. Coli Secrecy Must End
The CDC says its policy is to identify the providers of contaminated food only when “we perceive there are actions people can take to protect themselves.” In this case, a spokeswoman said, the restaurant chain stopped using the product suspected to be the cause of the illnesses, curtailing the outbreak. There was nothing else consumers could do at that point to avoid illnesses, she said. The Iowa Department of Public Health, which was aware of the outbreak, took a similar stance. Even last week, Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, the department’s medical director, refused to discuss the business involved in the outbreak with a Register reporter. She said the department’s investigations remain confidential unless the department believes disclosure is necessary to protect the public health. (3/22)

Bloomberg: The Value Of That P-Value
At issue is a statistical test that researchers in a wide range of disciplines, from medicine to economics, use to draw conclusions from data. Let’s say you have a pill that’s supposed to make people rich. You give it to 30 people, and they wind up 1 percent richer than a similar group that took a placebo. Before you can attribute this difference to your magic pill, you need to test your results with a narrow and dangerously subtle question: How likely would you be to get this result if your pill had no effect whatsoever? If this probability, or so-called p-value, is less than a stated threshold -- often set at 5 percent -- the result is deemed "statistically significant." (3/21)