The New York Times: House G.O.P. Returns Focus To Obamacare’s Spending Authority
The Obama administration knowingly spent billions in health care dollars without proper congressional authority and went to “great lengths” to impede congressional scrutiny of the money, Republicans on two major House committees said in a report that will be made public on Thursday. An extensive investigation by the Ways and Means and the Energy and Commerce Committees concluded that the administration plowed ahead with funding for a consumer cost-reduction program that was central to the new health insurance law even though Congress did not provide money for it. (Huse, 7/7)

Bloomberg: Obamacare’s Tobacco Surcharges Slowed Universal Health Care In Study
The Affordable Care Act was meant to have a particular impact on smokers when it was enacted: It would shift the burden of high health-care costs from smoking ailments to the smokers themselves—17 percent of American adults in 2014. At the same time, the ACA would keep making progress toward the goal of universal health care, even for smokers. It fell short on both goals in its first year, a study released Wednesday by the Yale School of Public Health found. (Ramkumar, 7/6)

Houston Chronicle: Tobacco Surcharges Lower Insurance Enrollment
A tobacco surcharge levied by some insurers has led to lower enrollment in health coverage — but not to lower smoking rates. That’s according to a new study by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health, which examined the tobacco surcharge allowed under the Affordable Care Act. ...The legislation, among other things, allowed insurance plans to to levy a surcharge of up to 50 percent on tobacco users’ premiums. (Cuba, 7/6)

Morning Consult: Group Representing Insurance Co-Ops Criticizes ACA Program
An organization representing state health insurance co-ops criticized the Affordable Care Act’s risk adjustment formula as a failure causing difficulties for the nonprofit insurers created under the law. The announcement from the National Alliance of State Health Co-Ops came a day after HealthyCT, the Connecticut co-op, was put under an order of suspension, signaling the co-op would start taking steps to shut down. Kelly Crowe, the group’s CEO, said the case was not a “one-off example.” (McIntire, 7/6)

The Baltimore Sun: Evergreen Health To Pay $24 Million Under Affordable Care Act Program
Evergreen Health Cooperative must pay $24.2 million to its biggest competitor because of an Affordable Care Act program that aims to level the playing field for insurers taking on riskier customers from state health insurance exchanges. (Gantz, 7/6)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Children's Hospital To Sell Health Plans On Federal Marketplace Next Year
Children's Community Health Plan, which is owned by Children's Hospital and Health System, plans to sell insurance on the federal marketplace set up through the Affordable Care Act. The plan oversees the care of 135,000 people covered by BadgerCare Plus, the state's largest Medicaid program, and had operating revenue of $237.8 million last year. The move to sell insurance on the federal exchange will give people in six counties in southeastern Wisconsin another option on the marketplace next year, and it comes as some health insurers are abandoning the marketplaces after incurring large losses. (Boulton, 7/6)

The New York Times: Congress Splits Over Bill Aimed At Nation’s Opioid Epidemic
A partisan feud over money to treat drug addicts split a House and Senate conference committee on Wednesday as it considered legislation to address the nation’s deadly opioid epidemic, imperiling a bill many had hoped would be one of this Congress’s most significant accomplishments. Democrats on the conference committee lost in their effort to insist that the bill include at least $920 million to help pay for additional treatment of addicts, most of whom cannot find or afford the treatment they need. (Harris, 7/6)

Reuters: U.S. Republicans Reject Democratic Funding Proposals For Opioids
Republican lawmakers in U.S. Congress on Wednesday rejected two Democratic amendments to provide nearly $1 billion in funding for bipartisan legislation intended to combat America's opioid epidemic, aides said. The rejection, which came during a meeting of U.S. House of Representatives and Senate negotiators on the measure, could undermine Democratic support for final legislation that could come up for a vote in the House of Representatives as early as Friday. (Morgan, 7/6)

The Washington Post: Political Divide Over Funding Threatens Fate Of Popular Opioid Bill
The bill is popular with members in both parties and several lawmakers in tough re-election contests are eager to promote it back home as evidence they are getting things done in Washington. But Democrats have long pushed for the additional funding arguing that without it the bill will not deliver on its promise to help stem the growing abuse of opioids across the country. “We are debating a bill to address the opioid epidemic. It should include the funding necessary to actually fight that epidemic,” said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a member of the conference committee that drafted the bill. (Demirjian, 7/6)

The Hill: Republicans Unanimously Reject Nearly $1B In New Funding For Opioid Bill
While the conference committee can proceed without Democratic support, the staunch opposition will become problematic when the bill reaches the Senate floor, where Democrats can block the bill from going forward. (Ferris, 7/6)

Morning Consult: Opioid Conference Fails: Lawmakers Agree On Everything But Money
This sets up a familiar scenario. In the past two weeks, a House-Senate conference report to fund the Zika virus passed along partisan lines in the House and then failed along partisan lines in the Senate. (Owens, 7/6)

Politico Pro: Republicans Vote Down Funding In CARA Conference
Unlike the conference committee on Zika funding, Democrats have been heavily engaged in drafting the details of the conference report on the opioid legislation. And more than 100 advocacy groups support passing the drug abuse bill with or without funding, even though they have lobbied hard for more money. (Norman, 7/6)

The Hill: White House Stops Short Of Veto Threat Against Opioid Bill
The White House on Wednesday slammed congressional Republicans for voting down new funding for bipartisan opioid legislation but stopped just short of saying President Obama would veto the legislation...[Press Secretary Josh] Earnest accused Republicans of being “deaf” to calls from Democrats and public health experts who say that more funding is necessary to combat the opioid epidemic. (Fabian, 7/6)

In other news about the opioid epidemic —

The Boston Globe: Mass. Doctors Are Prescribing Fewer Opioids
Many doctors in Massachusetts sharply curtailed prescriptions for opioids over the past 18 months, according to new data that suggest the pipeline for drugs that fueled the state’s deadly opioid-abuse crisis may be shrinking. Athenahealth, a Watertown company that provides electronic medical records, released an analysis Wednesday showing that opioid prescriptions in the physician practices that use its software fell 25 percent since the beginning of 2015. That was a steeper drop than for medical practices nationwide, which recorded a 13 percent decline. (Freyer, 7/7)

The Washington Post: Calvin Johnson Says Painkillers Were Handed Out ‘Like Candy’ To NFL Players
Sometime soon, the NFL may have to explain in court how its team’s medical staffs responsibly dispensed painkillers to players in the league. According to Calvin Johnson, powerful and addictive opioids were, until recently, handed out “like candy.” ... “If you were hurting, then you could get them. It was nothing,” Johnson added. “I mean, if you needed Vicodin, call out, ‘My ankle hurt,’ you know. ‘I need, I need it. I can’t, I can’t play without it,’ or something like that. It was simple. That’s how easy it was to get them. So if you were dependent on them, they were readily available.” (Bieler, 7/6)

New Hampshire Public Radio: New Rules Open The Door For More People Who Need Addiction Treatment Drug
Physicians licensed to prescribe a medication that reduces cravings and eases withdrawal for people addicted to heroin and other opioids will now be allowed to treat more patients. Under new rules announced Wednesday by the Obama administration, physicians who prescribe Suboxone can treat 275 patients at a time, up from 100. (Wallstin, 7/6)

Kaiser Health News: Gingrich, Kennedy Take On Opioid Addiction — The KHN Conversation
Politics are more polarized and acrimonious than ever. But one public health concern — the nation’s epidemic of prescription painkiller abuse — is uniting some unexpected bedfellows. There is Patrick Kennedy, former Democratic congressman from Rhode Island, who has since made a career of advocating for mental health treatment since leaving the House in 2011. And there is Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives and 2012 presidential candidate, who recently has been mentioned as a possible vice presidential pick for Donald Trump. (Luthra, 7/7)

The Wall Street Journal: House Passes Mental Health Bill
The House passed legislation Wednesday to overhaul the nation’s mental health system, the first effort by lawmakers to specifically tackle federal policies on serious mental illness. The bill passed 422-2, overwhelming support that reflected a decision by sponsors to defer debates on some of its most controversial aspects. The bill would reorganize the federal agency overseeing mental health policy, direct funding to combat serious mental illness as opposed to general mental health programs, and change Medicaid reimbursements for treating patients with illnesses like schizophrenia. (Radnofsky, 7/6)

The Hill: House Passes Mental Health Bill
The measure from Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.), which passed 422-2, had been stalled and mired in controversy for years, but lawmakers in recent months dropped or scaled back many of the most contentious, sweeping measures. That process has led to a bill that is much more modest than the original plan but that advocates are still praising as a good first step. Democrats stressed that more funding is still needed. (Sullivan, 7/6)

Politico Pro: House Overwhelmingly Approves Mental Health Reform Bill
The measure was originally intended as a massive overhaul of the mental health care system. However, it was watered down in committee and stripped of costly and controversial provisions, including some that would have expanded access to psychiatric hospital beds and made it easier for doctors to share information about mentally ill patients. The pared-down, budget-neutral bill authorizes new prevention and treatment programs, reauthorizes existing ones, restructures leadership at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and requires insurers to provide more robust coverage for eating disorders. (Ehley, 7/6)

Morning Consult: House Passes Mental Health Bill Amid Gun Debate
While House Speaker Paul Ryan has pointed to the bill as a way to address gun violence across the country, Tuesday’s vote came as House Democrats have sought to get more votes on gun restrictions on the House floor. Murphy has said that gun violence and mental health should be addressed separately, and the two aren’t linked in the measure. (McIntire, 7/6)

Modern Healthcare: Attention Turns To Senate After House Passes Scaled Back Mental Health Bill
The House of Representatives put aside gun control politics Wednesday and overwhelmingly approved a scaled-back mental health reform bill. Attention now turns to a similar bill in the Senate, where gun issues have continued to stall movement. Although some stronger and more controversial provisions originally in the bill were removed to improve its chances of passage, mental health advocates still hailed the bill's approval as a “powerful moment” and “major step forward” in mental healthcare. (Muchmore, 7/6)

The CT Mirror: House Passes Mental Health Bill, Murphy Presses Senate To Follow
As the U.S. House of Representatives passed an overhaul of federal mental health policy on Wednesday, Sen. Chris Murphy pressed for a Senate vote on a similar bipartisan bill he has sponsored with Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. ...His bill would require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to modify regulations concerning medical record secrecy in cases of serious mental illness to provide family members with information to help the sick. The bill also would reauthorize mental health grants for states and drop some restrictions on patient advocacy groups. (Radelat, 7/6)

The Hill: House GOP Unveils Health Spending Bill
House Republicans on Wednesday released their healthcare spending bill for fiscal 2017, boosting funding to fight opioid abuse and the Zika virus while taking aim at ObamaCare and abortion. The measure from the House Appropriations Committee includes extra funding in hot-button areas where Democrats have demanded immediate funding outside of the regular appropriations process. (Peter Sullivan, 7/6)

Stat: House Panel Set To Endorse $1.3 Billion Increase For The NIH
House appropriators released a new funding bill Wednesday that would provide another boost to the National Institutes of Health — though a smaller one than their Senate colleagues passed last month. The legislation, which would fund federal health programs for the fiscal year starting in October, would give the NIH $33.3 billion, a $1.3 billion increase over this year. By contrast, the Senate version would boost the agency’s funding by $2 billion. The new bill would build on the $2 billion increase the NIH got at the end of last year. (Scott, 7/6)

Politico Pro: HHS Spending Zika Money Slowly, Amid Big Funding Battle
The Obama administration has so far distributed only about one-sixth of the unspent Ebola funding that it diverted to combat the Zika virus, according to administration officials. The White House in April diverted $589 million to the Zika virus amid congressional squabbling over approving new emergency funding. Since then, the administration has distributed $112 million, according to HHS figures shared with POLITICO. Another $100 million is expected to be distributed to states soon and “much” of the remaining funding will be sent out this month and next, according to HHS. (Haberkorn and Everett, 7/6)

The Hill: Chances Of Zika Funding Plummet Ahead Of Recess
The prospect of Congress approving any new Zika virus funding before a seven-week recess is bleak, with both parties ready to blame the other for the stalemate. Public health experts have warned that the mosquitoes that carry the virus, which is known to cause birth defects, will increase in the hot summer months, worsening the virus' spread. (Sullivan, 7/6)

Health News Florida: CDC Gives Florida Funding To Fight Zika
Though congress is still battling over Zika funding, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is handing out $25 million to states to fight the mosquito-borne illness. Florida will get $1.4 million of that money. The state’s share is among the country's largest because the threat of Zika is so high here. (Ochoa, 7/6)

The Associated Press: US Urges Aerial Spraying Amid Jump In Puerto Rico Zika Cases
As many as 50 pregnant women in Puerto Rico are becoming infected with Zika every day, top U.S. health officials said Wednesday as they urged the U.S. territory to strongly consider aerial spraying to prevent further spread of the mosquito-borne virus. The warning came as Puerto Rico debates whether to fumigate with the insecticide Naled, a proposal that has sparked protests in the U.S. territory over concerns about its impact on human health and wildlife. (7/6)

Kansas Health Institute: Kansas Works To Contain Spread Of Zika Virus
Five cases of Zika virus have been reported in Kansas, all of which originated outside the United States. State agencies and university laboratories are looking for ways to keep that number at a minimum. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has started a statewide surveillance program to monitor mosquitoes, which it does every year. (Wilson, 7/6)

Reuters: White House Proposes Measures To Speed Genomic Test Development
The White House announced on Wednesday measures aimed at advancing President Barack Obama's precision medicine initiative, including plans to speed the development of tests used to identify genetic mutations and guide medical treatment. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it planned to issue a proposal on Wednesday to create performance standards to guide development of next generation sequencing (NGS) tests. These tests scan a person's DNA and identify genetic differences that could be responsible for a patient's symptoms. (Clarke, 7/6)

Morning Consult: White House Unveils Precision Medicine Actions
The Obama administration on Wednesday announced new steps in implementing its Precision Medicine Initiative, a research effort aiming to tailor disease prevention and treatment to a specific person’s characteristics. These steps include awarding $55 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health to develop the initiative’s experimental cohort program, a Food and Drug Administration proposal to make its oversight of genomic tests more efficient, and the development of tools to make the data that is collected accessible to researchers. (Owens, 7/6)

The Associated Press: Study: Insurers' Spending On Costly Meds Soared From 2003-14
The latest study of medicine prices finds U.S. insurers' spending on expensive prescription drugs nearly quadrupled from 2003 through 2014, when the number of such prescriptions filled tripled. Spending on expensive "specialty" drugs by commercial insurance plans jumped from 11 percent of spending on all prescriptions filled in 2003 to 43 percent in 2014, according to the study, published Wednesday by the journal Health Affairs. Meanwhile, the number of prescriptions for specialty drugs rose from 0.6 percent of prescriptions filled in 2003 to 1.8 percent in 2014. (7/6)

The Associated Press: What Costliest Drugs Cost Commercial Insurance Plans In 2014
A new study from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill examining usage of and spending for specialty prescription drugs by commercial insurance plans finds huge spikes from 2003 through 2014. During that stretch, drugmakers launched more and more high-priced drugs, many of them big scientific advances, and raised their prices for existing drugs at least once a year. Here's a look at eight drugs with the highest monthly cost to commercial insurance plans in 2014. (7/6)

Meanwhile, a study says Medicare should embrace generics and new research finds savings could come from an unexpected source —

Kaiser Health News: Study: Brand-Name Drugs’ High Copays Soak Medicare Part D Patients
A new study takes a fresh measure of generic drugs’ price advantages, revealing how much more Medicare Part D patients shelled out in copayments for two popular brand-name drugs in 2013. The result: 10.5 times more. Copayments averaged $42 for both Crestor, a cholesterol medication, and Nexium, taken for acid reflux, according to researchers whose study was published Wednesday in Health Affairs. (Bluth, 7/6)

Kaiser Health News: Medical Marijuana Linked To Modest Budget Benefits For Medicare Part D, Study Finds
Prescription drug prices are up, making policy experts increasingly anxious. But relief could come from a surprising source. Just ask Cheech and Chong. New research published Wednesday found that states that legalized medical marijuana — which is sometimes recommended for symptoms like chronic pain, anxiety or depression — saw declines in the number of Medicare prescriptions for drugs used to treat those conditions and a dip in spending by Medicare Part D, which covers the cost on prescription medications. (Luthra, 7/6)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Angers Hospitals With Plans For Site-Neutral Rates In Outpatient Payment Rule
The CMS has responded to calls to eliminate patient satisfaction on pain management from Medicare's value-based purchasing program. The agency angered hospitals, however, with plans to stop paying their off-campus facilities the same as hospital-based outpatient departments. Both policies are included in the proposed rule for the 2017 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System issued Wednesday. (Dickson, 7/6)

Related KHN coverage: Doctors Wrestle With Mixed Messages When Deciding Whether To Prescribe Painkillers (Luthra, 7/28)

Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal: Proposal Saves Medicare Counseling Program
Federal funding for free local counseling on annual Medicare options may be preserved for fiscal 2016-17 after all. The U.S. House Appropriations Committee’s draft bill for education, health and human services and labor, released Wednesday, includes $52 million for the State Health Insurance Information Plan — the same amount in the current federal budget. The $52 million was stripped in June from the budgets of the same three agencies by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee in a 29-1 vote. (Craver, 7/7)

Iowa Public Radio: Grassley Implores Federal Government To Not Change Medicare Policy
Sen. Chuck Grassley has sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, urging the agency to keep a policy in place that requires private Medicare insurers to cover all antidepressant medications and all immuno-suppressant drugs used for transplant patients. CMS is considering changing this rule. In a report last month, the agency reasons that medications in these categories include a number of generic options. (Boden, 7/5)

Detroit Free Press: Blue Cross Plans Medigap Rate Hikes On Seniors, Up To $315 Per Month
Nearly 200,000 Michigan seniors can expect to pay more for their Medigap supplemental health insurance plans next year — for some older individuals, more than twice their current amount — when Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan goes forward with a long-awaited rate increase that does away with what the insurer says are below-market rates. (Reindl, 7/6)

AL.com: Alabama Medicaid Agency Cuts Payments To Doctors
The Alabama Medicaid Agency is reducing some payments to doctors to help address what the agency describes as a "budget crisis." Beginning August 1, doctors will no longer received enhanced payments for certain primary care visits and services. The enhanced payments, known as the "bump," raised payments to Medicare levels. (Cason, 7/6)

Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser: Citing Budget Woes, Medicaid Plans To Cut Doctors' Rates
Commissioner Stephanie Azar announced Wednesday afternoon the agency would end increased payments to physicians, known as a primary care bump, that was first funded out of the Affordable Care Act and later continued by the state. The bump meant doctors accepting Medicaid got paid at higher Medicare rates. It was credited with allowing more physicians to participate in the program. But Azar said in a statement that the General Fund budget passed by the Legislature in April -- which gave Medicaid $85 million less than it said it needed to maintain services -- forced them to begin making cuts. Eliminating the primary care bump would save the program about $14.7 million. (Lyman, 7/6)

Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal: Critics Blast Medicaid Plan At Hazard Hearing
A sweeping plan to overhaul Kentucky's Medicaid program met its most forceful opposition yet in a region with some of the state's highest rates of enrollment in the federal-state health plan for the poor. Wednesday was the third and last public hearing on Gov. Matt Bevin's proposed "waiver," or request from the federal government – which provides most of the state's Medicaid money – to reshape the program into one he argues will make Kentuckians healthier and more responsible for their care. (Yetter, 7/6)

Kaiser Health News: Despite Federal Directive, Texas Denies Medicaid Coverage For An Autism Therapy
Like many parents of children with autism, Braulio De La Cruz sought an expensive therapy called applied behavioral analysis -- or ABA -- when his son Noah Leonardo was diagnosed last year. Noah, now 3 years old, qualifies for Medicaid coverage because he had been approved for Social Security’s Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, and his neurologist sent paperwork to get the state to cover the therapy. But Medicaid officials rejected the request. Braulio De La Cruz appealed the decision, but that effort hit a major roadblock last fall when the state suddenly said the Medicaid program would not cover behavioral therapy. (Harrington, 7/7)

The Texas Tribune: Divided Anti-Abortion Groups Map New Strategies
The state's two largest anti-abortion groups — which had already been squabbling over strategy — find themselves looking for new legal avenues to press their cause, and appear to disagree on the best path forward. Republican lawmakers were quick to promise an “onslaught of pro-life legislation” when they reconvene in January. But so far, anti-abortion activists appear to be at a loss for a clear, new strategy to push abortion restrictions. (Ura and Pattani, 7/7)

The Texas Tribune: Texas Wants Aborted Fetuses Buried Or Cremated
In a new effort to regulate abortion providers, Texas health officials are proposing rules that would require abortion providers to cremate or bury fetal remains. The new rules, proposed by the Health and Human Services Commission, would no longer allow abortion providers to dispose of fetal remains in sanitary landfills, instead allowing only cremation or interment of all remains — regardless of the period of gestation. (Ura, 7/6)

The Dallas Morning News: New Texas Rules Would Require Fetal Tissue To Be Cremated Or Buried
Texas health officials are proposing new rules that would mandate that abortion providers cremate or bury fetal remains. The rules proposed by the Health and Human Services Commission would require that fetal remains be cremated or buried, regardless of the period of gestation. Abortion providers often use third-party special waste services that dispose of remains in sanitary landfills. (Wise, 7/6)

In other news, an abortion rights group has its eye on the 2016 elections —

Politico: Pro-Abortion Rights Group Lumps Vulnerable GOP Senators In With Trump
With the Republican National Convention fast approaching, a pro-abortion rights group is working to tie GOP members of Congress who have said they’ll skip the event in Cleveland to their party’s presumptive presidential nominee. NARAL Pro-Choice America kicked off its online advertising blitz Thursday with the slogan #TrumpSquadGoals, linking vulnerable Republican senators and congressmen with anti-abortion views to Donald Trump and GOP party leadership. (Nelson, 7/7)

The Associated Press: VA Puts Latest Estimate Of Veteran Suicides At 20 Per Day
On average, 20 veterans a day committed suicide in 2014, a slight decrease from the previous government estimate, but federal health officials are cautious about concluding the suicide problem is getting better. Rather, they say the Department of Veterans Affairs is relying on a more comprehensive database than ever before, making comparisons to prior studies difficult and possibly offering a truer snapshot than what was captured in the past. (Freking, 7/7)

USA Today: 20 Veterans A Day Committed Suicide In 2014, New Data Show
An average of 20 veterans a day committed suicide in 2014, a trend that reflects record high rates among young men fresh out of the military and growing numbers of women taking their lives, the first actual count of suicides among former service members shows. The Department of Veterans Affairs previously had only estimated suicides, saying in 2010 there was an average of 22 a day. The 2014 data released Thursday is based on a precise tabulation of the 7,403 deaths. (Zoroya, 7/7)

The Washington Post: Leading Researchers Recommend Major Change In Prostate Cancer Treatment
Leading American and British cancer researchers are urging that all men with advanced prostate cancer strongly consider being tested for inherited gene mutations -- both to help steer their treatment and to alert family members who themselves might be at increased risk for a range of cancers. This new recommendation, which represents a major change in approach, was prompted by a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The researchers found that almost 12 percent of men with advanced cancer had defects in genes that are designed to fix damage to DNA, compared to 4.6 percent of patients with disease that hadn't spread. (McGinley, 7/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Test Aids Prostate Cancer Treatment
Genomic Health Inc. has struck a deal to commercialize a new blood test that can help advanced prostate cancer patients decide whether to try costly new-generation drugs or rely on much cheaper traditional chemotherapy to improve their chances for survival. The test, developed by closely held Epic Sciences Inc., San Diego, detects a mutation associated with a poor response to two new drugs, Xtandi from Medivation Inc. and Astellas Pharma Inc. of Japan, and Zytiga from Johnson & Johnson. (Winslow, 7/7)

Los Angeles Times: Cancer Drug Discovered By UCLA Sets Off Takeover Fight Among Biotech Companies
A high-priced prostate cancer drug discovered at UCLA is at the center of a multibillion-dollar takeover battle that has several giant pharmaceutical firms eyeing the purchase of San Francisco biotech firm Medivation. Medivation sells the drug Xtandi for about $129,000 a year. Earlier this year, two nonprofit groups asked the federal government to allow other companies to sell the drug at lower prices. The groups argued that the federal government had a right under the law to allow lower-priced competition because UCLA scientists had used taxpayer-funded grants to discover Xtandi. (Petersen, 7/6)

The Washington Post: A Lot Of Highly Rated Sunscreens Don’t Meet American Academy Of Dermatology Guidelines
Amazon.com reviews have become the indispensable buying guide for all sorts of products for busy Americans who either don’t have time to trek to a retail store or just can’t be bothered. We scrutinize them to figure out which movies to watch, which toaster does the bagel setting right and which toddler booties hold up best. Given that that the marketplace has led you in the right direction with so many other consumer products, you might be wondering whether it’s a good place to read up on the sunscreen you’ve been meaning to buy as summer kicks into high gear. The answer, according to a study published Wednesday by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine’s Shuai Xu, is yes and no. (Cha, 7/6)

Kaiser Health News: Consumers’ Sunscreen Picks Don’t Always Track With Doctors’ Advice, Study Says
When it comes to consumers choosing sunscreen, they are often drawn to a product’s scent, texture and, of course, performance, according to a study published Wednesday in JAMA Dermatology. It also found that, in many instances, these sunblocks don’t measure up to the standards recommended by the American Academy of Dermatology. The AAD recommends sun protection products contain broad spectrum coverage, an SPF of 30 or higher, and water or sweat resistance. But four out of every 10 products fell short of the recommendations." (Heredia Rodriguez, 7/6)

Los Angeles Times: Researchers Develop Genetic Test That Can Predict Your Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease
New research into the genetic underpinnings of Alzheimer’s disease offers fresh evidence that the devastating brain disorder may gain a foothold years before dementia sets in, and takes a key step toward earlier detection of the disease. In a study that scoured the genes of healthy young people for the presence of variants linked to Alzheimer’s disease, researchers have found that those who carried many of the telltale gene variations had a smaller hippocampus -- a brain structure that is crucial to memory-formation – than did their peers with few of the genetic variations. (Healy, 7/6)

Stat: Biotech Execs In Search Of Human Guinea Pigs Find Eager Subjects: Themselves
Such experiments are one of medicine’s oldest traditions. Many a vaccine or poison was first tested on its developer; most of the earliest work on psychedelic drugs was conducted by intrepid scientists tripping in the name of research. As medicine has progressed, however, self-experimentation has become less popular in academic labs, to be taken up instead by a growing biotech industry. Those changes have given rise to a new breed of self-tester: the guinea pig CEO. (Preston, 7/7)

Stat: Bad News For Creaky Knees: We Can't Regrow Cartilage As Adults, Study Finds
The fallout from nuclear bomb testing decades ago is now helping researchers better understand knee joints. By tracking radioactive carbon absorbed in knees, a team of Danish researchers has found that the structure of cartilage is determined by early adolescence and doesn’t change later in life. They published their findings Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine. (Wessel, 7/6)

PBS Newshour: Until Research Unlocks Medical Understanding Of Marijuana, Patients Experiment
Lenny and Amy’s 5-year-old son has epilepsy. When conventional medications caused terrible side effects, they started giving him a daily drop of cannabis oil, with dramatic results. But it’s a calculated risk: While there is anecdotal evidence of cannabis’ effectiveness, scientists face research roadblocks because it’s a schedule 1 controlled substance. (O'Brien, 7/6)

The Denver Post: Confusion Over Freestanding ERs Can Lead To Shocking Bills, Analysis Shows
Colorado patients who visit freestanding emergency departments for non-life threatening concerns may mistakenly end up paying vastly higher bills for care that could be provided by less-expensive urgent care centers, according to an analysis by the Center for Improving Value in Health Care. For instance, the cost of treatment for bronchitis at an ER facility was nearly 10 times what it was at urgent care centers. (7/6)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: New Jersey Health Insurer Blocks $42M In Fraud
The special investigations unit of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey generated $43.2 million in savings last year by rooting out fraud, the Newark, N.J., health insurer said Wednesday. Horizon said one of the latest trends in fraud is the "phantom doctor's office," which are shell offices that submit bogus claims using stolen insurance identification numbers and then vanish. (Brubaker, 7/6)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Agency: Hospital Settlements With Uninfected Patients Avoided More Bad Publicity
An agency being sued by Exeter Hospital over the 2012 hepatitis C outbreak insists it shouldn’t have to help foot the bill for the settlements the hospital reached with 188 patients who tested negative, suggesting the hospital only settled to avoid more bad publicity and the costs of fighting potential lawsuits. In recently filed court documents, the American Registry of Radiologic Technologists (ARRT) continued to claim that it’s not responsible for contributing to the settlements the hospital made with uninfected patients who never filed lawsuits. (Schreiber, 7/6)

Orlando Sentinel: Palm Beach County Doctor Sentenced To Prison For $2.1M Fraud, Fake Diagnoses
A Palm Beach County doctor was sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison on Wednesday for fraudulently billing more than $2.1 million from Medicare by issuing false diagnoses. Dr. Isaac Kojo Anakwah Thompson, 56, who ran medical businesses in Delray Beach and Boynton Beach, pleaded guilty earlier this year to a health care fraud charge. (McMahon, 7/6)

The CT Mirror: CT Towns, Medical Examiner Compromise On Handling Of Remains
Connecticut’s cities and towns and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner appear to have reached a temporary resolution of their disagreement over responsibility for unclaimed human remains. The Farmington-based medical examiner’s office will handle storage and disposition of the bodies, but communities will take on responsibility for transporting them. The compromise was reached at the urging of Attorney General George Jepsen’s office, which hinted this week that a legal opinion could leave both parties unsatisfied, and ultimately won’t resolve the budgetary strain each side is facing. (Phaneuf, 7/7)

The Columbus Dispatch: Hearing Impaired Now Can Get Ohio Commercial Driver's License
The deaf and hearing impaired have a new career option, as a truck driver. The Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Office of Criminal Justice Services and Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities have joined to develop procedures that allow the deaf and hearing impaired to qualify for a waiver so that they can train and test for a commercial driver’s license. Before now, the deaf and hearing impaired could not do so. (Williams, 7/7)

The Associated Press: NY Assembly To Hold Hearings On Drinking Water Contamination
The state Assembly is planning to hold public hearings on water quality in early September. Speaker Carl Heastie, Environmental Conservation Committee Chair Steve Englebright and Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried announced the hearings Wednesday afternoon. They said the hearings in Albany and Suffolk County will take testimony related to the causes and responses to drinking water contamination in various communities across the state. (7/6)

The Columbus Dispatch: Program Aims To Provide Eye Exams, Glasses For The Uninsured, Poor
Through its Eyes of Hope programs, VSP said it has spent $175 million on eye care and eyewear for 1 million people and has committed to serving a million more by 2020. According to the company, more than 46 million U.S. households aren't covered by vision plans and don't have access to vision insurance through work. That matters more than you might imagine. Eye exams can be critical to detecting serious health problems including diabetes and high blood pressure early. (Kurtzman, 7/6)

Cleveland Plain Dealer: For Cleveland Clinic, Arrest Of Arab Patient Is Potentially Bad Business
The Cleveland Clinic, with its increasingly international clientele, has long provided specialty care to patients from around the globe. ... But recently the system found itself in an awkward position after a patient from the UAE was arrested while trying to check into an Avon hotel. Police have since apologized to the man, whose brief detention was based on the unfounded suspicions of a hotel clerk, and declared it an unfortunate episode. (Ross, 7/6)

Georgia Health News: Savannah Students Get Head Start On Medical Careers
Nine students enrolled in the medical specialty programs at Beach High and Woodville Tompkins are spending their summer preparing for careers in medicine. ...The Medical College of Georgia has been offering SEEP in various forms since 1970 to interest more underrepresented, nontraditional and economically disadvantaged students in health care professions. The program was expanded to Savannah’s medical specialty programs in 2011. (Few, 7/5)

The Boston Globe: Families Failed By A Broken Mental Health Care System Often Have No One To Call But Police
More than 40 percent of people killed by Massachusetts police over the last decade were suicidal, mentally ill, or showed clear signs of crisis, a Spotlight Team investigation shows. The deaths are the heavy human toll of an ongoing collision between sick people failed by the mental health care system and police who are often poorly equipped to help, but are thrust into this dangerous role. (Jenna Russell, Michael Rezendes, Maria Cramer, Scott Helman and Todd Wallack, 7/6)

The Boston Globe: Keith Carnute Was Spiraling Into Crisis. Officer Tim Sorrell Was Trained To Help.
Few police officers in Massachusetts were as well prepared as Tim Sorrell was that day in 2011 for an encounter with someone in mental health crisis. Unlike most of his colleagues across the state, Sorrell had spent 40 hours learning how to handle distraught, disruptive, or suicidal people. A year earlier, in June 2010, he had spent a full week at a crisis intervention training run by the Berkshires branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. He was the only person sent to the training from his tiny department, and he says the experience changed him. (Jenna Russell, 7/6)

The New Yorker: A Tender Hand In the Presence Of Death
Heather Meyerend is a hospice nurse who works in several neighborhoods in South Brooklyn—Sheepshead Bay, Mill Basin, Marine Park, Bensonhurst, Bay Ridge. ... She sees her work as preparing a patient for the voyage he is about to take, and accompanying him partway down the road. ... Dying can be long and bewildering, lonely and painful, frequently undignified, and consumed by pressing and unpredictable and constantly changing and multiplying needs. It’s a relief to have someone around who understands what’s going on and what may happen next. On the other hand, when dying is long it becomes ordinary, just another kind of living, but one in which your friends may be gone and your children busy, or not busy enough. In that case, it can be a good thing to see someone who is not a member of your family; who comes from the world outside your illness; who has known you long enough to be familiar but not long enough to have heard your stories already; who wants to know where your pain is but doesn’t need you to explain everything; and who is there to take your vital signs but who behaves as though she might have come over to borrow a snow shovel or a couple of eggs. (Larissa MacFarquhar, 7/5)

Pacific Standard: The Addicted Generation
Prescription stimulants like Ritalin were considered a godsend when they first started being used to help hyperactive, unfocused kids succeed in school. So many children were on ADHD drugs in the ’90s that lines would form outside the school nurse’s office, where students went to take their midday doses. But almost 20 years have passed since Diller predicted that the tidal wave of prescriptions written in the ’90s would come to shape an entire generation. Now, those children are all grown up and living on their own. As adults, many find themselves unable to get off the drugs. Some fear losing their jobs, while others fear losing the only self they have come to know — a self with a prescription drug dependency that’s difficult to kick. (Madeleine Thomas, 7/5)

Vox: We’ve Long Blamed Carbs For Making Us Fat. What If That's Wrong?
It’s one of the most hotly contested areas of dieting: How much do carbohydrates matter when it comes to weight loss? If you ask a number of celebrities and authors of diet books, it’s pasta, bread, and cookies that stand between you and a svelte physique. These low-carb proselytizers make very specific claims about the effect cutting carbs has on the body, suggesting that it can speed up fat loss and increase calorie burn. Indeed, many dieters have found at least short-term success following low-carb schemes like the Atkins or Dukan diet. (Belluz, 7/6)

Stat: ‘Inception’ In The Lab: Scientists Are Trying To Implant False Visions In People
In the movie “Inception,” Leonardo DiCaprio’s character interferes with others’ dreams to implant new ideas in their minds. It’s a trippy plot premise. It’s also not entirely science fiction. In the last few years, researchers have developed a way to “incept” in real life, a technique they hope could eventually help people with disorders from depression to autism. And a new study indicates we could do “inception” without the subject even being aware of what’s being learned. (Anna Vlasits, 6/30)

The Daily Beast: Is Virtual Reality For Our Own Memories Really Such A Great Idea?
While big budget productions will rake in millions in the coming years, the on-the-ground presence of virtual reality will be about more than studios—it will be about sharing individual experiences and recording personal moments. And that’s maybe not a good thing. At a recent Cannes Lions Festival appearance, Google VR vice president Clay Bavor said some interesting things about the future of VR, as a way for users to start reliving their own life experiences. It starts with the close connection between memory and experience. “When you look at your brain under an fMRI,” he said, “remembering and experiencing look very similar.” (G. Clay Whittaker, 7/5)

The Boston Globe: Medicine’s Next Step
Health care is always personal. As science and technology have advanced, it’s become possible to make it personalized as well, giving us the tools to better understand, prevent, and treat everyone’s individual health needs. ... Our health care should be customized for us. The powerful and exciting field of precision medicine goes a step further and asks: What if we could just as easily match a cancer cure to a patient’s unique genetic code? Instead of trying a one-size-fits-all treatment, what if medical experts could tailor one specifically for everyone’s body? (President Barack Obama, 7/7)

Reuters: Medicare Advantage Grows, But Provider Choice Is Limited
Medicare enrollees are moving in greater numbers than ever to the program’s managed care option as a way to save money. But the tradeoff is much less ability to use their preferred doctors and hospitals. (Mark Miller, 7/7)

USA Today: Olympic Zika Fears Flip Out: Our View
When the Summer Olympics open in Brazil in less than a month, athletes and visitors will have plenty to contend with, from economic and political turmoil to polluted waters and a violent crime wave. The Zika virus — which has garnered the world’s attention, prompted several star athletes to skip the Olympics and stirred bitter debate over whether the Rio Games should go on — is far down on any realistic list of concerns. And if public health decisions are to be driven by facts, not fear, the decision to begin the Games on Aug. 5, as scheduled, is reasonable. (7/6)

USA Today: Postpone Or Move The Rio Games: Opposing View
Most of the discussion about the risk of the Zika virus around the Rio Olympic Games is missing the point. By focusing so much on mathematical models of infectious disease and theoretical models of human behavior, too little attention is given to factoring for time and place. (Lee H. Igel, 6/6)

The New York Times: Heal The V.A. (But First, Do No Harm)
Two years after a scandal engulfed the nation’s veterans hospitals, with reports of long waiting lists, cooked appointment books and patients dying while they waited for care, a commission created by Congress has delivered a plan to transform the Veterans Affairs Department over the next 20 years. Its 300 pages, released on Wednesday, are a chronicle of failings at the Veterans Health Administration, the part of the V.A. that handles medical care. The debate over the report’s many judgments and prescriptions is just beginning. But the commission’s ambitious work brings two immediate thoughts to mind. (7/7)

Louisville Courier-Journal: Bevin Plays A Dangerous Game Of Chicken
Now poor and disenfranchised Kentuckians are caught in the middle of a dangerous game of chicken [Kentucky Gov. Matt] Bevin is playing with the federal government. He has made it clear that if the Obama administration does not want to approve his plan, then Medicaid expansion in Kentucky will be rolled back in its entirety, leaving more than 400,000 Kentuckians right back where they started – blocked from access to regular and preventative health care with nowhere to turn but the emergency room. The Bevin administration’s plan is a sideshow. It uses political misdirection to provide the illusion of effort to ensure the long-term health security so many Kentuckians need, but with the ultimate goal of rolling back Medicaid expansion with the smallest amount of political damage. (Matt Erwin, 6/6)

The Kansas City Star: Sam Brownback’s Disgusting Attacks Against Planned Parenthood And Women’s Health
Gov. Sam Brownback’s disdain for the health of low-income women is on full display these days for Kansans to view with disgust. In yet another reminder of why he’s the most unpopular governor in America, Brownback has continued his assault in recent months against Planned Parenthood in the Sunflower State. (6/6)

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Recidivism Antidote: Ex-Cons Need A Seamless Path Back To Medicaid
A person released from a county jail or state prison faces no shortage of challenges readjusting to life in society. Accessing health care shouldn’t be one of them. The Legislature has recognized as much by passing a change to the state Human Services Code that would suspend, rather than terminate, Medicaid benefits while a person is incarcerated for up to two years. The change would make it easier to restart benefits when an offender is released. That translates into quicker access to psychiatric medications and other health care services that can help lower recidivism. (7/7)

The Boston Globe: State Must Deal With The Grim Aftermath Of Psychiatric Hospital Closings
The push for “deinstitutionalization” sounded like a noble and practical cause: basic human dignity for patients, savings for the state. But as a new Boston Globe Spotlight Team investigative series shows, the phasing out of inpatient beds was not accompanied by an outpatient support system to replace state hospitals. Public officials, year after year, refused to commit to the resources needed to create a robust network of integrated community-based behavioral health care that would minimize the need for long-term hospitalization. As the hospitals went offline — starting in the 1970s — more and more patients were discharged, largely left to fend for themselves. The results have been disastrous. (7/7)

STAT: We Need To Teach Young Scientists About Careers Outside Of Academia, The Lab Bench
Many young neuroscientists enter PhD programs with aspirations to run a university laboratory or work in industry. A growing number want to pursue alternative careers in science. A recent paper published in Neuron recognizes that what once was “Plan B” for neuroscience trainees — job opportunities outside the lab or clinic— is growing in popularity. ... Although schools are rethinking their neuroscience graduate programs, the central dogma of scientific education — PhD program leads to postdoctoral training leads to faculty position — must shift first. (Catherine Kopil, 7/6)

Sacramento Bee: Public Officials Can’t Pick When To Do Their Duty
Whether or not one supports President Obama, it is worth noting that a central premise of his public service is making real the nation’s guarantee of equal opportunity for all in a nation scarred by long-standing divisions and distrust of government. Public service in any form is an awesome responsibility. Filling open seats on the nation’s highest court, fixing our federal immigration laws, ensuring women’s access to reproductive health care, performing all functions of government on equal terms for LGBT people – these are ground rules for responsible public service. (Luis López, 7/6)

Lexington Herald Leader: Past Time For Kentucky To Legalize Marijuana
An interim joint hearing of the Licensing and Occupations Committee will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in Room 129 of the Capitol Annex to focus on the legalization of medical marijuana in Kentucky. The committee has held many hearings on the issue over the last four years, and we were told in 2012 that we would have interim hearings in the summer and do something in 2013. (Thomas Vance, 6/6)