Kaiser

• Grassroots Tactics Being Used In Health Law's Roll-Out
• Medicaid Expansion: Second Thoughts And Changes Of Heart?
• Political Cartoon: 'Patently Absurd?'
• House GOP Plans Vote Today On Abortion Bill
• High Court: Feds Can Sue Pharmaceutical Companies Over Deals To Delay Generic Drug Sales

The Commonwealth Fund

• Reevaluating "Made in America"—Two Cost-Containment Ideas from Abroad
  In this Commonwealth Fund–supported Perspective, researchers examined two strategies for containing health care costs: Germany's bundled payments and Japan's volume-driven pricing. […]
• Primary Care: Our First Line of Defense
  Touching on some of the critical concepts in health care reform, this brief explains why primary care is so important to patients and also to the country's bottom line. […]
• Health Reform & You: A New Publication Series
  In a new series of publications, The Commonwealth Fund explores these and other changes in U.S. health care. Geared toward the non-expert, the briefs provide readers with easy-to-digest information on what the reforms mean and how they will affect patients, providers, and purchasers. […]
• Improving Access to Specialty Care for Medicaid Patients: Policy Issues and Options
  This report examines six Medicaid programs that support innovative ways of delivering specialty care and help ensure specialty referrals for Medicaid patients are appropriate and efficient. […]
• Limits of Readmission Rates in Measuring Hospital Quality Suggest the Need for Added Metrics
  Commonwealth Fund–supported researchers examined the change in readmission rates over a two-year period and the relationship between these rates and other commonly used measures of hospital quality. […]

RWJF Health Reform News

ACA Litigation Blog

• Update on Coons v. Geithner
  This is the case in the District Court for the District of Arizona, brought by some members of the House of representatives, among others. The plaintiffs made two principal claims in their complaint: (1) that the individual mandate exceeds Congress's enumerated powers, and (2) the Independent Payment Advisory Board (established by the ACA to review Medi […]
• Update on Goudy-Bachman v. HHS
  This is the case in which Judge Conner (M.D. Pennsylvania) declared the minimum coverage provision unconstitutional, and which the United States then appealed to the Third Circuit. The case has been on hold pending the Supreme Court's decisions. Now, the case is clearly done. The only issue raised was whether the mandate exceeded Congress's enumera […]
• The Chief arrives in Malta
  A nice place to avoid any discussion of switches, leaks, fits of pique, or the taxing power. […]
• Update on Physician Hospitals of America v. Sebelius
  This is the case that was argued back on April 3 in the Fifth Circuit, in which there was a brief kerfuffle about whether the administration still respected the federal judiciary's authority to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional. The case actually has nothing to do with the individual mandate. Rather, the plaintiffs challenge ACA §6001, which ext […]
• Update on U.S. Citizens Association v. Sebelius
  This is the case currently pending in the Sixth Circuit which, because it challenges the constitutionality of the minimum coverage provision, was also put on hold pending the Supreme Court's decision. Unlike many other cases, however, this case was not mooted, as the plaintiffs are now challenging the mandate on different grounds. Specifically, the plai […]
• Nothing yet in Kinder v. Geithner
  I just checked the Eighth Circuit's electronic docket through PACER, and there has been no movement on Kinder v. Geithner. This was the case orally argued October 20, and which has been stayed pending the Supreme Court's decision. The district court dismissed the case for lack of standing, but the parties also argued the merits in the court of appe […]
• Cert denied in the four held cases
  As loyal reader Mark Regan has pointed out to me, the Supreme Court quietly on Friday issued an order list denying certiorari in all the ACA cases that were being held for NFIB v. Sebelius, HHS v. Florida, and Florida v. HHS. To refresh your memory, those were:* Thomas More Law Center v. Obama* Virginia v. Sebelius* Liberty University v. Geithner, and* Seven […]
• A second "switch in time"
  By another Justice named Roberts.Jan Crawford, appearing this morning on CBS News's Face the Nation, is reporting this morning what most all of us have suspected. Specifically, two unnamed sources have told her that the Chief Justice switched his vote about a month ago. The basic outlines of this scenario make sense, as they explain a number of the anom […]

NY Times Health Policy

• Well: The 4-Minute Workout
  A single, strenuous four-minute workout can effectively improve health and fitness as much as longer workouts can, researchers found. Download the “Well 4-Minute Workout” playlist for your workout.     […]
• Board to Vote on Condoms in Boston Schools
  A new health policy that would make condoms available in the district’s high schools is up for a vote on Wednesday night.     […]
• Nickelodeon Resists Critics of Food Ads
  In resisting calls to ban ads for nutritionally questionable food, Nickelodeon argued that its job was children’s entertainment, not nutrition.     […]
• A.M.A. Recognizes Obesity as a Disease
  The decision by the American Medical Association could have implications for health care companies and the pharmaceutical industry.     […]
• De Blasio Offers Ideas in Policy Book for Election
  To make the case that he should be elected mayor of New York City, in the 69-page document, Bill de Blasio details proposals in 12 areas while summarizing his record as public advocate.     […]

WaPo Health

Fierce Healthcare

• Bluebird IPO busts out, raises $101M as biotech offerings turn red hot
  […]
• Booming Alexion breaks ground on $140M global HQ
  Now that Alexion has established its reputation for marketing new drugs for ultra-rare diseases with the success of Soliris, the most expensive drug on the planet, the fast-growing biotech has broken ground on an 11-story facility in downtown New Haven destined to become its new headquarters. […]
• Adamas claims success with new and improved Parkinson’s drug
  Investigators say that the lead drug--ADS-5102, reformulated in a way designed to reduce the severity of side effects that plague patients--demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in levodopa-induced dyskinesia when compared with a placebo after 8 weeks of therapy. […]
• R&D cutbacks loom at Millennium's Cambridge ops
  The new president at Millennium Pharmaceuticals has been trying to maintain a careful balancing act in recent weeks, trying to reassure staffers about Takeda's commitment to the oncology subsidiary while making it clear that cuts are coming. […]
• Teva Pharma breaks M&A silence with bite-sized MicroDose buyout
  Known previously for rapid growth via acquisitions, Teva Pharmaceutical had recently been quiet on the buyout front--until Monday. The Israel-based pharma company said it has snapped up drug-delivery specialist MicroDose Therapeutx for $40 million in upfront cash and up to $125 in contingent payments. […]
• Analysis: Big Pharma R&D demonstrates a woeful lack of innovation
  Bernard Munos, one of the sharpest critics of the drug development industry, takes Big Pharma to task once again on the innovation front after reviewing just what's been approved over the past 12 years. […]
• Buzz on rare disease drugs puts ViroPharma in the M&A spotlight
  ViroPharma's pipeline of drugs for rare diseases has reportedly stirred the interest of several pharma companies. And once word of the buyout buzz spread, the Exton, PA-based biotech's shares zoomed up 9% yesterday afternoon. […]
• Royalty's $8B offer wilts after Elan prevails in blocking bid
  Royalty Pharma signed the death certificate on its $8 billion bid for biotech Elan, withdrawing its appeal of a decision from an Irish panel that blocked its ability to alter the terms of its latest hostile takeover attempt. […]
• AstraZeneca picks Cambridge site as ground zero for R&D reinvention
  Over the next three years the pharma company plans to build a $500 million complex on its new campus that will house its U.K. operations for biologics and small molecule research as well as the corporate staff now operating in London. […]
• Onconova files $75M IPO as new offerings sizzle
  The biotech filed an S-1 late last week looking to raise $75 million for its cancer drug pipeline. And it's looking for some positive attention as a slate of four biotechs prepares to go public later this week. […]

Boston Globe Health Blog

• Prostate cancer screening: too early to say goodbye
  First they try to take away our mammograms, and now this? Last week, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) followed up their October 2011 draft guidelines to recommend, definitively, that doctors not offer routine Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) screening for... […]
• MIT professor wins prestigious chemistry prize
  By Carolyn Y. Johnson, Globe Staff Robert Langer, a biomedical engineer at MIT best known for his contributions in the fields of tissue engineering and drug delivery, has been named the winner of the 2012 Priestley Medal, a prestigious prize... […]
• Daily check up: New York Times points to Mass. public opinion on health care mandate as a model
  In an editorial today, the Times says support for the national mandate could follow the recent trend in Mass. and grow […]
• Brigham and Women's performs face transplant on woman mauled by chimp
  Jonathan Wiggs / Globe Staff Photo Steve Nash, brother of Charla Nash, who received a full face transplant at Brigham and Women's Hospital late last month, appeared at a press conference today with his wife, Kate. Charla Nash did not... […]
• Poll: Public supports mandatory physical education
  In a survey of 501 Mass. residents, 87 percent said the state should require 30 min. of physical activity each school day […]

LA Times Health Blog

• FDA approves a drug to reverse anticoagulation
  Ever since the drug warfarin was discovered to be a highly effective anti-clotting agent as well as a good rat poison in the early 1950s, it has been the frontline weapon in preventing stroke among those with atrial fibrillation. But its growing use has always raised the specter of dangerously hard-to-stanch bleeding if someone taking it is wounded or bleeds […]
• Alice Waters, school officials talk teaching with food
  Fast food begets a fast-food culture that has seeped into pretty much everything going on in the world today, the chef Alice Waters told a crowd gathered at UCLA for a presentation about edible education. […]
• Government shuts down HIV/AIDS vaccine trial
  In another major setback for efforts to develop a vaccine to boost immunity to the human immunodeficiency virus, known as HIV, a key clinical trial was ordered shut down this week after an independent panel of safety experts found that participants getting the vaccine appeared to be slightly more likely to contract the virus and no better at suppressing its […]

Health Affairs Blog

• Behind The Health Spending Numbers
  Millions more Americans are expected to join the ranks of the insured in 2014 under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- and with the expansion in coverage will come additional expense. Even so, the rate of spending growth in the health sector will head in the opposite direction, continuing a slowdown that has lasted well beyond the 2009 recession. In its eight […]
• The Latest Data On Primary Care Nurse Practitioners And Physicians: Can We Afford To Waste Our Workforce?
  If primary care is the foundation of the evolving health care system in this country, and if access to primary care for all is the goal, then nurse practitioners will be increasingly crucial to achieving these aims. Let’s face it, in our current system, there just aren’t enough primary care providers to meet the nation’s need while containing costs and focus […]
• Collaborative Filtering: An Interim Approach To Identifying Clinical Doppelgängers
  “The real challenge of human biology, beyond the task of finding out how genes orchestrate the construction and maintenance of the miraculous mechanism of our bodies, will lie ahead as we seek to explain how our minds have come to organize thoughts sufficiently well to investigate our own existence.” The initial enthusiasm following the mapping of the human […]
• Implementing Health Reform: Program Integrity And Other Exchange And Market-Reform Issues
  On June 14, 2013, the Department of Health and Human Services released a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) entitled “Program Integrity: Exchange, SHOP, Premium Stabilization Programs, and Market Standards.” Although the proposed rule does include a number of provisions related to program integrity, it covers a great deal more. It resolves a host of outsta […]
• Lessons From Early Medicaid Expansions Under The Affordable Care Act
  The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will dramatically expand Medicaid in a number of states starting in January 2014. In this month’s issue of Health Affairs, new research from DeLeire and colleagues on Wisconsin’s 2009 BadgerCare expansion and from Price and Eibner on predicted cost and coverage impacts of the Medicaid expansion provides insights on the implicati […]