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With President Obama's healthcare law once again facing possible unraveling at the hands of the Supreme Court, the administration and its allies have developed a novel argument tailor-made to appeal to conservative justices: states' rights. The high court is set to hear arguments March 4 to determine the legality of Affordable Care Act subsidies for approximately 7 million Americans who receive coverage from federally run health insurance marketplaces, also known as exchanges. (Savage, 2/26)

What Obamacare gave, the Supreme Court could take away. The Supreme Court next Wednesday hears a case that could end Obamacare subsidies in 34 states that use HealthCare.gov. If the justices rule that the subsidies are illegal through the federal exchange, they would largely unravel President Barack Obama’s health care law, which has helped millions of Americans get insured. (Nather and Haberkorn, 2/26)

The Pennhurst State School and Hospital outside Philadelphia was once one of America’s most notorious institutions. During much of the 20th century, it was where the state of Pennsylvania confined thousands of children and adults with mental and physical disabilities, some in horrific conditions. The long legal battle to close the facility made Pennhurst a landmark in the historic campaign to expand the rights of Americans with disabilities. (Levey, 2/25)

The Obama administration should allow insurance companies to raise their rates, if the Supreme Court decides to gut a central piece of the Affordable Care Act this summer, a national insurance group said Wednesday. In a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services, the American Academy of Actuaries warns that the challenge before the high court threatens the financial health of insurance companies. (Ferris, 2/25)

Making health insurance available and affordable to millions of people who buy their own coverage was a key goal for backers of the federal health law known as Obamacare. But if the Supreme Court strikes down the insurance subsidies of millions of Americans who rely on the federal insurance marketplace, it could leave many worse off than they were before the law took effect, say experts. (Appleby, 2/26)

State professional regulatory boards may seek out more state supervision or even change their membership makeup because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision Wednesday against a North Carolina dental board accused of illegally suppressing competition. The court ruled Wednesday that the North Carolina dental regulatory board, composed mostly of dentists, illegally suppressed competition when it told non-dentists to stop offering teeth-whitening services. (Schencker, 2/25)

About 1.2 million people who bought coverage on HealthCare.gov in 2014 dropped their health plan and picked a new one through the site for 2015, the Obama administration said Wednesday. The extent of people’s willingness to consider shifting to a different insurance carrier came as a surprise to federal officials, said Andy Slavitt, a former top executive at UnitedHealth Group who is now principal deputy administrator at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and will become acting administrator on Monday. (Radnofsky, 2/25)

Some 8.84 million people selected or were automatically enrolled as of Feb. 22 in an individual health insurance plan on the HealthCare.gov website created under the national healthcare reform law, the U.S. government health agency said on Wednesday. (2/25)

More than 8.8 million consumers selected a plan or were automatically re-enrolled through HealthCare.gov from Nov. 15, 2014, to Feb. 22, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell said Wedneday. HHS extended the deadline from Feb. 15 to Feb. 22 to accommodate people who couldn't get through to the federal call center or on the website by midnight on Feb. 15. (O'Donnell and Unger, 2/25)

Gov. Gary Herbert's trimmed-down plan for expanding Medicaid appears to have hit a dead end at the state Capitol. Hours after the Republican governor's plan earned key approval in the state Senate, Republican House Speaker Greg Hughes said Wednesday afternoon that the GOP-dominated House will not consider the governor's plan because it has no support. (Price, 2/26)

Lawmakers who want to close Nebraska's health care coverage gap are taking a new approach after two previous attempts to expand Medicaid failed. Sen. Kathy Campbell presented her Medicaid "redesign" bill Wednesday to a legislative committee, saying it would help the state uncover more efficient ways to provide health coverage while giving Nebraska officials flexibility to design a state-specific plan. (Shulte, 2/26)

An Oregon judge has ordered technology giant Oracle Corp. to continue hosting Oregon's Medicaid health insurance system for low-income Oregonians even after the company's contract expires this weekend. Marion County Circuit Judge Courtland Geyer ruled Wednesday that Oracle should host Medicaid for another year. He granted the preliminary injunction until February 2016. (Wozniacka, 2/26)

Even though MNsure officials saw countless technological red-flags in the lead-up to the Oct. 1, 2013 launch of the online health insurance exchange, Gov. Mark Dayton wasn’t alerted to those issues until a few weeks before the website opened for businesses. (Richert, 2/25)

Worries about how the Affordable Care Act may affect 2014 returns could drive more filers to spend hundreds of dollars to get professional help from accountants and preparation services, tax specialists said. The tax code changes tied to the federal health care law take effect this year. That has triggered television, radio, and newspaper ads suggesting that filers need to brace for complications and may need specialized tax help. (Fernandes, 2/26)

ObamaCare customers who received health insurance subsidies last year are getting an unpleasant surprise this tax season -- with many finding they have to repay hundreds of dollars. An analysis by tax-preparer H&R Block found that to date, 52 percent of those who enrolled in Affordable Care Act coverage are paying back part of their premium tax credits. (2/25)

Roberta and Curtis Campbell typically look forward to tax time. Most years, they receive a refund – a little extra cash to pay off credit card bills. But this year the California couple got a shock: According to their tax preparer, they owe the IRS more than $6,000. (Gorman, 2/26)

In another salvo against the federal Affordable Care Act, some Republicans in West Virginia’s House of Delegates want to make it a crime for state and federal officials to enforce the health-care law. Under the GOP-backed bill (HB2509), federal employees would face felony charges, while state workers would be arrested for a misdemeanor offense, if they try to administer any federal regulations under the Affordable Care Act. The legislation also declares the federal health-care law “invalid” in West Virginia. (Eyre, 2/25)

Governor Charlie Baker has removed the four members of the Massachusetts Health Connector Board appointed by his predecessor, including controversial MIT economist Jonathan Gruber. (Freyer, 2/25)

At least Jonathan Gruber is not alone in his latest indignity. The MIT economist and Obamacare adviser now notorious for opining on the “stupidity of the American voter” is out of his job on the board of the Massachusetts exchange in an unexpected power play by the new Republican governor. Three other respected health experts with much lower public profiles were also removed. (Wheaton, 2/25)

The move gives Baker control of the 11-member board that oversees the state's health care law and website. Two other administration appointees — Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders and Secretary of Administration and Finance Kristen Lepore — are already on the board. (LeBlanc, 2/26)

Buying health care in America is like shopping blindfolded at Macy’s and getting the bill months after you leave the store, economist Uwe Reinhardt likes to say. A tool that went online Wednesday is supposed to give patients a small peek at the products and prices before they open their wallets. Got a sore knee? Having a baby? Need a primary-care doctor? Shopping for an MRI scan? Guroo.com shows the average local cost for 70 common diagnoses and medical tests in most states. That’s the real cost — not “charges” that often get marked down — based on a giant database of what insurance companies actually pay. (Hancock, 2/25)

Healthcare consumers have a new tool to compare prices using data from some of the largest U.S. health insurers, but comparison shopping will remain a challenge for most. On Wednesday the Health Care Cost Institute, a not-for-profit healthcare research organization, launched the first of two websites conceived to help consumers navigate prices for medical services. The website—named Guroo—allows consumers to search for average prices for 70 services across more than 300 hundred cities, 41 states, coastal California and the District of Columbia. (Evans, 2/25)

Deductibles topping $3,000 are common among plans sold on the health care overhaul's public insurance exchanges, which provide coverage for millions. Companies also have been raising deductibles for years on employer-sponsored health plans, the most common form of coverage in the United States. Plus cost-sharing requirements for Medicare prescription drug coverage renew every year. (2/25)

Amid complaints that doctors are facing a "regulatory tsunami," the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will ease certain deadlines regarding electronic health records. CMS on Wednesday said the deadline for doctors and certain other providers of health care to attest that their medical records systems meet meaningful use standards has been pushed to March 20 from Feb. 28. Physicians who accept Medicare payments must undergo certification every year to receive incentive money and avoid reductions in payments. (Young, 2/25)

A test run indicates that a new electronic billing system for health services can be implemented in the United States, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Wednesday, even as some doctors continued to push for relief from an October deadline for implementing the co-called ICD-10 codes. About 660 providers, billing agencies and equipment suppliers submitted almost 15,000 test claims using the ICD-10 codes between Jan. 26 and Feb. 3, CMS said. (Young, 2/25)

The CMS has either identified or prevented more than $210.7 million in healthcare fraud in one year using predictive analytics. But critics want to see the agency do much more with its new digital tools. Work done in detecting credit card fraud points the way to the possibility of greater savings in healthcare from predictive analytics. But stumbling blocks remain, including the greater complexity of healthcare data compared with simpler credit card transaction data, analytics experts caution. (Tahir, 2/25)

Bernard Valencia's room in the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Medical Center in Loma Linda, Calif., illustrates how hospitals across the country could fight a nationwide epidemic. As soon as you enter the room, you can see one of the main strategies: A hook hangs from a metal track that runs across the ceiling. This isn't some bizarre way of fighting hospital-acquired infections or preventing the staff from getting needle sticks. The contraption is a ceiling hoist designed to lift and move patients with a motor instead of muscle. (Zwerdling, 2/25)

Turning Iowa's Medicaid program over to private operators will save money and improve service, a top state official said Wednesday, but lawmakers questioned how it would impact people enrolled in the program. Department of Human Services Director Chuck Palmer told the Legislature's Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee that the state is moving forward with a plan to shift the Medicaid program to two or more managed care organizations, to which Iowa will pay fixed amount per enrollee to provide health coverage. (2/25)

Mississippi has a sickly reputation. The Magnolia State ranks at or near the bottom in most health rankings: worst infant mortality and most kids born with low birth weight; second-to-highest rate of obesity and cancer deaths; second from the last in diabetes outcomes. (Pittman, 2/26)

A bipartisan group of lawmakers hopes to expand the reach of “telemedicine” in Minnesota by requiring health insurers to pay for remote consultations the same way they do for in-person visits. (Browning, 2/25)

State auditors say Maryland's health department did not follow proper procedure when it hired a contractor to replace the system used to process Medicaid payments. The department later had to suspend work with the company. In a report released Wednesday, auditors said the Department of Health and Mental and Hygiene did not follow the procurement process, and kept information that raised red flags about the contractor from the state Board of Public Works, which approved the five-year, $171 million contract. (McDaniels and Cohn, 2/25)

A proposal for controlling Kansas' costs for expensive mental health drugs in its Medicaid program failed Wednesday in the state Senate because some members worried that patients wouldn't get the medications they need. The Senate voted 25-15 against a bill repealing a 2002 law that prohibits restrictions in Medicaid on prescriptions for treating mental illnesses, such as a list of preferred drugs for doctors, or a requirement that the program sign off before a prescription is made. The state's $3 billion-a-year Medicaid program provides health coverage for 368,000 needy and disabled state residents. (Hanna, 2/25)

Shouting the slogan "keep the doors open," several hundred supporters of Maryland's mental health and drug treatment programs rallied outside the State House in Annapolis Wednesday to protest proposed cuts in the budget for compensating care providers. Mental illness patients, recovering drug addicts and parents of children with those problems were among the speakers as members of the Behavioral Care Coalition gathered to seek the restoration of about $23 million. Those funds were trimmed from such programs under the Hogan and O'Malley administrations as a means to close a revenue shortfall. (Dresser, 2/25)

New Jersey hospitals will be getting a lot less money from the state government to deliver charity care to uninsured people under Gov. Chris Christie’s proposed 2015-2016 budget. Administration officials say there’s a good reason for the cuts: the Affordable Care Act has dramatically reduced the ranks of the uninsured. But hospitals contend that it’s too soon to know how much they’ll be getting from the ACA or if that money will offset the proposed reductions. (2/25)

Legislative budget writers grilled Delaware Medicaid officials Wednesday on delays in a program aimed at reducing waste, fraud and abuse, and about the lack of access by thousands of Medicaid enrollees to the state's only children's hospital. With the state facing a tight budget year and the Joint Finance Committee trying to balance a $3.9 billion operating budget proposed by Gov. Jack Markell, co-chair Sen. Harris McDowell III wondered why the Department of Health and Social Services has lagged on reducing fraud and waste in the state's $1.9 billion Medicaid program. (Chase, 2/25)

A bill that would allocate $5 million in taxpayer funds to provide IUDs for low-income teens and young women in Colorado moved through its first House committee Tuesday, garnering the vote of one unlikely supporter — an El Paso County Republican. (Kerwin McCrimmon, 2/25)

Proposition 47 is having a profound effect on Los Angeles County’s criminal justice system, from the jails to mental health treatment to workloads for prosecutors and public defenders, according to a draft report by the county’s chief executive. (Sewell and Chang, 2/25)

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that a state regulatory board made up mostly of dentists violated federal law against unfair competition when it tried to prevent lower-cost competitors in other fields from offering teeth-whitening services. By a 6-3 vote, the justices rejected arguments from the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners that it was acting in the best interests of consumers when it pressured nondentists to get out of the lucrative trade in teeth-whitening services. (2/25)

In 2014, Gov. Peter Shumlin devoted his State of the State address to what he called a “full-blown heroin crisis” in Vermont. The State Legislature enacted many of his initiatives, including giving one-time grants to addiction clinics to help them reduce the size of their waiting lists. The Central Vermont Addiction Medicine clinic here used its share of the grant to extend the hours of its lone doctor. Counselors reached out to people on the waiting list, moving active needle-users like Mr. Kenney and pregnant women to the top. (Seelye, 2/25)

The Supreme Court case King v. Burwell being argued March 4 is one of profound national importance. It challenges the legality of 75% of ObamaCare—the subsidies that the federal government has been paying to health insurers on behalf of enrollees in the 37 states that chose not to participate in ObamaCare. Like most conservatives, I am hopeful about the court’s decision, expected in June. (Ben Sasse, 2/25)

Could the U.S. Supreme Court allow the Affordable Care Act to survive its latest legal challenge because the plaintiffs in the case before it haven’t been injured by the law? It’s possible. The more probable result is still that the court will reach a decision on the merits of the case and eliminate the insurance subsidies necessary to make the law work in many states. But if Chief Justice John Roberts wants to avoid the criticism that the Roberts court is the most activist conservative court in history, he could plausibly use the standing argument to avoid a decision -- especially if he could get cover from the archconservative Justice Antonin Scalia, who more or less invented the constitutional doctrine of standing in a 1992 case argued successfully by -- you guessed it -- then-Deputy Solicitor General John Roberts. (Noah Feldman, 2/25)

What does a red grouper have to do with the Affordable Care Act? Maybe a lot. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday on a quirky case in which it had to decide whether the fish counted as a “tangible object” under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The decision broke down in a particularly strange way across the usual liberal-conservative lines. Reading the tea leaves -- or maybe the fish entrails -- it's possible to get some clues about how the court will interpret the ACA in the major case it will hear March 4. (Noah Feldman, 2/25)

The administration’s enrollment strategy seems inclined toward leniency—for the policy reason of trying to enroll as many individuals as possible and for the political reason of avoiding actions that could make the law more unpopular. Some advocates of a longer enrollment period have cited the ability to “diminish hostility” toward the law as one reason to allow Americans a second bite at the enrollment apple. (Chris Jacobs, 2/25)

The usual media suspects are excoriating Jeb Bush —again—for trying to help save my sister Terri Schiav o’s life. An article last month in the Tampa Bay Times, “The Audacity of Jeb Bush,” later quoted in a New Yorker article titled “The Punisher,” accused the former Florida governor of going “all in on Schiavo” and running roughshod over Florida state law. (Bobby Schindler, 2/25)

Neuroscience is appearing everywhere. And the legal system is taking notice. The past few years have seen the emergence of “neurolaw.” A spread in the NYT Magazine, a best-selling NYT book, a primetime PBS documentary, the first Law and Neuroscience casebook, and a multimillion-dollar investment from the MacArthur Foundation to fund a Research Network on Law and Neuroscience have all fueled interest in how neuroscience might revolutionize the law. The potential implications of neurolaw are broad. (Francis Shen and Dena Gromet, 2/25)

California is home to two major biotechnology hubs — San Francisco and San Diego — but Los Angeles has been left behind. The paradox is that universities in Los Angeles County produce more than 5,000 graduates in biotechnology-related fields each year, compared with 2,800 in San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont. However, it's San Francisco that attracted $1.15 billion in biotechnology investment in 2013, compared with a paltry $45 million here. No wonder, then, that so many of our graduates head north. (C.L. Max Nikias, 2/25)

The Supreme Court made the right call today by ruling against a state dental board that tried to limit competition from salons, spas and other businesses. The case pitted the North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners against the Federal Trade Commission, which accused the board of violating federal antitrust law. It had been sending letters to teeth whitening businesses ordering them to stop offering the service, on the grounds that they were not licensed dentists. These letters served to reduce competition and, therefore, raise the cost of teeth whitening. (Vikas Bajaj, 2/25)