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The White House is urging states to be more aggressive against health insurance companies as it looks to prevent expected and widespread premium hikes of 10 percent or more this year. The federal health department announced Wednesday that it will dole out about $22 million to boost state-level "rate reviews," considered one of the strongest weapons against premium increases. Under the system, health insurers are required to justify rate increases to state insurance departments, some of which have the power to reject “unreasonable” increases. With the new funding, federal health officials hope states can hire outside insurance experts to dig deeper into the proposed rates and prove the hikes are unjustified. (Ferris 6/15)

House Republicans’ ObamaCare replacement plan will not include specific dollar figures on some of its core provisions, and will instead be more of a broad outline, according to lobbyists and aides. The plan, set to be released next week, will include a tax credit to help people afford insurance and a cap on the current exclusion of employer-based health insurance plans from taxation. However, it will not include specific dollar amounts on how large the tax credit would be, nor will it note which employer health insurance plans would be subject to taxation, lobbyists and aides said. (Sullivan, 6/15)

For free checkups, testing, treatment and contraceptives, (Mary-Michael) Watts has referred hundreds of students — many of whom are low income — to the New Generation Health Center, about a mile from Mission High. ... So Watts and her young patients were shocked to learn that New Generation was supposed to close down in July due to financial troubles. ... New Generation’s troubles stem in part from the very specialization in reproductive health that has made it such a valuable resource for young patients in the Mission District, say experts. They contend that the Affordable Care Act has changed the business model for clinics like this, forcing most to transform by adding primary care services or merging with other health centers in order to remain competitive. (Romero, 6/15)

A House committee on Wednesday advanced a long-controversial mental health reform bill, 53-0, that Republicans have cast as their response to mass shootings. (Sullivan, 6/15)

A Democratic senator who mourned the loss of 20 children in his home state of Connecticut four years ago waged a nearly 15-hour filibuster into the early hours of Thursday morning, demanding votes on gun control measures just days after a mass shooting at a Florida nightclub. As compromise on the gun issue remained improbable, Sen. Chris Murphy stood on the Senate floor for most of Wednesday and into Thursday, saying he would remain there "until we get some signal, some sign that we can come together." He yielded the floor at 2:11 a.m., EDT, saying he had won commitments from Republican leaders that they would hold votes on amendments to expand background checks and ban gun sales to suspected terrorists. It is unlikely that those amendments will pass. (6/16)

In the aftermath of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Fla., 53 people were alive but wounded, many in desperate need of blood. Blood banks in the area put out a call for donors. Gay men were ready to volunteer. Rumors even went around that blood centers in Orlando had relaxed a ban on donations from sexually active gay men. But the rumors were false. The ban, imposed by the Food and Drug Administration, remains in place, infuriating some gay rights activists. (McNeil, 6/15)

The gunman who killed dozens of people at a gay nightclub in Orlando gave blood to a donation center that provided much of the supply later used to help save injured club patrons. The OneBlood donation center confirmed today that Omar Mateen donated blood last month. In a statement, officials from the center said an employee recognized Mateen from a mobile blood drive. (Mohney, 6/15)

As the old saying goes, dogs are a man's best friend. But to those affected by the Orlando nightclub shooting, a pack of 12 golden retrievers have become the true companions to a broken community -- providing unconditional love and sloppy kisses to anyone they could get their paws on. Tim Hetzner is the president of a donation-based organization in Illinois that deploys a "sea of fur" - also known as K-9 Comfort Dogs -- to areas struck by crisis or natural disaster. (6/15)

A hedge-fund insider-trading case has ensnared a former Food and Drug Administration official, one of the first criminal actions focused on how Wall Street gathers information from Washington. Federal prosecutors on Wednesday unveiled charges against a current and a former portfolio manager of hedge- fund firm Visium Asset Management LP, accusing them of trading on confidential government information about generic-drug approvals. (Viswanatha and Matthews, 6/15)

Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged a hedge fund manager with engaging in a Washington-style insider trading scheme, allegedly reaping a $32 million profit using confidential government information. The scheme involved Sanjay Valvani, a 44-year-old New York hedge fund manager, and Gordon Johnston, 64, of Olney, Md., who spent more than a decade working at the Food and Drug Administration, according to allegations filed in a complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney of Manhattan. Johnston served as a “political intelligence” consultant to Valvani, making as much as $5,000 a month for bringing the hedge fund manager confidential information mined from his relationships with former FDA colleagues, the complaints alleged. (Merle, 6/15)

Envision Healthcare Holdings Inc. and AmSurg Corp. agreed to merge, in a deal that will create a company providing a range of hospital-related services worth some $10 billion. The all-stock deal has a fixed exchange ratio of 0.334 AmSurg share per Envision share, the companies confirmed in a statement. Envision shareholders will own about 53% of the combined company, which is to be named Envision Healthcare Corp. It will have dual headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., and Greenwood Village, Colo. (Cimilluca and Mattioli, 6/15)

AmSurg and Envision Healthcare have agreed to combine forces, creating one of the largest physician staffing companies in the country.In addition to a physician staffing business, Nashville-based AmSurg would contribute more than 250 ambulatory surgery centers to the combined company. (Barkholz, 6/15)

People who die in the hospital undergo more intense tests and procedures than those who die anywhere else. An analysis by Arcadia Healthcare Solutions also shows that spending on people who die in a hospital is about seven times that on people who die at home. The work confirms with hard data what most doctors and policymakers already know: Hospital deaths are more expensive and intrusive than deaths at home, in hospice care, or even in nursing homes. (Kodjak, 6/15)

With the U.S. Supreme Court poised to decide the biggest abortion case in nearly a decade, the ACLU of Texas is demanding that the Department of State Health Services “stop concealing” abortion statistics for 2014 and make the information public. In a letter sent Wednesday to department Commissioner John Hellerstedt, the ACLU accused the state agency of purposely withholding statistics that would show patterns of abortion across the state in 2014, including the number of Texan women who had abortions, the procedures they used and the types of facilities they visited. (Pattani, 6/15)

A Kentucky appeals court on Wednesday granted Republican Governor Matt Bevin a temporary injunction against a Lexington abortion clinic his administration said was not properly licensed. In a 3-0 ruling, the Kentucky Court of Appeals overturned a March decision from a lower court judge that denied the governor an injunction against EMW Women's Clinic. In Wednesday's order, the judges said the state's Cabinet for Health and Family Services had the right to regulate how abortions were performed and how clinics were licensed. (Bittenbender, 6/15)

A Tallahassee federal judge will hear arguments June 29 on a request from Planned Parenthood to block parts of a major abortion law approved this year by Gov. Rick Scott and Florida lawmakers. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued an order Monday setting the date to hear arguments about whether to issue a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order against the law, which is scheduled to take effect July 1. (6/15)

Planned Parenthood is suing Mississippi over a new state law that will ban Medicaid from spending money with any abortion provider. Records show that from July 2013 to August 2015, Mississippi Medicaid spent $439 with Planned Parenthood. The state could easily spend more than that to defend itself in the lawsuit. (6/15)

Pregnant women who are infected with Zika in their third trimesters may not face a major risk that their babies will develop the type of abnormalities linked to the virus, according to a study published Wednesday. None of the babies born to 616 women in Colombia who were diagnosed with Zika during their third trimesters was born with microcephaly or brain abnormalities, according to the study, published by public-health scientists in Colombia and at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the New England Journal of Medicine. The majority—82%—of the babies were born at term at normal birth weight. (McKay, 6/15)

The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine online Wednesday, seems to confirm that the greatest risk to infants comes early in pregnancy. Researchers tracked women infected in Colombia and also found troubling cases of severe birth defects in babies born to women who never realized they had contracted Zika. (Stobbe, 6/15)

Pregnant women who become infected with the Zika virus are at risk of having babies with the severe birth defect known as microcephaly, regardless of whether they have symptoms of the disease, according to a new report. The findings, part of the first comprehensive look at the Zika outbreak in Colombia, one of the countries hardest hit by the mosquito-borne virus, add to the growing body of evidence about the potentially devastating consequences of Zika. (Sun, 6/15)

Republicans in control of negotiations on long-delayed funding to combat the Zika virus are promising a quick agreement, as behind-the-scenes negotiations have focused on a potential deal in the range of a $1.1 billion measure passed by the Senate last month. A trickier issue involves whether to pair the Zika funds with cuts to other programs as called for by House Republicans to defray the measure's effect on the budget deficit. Democrats, whose votes may be needed to pass the final measure, are against the idea. (Taylor, 6/15)

Tropical medicine experts say the Zika virus could be transmitted within Texas as early as this summer, if the virus follows the traditional course of similar diseases. ... Also Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott urged the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to approve the Texas Department of State Health Services’ funding requests totaling just more than $11 million for Zika preparedness and response efforts in Texas. (Carlson, 6/15)

As Texas braces for a possible Zika virus outbreak via local mosquito populations, Gov. Greg Abbott asked federal health officials Wednesday to review the state’s plan to combat the disease, which has been linked to serious birth defects. In a letter sent to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden on Wednesday, Abbott, an outspoken critic and litigator of the Obama administration, touted Texas’ cooperation with the federal government in the face of a potential public health crisis. (Walters, 6/15)

Summer camp and mosquitoes go together like chicken and waffles, particularly in the South. But Zika virus may raise the stakes in the age-old struggle of campers versus pests. The mosquito species capable of carrying Zika can be found in much of the southern United States. Anxious parents need not panic; no Zika-infected mosquitoes have been identified in the country. Nonetheless, Tisha Bolger, board president of the American Camp Association, says camp administrators are particularly interested in what they can do to prevent mosquito bites this summer. (Jacewicz, 6/16)

In a step that could lead to a new diabetes treatment, several Boston-area hospitals have teamed up with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and biotech Semma Therapeutics to make personalized cell-based therapies and organize clinical trials. It is one of several initiatives around the country aimed at manufacturing cell-derived treatments, as the hope for such therapies creates a demand for the production of the cells. (Joseph, 6/16)

A large weight loss, even if regained, may help overweight people with type 2 diabetes improve their blood sugar control and cholesterol and lower high blood pressure long-term, a new study suggests. Over four years, even those who regained all of a large weight loss had greater improvements in blood sugar than their counterparts who lost no weight or initially lost a smaller amount. (Doyle, 6/15)

U.S. adults should choose the type of colon cancer screening they feel most comfortable with, the government-backed U.S. Preventive Services Task Force now advises. The updated recommendation, directed at people aged 50 to 75, is a departure from the influential panel's 2008 guidance, which said people in that age group should be screened on a specific time table using one of four tests. (6/15)

Wednesday's studies closely tracked infants through toddlerhood and concluded that the first two to three years of life are a critical period for budding microbiomes. Still, "what happens when you don't have the right bugs at the right age during that critical period? We don't know the answer," cautioned Dr. Martin Blaser of New York University, who led one of the studies. (Neergard, 6/15)

Doctors ran a battery of tests and scans but could find nothing physically wrong with her leg. They were baffled as to what was causing such excruciating pain until a physical therapist recommended that Gena take her daughter to Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. At the hospital, Dr. Katherine Bentley, the director of the chronic pain program, diagnosed Dinicola with complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). (Ramsadeen, 6/15)

In the deadly world of opioid overdoses, fentanyl is only the latest high-profile killer. Opioid abuse cuts across all demographics, from celebrities such as Prince, whose recent death was confirmed as an “accidental” fentanyl overdose, to victims in upscale El Dorado Hills neighborhoods and worn south Sacramento streets. Calling it a public health epidemic, legislators, law enforcement, health officials and families here and across the country are ramping up new efforts to combat opiate addiction and deaths, including those attributed to fentanyl. (Buck, 6/15)

[Jeremy] Reed could have been one of the thousands who die of opioid overdoses — more than 28,000 in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, with the help of Community Bridges, he overcame his addiction, and now works for the organization. (Eaton, 6/15)

As Tennessee officials continue to grapple with the growing abuse of opioids, overdose deaths and babies born addicted, a panel of law enforcement, public health and insurance officials Wednesday described a problem that has remained one step out of reach of efforts to combat it. (Wadhwani 6/15)

A company that wants to continue managing health care plans for Nebraska Medicaid recipients is taking the state to court after losing its bid. Aetna Better Health of Nebraska claims state officials unfairly withdrew its initial contract award in exchange for a different managed care organization that shouldn't have qualified in the first place. State officials said they are in the best position to determine what's good for Nebraskans, calling the selection process impartial and designed to benefit taxpayers, not individual bidders. (Pluhacek, 6/16)

The federal government, which spends billions of dollars each year covering unintended pregnancies, is encouraging states to adopt policies that might boost the number of Medicaid enrollees who use long-acting, reversible contraceptives. LARCs, as they are known, “possess a number of advantages,” Vikki Wachino, deputy administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, wrote to state programs in a recent bulletin. “They are cost-effective, have high efficacy and continuation rates, require minimal maintenance, and are rated highest in patient satisfaction.” And, Wachino stressed, “more can be done to increase this form of contraception.” (Andrews, 6/16)

Private insurance companies that say they were underpaid by Florida’s Medicaid system over the past two years delivered a $433 million bill to the state this month, according to the Miami Herald. The unpaid payments are owed jointly by the state and the federal government. (6/15)

Invisible toxic chemicals are contaminating drinking water for 80,000 people south of Colorado Springs, one of 63 areas nationwide where the chemicals, widely used to fight petroleum fires, have been measured at levels the EPA deems dangerous. (Finley, 6/15)

The Department of Health and Human Services will now pay for blood tests for some residents exposed to chemicals like PFOA and PFOS. The department paid for the blood tests after workers and parents demanded them following exposure on the Pease Air Force Base two years ago. (Corwin, 6/15)

[Hailey] Bussey and her mother, Maryann Jacobs, joined roughly two dozen residents of the Rensselaer County community to voice their outrage over what they describe as a too-slow response from public officials to the perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA contamination of the Rensselaer County community's water supply, and the state Legislature's continued unwillingness to hold hearings on the crisis. The substance, used in the production of non-stick kitchenware, has been linked to elevated levels of numerous maladies, including several forms of cancer. (Seiler, 6/15)

While a labor dispute threatens the care of patients at the state hospital, state officials say a four-month contract extension will maintain the current level of services. (Rayno, 6/15)

The Executive Council has voted 5-0 to allow Dartmouth-Hitchcock to take over managing the state psychiatric hospital in Concord, June 30. But a core group of psychiatrist staff refuse to work with Dartmouth-Hitchcock. (Rodolico, 6/15)

More than half of the psychiatrists at New Hampshire Hospital will likely no longer work there in two weeks when Dartmouth-Hitchcock assumes operation at the state-run psychiatric hospital. (Morris, 6/16)

Spurred by concerns about problem nurses, New York lawmakers are racing to pass legislation to toughen oversight of more than 50 types of licensed professionals in the state. (Huseman and Adams, 6/15)

On average, Allina says nurses will pay $5,620 for premiums and out-of-pocket costs this year in their current union plans. That's $600 more than employees in the corporate plan. Plans like Allina's, that shift more financial risk to workers in the form of deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses, dominate today's health insurance marketplace and are now viewed as the norm, rather than the exception they were just a decade ago. (Benson, 6/16)

Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut released a petition today with over 600 signatures that calls on Gov. Dannel Malloy to ask the state’s insurance commissioner, Katharine Wade, to resign. Wade has come under fire for her handling of two health insurance mega-mergers, Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna. The $54 billion Cigna deal in particular raised eyebrows, as Wade was previously a Cigna vice president and her husband is now an associate chief counsel for the company. (Cuda, 6/15)

Researchers at one of the nation’s largest public sector health care purchasers weighed in this week with serious concerns about the feasibility of a ballot initiative that seeks to limit how much state programs pay for prescription drugs. In an analysis presented Tuesday, the California Public Retirement System’s staff lauded the goal of controlling prescription drug prices, but it warned of possible resistance — or even retaliation — by pharmaceutical companies. (Craft, 6/15)

Qualifications and allegiances aside, [Merle] Gordon, 46, faces a daunting task in the months ahead as she takes over responsibility for a department with two chief positions vacant and a floundering lead poison prevention program that city officials say is in a state of emergency. Gordon replaces interim health director Natoya Walker Minor, who also serves as the city's chief of public affairs. Walker Minor stepped in to fill the void left by the abrupt resignation of former health director Toinette Parrilla in November of last year. (Zeltner, 6/15)

Capping a month of remarkably productive talks between Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic leaders, lawmakers on Wednesday adopted a new state budget that repeals a harsh welfare rule advocates for needy families had fought against for years. ... For the last two decades, the "maximum family grant" has blocked mothers who give birth while enrolled in the state-funded CalWorks program from receiving any extra financial support for their newborns. Critics said the rule stemmed from the false, stigmatizing idea that poor women on welfare were getting pregnant to reap more cash aid. (Calefati, 6/15)

Some parents relinquish custody to the child-protection system when they find that the expensive residential treatment their sons and daughters require isn’t adequately covered by Medicaid or private insurance. ...The department [Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities] is moving fast on a pilot project to bring various state departments — Disabilities, Medicaid, Job and Family Services, Mental Health and Addiction, the Family and Children First Council — together under a collaborative model to aid kids who have disabilities and complex, aggressive behaviors, [Teresa] Kobelt said. (Price, 6/16)

The state of Ohio in 2012 planned to update its massive worker's compensation billing and claims systems, paying a contractor $52.7 million and expecting a new system online by December 2013. Four years later, the state has paid out $59 million to the IT company -- which has been criticized for failing to deliver on past government projects -- and the system has not yet gone live. (Borchardt, 6/15)

West Nile virus is showing up earlier and faster this summer in Sacramento, with the count of infected mosquitoes and dead birds exceeding that recorded in mid-June last year. That’s according to the Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito & Vector Control District, which announced Wednesday that 47 dead birds and 30 mosquito samples have tested positive for West Nile, mostly in Arden Arcade, North Highlands and other neighborhoods north of the American River. (Buck, 6/15)

The owner of a Owings Mills diagnostic company that allowed unqualified employees to review x-rays, resulting in two patients' deaths, was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison and two years supervised release. (Gantz, 6/15)

The vast majority of Americans talk the talk about organ donation: Ninety-five percent say they support it. But only 50 percent walk the walk as registered donors. At a summit Monday, the White House announced measures that could reduce the gap. The White House and the universities, nonprofits and other organizations that participated in the summit hope to increase the number of yearly organ transplants in the United States, which last year surpassed 30,000 for the first time. More than 120,000 people remain on the waiting list — almost 100,000 for kidney transplants — and 22 die every day. (6/15)

We must work to solve the growing mental health crisis in this U.S. That’s why the time has come for presidential candidates to concern themselves and for the Senate to push forward a free and clear version of the Mental Health Reform Act of 2016 – one that is not commingled with gun rights amendments that are slowing down its progress. (Rajaie Batniji, 6/16)

Conventional wisdom says that Congress generally won’t achieve much in a Presidential election year as issues begin to get mired in partisan posturing. But 2016 has been anything but a conventional election year, and this Congress has the opportunity to pass two important bipartisan health bills this year. We’re talking about the mental health bills before the House and the Senate as well as the Medicare chronic care legislation under development by the Senate Finance Committee. These bipartisan proposals could improve the lives of millions of Americans and move our health care system in the direction of better integrated and higher value care. It’s time that Congress act on them. (John Rother and Wanda Filer, 6/15)

Get ready for big increases in premiums under the Affordable Care Act. A new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation examined the most popular individual plans under the new health care law in 14 major cities around the country and found that insurers were asking for increases in 2017 that are twice as big as this year’s. There is wide variation, including some places where rates will go down, but the average requested increase is 10 percent. While it will be months before insurers and regulators agree to final rates for the coming year, the Kaiser analysis confirms the signals we have seen from industry and government experts — that consumers and the federal government are likely to see much higher prices in many markets. Clearly, insurers are struggling to figure out how much to charge so they can cover their costs but still attract customers. (Reed Abelson and Margot Sanger-Katz, 6/15)

Physician practices that accept KanCare will receive a 4 percent cut in payments for KanCare patients beginning July 2 as part of Gov. Sam Brownback’s recently announced solution to the state’s budget problems. That may seem small, but KanCare already pays below the cost of providing care, so additional cuts will result in a loss that many Kansas physician practices cannot afford. Frankly, the talk of Medicaid reimbursement cuts is causing many physicians in Kansas to question the sustainability of their practices under these conditions. (Diane Steere, 6/16)

Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia have passed “Good Samaritan” laws to protect individuals from being arrested when they seek emergency room help for someone suffering a drug overdose. I am proud to say Ohio is now one of them. This bill may not have saved Tyler Bornstein’s life, but it will save others. (Denise Driehaus, 6/15)

It is important for patients and caregivers to see that our commitment extends beyond the treatment plan – and into their lives outside of the clinic and after treatment. I believe most patients welcome the opportunity to make that connection, which is founded in a holistic and patient-centered point of view. Oncology teams can help patients thrive during treatment by carefully monitoring their health and communicating early and often about options, expectations and outcomes. After treatment, patients take more responsibility for their daily and long-term health. For many, it’s a daunting task. (Mathew Meeneghan, 6/16)

As the spread of mosquito-borne diseases has captured headlines in recent months, so too has a novel approach to mosquito control that might one day stop them: gene drive. Although it is in early development, this promising genetic technique could help end the transmission of many deadly pathogens, including malaria. (Richard Nchabi Kamwi, 6/15)