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A ruling by the Internal Revenue Service creates a significant obstacle to a new type of health care network that the Obama administration has promoted as a way to provide better care at lower cost, industry lawyers and providers say. ... In its recent ruling, the I.R.S. denied a tax exemption sought by an accountable care organization that coordinates care for people with commercial insurance. The tax agency said the organization did not meet the test for tax-exempt status because it was not operated exclusively for charitable purposes and it provided private benefits to some doctors in its network. (Pear, 5/29)

On Jan. 13, 2014, a team of Internal Revenue Service financial managers piled into government vans and headed to the Old Executive Office Building for what would turn out to be a very unusual meeting. Upon arrival, the I.R.S. officials, some of whom had expressed doubts that the Obama administration had the proper authority to spend billions of dollars on a crucial element of its health care law, were ushered into a conference room. There, they were presented with an Office of Management and Budget memo laying out the administration’s justification for spending $3.9 billion on consumer health insurance subsidies. (Hulse, 5/30)

Three years after the launch of the state's health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act, three in five of Maryland's eligible uninsured still lack coverage. Despite the state's outreach efforts — and penalties imposed on those who don't buy health plans — officials acknowledge that they are having a hard time reaching most residents without insurance. (McDaniels, 5/28)

Americans who live in the two biggest states that haven’t expanded Medicaid have more complaints about health care costs and quality, according to a new survey released by the Texas Medical Center Health Policy Institute in Houston. They’d also like their states to expand Medicaid. (Feibel, 27)

The industry has called it a difficult but necessary decision in a time when it's being hammered by losses in the individual market, especially during the "special enrollment periods" reserved for those who need new coverage because of a job loss or life change. Insurers allege many people are abusing the system by waiting until they are already sick to sign up. Not all are buying that explanation, however, calling it one more covert way the industry has found to impede access to higher-benefit coverage and skirt the health care law's mandate to cover everyone regardless of medical needs. (Deam, 5/28)

Donald Trump reached out to veterans at a biker rally in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday afternoon, drawing applause as he promised to pay for private health care and to announce new donations to veterans groups. ... He promised to give veterans the option of seeing a private doctor if they encounter delays in getting care through the Department of Veterans Affairs. “Of those vets, of our cherished people, thousands of people are waiting on line to see a doctor,” Mr. Trump said. “That is not going to happen anymore. If there is a wait, we are going to give the right for those people to go to a private doctor, or even a public doctor, and get themselves taken care of and we are going to pay the bill.” (Tracy, 5/29)

If you are closing in on retirement age, you are keenly interested in how the three remaining Presidential candidates -- Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Bernie Sanders -- plan to deal with the fiscal challenges of Social Security and Medicare. If you are not close to retirement age, you should be even more interested, as the long-term stability of both programs could be at stake in this election. Here are the stances of the three major candidates on retirement issues. (5/26)

Hillary Clinton is facing the problem of higher ObamaCare premium hikes in an election year. ObamaCare premiums are expected to rise more sharply than they have in previous years, and Republicans are seizing on the issue for electoral advantage. “Despite premium hikes under ObamaCare, Clinton continues to take credit for the law on the campaign trail,” the Republican National Committee wrote in a recent email, above a compilation of headlines about steep proposed increases. (Sullivan, 5/30)

The Department of Veterans Affairs would dramatically expand the authority of nurses to treat patients without a doctor’s supervision in a controversial proposal by the country’s largest health-care system. The plan, which would allow nurses with advanced training to broaden their responsibilities for patients, is drawing attention to a bitter debate over the relative roles of doctors and nurses. Because of VA’s high visibility, it is likely to be closely watched. The agency, through amended regulations, wants to give vast new authority to its most trained nurses to order and read diagnostic tests, administer anesthesia, prescribe medications and manage acute and chronic diseases — without a doctor’s oversight. (Rein, 5/27)

A Senate investigation of poor health care at a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Tomah, Wis., found systemic failures in a VA inspector general’s review of the facility that raise questions about the internal watchdog’s ability to ensure adequate health care for veterans nationwide. The probe by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found the inspector general’s office, which is charged with independently investigating VA complaints, discounted key evidence and witness testimony, needlessly narrowed its inquiry and has no standard for determining wrongdoing. (Slack, 5/31)

The study found that the VA is up to 30 percent better at providing medication to veteran patients than the private sector is for its patients. That was largely due to the VA's ability to provide a one-stop shop for timely medication to patients with appropriate followup care, such as therapy and blood-level checks, to ensure proper medication dosages. Patients in the private sector also have other hurdles like insurance programs that don't cover certain mental health care costs, such as medication associated with mental health disorders. (Neuhaus, 5/30)

This is Pain School — a five-week, 15-hour course that covers more than a dozen parts of daily life that can make pain better or worse. The classes cover nutrition, sleep, exercise, breathing, visualizations, relaxation and, yes, stress. (Bebinger, 5/31)

The World Health Organization on Saturday rejected a call from 150 health experts to consider postponing or moving the Rio Summer Olympics due to the Zika virus in hard-hit Brazil, arguing that the shift would make no significant difference to the spread of the virus. The U.N. health agency, which declared the spread of Zika in the Americas a global emergency in February, said in a statement there is “no public health justification” for postponing or canceling the 2016 games, which run from Aug. 5-21. (Moulson, 5/28)

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday rejected a call from health experts to move the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this summer because of Zika virus. (Kroet, 5/28)

Congress abandoned the Capitol Thursday for an almost two-week break without addressing how to combat Zika, even as public health officials issue dire warnings about the spread of the mosquito-driven virus with summer approaching. Republican leaders insist that a deal can be struck soon to provide the money federal health officials say is needed to develop a vaccine. They also played down the risk of waiting a little longer, arguing existing money is available for the initial steps needed to help contain the virus while lawmakers resolve the larger funding fight. (Kane and DeBonis, 5/27)

Health departments in all 50 states are scrambling to make up for the combined $45 million they will lose this summer if Congress fails to address a massive federal funding shortfall fighting the Zika virus. With Congress locked in a billion-dollar stalemate over Zika funding, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will be forced to eliminate emergency public health funding from as many as 62 health districts starting in July. (Ferris, 5/29)

At a clinic in Harlem where many of the patients have roots in the Dominican Republic, Dr. Juan Tapia-Mendoza talks to patients about the Zika virus daily. He asks if they are planning to visit the island this summer. He reminds them that the virus can be transmitted through sex. In New York City, there have been 109 reported cases of Zika, including 17 women who were pregnant when they learned they had the virus, according to city health officials. They all contracted the virus while visiting other countries. (Fitzsimmons, 5/30)

Polly Carver-Kimm has painful insight into her message these days as spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Public Health. Carver-Kimm is helping warn people about the Zika virus, which mosquitoes are spreading through the Caribbean, South America and could become a threat in the Southern United States. The possible complications include Guillain-Barré syndrome, which attacks nerve cells, causing muscle weakness, tingling and even paralysis. Carver-Kimm hasn't contracted the Zika virus, but she has struggled with an illness related to Guillain-Barré syndrome since 2012, when it knocked her flat. (Powers, 5/29)

Federal officials are all but certain there will be a Zika outbreak in the continental U.S. this summer. The mosquito-borne virus continues to spread in Central and South America and the Caribbean. It’s linked to severe birth defects and other serious side effects. (Mack, 5/30)

A Dane County woman has a confirmed case of Zika virus infection, health officials said Friday. (Stephenson, 5/27)

A U.S. senator on Friday called for federal investigations of OxyContin’s manufacturer in response to a Los Angeles Times report that found the bestselling painkiller wears off early in many patients, exposing them to increased risk of addiction. Sen. Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat whose state has been hit hard by prescription drug abuse, urged the Justice Department, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federal Trade Commission to launch probes of drugmaker Purdue Pharma. (Ryan, 5/27)

It was an intervention that never happened, and it featured two stars: Prince, an adored music icon, and buprenorphine, an obscure drug hailed as a revolutionary tool to fight opioid addiction. Prince died before the first scene, when a drug-addiction consultant, a physician and Prince's associates converged on the star's Paisley Park home near Minneapolis, based on official accounts. The plot twist? The consultant, Andrew Kornfeld of the Recovery Without Walls clinic in Mill Valley, Calif., was carrying a small amount of buprenorphine. Nicknamed “bupe,” it is also known by several commercial names including Suboxone. (Mohan, 5/30)

When doctors try to figure out whether a patient might become addicted to opioid painkillers, they rely on clinical risk factors like family history, medical history and other social and environmental clues. (Fiore, 5/29)

New York lawmakers are considering legislation to limit the amount of prescription opioid drugs patients can get after an initial visit to the doctor's office, part of an effort to reduce the amount of pills that accumulate in medicine cabinets and help fuel a statewide addiction crisis. (5/29)

Pharmacy giant CVS says it will soon make the overdose-reversing drug Naloxone available at its Florida stores without a prescription. (Ash, 5/27)

The news Thursday that researchers have found a person in the United States carrying bacteria resistant to antibiotics of last resort has caused alarm among public health and infectious disease experts. ... In the short term, experts say there is no need to panic. (Sun, 5/27)

Wealthy countries experienced a small uptick in cancer deaths during the global economic crisis, according to a new study — an estimated 260,000 excess deaths between 2008 and 2010. The analysis, published in the medical journal the Lancet, found intriguing evidence that access to medical care might explain the rise: Increases in the unemployment rate were associated with additional cancer deaths except in countries with universal health care, where access to health care coverage would not have depended on employment. (Johnson, 5/26)

Tracy Solomon Clark is outgoing and energetic — a former fundraiser for big companies and big causes. As she charged through her 40s she had "no clue," she says, that there might be a problem with her heart. It was about six years ago — when she was 44 — that she first suffered severe shortness of breath, along with dizziness. She figured she was overweight and overworked, but never considered heart disease. "That was the furthest thing from my mind," Solomon Clark says. "I was young!" (Neighmond, 5/30)

The dictionary defines ageism as the "tendency to regard older persons as debilitated, unworthy of attention, or unsuitable for employment." But research indicates that ageism may not just be ill-informed or hurtful. It may also be a matter of life and death. Not that it's literally killing people. Researcher Becca Levy, a professor of epidemiology and psychology at the Yale School of Public Health, says it depends on how much a given individual takes those negative ideas to heart. (Jaffe, 5/28)

A blow to the chest sometimes knocks the heart out of rhythm, and can kill. Fortunately it's rare. But most victims are otherwise healthy kid athletes. And survival hinges on fast use of heart-zapping defibrillators that not every athletic league or school keeps near the playing fields. Now a U.S. organization that oversees athletic equipment has proposed the first performance standard for chest protectors to reduce the risk. (Neergaard, 5/30)

Federal cellphone guidelines for consumers could undergo "tweaks" after a major government study found a link between tumors and exposure to cellphone-type radiation in rats, according to a head of the agency that oversaw the study. John Bucher, the associate director of the U.S. National Toxicology Program, said the decision will ultimately be up to other agencies like the Food and Drug Administration or the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). (Trujilo, 5/27)

This spring, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the Federal Railroad Administration are collecting public comments as a first step toward making rules on testing and treatment for sleep apnea for truck drivers and rail operators. Currently, no regulations address the subject except to say you can't drive if you have untreated apnea. A comment session was held in Chicago this month. (Wisniewski, 5/29)

The two federal prosecutors were skeptical. They weren't sure what to believe when they first saw whistle-blowers' allegations that 1,300 hospitals across the country had submitted false claims to Medicare for inappropriately implanting heart devices. ... The pair didn't know then that the case over implantable cardioverter defibrillators would consume the next eight years of their lives with them consistently working 80-hour weeks and crisscrossing the country leading a team that pored through more than 10,000 patient charts. Ultimately, more than 500 hospitals settled with the government for more than $280 million. (Schencker, 5/28)

After the first for-profit hospital chain began operating in Nashville in the late 1960s, not-for-profit hospital leaders feared companies such as Hospital Corporation of America and other for-profit upstarts were coming to take over their world. Today, those fears are a distant memory. (Meyer, 5/28)

Two federal agencies have reached an accord to maintain a key federal funding source for a government hospital found to be in "immediate jeopardy" this week. An Indian Health Service spokeswoman said Saturday morning that the agency had submitted a plan of correction for the Rapid City - Sioux San IHS hospital which was approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Friday. (Ferguson, 5/28)

Services for the elderly and people with disabilities are just about the only things that are fully funded in the latest version of the Louisiana state budget. Hospitals set up for the poor and uninsured, the TOPS scholarship program, prisons, public schools, public universities, medical schools, child welfare services and several other government services are still short money in the latest state financing plan. (O'Donoghue, 5/30)

On the heels of a report warning that more than a third of the nation’s critical access hospitals are in danger of closure comes some encouraging news. A new study indicates certain procedures are being performed in these small hospitals more safely and at a lower cost than in larger institutions. (Sisk, 5/27)

When leaders of Nashville General Hospital told city leaders they needed millions of dollars more than initially anticipated, many in the public seemed to choke at the idea of throwing more money at the already heavily subsidized hospital. But that request, and especially the angry reaction to it, is emblematic of a lack of attention paid, both by lawmakers and the community at large, to North Nashville, said Metro Councilwoman Erica Gilmore and her mother, state Rep. Brenda Gilmore. (Boucher, 5/30)

When a surgical technician named Rocky Elbert Allen was accused in February of stealing drugs from a Denver-area hospital, it was the sort of news that ended up in a police blotter. But as investigators began combing through the 28-year-old former Navy operating-room tech’s past, they say, what emerged was a startling, five-year trail of inside drug thefts at hospitals across the West, the story of a man who was fired repeatedly yet was somehow able to talk his way back into employment – and, authorities say, more drugs. (Anderson, 5/29)

StemExpress, a tiny biomedical company in [Placerville, Calif., a] foothill town east of Sacramento, has emerged at the heart of the contentious national debate over abortion and the scientific use of human fetal tissue. FBI agents say its floor-to-ceiling windows are security hazards, a potential line of sight for snipers. The backdrop of pine trees and hills provides cover, employees say, to strangers who crouch with cameras. Inside, Melanie Rose, a laboratory technician, knows anyone could be watching. One recent May morning, she opened a foam box with fetal tissue packed in ice — a donation for medical research. ... That work, with fetal tissue, has catapulted the small biotech firm out from under the radar. It is now the target of loiterers, protesters and death threats and the subject of a congressional inquiry. (Paquette, 5/27)

U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn insists there’s no partisan agenda behind the investigation she’s leading into the medical procedures and business practices of abortion providers. But the investigation has been roiled with partisan warfare for weeks, with Democrats charging that Blackburn and Republicans on the panel conducting the probe are abusing their authority and putting lives at risk. (Collins, 5/29)

Doctors who perform abortions in Oklahoma won't be guilty of a felony after the state Senate adjourned for the year without trying to override Republican Gov. Mary Fallin's veto of a bill to make it a felony crime. The Senate ended the session Friday before state Sen. Nathan Dahm tried an override on his bill to remove an exemption from the law for licensed doctors. (5/27)

Focusing heavily on a right to privacy, abortion-rights advocates have filed an initial brief urging the Florida Supreme Court to block a 2015 law that seeks to require women to wait 24 hours before having abortions. (5/27)

Cincinnati's sole abortion clinic can remain open for another year thanks to last-minute approval from the Ohio Department of Health. (Balmert, 5/27)

Burned by negative reviews, some health providers are casting their patients’ privacy aside and sharing intimate details online as they try to rebut criticism. In the course of these arguments -- which have spilled out publicly on ratings sites like Yelp — doctors, dentists, chiropractors and massage therapists, among others, have divulged details of patients’ diagnoses, treatments and idiosyncrasies. (Ornstein, 5/27)

When Sean Meyers was in a car accident on a November evening three years ago, he was flown by air ambulance to the emergency department at Inova Fairfax Hospital, in Northern Virginia. With his arm broken in four places, a busted knee and severe bruising to his upper body, Meyers, 29, was admitted to the hospital. While badly hurt, his injuries didn’t seem life threatening. When his car went off the road, Meyers had been on his way to visit his parents, who live nearby in Sterling. They rushed to the hospital that night to wait for news and to be available if Sean or the hospital staff needed anything. But beyond the barest details, no one from the hospital talked with them about their son’s condition or care, not that night nor during the next 10 days while he was hospitalized. (Andrews, 5/31)

For 13 years, Dr. David Grube, an Oregon family physician, helped 30 terminally ill people die. He says the experience taught him some fundamental lessons that California doctors will begin learning on June 9, when the state's controversial End of Life Option Act takes effect. The law will allow physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to patients who have six months or less to live. (Seipel, 5/28)

Under California's right-to-die law, which takes effect on June 9, terminally ill patients must take numerous steps before they're prescribed a lethal drug. (Krieger, 5/28)

With a seriously ill patient waiting for a new liver, the Legislature took the extraordinary action Friday of having both houses — within an hour — approve a bill that would allow HIV-positive people to donate organs to others who are HIV-positive. Gov. Jerry Brown later Friday signed the bill, which becomes effective immediately. "This is a life-saving matter that aligns California with federal law," said Deborah Hoffman, a spokeswoman for Brown. (McGreevy, 5/27)

California lawmakers approved emergency legislation Friday to allow a man with HIV to receive part of his HIV-positive husband's liver before the surgery becomes too dangerous, possibly within weeks. Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown promptly signed the bill, which takes effect immediately. The federal government recently authorized transplants of HIV-infected organs to patients who have the disease, but it remained illegal under California law and in more than a dozen other states, a leftover fear from the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s. (Cooper, 5/27)

A San Francisco surgeon seeking to perform a liver transplant between two patients infected with HIV will be able to proceed after legislators this week rushed through changes to state law. (Koseff, 5/27)

California could have its first life-saving organ transplant from an HIV-positive donor to an HIV-positive patient within a month, a San Francisco surgeon said Friday, shortly after Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill repealing a previous ban on the procedure. (Gutierrez, 5/27)

Washington’s Medicaid program must pay for expensive hepatitis C treatments like Gilead Sciences Inc.’s Harvoni ahead of a trial to determine whether the state can exclude the medicine from being covered. Two patients sued the state health authority which runs the program in February for not covering treatment for patients with hepatitis C, a progressive disease that attacks the liver, because they weren’t sick enough. (Spalding, 5/31)

A federal judge has ordered Washington state’s Medicaid provider to cover expensive hepatitis C drugs for all patients with the liver-destroying disease, not just those who are sickest. U.S. District Court Judge John C. Coughenour granted a preliminary injunction Friday that forces the state Health Care Authority (HCA) to halt a 2015 policy that restricted access to the drugs based on a fibrosis score, a measure of liver scarring. (Aleccia, 5/28)

As state officials weigh the legal, moral and economic issues for treating Medicaid beneficiaries diagnosed with a hepatitis C liver infection, Pennsylvanians can be assured of one thing: It’s going to be expensive. In a span of two years, the state Department of Human Services’ Medicaid program has seen its bill for hepatitis C drug treatment jump from $33.7 million to $138.1 million. (Twedt, 5/31)

Kansas health care providers will urge federal officials to reject Gov. Sam Brownback’s proposed Medicaid cuts and may challenge them in court. The recently announced cuts would reduce state expenditures for KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, by $56.3 million and trigger a loss of approximately $72.3 million in federal funds. Combined, the managed care organizations that administer the $3 billion KanCare program and the health care and service providers they have contracts with would be forced to absorb more than $128 million in cuts. (McLean, 5/27)

Dee Martin may wake up on Jan. 1 and find herself in a whole different state. South Carolina and North Carolina have redrawn the border between the two states with GPS technology that allows them to confirm the boundary lines established under an English king in the 18th century down to the centimeter. ... But the biggest problem may come through the homebound health care she gets for her 89-year-old husband. The provider doesn't serve North Carolina and that state's Medicaid may not pay for the service even if they change doctors and nurses. (Collins and Robertson, 5/29)

Group home workers are required by law to report all injuries and signs of abuse or neglect to a state social services agency. In Connecticut, the Department of Developmental Services is then supposed to pass on particularly alarming reports— those of severe injury or that might suggest abuse at the hands of staff— to an independent state agency called the Office of Protection and Advocacy, which employs specially trained investigators. But the federal investigation found that Connecticut’s oversight system failed at almost every level. (Sapien, 5/27)

Maine's midwives will face a new set of rules designed to make homebirth safer as a result of a bill that reflects changes to the profession around the country. ... The changes come as out-of-hospital births are increasingly popular in Maine and throughout the country. The rate of out-of-hospital births in Maine nearly doubled between 2000 and 2013; nationwide, it grew 29 percent between 2004 and 2009. The new rules emerge as midwives in many states are becoming increasingly integrated into mainstream health care, and some see state licensure as the path to further accomplish that. (Whittle, 5/29)

An outbreak of measles that began with an inmate at a federal detention center for immigrants in central Arizona has now grown to 11 confirmed cases, officials said Monday. Seven of those infected are inmates at the Eloy Detention Center, and four are workers at the facility, Pinal County Health Services spokesman Joe Pyritz said. The privately-run facility has stopped accepting new detainees or releasing those currently held there. State and county health officials said they’re working to stop new transmissions by isolating patients, vaccinating people detained in the privately-run facility and trying to identify people who were at locations the four infected workers visited. (5/30)

Arizona health officials Monday announced another case of measles — bringing the total to 11 cases — and warned of more than one dozen places in Pinal and Maricopa counties where the public may have been exposed to the disease. (Gomez, 5/30)

In a session derided for inaction and partisan squabbling, lawmakers once again came together on a bipartisan basis to approve proposals aimed at easing chronic bottlenecks in the state-funded mental health system and increasing the availability of crisis services in the community. All told, the 2016 Legislature approved about $48 million in new investments through next June — far less than sought by Gov. Mark Dayton, but still seen as a considerable victory given the Legislature’s 11th-hour failure to pass a monumental bonding bill. (Serres, 5/30)

The metro area here is booming. Once-sleepy neighborhoods are seeing real estate bidding wars. New housing developments are appearing where there once was nothing. Against that backdrop, healthcare in Phoenix is reorganizing as systems compete for patients and the doctors who refer them. (Kutscher, 5/28)

California falls significantly short of a new recommendation by an influential group of pediatricians calling for every school in the United States to have at least one nurse on site. Fifty-seven percent of California's public school districts, with 1.2 million students, do not employ nurses, according to research from Sacramento State University’s School of Nursing. The call for a nurse in every school appeared this week in a policy statement by the Illinois-based American Academy of Pediatrics. The group’s new guideline replaces its previous one, which recommended that school districts have one nurse for every 750 healthy students, and one for every 225 students who need daily assistance. (Ibarra, 5/31)

With summer at hand and higher temperatures causing blooms to occur earlier this year, the Minnesota Department of Health is advising people to be mindful of water-borne health risks. Last year, health officials investigated two cases of human illness linked to blue-green algae, state epidemiologist Stephanie Gretsch said. The agency also confirmed two reports of blue-green algae deaths in dogs in 2015 and three in 2014. (5/31)

April Reding started finding painful, walnut-sized boils on her armpits and in her groin during her teenage years, an outbreak that stressed her out and made it difficult to sleep. Dermatologists gave her confusing diagnoses and ineffective treatments as the lesions continued to grow and burst. That ended when Reding, now 34, started seeing Dr. Oma Agbai, a UC Davis dermatologist who specializes in patients with non-white skin tones. Agbai was able to identify the rare chronic condition hidradenitis suppurativa, which is found more commonly in African American women. She came up with an aggressive treatment plan that includes steroid injections and a new pill prescription called Accutane. (Caiola, 5/30)

Dallas paramedics are making plenty of house calls, but they’re not making much money for the city. Officials started the Mobile Community Healthcare program last year with the hope that that it could pay for itself using fees from hospitals that want to alleviate the burden on their emergency rooms. But records obtained by The Dallas Morning News show that the program is off to a slow start. (Hallman, 5/30)

Her 12-year-old daughter was acting out in school, so she found the girl a therapist through a center that opened earlier this year on the city's South Side. But she didn't stop there. Annette Arriaga soon realized that her daughter wasn't the only one in the family who needed help. (Kurtzman, 5/30)

Linda Rinaldi recalls facing a roomful of experts from Miami-Dade Public Schools — therapists, psychologists, a teacher and school principal. They had spent the year testing and tracking Rinaldi’s daughter, Raffaella — a preschooler with a host of disabilities. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t make eye contact. She wore diapers and was fed from a stomach tube. (Veiga, 5/31)

Obamacare's enemies are gearing up to make rising health insurance premiums a major attack point during the coming election season. One of their talking points will be a disingenuous generalization derived from the double-digit rate hikes that some insurers in some parts of the country are seeking for the individual plans they sell on the exchanges. Few people will hear or understand that those rising rates apply only to individual plans sold on the exchanges, which comprise less than 10% of covered lives with private insurance. They will look only at their own rising coinsurance, copays and deductibles in their employer-provided plans—which cover over 150 million people—and incorrectly blame Obamacare. (Merrill Goozner, 5/28)

We know all about the benefits in store for us when big hospital chains merge and bigger health insurance companies grow even bigger: Lower prices. More efficient healthcare. More innovation. Better customer service. That's what hospital and insurance companies say, anyway. But here's what the data say: Hospital and insurance mergers almost always lead to higher costs, lower efficiencies and less innovation. The reason is simple: Mergers reduce competition. (Michael Hiltzik, 5/27)

A federal district judge ruled this month, in a lawsuit brought by House Republicans, that the Obama administration lacks the authority to pay cost-sharing subsidies to health insurers if Congress has not appropriated the funds. Some civil servants in the administration may agree. The House Ways and Means Committee released a deposition Tuesday of David Fisher, former chief risk officer for the Internal Revenue Service. In it, Mr. Fisher recounts a series of events in late 2013 and early 2014 regarding the source and legality of Obamacare cost-sharing subsidies to insurers. (Chris Jacobs, 5/27)

For five issues, the Democratic position is much more popular than either the neutral or the Republican position. Those include increased taxes on high earners, legalizing abortion in cases of rape and incest, having anti-discrimination laws for sexual orientation, federally mandating that businesses offer maternity leave and increased gun control measures. For two issues, the Democratic position and the neutral position are equally popular: whether the government should try to reduce income inequality and whether global warming exists. American voters are decidedly neutral on two issues associated with Republicans: reducing Medicare costs by giving vouchers to subscribers and curtailing government regulations. (Tobias Konitzer and David Rothschild, 5/27)

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hasn’t exactly been a model of efficient health care in recent years. But its new proposal to expand the role of nurses is a good idea that should be widely copied. (5/26)

Americans expect and deserve a more efficient and effective military defense from such threats — better, at least, than what the active duty military provided during the 2014 Ebola crisis. The response then turned out to be poorly executed and too late. Now facing Zika, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says he’s interested in “newer tools.” Luckily we have a ready-made bullpen of military first responders: the National Guard. (ML Cavanaugh, 5/27)

Courtroom 1E is like a big, open confessional. “This is almost like the truth court,” said Marshall Williams, a retired Army sergeant major who decided to scrap all the platitudes he’d planned to say in that Northern Virginia courtroom last week and instead tell the truth. The truths told there in Fairfax County District Court are usually personal and embarrassing. They include the truth about dodging gunfire, watching people die, dousing the nightmares with drugs or alcohol, trying to get out of bed every day when you’re a U.S. military veteran fighting the physical and mental toll of your service. This truth court is an experiment — Fairfax’s first Veterans Treatment Court program. (Petula Dvorak, 5/30)

Women in California who don’t want to wait to get birth control prescriptions from their doctors can now purchase their pills, patches, rings and shots directly from pharmacists. The new program, which began earlier this month, has been widely hailed as a victory for women’s reproductive rights by doctors’ organizations and healthcare advocates. Yet the fanfare misses an important point: Women visiting their pharmacists won’t have access to the most reliable forms of birth control on the market because those methods, such as implantable rods or intrauterine devices (IUDs), will still require a trip to a doctor's office. (Sarah Elizabeth Richards, 5/28)

Like methadone, Suboxone prevents “dopesickness” and reduces cravings, without getting you high. It is now the gold standard for opioid addicts in medication-assisted treatment, or M.A.T. A combination of the opioid buprenorphine and the anti-overdose drug naloxone, Suboxone is supposed to give addicts a chance to get their lives together before they taper off it. But Suboxone can get you high if you inject it or snort it or take it in combination with benzodiazepines .... increasingly, law enforcement officials — and many former addicts and their families — are ... arguing that Suboxone only continues the cycle of dependence and has created a black market that fuels crime. (Beth Macy, 5/28)

Many women don’t get insurance from their employers, and, with few exceptions, women in Texas can’t apply for Medicaid coverage until they’re pregnant. So they often miss the opportunity for care, such as diabetes treatment or access to contraception, that would help them plan a healthy pregnancy. If diabetes is identified and controlled three to six months before a woman becomes pregnant, for example, she has a lower risk of birth complications. (Adriana Kohler, 5/30)

The Texas Legislature is considering a change to the state’s Medicaid program that could jeopardize access to epilepsy care by allowing insurers, not physicians, to choose what medications managed care plans would cover. Drug formulary changes, intended to cut costs, often translate into medical complications that hurt the vulnerable beneficiaries served by the Medicaid program and are more costly to the state in the long run. Research shows that access to epilepsy medications leads to greater seizure control and less hospitalizations, and savings from restrictive formularies often lead to greater spending on medical complications that outweigh the savings. (Sindi J. Rosales and Donna Stahlhut, 5/29)