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When the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace opens in two weeks, many consumers will have a new option for the law’s fourth open-enrollment period: standardized health plans that cover basic services without a deductible. With many health plans on the marketplace coming with deductibles in the thousands of dollars, consumers have complained that they were getting little benefit beyond coverage for catastrophic problems. The new standardized options are meant to address that concern — to ensure that “enrollees receive some upfront value for their premium dollars,” as the Obama administration said. (Pear, 10/17)

UnitedHealth Group Inc. boosted its full-year profit forecast, as its health insurance and consulting businesses both recorded strong results following the company’s retreat from Obamacare, announced earlier this year. Earnings for 2016, excluding some items, will be about $8 a share, up from a previous forecast of $7.80 to $7.95. Third-quarter adjusted earnings were $2.17 a share, UnitedHealth said Tuesday in a statement, beating the $2.08 average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. (Tracer, 10/18)

As Democratic challengers to Republican senators try to harness momentum from Donald Trump’s many controversies, a conservative group said it will spend big to hit them over President Obama’s own polarizing signature achievement: the Affordable Care Act. Americans for Prosperity, a group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, launched a million dollar ad campaign on Tuesday pointed at voters in eight states with competitive Senate contests, from states where the Republican is way ahead, such as Ohio, to the tightening contests in Missouri and Indiana. (Yokley, 10/17)

Marilyn Tavenner, the face of private insurers, does not think Affordable Care Act exchanges are about to implode. But she does think Congress will have to make some tough decisions relatively soon about how much to buffer insurers from risk. “I do not think the exchanges are in a death spiral. I do think they’re unstable, and we have a responsibility to stabilize them,” said Tavenner, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, in an interview with Morning Consult. “That’s on all of us.” (Owens, 10/17)

Health insurance brokers are one of many industries that help both individuals and small businesses navigate the complex health insurance maze. Their services have been highlighted as key to helping  uninsured Americans get enrolled following the Affordable Care Act rollout.  The number of people employed to help insurance shoppers to shop has been steadily increasing, with just over one million agents, brokers and related service employees logged in 2014, according to The Statistics Portal. Nearly 260,000 worked in Texas. Brokers typically get paid by commission from health insurers when they  enroll someone into a plan. However, they say it’s been harder to do business, and not just because of the delay in getting access to plan information. (Rice, 10/17)

The sticker price for individual health plans sold on Michigan's Affordable Care Act exchange will jump 16.7% next year under new rates announced Monday by state officials. The rates will be in effect Nov. 1, when open enrollment starts again on Healthcare.gov. The double-digit increases will mean a financial hit for taxpayers in general, as well as some of the 393,322 Michiganders who currently buy individual health insurance on or off the government-run exchange. (Reindl, 10/17)

Because of market turmoil and decisions by United Healthcare and Aetna to withdraw from Affordable Care Act exchanges in Pennsylvania for 2017, the remaining insurer in the Philadelphia area, Independence Blue Cross, has been granted a bigger rate increase -- 28 percent -- than it requested in the spring, the state Insurance Department said Monday. Insurance Commissioner Teresa Miller said additional companies beyond United and Aetna were considering ending their ACA individual-exchange businesses in Pennsylvania. If that happened, some counties might have been left without any offerings on the exchange, which is where individuals have to buy plans to qualify for federal subsidies. (Brubaker, 10/17)

Some health insurers say they’re paying too much to rival Blue Cross Blue Shield plans under a key pillar of the federal health law designed to compensate insurers that take on sicker and more expensive patients. The critics’ chief complaint is that the Affordable Care Act’s risk-adjustment program unfairly rewards health plans — including Blue Shield of California — that have excess administrative costs and higher premiums. That comes at the expense of more efficient, lower-priced plans in the individual market, they say. (Terhune, 10/18)

Liquid biopsies. A “groundbreaking” Defense Department study. Partnerships with Lyft and Uber for patient transportation. The White House’s cancer moonshot, the future of which Vice President Joe Biden outlined in a new report on Monday, has a lot of moving parts. The report details nearly 20 projects that are already underway or soon will be in the moonshot’s first year and another two dozen planned for its second year and beyond. Major themes include harnessing big data, sharing research among scientists, and expanding preventive measures like the HPV vaccine and colorectal cancer screening. (Scott, 10/17)

Vice President Joe Biden delivered his final report Monday on the “Cancer Moonshoot,” reiterating how the U.S. is at an “inflection point” in the fight against cancer. He cited reasons to be hopeful, even as he acknowledged challenges ahead in the drive to achieve a decade of progress on fighting cancer in five years. President Barack Obama launched the Cancer Moonshot in January and tasked Biden with overseeing the initiative to double the pace of cancer research. Monday's report laid out a strategy to do so, organized into five strategic goals: catalyzing scientific breakthroughs, maximizing the power of data, bringing new therapies to patients more rapidly, improving prevention and diagnosis, and enhancing access and care for patients. (Whitman, 10/17)

Vice President Biden on Monday hinted that GOP leaders in Congress have already agreed to “significant increases” in cancer research funding later this year.“ Congress is stepping up. Trust me,” Biden told some of the nation’s leading cancer researchers at an event at the White House. Biden, who lost his oldest son to brain cancer last year, has led the Obama administration’s initiative known as the “cancer moonshot” since January. (Ferris, 10/17)

The report highlights more than a dozen ongoing and future initiatives that have been launched as part of the effort, which was first announced by President Obama during his January State of the Union address. Biden has said he hopes to make a decade’s worth of progress on cancer research in half that time. “Funding and resource limitations are an ongoing challenge,” the report says. “Nonetheless, the vision is to improve existing programs so that they work optimally, efficiently, and with a broader perspective on their opportunities to improve health care quality and the health of people with and at risk of cancer.” (McIntire, 10/17)

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. released on Monday a federal report on the cancer moonshot initiative that highlights goals to accelerate the development of cures, including more widespread sharing of data and faster research and approval timelines for new treatments. ... The program has yet to receive any federally appropriated money. Neither of the pertinent spending bills for next year that the Senate and House Appropriations committees approved included funding directly for the moonshot initiative. Both, however, did increase funds for the National Cancer Institute and the NIH more broadly. (Williams, 10/17)

Psychiatric patients wait disproportionately longer in emergency departments before receiving treatment and experience longer stays compared to other medical patients, according to reports released Monday by the American College of Emergency Physicians. The three separate studies examined how emergency rooms care for patients with psychiatric conditions compared to other patients by looking at ER wait times and length of stay. (Castellucci, 10/17)

On any given day, pediatrician Lindsay Irvin estimates a quarter of her patients need psychiatric help. She sees teens who say they are suicidal, and elementary school children who suffer chest pains stemming from bullying anxiety. Though she does her best, she doesn’t consider herself qualified to treat them at the level they need at her practice in San Antonio. She doesn’t have the training, she said, to figure which medications are best suited to treat their various mental health conditions. And she doesn’t have time. She’s juggling stomach ailments, vaccinations and ear aches. (Luthra, 10/17)

A group representing emergency physicians said Monday that hospital emergency departments routinely are clogged with patients who are waiting, sometimes for days, for inpatient psychiatric care. The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) bolstered its case with data from a poll of more than 1,700 emergency physicians as well as research presented at its annual meeting this week in Las Vegas. (Burling, 10/18)

A new study published this week by the Brookings Institution notes that being diligent about determining that the hospital and doctors performing the procedures participate in their insurance plans may not be enough. People can still be hit with thousands of dollars’ worth of additional “surprise medical bills” – sometimes ten to 20 times what they expected to pay. (Pianin, 10/17)

Adults who skipped vaccines in 2015 cost the economy $8.95 billion, demonstrating the importance of personal responsibility in bringing down health care costs. The mostly costly preventable disease was the flu, which cost the country $5.79 billion. Researchers took a look at ten optional vaccines for adults that prevent 14 different diseases, according to the peer-reviewed study published in Health Affairs. They sought to aggregate the direct costs and lost productivity. (Tomlinson, 10/14)

PepsiCo Inc. is doubling down on its health push, announcing new targets Monday to reduce sugar, salt and fat in its beverages and snacks by 2025. The new goals by the maker of Lay’s potato chips, Gatorade sports drinks and Quaker oatmeal coincide with global concerns about rising obesity, including growing calls in many countries to tax or curb sugar consumption. (Esterl, 10/17)

PepsiCo says its going to lessen the sugar in its sugary drinks. PepsiCo chief executive Indra Nooyi said Monday that at least two-thirds of the company’s beverages will contain 100 calories or less per 12-ounce serving by 2025. Nooyi said the beverage giant will focus on selling more low- or zero-calorie products. Advances in technology and artificial sweeteners are creating soft drinks that better duplicate the taste of sugary drinks but with fewer calories. (Heath, 10/17)

TB remains rare in the US: there are just three cases per 100,000 people. And the increase in 2015 is proportional to population growth. Still, experts are worried. The last time we saw such an uptick in the raw number of annual cases was in 1992, the worst year of a TB resurgence linked to big cuts in public health budgets and the spread of HIV, which destroys immune systems. Each case of TB creates a monumental amount of work. Public health officials have to track down and test everyone who may have been exposed. They also have to monitor each patient to make sure they’re swallowing their daily handful of toxic pills. If the patients don’t complete treatment, the bacteria that cause TB could become drug-resistant. But some experts worry that the public health infrastructure can no longer handle the caseload. (Boodman, 10/18)

Calcium supplements that many women take to boost bone health increase their risk for heart disease, a new study has found. The results show that calcium supplements make people more prone to plaque buildup in arteries, which contributes to the risk of a heart attack. The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, is the latest salvo in a nearly decade-long debate about whether the supplements do more harm than good. (McDaniels, 10/17)

Some people with auto­immune diseases also suffer from depression, mood disorders and cognitive impairment. This happens when certain autoantibodies cross the blood-brain barrier, the body’s natural blocking mechanism for protecting the brain, and attach themselves to specific receptors on brain chemicals that carry information between brain cells. (Cimons, 10/17)

“Twenty-five years ago, a woman with lupus probably would not have considered having kids, because she simply couldn’t physically take care of them” because of crushing fatigue that often is part of the disease, says Eliza Chakravarty, a rheumatologist at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. “But today, for many of these women, it’s not only feasible to have kids, but desirable.” Earlier diagnosis and medications now enable women with lupus to slow down the progression of their disease and treat many of the symptoms, enabling them to “live more fully in their lives,” she says. (Cimons, 10/17)

As anyone who’s tried to befriend a baby knows, the very young are a tough crowd. In response to your solicitous babble, a baby might lock eyes with you. Just as likely, though, she’ll stare insistently into an empty distance, spit up, or dispatch you with a wail of protest. New research suggests that babies are highly selective — discriminating even — in whom they will pay attention to. And even before their first birthdays, this research shows, babies distinguish between “people like me” and all others. (Healy, 10/17)

As of this week, all Perdue Farms chicken products in Chicago will be sold under the claim "No Antibiotics Ever," a subtle shift in the grocery store that represents a harbinger of large-scale change coming to the chicken industry. The announcement — also relevant to markets in Denver, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Milwaukee — is another step in Maryland-based Perdue's yearslong quest to rid its birds of antibiotics, a process that's ruffled some feathers along the way. For decades, antibiotics have been used in the industry to stave off sickness and fatten up birds. But such use on animals can render humans more vulnerable to bacteria, health experts have warned. (Trotter, 10/17)

In the United States, the number of people contracting the flu virus, or influenza, typically begins to rise in October. The contagious respiratory illness spreads mainly by droplets made when people with the virus cough, sneeze or talk. So far, only localized flu outbreaks in the United States have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Texas, the CDC's online Weekly Influenza Summary Update indicates only sporadic instances. Flu activity is low in the Bay Area, Pasadena and Pearland/Friendswood region, say local health experts. (Jones, 10/17)

Governor Charlie Baker on Monday threw his support behind a $1 billion expansion by Boston Children’s Hospital, a project that has sparked heated opposition over its potential to increase Massachusetts health care costs. Also Monday, the hospital got the backing of the head of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state’s largest health insurer, and the former chairman of Partners HealthCare, Jack Connors. A state watchdog agency, the Health Policy Commission, last month warned that the proposal is likely to increase medical spending by attracting patients from lower-priced competitors and could leave those hospitals financially weakened. (Dayal McCluskey, 10/17)

A political advocacy group for physicians has filed a lawsuit against a new California law designed to protect consumers from unexpected out-of-network medical bills. The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, in the lawsuit filed late last week in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento, asked the court to block the law. (Colliver, 10/17)

Southcoast Health System of New Bedford and Care New England Health System of Providence have abandoned their merger plans. If the deal had been completed, they would have created a system of eight hospitals, more than 15,000 employees, and more than $2 billion in annual revenues across two states. In a statement Monday, the organizations did not explain their decision to end talks. They have been formally negotiating a deal for almost a year, and in May, both health systems said they were committed to continuing negotiations and were prepared to name Southcoast’s chief executive, Keith A. Hovan, as the head of the new combined organization. (Dayal McCluskey, 10/17)

The D.C. Council is poised to approve legislation making the District the nation’s sixth jurisdiction to allow doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill residents, adding momentum to a practice that had long been controversial but is gaining acceptance among elected leaders, the medical community and the public. A majority of D.C. Council members say they plan to vote for the bill when it comes before them Tuesday. (Nirappil, 10/17)

Penn State Hershey (Pa.) Medical Center and PinnacleHealth System said Friday they are abandoning their proposed merger in the wake of renewed regulatory opposition from the Federal Trade Commission. Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit revived the FTC's antitrust challenge to the proposed hospital merger, paving the way for an administrative trial probing into the alleged anti-competitive effects of the deal. Rather than endure a long, costly battle with regulators, the central Pennsylvania health systems terminated their agreement. (Teichert, 10/17)

As part of a debt-reduction campaign, Community Health Systems has agreed to sell an 80% stake in its home health division for $128 million to a subsidiary of Louisville, Ky.-based Almost Family. The deal, announced Monday, is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter. Almost Family is buying 74 home health and 15 hospice branch locations in 22 states from CHS. The CHS home health division has annual revenue of about $200 million. (Barkholz, 10/17)

Earlier this year, Dr. Joaquin Arambula, an emergency room physician from Selma, became the first Latino physician to serve in the State Assembly after being elected to represent the state’s 31st District — a central California agricultural region where the population is nearly 70 percent Latino. Arambula said he ran for office partly because of the rapidly growing influx of Spanish-speaking patients in his emergency department. He sought reinforcements, “but there aren’t enough doctors with the cultural competency and understanding of the Latino community” to serve this growing population, Arambula said. (Ibarra, 10/18)

Veritas Genetics, a two-year-old startup that offers whole genome sequencing to consumers for under $1,000, said Monday it raised $30 million from a trio of investors. The Danvers-based company was founded by Harvard Medical School genetics professor George Church, and last year gathered $12 million from Lilly Asia Ventures, a Shanghai-based affiliate of US drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. that is a leading biomedical investor. (Weisman, 10/17)

Nine months after Osawatomie State Hospital lost its federal payments, all rooms are back online following renovations and the state is looking at partnerships to address some of its long-term struggles. The state hospital — one of two in Kansas for patients with severe mental health issues — has shown progress on several problems that led to the loss of Medicare payments, though it isn’t clear when it could receive federal payments again. Inspectors have to make two separate visits to check renovations before the 60 beds are cleared for payments. In the meantime, the hospital can treat patients in those beds, but the state has to come up with the funds. (Wingerter, 10/17)

Elliot Health System and Minuteman Health failed to reach contract terms for payments, meaning that up to 770 people with Minuteman Health insurance could face higher costs for care from Elliot providers starting in January. As of Jan. 1, 2017, “Minuteman Health insured patients seeking care from Elliot providers will see billing changes that will impact patient responsibilities,” Susanna Fier, Elliot vice president of public affairs and marketing, said Monday. (Cousineau, 10/17)

The Florida Department of Health in Orange County is working on a new way to help the Hispanic community. The Florida Department of Health is working on its first Hispanic Health Assessment with hopes to collect more data about the community’s health indicators, such as chronic diseases and food security. (10/17)

There’s no question that hospice has helped millions of terminally ill people be as comfortable as possible so they can focus on living their last days with family. But as the number of patients and providers and the amount of taxpayer money spent on hospice care has grown steadily in recent years, government agencies and advocates have been sounding the alarm about the potential for fraud. Several reports by the Office of Inspector General, including one released last month, found that some hospice providers, doctors and staff members have aggressively recruited patients, including some who don’t qualify for services. (Pyle, 10/17)

Five new officers will be hired to patrol the Golden Gate Bridge specifically to look for people who are suicidal. Between 2000 and 2005, bridge officers were able to stop an average of 52 people a year from jumping from the span. Between 2006 and 2010, the number increased to an average of 73 a year. (Prado, 10/17)

Expanded legalization of marijuana could create a vast cannabis industry in the Sacramento region, accounting for an annual economic output ranging from hundreds of millions to potentially more than $4 billion if local governments endorse widespread marijuana production, according to a University of the Pacific study. The analysis, prepared by researchers for the university’s Center for Business and Policy Research, Eberhardt School of Business and McGeorge School of Law, was commissioned by a cannabis industry investment group co-founded by Daniel Conway, a former top aide to Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. The study comes as California voters are contemplating Proposition 64, an initiative to legalize adult use and sales of recreational marijuana, and as Sacramento city officials are drafting regulations to govern commercial marijuana cultivations, pot deliveries and other local cannabis businesses. (Hecht, 10/17)

In claiming earlier this year that the current U.S. health-care system “was HillaryCare before it was called ObamaCare,” Hillary Clinton was telling the truth—but not the whole truth. In 1993, while first lady, Mrs. Clinton led a task force to deliver universal health care to the voters who elected her husband. She failed. After many revisions, the final bill stalled in the Senate for lack of Democratic votes. (Phil Gramm, 10/17)

You probably chafe a bit every time you learn that a certain doctor or hospital isn’t part of your insurance network. Narrowing the scope of your network helps insurers save money. They can drive hard bargains with doctors and hospitals to get lower prices and walk away from higher-priced ones. Increasingly, insurers are offering narrow network plans. Would you enroll in one? So long as quality doesn’t suffer, consumers should welcome the lower premiums they may offer. (Austin Frakt, 10/17)

The Affordable Care Act has lived down to critics’ low expectations and dire warnings, but it also has extended medical-insurance coverage to 20 million previously uninsured Americans. And it has created expectations, for which there likely can be no retreat. Children can stay on their parents’ plan until age 26. Insurers cannot deny coverage because of a pre-existing condition. And the expansion of Medicaid — pushed through in Ohio by Gov. John Kasich as a compassionate measure and to lower state costs bloated by the uninsured — has been a success. In fact, much off the heavy lifting of the ACA expansion appears to have come via Medicaid. But concerns about the act’s flaws no longer can be dismissed as partisan obstructionism. (10/18)

Being dead hasn’t stopped Martin Siegel from being a solid insurance prospect. Siegel, who died in 2002, would have turned 65 this year. As such, he’s received solicitations from UnitedHealthcare, Kaiser Permanente and other insurers trying to sign him up for Medicare Advantage plans. “It’s just about every insurance company you can think of,” said Geri Siegel, his widow. ... “How could something like this happen?” The answer to that question leads us into the murky world of “big data,” in which people’s personal information is bought, sold and shared by public and private entities. (David Lazarus, 10/18)

Next month brings open enrollment for company health plans. The cost of covering you and your family will go up 5.5 percent to 6 percent, according to surveys from Mercer and the National Business Group on Health. A 5.5 percent increase would be more than five times general inflation. It is more than twice the rise in hourly earnings. But don’t expect your employer to pay the full 5.5 percent or 6 percent. Employers will see their own costs rise just 4 percent, according to Mercer, the big benefits consulting firm. (Jim Gallagher, 10/17)

Among the many questionable tactics Mylan Pharmaceuticals has pursued to boost EpiPen sales has been a surreptitious lobbying campaign to have its device added to a coveted list of preventive services that is maintained by the federal government. Here’s why this matters: If Mylan succeeds in getting EpiPen on that list, consumers would not have to make copayments, leaving insurers or government agencies to pick up that cost. That sounds like a good deal for patients. But by taking their wallets out of the equation, Mylan minimizes the chance of a public backlash to its pricing. (Ed Silverman, 10/18)

There are lots of reasons for the nation's rising prescription drug spending, which increased 6.3% from August 2015 to August 2016, according to the Altarum Institute. But you wouldn't think one of them would be that the federal government is actively encouraging drug companies to slap higher price tags on old, cheap products. But that's exactly what's happening. (Harris Meyer, 10/17)

If the ailment doesn’t kill you, the price of the drug treatment sometimes seems designed to finish the job. First came heart-stopping stories of price gouging for EpiPens. Then came a scandal behind pricing for anti-parasite pills. Now comes a bid to exploit increased demand for a drug to treat lead poisoning. Have these companies no shame? (10/16)

California’s state government spends about $4 billion a year on prescription drugs – for low-income people in the Medi-Cal program, as well as state employees, retirees and prison inmates. Shouldn’t taxpayers be getting the best deal possible for their money? That’s the simple question presented by Proposition 61 on the Nov. 8 ballot. (Daniel Weintraub, 10/17)

For me, the saddest part of the 2016 presidential election is not that we have two of the most disliked presidential candidates in history but that so little attention is being paid to health care. You may have noticed that health care rarely comes up in campaign speeches or in debates, and when it does it’s often scripted empty promises. Donald Trump has a plan entitled “Healthcare Reform to Make America Great Again.” Hillary Clinton talks about having fought for health care her entire career. It’s unclear if either of them — or indeed any candidate — can make a meaningful change. (Manoj Jain, 10/17)

This obituary came to mind on Thursday when federal officials announced that hundreds of thousands of patients who underwent heart surgery in the United States over the last several years could be at risk of a deadly bacterial infection. The bacteria is linked to a common device used to keep a patient’s organs and blood at specific temperatures during surgery. In the past year, five of the 28 cases identified nationally were reported by Iowa hospitals. (10/17)

Boston Children’s seeks to modernize its operations to provide better care, in more comfortable surroundings, to the most critically ill children from Massachusetts, the broader New England region, and around the world. ... Hospitals around New England and beyond are referring their most challenging pediatric cases to the talented professionals at Boston Children’s Hospital. These clinicians have dedicated their lives to caring for children with the most complex medical needs. We need to come together and give them our support. (Jack Connors Jr., 10/18)

Having just hosted the latest of a decades-long string of presidential debates, St. Louis is rightfully proud of serving as a setting for vital national conversations. On Oct. 20, the Gateway City will be the site of another gathering that could also prove historically consequential — but in a way that should concern the millions of Americans with serious medical conditions. (Jonathan Wilcox, 10/17)

To help fight a nationwide epidemic in the abuse of addictive painkillers, Jackson County on Monday took the first step toward setting up a computerized system to monitor the sale of certain prescription drugs. The county Legislature unanimously approved the ordinance authorizing its prescription drug monitoring plan but set no date for when it will be up and running. The program is estimated to cost $150,000 or less and would use software now being used by some of the 49 states with statewide monitoring programs. Missouri is the only state without one. (Mike Hendricks, 10/17)

The 2,742 study participants, aged 45-84, were part of a larger Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis. Study participants completed records on dietary habits and supplement use. They had a cardiac CT scan, which measures coronary artery calcium, a marker for heart disease risk. Calcium from food, no matter how high the intake, was not associated with increased risk of calcium plaque buildup. In fact, food is protective. (Sheah Rarback, 10/17)

The main challenge to realizing this vision is determining how best to address the complexity of making all the moving parts work together in tractable ways. In creating a Culture of Health, we need to be able to know, in a timely fashion, what works and what does not work to improve health, why a given strategy succeeded or failed, and what changes are necessary to make meaningful progress. (Yan Li and José Pagán, 10/17)