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U.S. antitrust officials are poised to file lawsuits to block Anthem Inc.’s takeover of rival health-insurer Cigna Corp. and Aetna Inc.’s deal to buy Humana Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter. Justice Department officials, who are responsible for protecting competition, are concerned that the deals, which would transform the health-insurance industry by turning its five biggest companies into three, would harm customers, according to several people familiar with the situation. (McLaughlin, 7/19)

Antitrust lawsuits against the planned mergers would be the culmination of concerns the Justice Department has had about the deals from the outset. During a yearlong review of the mergers, the department’s skepticism hasn’t subsided, people familiar with the matter said. (Kendall and Wilde Mathews, 7/19)

The proposed mergers would greatly reshape the health insurance landscape. The combination of Anthem with Cigna would create a powerful presence in the market to offer insurance administration to large employers. And Aetna’s combination with Humana threatened to further consolidate the market for private Medicare plans. (Picker and Abelson, 7/19)

Those involved in the deals have argued that the mergers would benefit consumers and shareholders, giving the companies more clout to drive better deals with hospitals and physician groups. But politicians, state regulators and the American Medical Association have raised questions about whether the deals would reduce competition and drive up costs for patients. (Merle and Johnson, 7/19)

In the event of a lawsuit, a federal judge would decide whether the mergers must be killed under antitrust provisions — and although there's no guarantee the Justice Department will prevail, corporations often choose to give up instead of waging an uncertain, lengthy and costly fight against the government. (Bomey, 7/19)

A decision whether to file the suits could come as early as this week, and the companies could fight in court or agree to settle, the reports said. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. Shares of the four companies fell 2% to 4% on Tuesday. (Puzzanghera, 7/19)

Antitrust observers and financial analysts have increasingly viewed the Anthem-Cigna deal as more difficult to complete because it would create a highly concentrated market for employer coverage. It's also unclear how Anthem would resolve issues with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. [Analyst Ira] Gorsky believes Aetna's transaction with Humana is more likely to withstand federal pushback, as long as the insurer can prove selling some Medicare Advantage assets to another buyer appeases anti-competitive concerns. (Herman, 7/19)

Leerink Partners analyst Ana Gupte said in a research note that she expects the companies to fight the Department of Justice, but that Anthem's and Cigna's chances of success were slim. Indeed, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters earlier this month that Aetna was prepared to fight the Justice Department. (Humer, 7/19)

A report that the U.S. Department of Justice is readying legal challenges to sweeping insurance industry acquisitions involving Aetna and Cigna sparked a strong reaction from Wall Street and little comment from the companies involved. The report ... sent shares tumbling as investors speculated whether federal regulators would block the proposed $54 billion purchase of Cigna by Anthem and the proposed $37 billion acquisition of Humana by Aetna. (Singer and Blair, 7/19)

UnitedHealth Group Inc. on Tuesday posted a strong earnings beat as revenue continued to surge in its pharmacy-services business, and the biggest U.S. health insurer lifted the low end of its profit guidance for the year. (Wilde Mathews and Steele, 7/19)

UnitedHealth’s second-quarter earnings jumped 11 percent to beat investor expectations even though the nation’s largest health insurer took a bigger hit than expected from coverage linked to the Affordable Care Act. (Murphy, 7/19)

The nation’s largest insurer performed better than expected over the last quarter, with a 28 percent increase in profits compared to the same time last year. UnitedHealth Group, which released its latest earnings report Tuesday, beat expectations on Wall Street even as the company continues to flounder in the ObamaCare marketplace. (Ferris, 7/19)

Government-run health insurance exchanges became an even bigger source of financial losses during the second quarter at Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group. The nation's largest health insurer said Tuesday that it saw higher medical costs once again on the exchange marketplaces, and increased projected losses for the year by $200 million. (Snowbeck, 7/19)

Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday raised its guidance for the year again as the health-care giant topped expectations in the latest quarter, helped by growth in its pharmaceutical business. (Steele and Rockoff, 7/19)

Intuitive Surgical Inc., a maker of robotic systems that enable minimally-invasive surgery, easily topped second-quarter expectations, thanks to solid demand in the U.S. for its systems. (Beilfuss, 7/19)

California’s Obamacare premiums will jump 13.2 percent on average next year, a sharp increase that is likely to reverberate nationwide in an election year. The Covered California exchange had won plaudits by negotiating 4 percent average rate increases in its first two years. But that feat couldn’t be repeated for 2017, as overall medical costs continue to climb and two federal programs that help insurers with expensive claims are set to expire this year. (Terhune and Bartolone, 7/19)

The average rate hike doesn’t tell the full story for individual consumers. Health plan prices vary across the state, and within regions. How much you’ll pay depends on a variety of factors: where you live, how much money you make, what level of coverage you want and which insurer you choose. Keep in mind that these premium increases affect only a fraction of insured Californians — not the majority, who get their coverage through work or a government program such as Medicare or Medi-Cal. (Bazar, 7/19)

The big hikes come after two years in which California officials had boasted that the program helped insure hundreds of thousands people in the state while keeping costs moderately in check. ... On Tuesday, officials blamed next year’s premium hikes in the program that insures 1.4 million Californians on rising costs of medical care, including expensive specialty drugs and the end of a mechanism that held down rates for the first three years of Obamacare. (Petersen and Levey, 7/19)

Peter Lee, the agency’s executive director, cited several factors as drivers in this year’s spike. Most notable is an expiring federal “reinsurance” program, created as part of the Affordable Care Act, to spread the risk of so many newly insured people entering the risk pool. Actuarial experts estimate that alone adds 4 to 7 percent to premiums, but it’s viewed as a one-time effect.Rising health care costs, including specialty prescription drugs, are also a factor. (Dembosky and Aliferis, 7/19)

"We've known for a long time that 2017 would be a transition year,'' said Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, the state's health exchange. "We are seeing that happening." (Seipel, 7/19)

Some consumers who choose to keep their plan will see a significant increase in their premium for 2017, while others will see a more modest increase, depending on where they live and what insurance plan they have. Consumers will begin receiving notices in October, when they will have an opportunity to review their new rates and change plans for their 2017 health coverage. (7/19)

For a 40-year-old Sacramento resident earning up to $23,760 a year, the monthly premium under the most popular silver-level plan after a federal subsidy would rise from $119 to $138. Those who switch plans, Lee said, could actually pay less than last year or only up to 5 percent more. Lee noted that 90 percent of Covered California enrollees will still be eligible for federal subsidies to help cover their premium costs. Currently, about 1.4 million individuals have Covered California policies. (Buck, 7/19)

For Sacramento's Karri Grant, who's battling cancer for the second time, the increase comes as a surprise and shock. "That's a pretty big hike, and it feels a little bit to me like a bait and switch with this program," Grant said. (Heise, 7/19)

Voters' decisions in this fall's gubernatorial elections could determine Medicaid expansion in three key states. Of the 19 states that haven't expanded the program, three—Missouri, North Carolina and Utah—will elect a governor in 2016. (Alder, 7/19)

Up to 5 million more Americans would have health insurance coverage if the 19 states that have not expanded Medicaid were to do so in 2017, a new study says. Among those states, Georgia would see the third-largest drop in uninsured people under Medicaid expansion, a figure of 509,000, according to the Urban Institute study, released Tuesday. Georgia’s decline in uninsured would rank behind Texas (1.2 million) and Florida (877,000), both of which have considerably larger overall populations than the Peach State. (Miller, 7/19)

State and federal officials have negotiated a deal to delay a federal policy that threatened to destabilize health insurance rates at small businesses across Massachusetts. Governor Charlie Baker’s administration said Tuesday that the agreement will postpone for one year a piece of the Affordable Care Act that requires a change in the way small businesses’ insurance rates are calculated. Massachusetts will have to phase out its current rules and switch to the federal formula by 2019. (McCluskey, 7/19)

A provision of the Affordable Care Act that allows insurers to charge smokers higher premiums may have discouraged smokers from signing up for insurance, undercutting a major goal of the law, according to a study published this month. The surcharges, of up to 50 percent over nonsmokers' premiums, also showed no sign of encouraging people to quit. (Johnson, 7/19)

Land of Lincoln Health's insurance coverage for its individual enrollees will end Oct. 1, according to the Illinois Department of Insurance. The agency posted the news on Land of Lincoln's website. A green banner now greets visitors to the website with the headline, "Important notice to all members" with a link taking them to information about the Chicago-based insurer's impending shutdown. (Sachdev, 7/19)

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson used part of his speech Tuesday night at the Republican convention to bash Hillary Clinton over health care — without mentioning the way he has earned scorn from conservatives by the way he has implemented Obamacare in his own state. (Temple-West, 7/19)

Speaking at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Donald Trump Jr. touted his father, the newly anointed GOP presidential nominee, as someone who would be able to do a better job on health care than his rival, Hillary Clinton. He said his father would be "a president who will repeal and replace Obamacare without leaving our most vulnerable citizens without health care, and who will do it without destroying Medicare for seniors, as Hillary Clinton has proposed." ... Clinton is certainly not proposing that in a literal sense, and experts we contacted agreed that her actual policy proposals -- especially making Medicare an option for those between 55 and 65 -- were ambitious but were hardly a dagger at the heart of the program. We rate the claim False. (Jacobson, 7/19)

A top GOP chairman on Tuesday shot down one of Donald Trump’s most high-profile healthcare pitches: allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. When asked at a healthcare panel at the Republican National Convention if he would back Trump's proposal, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) flatly said, "No," prompting laugher in the room. (Ferris, 7/19)

The Republican Party platform released Monday at the 2016 convention is strongly conservative on social issues related to healthcare and contains little in the way of new ideas. The platform calls for a halt to the Affordable Care Act, shifting Medicare to a premium support model and turning Medicaid into a capped state block grant program. (Muchmore, 7/19)

The Republican party’s 2016 platform, unveiled Monday, echoes many of the proposals included in the health care plan House Republicans laid out last month. The platform calls for the full repeal of the Affordable Care Act and for state control of insurance markets. It backs selling insurance across state lines and states that insurance should be more portable so that consumers can move from job to job with the same policy. (McIntire, 7/19)

A terrifying word circulated Tuesday at the Republican National Convention: norovirus. A dozen staffers in the California delegation who had arrived in Cleveland early have fallen ill with the extremely contagious virus, California GOP chairman Jim Brulte said. (Achenbach, Izadi and O'Keefe, 7/19)

The first signs of illness, thought to be norovirus, the highly contagious intestinal illness, appeared on Thursday night, just after the staff members arrived in the Cleveland area. By early Monday, symptoms had sufficiently spread among the group to notify the Erie County Health Department. (Purdy, 7/19)

A handful of Republican staff members in Cleveland for the GOP convention were reported to be suffering Tuesday from a possible norovirus infection. And if there are a few people with norovirus, it’s likely there will be more. As many as 11 members of the California delegation’s advance team are showing symptoms that are consistent with the norovirus, according to Peter Schade, the Erie County health commissioner, who is investigating the outbreak. They are staying at a hotel in Sandusky, Ohio, about an hour from Cleveland. (Branswell and Kaplan, 7/19)

Eleven Californians -- who arrived for planning meetings in Cleveland ahead of the Republican National Convention and are now staying at Kalahari resort -- contracted a disease resembling norovirus, Erie County health officials said Tuesday. The infected individuals were not delegates, but rather a group that planned activities and provided logistical support in Cleveland last week, Erie County Health Commissioner Pete Schade said. (Cooley, 7/19)

A dozen California Republican staff members and volunteers staying at the delegation’s hotel an hour outside Cleveland for the national convention have come down with norovirus, the highly contagious bug that inflames the stomach and intestines and causes diarrhea and vomiting. Cynthia Bryant, executive director of the state GOP, wrote in an email early Tuesday that officials are taking the necessary steps to care for the health of their staff and the more than 550 members of the delegation and their guests. Party support staff arrived last week ahead of the guests, so there’s concern about the virus spreading quickly in the closed environment. (Cadelago, 7/19)

RNC delegates should wash their hands with soap and water to keep any worries of norovirus at bay, doctors say. The highly contagious stomach bug – which members of California's delegation have symptoms of – may be resistant to hand sanitizer. ... Eleven Californians, who arrived for planning meetings ahead of the Republican National Convention and are now staying at Kalahari resort in Sandusky, showed signs of illness on Thursday, the Erie County health commissioner said. (Cooley, 7/19)

The Florida health department said late Tuesday that it is investigating what could be the first case of locally spread Zika virus in the continental United States. In a brief statement, the department said it is "actively conducting an epidemiological investigation" of a non-travel-related case in Miami-Dade County in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Sun, 7/19)

It would be the first time the Zika virus had been transmitted locally by mosquitoes in the United States. There are about 1,300 cases of Zika in the continental United States; nearly all were contracted by a mosquito bite abroad or through sex with someone who had become infected in another country. (Tavernise, 7/19)

Florida’s announcement comes one day after Utah health officials disclosed that they are trying to determine how a family member of a man who had been infected with Zika got the disease himself. The family member—identified as the man’s son, according to people familiar with the matter—didn’t travel to an area where Zika was circulating, nor have sexual contact with an infected person. He did care for his acutely ill father, however. (McKay, 7/19)

So far, Florida has reported more than more than 320 cases of the Zika virus. But all of the patients diagnosed have been infected while traveling abroad, in areas where Zika is more prevalent. (Ochoa, 7/19)

Most experts believe that any local spread of the virus will be contained, nothing like the wide spread that has been seen in Latin America and the Caribbean. Related viruses also spread by Aedes mosquitoes, including dengue and chikungunya, have had limited impact in the US, with just a few reported cases of local transmission of those viruses in Florida and South Texas. (Joseph, 7/19)

Three new cases of travel-related Zika have been confirmed in Orange County, according to the Florida Department of Health's daily report on Tuesday. Since early February, when the state health department began reporting Zika infections, Orange County has had 33 travel-related cases. Osceola has had 15 cases, Seminole nine cases, and Lake County one case. (Miller, 7/19)

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell used his Republican convention speech Tuesday night as a platform to blame the Democrats for the Senate’s failure to approve emergency funds to fight the Zika virus. Never mind that the Republicans control the Senate, and that they failed — twice — to work out a funding bill with broad enough support to pass the chamber. In McConnell’s telling, it was the Democrats who prevented the $1.1 billion bill from passing before Congress left for a seven-week recess, so any public health consequences will be their responsibility. (Nather, 7/19)

After three large, nasty funding fights, Congress left for a seven-week recess without giving a cent in emergency appropriations to address the Zika virus, the nation’s opioid epidemic, or the Flint water crisis. The jury is out on whether this is normal. Some observers say this is the new normal, a result of Republican infighting or, alternatively, Democrats’ self-perceived desire to score political points by picking a funding fight. Others say it’s always been this way. By definition, emergency funding isn’t that common. If there’s anything easy to agree on, it’s that public health dollars have taken up an abnormal amount of Congress’s time since the beginning of the calendar year. (Owens, 7/19)

On the cancer moonshot announced this year by President Obama [James Watson told Stat]: The depressing thing about the “cancer moonshot” is that it’s the same old people getting together, forming committees, and the same old ideas, and it’s all crap . . . On the prospects of curing cancer: Everyone wants to sequence DNA [to treat cancer], but I don’t think that will help you cure late-stage cancer, because the mutations in metastatic cancer are not the same as those that started the cancer. I was pessimistic about curing cancer when gene-targeted drugs began to fail, but now I’m optimistic. (Begley, 7/20)

Women undergoing in vitro fertilization have long worried that the procedure could raise their risk for breast cancer. ... But the largest, most comprehensive study to date, published Tuesday, provides further reassurance: It finds no increased risk among women who have undergone I.V.F. (Saint Louis, 7/19)

Cases of aggressive prostate cancer appear to be on the rise, researchers reported Tuesday. The good news is it's still rare for prostate cancer to spread. Just 3 percent of cases have already started spreading when men are diagnosed and prostate cancer overall has not become more common, the team found. (Fox, 7/19)

Hanna Bloomfield's bosses at the Department of Veterans Affairs had been reading a lot about the plant-based Mediterranean diet. Some highly publicized recent studies had shown that eating lots of fresh vegetables and olive oil along with maybe a splash of red wine could have tremendous health benefits, and they wondered whether it was something the VA, as an organization, should consider recommending to its more than 9 million patients. They tasked Bloomfield with figuring out whether this health effect was real — or simply hype. (Cha, 7/19)

Obese children who cut sugar from their diets saw improvements in markers of heart disease after just nine days, a study in Atherosclerosis found. For the study, researchers evaluated 37 children ages 9 to 18 who were obese and at high risk for heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. (Peachman, 7/19)

That’s according to data from the federal government, which says that breads, sugary drinks, pizza, pasta dishes and “dairy desserts” like ice cream are also among Americans’ top 10 sources of calories. What do these foods have in common? They are largely the products of seven crops and farm foods — corn, soybeans, wheat, rice, sorghum, milk and meat — that are heavily subsidized by the federal government, ensuring that junk foods are cheap and plentiful, experts say. (O'Connor, 7/19)

Babies who required extra nutrition just after birth used to rely on a formula made from cow’s milk. But now, hospitals are turning away from dairy in favor of food produced by their own species. University of Florida Health Jacksonville is among the first hospitals in Northeast Florida to offer donor milk or a human-milk-based concentrate, known as a fortifier, in both its newborn nursery and neonatal intensive care unit. (George, 7/19)

Maryland Medicaid officials have made what appears to be a small change to the list of preferred medications to treat opioid addictions. The agency used to pay for the drug in a dissolvable film form. Now it's steering patients to tablets, which some doctors say are not as effective for their patients. Those doctors say the change is having a profound effect on some people struggling to stay clean. (Kodjak, 7/19)

Naloxone, an antidote that reverses the effect of an opioid overdose, became available this month at some Florida pharmacies without a prescription. A new state law allows pharmacists to dispense the medicine in the form of nasal spray or injection. Some pharmacies say they've either begun providing naloxone, or are making plans to do so. (Erickson, 7/20)

The federal patient privacy law known as HIPAA has not kept pace with wearable fitness trackers, mobile health apps and online patient communities, leaving a gaping hole in regulations that needs to be filled, according to a much-delayed government report released today. The report, which was supposed to be complete in 2010, does not include specific recommendations for fixing the problem, even though Congress asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide them. (Ornstein, 7/19)

More than six years late and more than a few requirements short, the federal government has released a report on the privacy and security – or lack thereof – of healthcare information that's gathered by organizations and businesses that are not subject to HIPAA. The 32-page report says there is a lack of clear guidance to protect the information, according to a joint statement by Dr. Karen DeSalvo, head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at HHS, and Jocelyn Samuels, director of the Office for Civil Rights at HHS. (Conn, 7/19)

As employers seek to reduce the costs of untreated mental illness among staffers, more companies are trying mobile apps that help workers easily find and receive treatment. Some apps mine data about employees’ phone usage, or medical and pharmaceutical claims, to determine who might be in need of care. Others allow workers to text and video chat with therapists—in what are being called “telemental” health services. (Silverman, 7/19)

Scientists have woven microscopic sensors into thread to gather diagnostic data from the tiniest of sutures. The smart threads can sense pH, glucose levels, and temperature. They can even ferry tiny amounts of bodily fluids from one point to another for analysis by microsensor. And they can transmit data wirelessly — so they can alert doctors when a patient’s blood sugar is off or an infection is starting to form in a wound. (Thielking, 7/19)

A Franklin-based tech firm is looking to unlock troves of health care data — an effort that's won a key relationship with industry heavyweight HCA. Digital Reasoning specializes in software that helps its clients to more easily parse troves of emails or other unwieldy receptacles of information — and without relying on the use of key words. Computers can use context to yield results similar to a person reading text could, only much faster. (Fletcher, 7/19)

But what’s clear is the state regulatory terrain for midwives poses a problem for consumers when the nation is experiencing an increase in the number of births taking place outside hospitals, usually in homes or freestanding birthing centers. The percentage of out-of-hospital births crept up from 0.87 percent of all births in 2004 to 1.36 percent in 2012, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Ollove, 7/19)

Minnesota has seen an increase in cases of pertussis, more commonly known as whooping cough, especially in Olmsted County. The highly contagious disease is more serious than the average cold or cough, but there is a vaccination for it. The vaccine, however, has changed over the years. (7/19)

In a Mental Health Unit pod, an inmate is kept under suicide watch in at the Bexar County Jail, Monday, July 18, 2016. The pod is reserved for inmates who pose no threat to others. Upon intake, inmates are evaluated for mental and physical health problems before being released into the jail population. Between the beginning of the year and July 14 there have been 924 suicide attempts at the jail. Three inmates have died as a result, all in the last three weeks. (Druzin, 7/19)

After a planned merger with Partners HealthCare failed last year, South Shore Hospital is trying to reinforce its place in the market with more than $200 million in facilities and software upgrades. The 370-bed Weymouth hospital has received $137 million in bond financing from the state’s economic development agency and plans to raise money from donations to help cover the remainder of the costs. ... Attorney General Maura Healey threatened to sue to block the deal. (McCluskey, 7/20)

The Orlando VA Medical Center in Lake Nona opened the first four of its 40 mental health beds on Tuesday. Officials expect the new building to be fully operational by the end of the year...That includes inpatient services, inpatient mental health care, advanced cancer therapies and a 24/7 emergency department, which is expected to open by September. (Miller, 7/19)

A lawsuit filed in Arizona federal court Friday claims that faulty Theranos blood test results contributed to a patient’s heart attack. The suit, which seeks class-action status, accuses the blood-testing company and/or its partner, Walgreens Boots Alliance, of consumer fraud, negligence, breach of contract and civil conspiracy, among other causes of action. According to the suit, the plaintiff, identified only by the initials R.C., had blood drawn at a “Theranos Wellness Center” in a Walgreens pharmacy in Sun City West, Arizona, in February 2015. The patient had been sent there for a routine test of cholesterol and blood sugar, to “monitor R.C.’s annual heart health.” (Brooks, 7/19)

Nurses at Kaiser Permanente will stage pickets at seven regional hospitals Wednesday to draw attention to staffing levels they say are affecting the quality of care and putting patients at risk. The pickets will include Kaiser hospitals in Oakland, Vallejo, Santa Clara and San Francisco, and will not result in work stoppages, said Katy Roemer, a registered nurse at Kaiser Oakland and board member for the California Nurses Association, which represents some 86,000 nurses statewide. Nurses will be protesting the hospital's failure to hire more nurses, including resource nurses, who provide support to bedside nurses, and training nurses for specialty areas that have a shortage of staff, such as labor and delivery and intensive care, Roemer said. (Ioffee, 7/19)

Friends and family filled every row of a federal courtroom Tuesday as a Houston family doctor lauded as a "pillar of the community" was sentenced to federal prison for aiding a Medicare billing scheme involving home health services that were not necessary or not provided...[U.S. District Judge David Hittner] sentenced Warren Dailey to five years and three months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. (Banks, 7/19)

In the first of a series of programs on mental health in Minnesota, Tom Weber looks at police training for mental health crises. According to The Washington Post research into police shootings, 12 men were fatally shot by police in Minnesota last year. Five of them showed signs of mental illness. How is - or how should - police response be different if the suspect has a mental illness? (7/19)

Peter Pappas, the Union's television color analyst, pleaded guilty Tuesday to receiving nearly $500,000 in kickbacks for filling unneeded prescriptions for himself and recruiting others to the scheme. In addition to his television duties, Pappas works as a pharmaceutical salesman. (Tannenwald, 7/19)

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati are sharing in a $4.7 million grant from the Defense Department to study “brain tsunamis,” the often-devastating secondary injuries from a blow to the head. The study aims to examine nearly 200 patients at the UC Medical Center by placing monitoring electrodes directly on the brain during surgery and on the scalp. The goal is to compare readings from the electrodes to measure “spreading depolarizations,” seizure-like waves that radiate slowly through the brain following a traumatic injury. (Saker, 7/19)

A new report illustrates in graphic terms how health insurers in the United States routinely pay higher — often much higher — prices for certain prescription drugs and common surgeries than those in other developed countries. The report, issued by the insurance industry group International Federation of Health Plans, notes that a normal delivery of a baby in the United States has an average cost to insurers of more than $10,800. That's five times what a major insurer pays in Spain for the same kind of a delivery, and more than twice what a major insurer pays in Australia. And some insurers in the U.S. are paying $18,000 or more per normal delivery, the report noted. (Mangan, 7/18)

In 2014 alone, millions of Americans spent a combined $6.5 billion on Humira prescriptions. But we probably didn’t have to. While Americans paid an average price of $2,669 for Humira, the Swiss were able to buy the exact same drug for $822 — and in the United Kingdom, patients got it for $1,362. If the United States paid what the Swiss paid for the arthritis drug, we would have spent $2 billion on Humira in 2014 rather than $6.5 billion. (Kliff and Oh, 7/19)

Amid various woes that forced Novartis to warn profits may disappoint this year, one area was thought to be a bright spot — biosimilars. Its Sandoz unit has been a leader in marketing these lower-priced versions of expensive biologics, but last month hit an unexpected snag. Buried in its earnings announcement this morning was a brief sentence saying it received some bad news from US regulators. The Food and Drug Administration issued a so-called complete response letter rejecting its bid — for now — to market a biosimilar version of Neulasta, which was a $4.7 billion seller last year for Amgen. (Silverman, 7/19)

The high cost of prescription drugs has been causing pain and hardships for millions of Americans for years. And the situation appears to only be getting worse: Drug prices have risen an average of nearly 10% over the 12-month period ending in May 2016—a time when the overall inflation rate was just 1% in the U.S. (Tuttle, 7/14)

After nearly a decade of litigation, Bristol-Myers Squibb on Monday agreed to pay $30 million to settle charges by California officials of paying kickbacks to induce doctors to prescribe several of its medicines. The settlement with the California Department of Insurance stemmed from a whistleblower lawsuit that was filed in 2007 by three former Bristol-Myers employees. They alleged that from 1997 through 2003, the drug maker used a wide variety of inducements to generate revenue. The state later joined the lawsuit in 2011 and, last year, the former employees were dismissed from the case by a state court. (Silverman, 7/19)

In a move that underscores the changing landscape of the pharmaceutical industry, the chief trade group has officially accepted one of the world’s largest generic drug makers into its ranks. Last Friday, Teva Pharmaceuticals became a member of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which has burnished its reputation on Capitol Hill and elsewhere as a staunch defender of brand-name companies. The decision to accept Teva, which had been telegraphed in recent days, came as a surprise to some industry watchers, given the historical rivalry between brand-name and generic manufacturers. (Silverman, 7/18)

Naloxone works by blocking the effect that painkillers and heroin have in the brain and reversing the slowed breathing and unconsciousness that come with an overdose. ... But as the demand for naloxone has risen -- overdose deaths now total 130 every day, or roughly the capacity of a Boeing 737 -- the drug’s price has soared. Not long ago, a dose of the decades-old generic drug cost little more than a dollar. Now the lowest available price is nearly 20 times that. (Petersen, 7/17)

The twin issues of prescription drug costs and opioids have been among the country’s most pressing concerns for months, and have defied easy policy solutions. But these problems might have at least one cheap and unmistakably pungent partial solution: medical marijuana. A growing body of research indicates legalization of medical marijuana is associated with lower health-care costs and fewer prescriptions for seniors, and also associated with reduced deaths from opioids. (Newkirk, 7/18)

After its deal to acquire Allergan fell apart three months ago, Pfizer executives indicated they may split the company into different parts. The idea, which Pfizer first floated five years ago, would presumably unlock, or bolster, shareholder value by creating two different entities to produce older drugs and another that would focus on newer medicines. A decision is expected later this year, but one Wall Street analyst is questioning whether the big drug maker will follow through. (Silverman, 7/18)

It’s no secret that prescription drug prices are the fastest rising part of our health care system. That’s especially true in the cases of specialty and life-saving medications used to treat cancer, hepatitis C, and other rare diseases and ailments. But price increases are also prevalent among more common prescription medicines used by millions of Americans. The totality of these unsustainable, across-the-board price increases is impacting patients and those seeking access to such medications; it is also weighing down our health care system and the U.S. economy. (Len Nichols, 7/19)

hilst decrying rapid increases in drug spending and prices, elected officials have actually made it increasingly difficult for insurers to do anything about it. As payers, insurers are the only parties in the health care system who have both the means and the incentive to counter drug firms’ pricing power. For example, insurers have aggressively steered patients from branded to generic drugs, saving billions in the process. However, much of the growth in drug spending is attributable to new drugs that do not yet face generic competition. (David Howard, 7/14)

Companies continued to raise prices significantly in Q1. Big pharma’s widespread habit of regularly raising the price of their medicines has galvanized public outrage and given 2016 political candidates a convenient piñata. But new data suggest that, so far, the outrage is still more bark than bite. (Sy Mukherjee, 7/14)

Step therapy has been in place in this country for decades. It is a longtime approach to prescriptions intended to help make health care affordable. With drug prices skyrocketing, step therapy is a necessary tool to balance out the push for higher prices by drug companies. (Brian Caveney, 7/14)

If you think the pharmaceutical industry has stolen all it can from the American people through its price gouging, think again. Even as they’re pricing medications as high as the market can bear and beyond, drug corporations are getting big taxpayer subsidies and then dodging taxes on the resulting huge profits. ... A recent report from Americans for Tax Fairness reveals a particularly blatant example of this triple theft. Gilead Sciences, maker of hepatitis drugs that debuted at a thousand dollars a pill - and partly discovered through federal research grants - has paid little in U.S. taxes as its profits have soared. (Frank Clemente, 7/18)

Obamacare has made great strides toward its signature goal: to reduce the number of Americans without health insurance. Unfortunately, another important goal -- ensuring that everyone's insurance policy provides adequate coverage -- remains under siege in the courts and Congress. Before the Affordable Care Act, private health insurers were free to exclude coverage for all sorts of care. In 2011, 62 percent of people who bought their own policies had to pay for maternity care out of pocket; 34 percent had no coverage for substance abuse services; and 18 percent weren't insured for mental health care. One in 10 had no help buying prescription drugs. (7/20)

Because here’s what the official document — a document that, unlike Melania Trump, addresses numerous important national issues — says the Republican Party aims to do. I want to directly quote the platform’s language without interpretation, so that I can’t be accused of sensationalizing or misstating it. ... On abortion, the platform states: “We assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental right to life which cannot be infringed. We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to children before birth.” This is an argument to amend the constitution in order to make abortion illegal. (Melissa Batchelor Warnke, 7/19)

Last week, the first Zika-related case of microcephaly was reported in Texas. The next day, for the second time, Democrats in the United States Senate filibustered legislation that could have helped stop the spread of the Zika virus in Texas and across the United States. In doing so, they chose partisanship over sound public health policy and empty words over action. ... Fortunately, this isn't catching us by surprise. For months now, experts at the UT Medical Branch in Galveston, the Texas Medical Center in Houston and others in our state have highlighted the need to prepare for the arrival of mosquitos carrying the virus in the United States. (Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, 7/19)

Just a slender slice of Minnesotans — roughly 5 percent — buy their health insurance on their own instead of getting it through employers or through government programs such as Medicare. Nevertheless, it is a colossal problem when the company getting the bulk of the state’s so-called “individual market” winds up losing money hand over fist. (7/19)

Good health pays off at WellCare of Kentucky. We are committed to providing access to quality health care for Kentucky’s most vulnerable populations – low-income mothers, children and seniors; and those with developmental and physical disabilities – because we know investing in good health now improves quality of life and reduces costs later. As the largest of five managed care organizations (MCOs) in Kentucky, we work with the state, providers and community organizations to bring together the resources our members need to get and stay healthy. This creates a “win” for everyone – members, providers, taxpayers and government partners. And our results prove it. (Kelly Munson, 7/19)

Alejandra Duarte was 19 weeks pregnant when she lost her baby. At the time, she was working 40 hours a week at a Central Massachusetts laundry facility, packing and pushing around large and heavy carts. When she found out she was pregnant, Duarte asked her supervisor to ease her load at work or move her to lighter duty. But instead, she was given more hours – 50 per week, and she had to take it or leave it. ... It defies belief that pregnant workers need protection in an era when women have made so much progress in the workplace. (7/20)

Maybe moonshot wasn't the most apt metaphor to describe the efforts of an entire country to (once again) cure cancer. “I almost wish we hadn't called it the moonshot,” U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the head of the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force, said Sunday in Australia, where he was opening a cancer center in Melbourne. “It really is more like the Manhattan Project. It really is about collaboration in a way that hasn't happened before.” (Elizabeth Whitman, 7/19)

A member of the board that oversees his county’s health department, Carter County Judge-Executive Mike Malone had worries when health department officials brought up the idea of giving clean needles to IV drug users. Like many people, especially politicians, he worried that handing out needles might appear to be encouraging illicit drug use. But now he supports the program. “The more you learn about it, the more you’ll understand it’s the right thing to do,” Malone, a Republican, told reporter Bill Estep. (7/19)

Children enter foster care having already experienced abuse, neglect and other traumas, such as exposure to domestic violence. These accumulated traumas can leave them with extensive behavioral and mental health needs. To heal, these children need regular and quality health care services. (Moira Szilagyi, 7/19)

As we approach August, students and parents across the commonwealth are beginning to cross more items off their summer to-do lists. Amid the excitement of starting a new school year, updating immunization records is one item that often gets pushed to the bottom of the list, especially once students are preparing to enter college. But while you are out buying books and new dorm supplies, take a few minutes to ensure your future college student is healthy and protected. (Christopher P. Harlow, 7/18)

Given the competition in the market, the University of South Florida has made a practical decision to refashion the use of its much-hyped medical training institute in downtown Tampa. The Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation, heralded at its opening four years ago as a means for marrying entrepreneurship, academics and medical training, will increase its use as a learning center for USF medical students. (7/19)

Recently, economists at Purdue and the University of Copenhagen made a clever attempt to clear up the question. They looked at Danish manufacturing companies where overseas sales increased unexpectedly because of changes in foreign demand or transportation costs between 1996 and 2006. These constituted a set of natural experiments. At firms where exports spiked, there was suddenly a lot more work to do, a lot more things to sell. This put the squeeze on employees, who became measurably more productive — but also started to have more health problems. (Jeff Guo, 7/19)