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Eleven years ago, as he ran for governor of Virginia, Tim Kaine made clear his stance on abortion: “I have a faith-based opposition,” he wrote on his campaign’s website. “I will work in good faith to reduce abortions.” Kaine went on to laud adoption as the best solution to an unwanted pregnancy. He promoted abstinence-only sex education (and later slashed funding to the program, citing research that found it wasn’t effective). He authorized the sale of “Choose Life” license plates to fund religious counseling clinics that discouraged abortion. He backed Virginia’s “informed consent” law, which requires women seeking the procedure to undergo medically unnecessary ultrasounds. In short, he was conservative on reproductive issues, by his party's standards. (Paquette, 7/26)

Democratic vice presidential pick Tim Kaine has privately told nominee Hillary Clinton he will support repeal of the Hyde Amendment, a 1976 provision that bans the use of federal dollars for abortion services, Clinton spokesman Jesse Ferguson and Kaine spokeswoman Amy Dudley said Tuesday. The position is a reversal for Kaine, who earlier this month told The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, that he's "traditionally been a supporter of the Hyde amendment." (Kapur, 7/26)

The selection of Sen. Tim Kaine as Hillary Clinton's running mate gives Clinton a reliable liberal partner who complements her experience in health-care policy. Unlike the choice of Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as Republican candidate Donald Trump's running mate, experts say Kaine doesn't add as much to the Democratic ticket from a health policy perspective, because Clinton herself has an extensive record. (Weixel, 7/26)

Tim Kaine is in Hillary Clinton’s camp — and his party’s — on the big health care issues, with a defining moment in his tenure as governor coming in 2007 after the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. His response to the shooting was a $42 million legislative package to reform the state’s mental health system. As a U.S. senator who was elected in 2012, he’s backed the Affordable Care Act and has pushed for expanded Medicaid eligibility in his state and others. A Catholic, he’s said he opposes abortion personally, but supports a woman’s right to choose for herself. (Bluth, 7/27)

The nation’s epidemic of opioid abuse, which has killed thousands of people over the past decade through powerful prescription painkillers and heroin, has taken on a prominent role at the Democratic National Convention — a sign of the issue’s growing importance in both parties. On Monday night, a woman whose daughter has struggled with addiction gave a prime-time speech, followed by the former governor of New Hampshire, where more than 400 people died of drug overdoses last year. Then, on Tuesday afternoon, people packed into a Quaker conference center in Philadelphia to hear delegates, elected officials and others talk about recovering from substance abuse and what needs to be done to combat it. A similar forum was held at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last week. Both conventions featured a recovery and wellness room for those suffering from addiction. (Zezima, 7/26)

The Democratic platform bears some of the hallmarks of the drive to the left that Sen. Bernie Sanders led this year on economic policy. And on social issues, the party has abandoned many of the views it held in the late 1980s and early 1990s. We compare and contrast highlights in this year’s Democratic platform with those of recent decades on the following issues: guns, drugs, abortion, China, trade, gay marriage, higher education and health care. (Rubin, 7/26)

The party platforms of Democrats and Republicans, finalized ahead of their respective conventions this month, reflect the stark divide between the parties, on both foreign affairs and domestic social issues. Here’s a rundown of where the parties land on key topics. (Mason and Megerian, 7/27)

The insurer Cigna is expanding into a few new ObamaCare markets, a countervailing force to some recent high profile exits by insurers. Cigna, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, said Tuesday that it has filed to offer insurance on the ObamaCare marketplaces next year in Chicago, the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina, as well as Northern Virginia and Richmond. (Sullivan, 7/26)

One of the nation's largest health insurance companies plans to enter the Obamacare marketplace in the Chicago area for the first time, bringing new competition as other insurers exit or go out of business. The Tribune has confirmed that Cigna, based in Bloomfield, Conn., has filed plans to sell health policies to individuals and families who purchase their own coverage in the individual market. If the plans are approved by Illinois regulators, Cigna will start selling policies Nov. 1, when enrollment for 2017 Obamacare coverage opens. (Sachdev, 7/26)

Iowa’s largest health insurer says it is seeing success from its efforts to reward hospitals and clinics for providing high quality care. Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield announced Tuesday that its accountable care organization contracts with 13 hospital and clinic systems saved $35 million in health care costs last year. Under such arrangements, hospitals and clinics are paid for keeping patients well, instead of just for ordering more tests and providing more treatments. (Leys, 7/26)

The recent announcement that Covered California premiums will rise by double digits in 2017 is only part of the challenge for the nation’s largest health exchange. A newly released study found that 4.38% of Covered California policyholders enrolled in Blue Shield or Blue Cross plans were rejected by doctors who were supposedly accepting their insurance, compared with 1.41% for people with the same plans purchased outside the exchange. (Sisson, 7/27)

There’s been a lot of bad news about rising Obamacare exchange premiums over the past few months. But things could get much worse for insurers (and consumers) if a court ruling brought by House Republicans against the administration prevails. At issue in House v. Burwell is whether the administration has been illegally paying cost-sharing reduction subsidies to insurers. This issue was also the subject of a Republican House investigation, which resulted in a recent report concluding that the administration knowingly made the payments without a congressional appropriation, which is illegal. (Owens, 7/26)

A coalition of health advocacy groups has blasted Gov. Matt Bevin's plan to restructure the state Medicaid plan "as a giant step backward for Kentucky." "This plan threatens to undermine the health and economic gains we have made in the past two years," said the written comments filed last week by Kentucky Voices for Health, a coalition of about 200 groups and individuals. ... Sylvia Burwell, U.S. secretary of health and human services, raised concerns about Bevin's plans for Medicaid expansion, citing the "historic improvements" in health coverage for Kentuckians. She also questioned Bevin's plans for dismantling kynect, the state health insurance exchange where people may shop for private plans or enroll in Medicaid. (Yetter, 7/26)

Anxiety and suspense are building in Kentucky as a potential clash over the state’s high-achieving Medicaid expansion nears next month between Gov. Matt Bevin and the Obama administration. At issue is whether to make the poor pay and work to obtain health insurance under the federal-state program. (Galewitz, 7/27)

Advocates for expanding Medicaid are saying the stakes have never been higher, especially in Hillsborough County. The county’s share of federal and state dollars for hospitals that treat large numbers of low-income patients was cut by two-thirds in 2015 to 52 million dollars. (Ochoa, 7/26)

U.S. health insurer Anthem Inc (ANTM.N) reported a better-than-expected profit as enrollments rose in its Medicaid plans, which cater to low-income Americans. The company, whose proposed acquisition of rival Cigna Corp (CI.N) is being challenged by U.S. antitrust authorities, said overall memberships increased 3.2 percent in the second quarter. Anthem's memberships have been rising in the past couple of years as more Americans sign up for its Medicaid plans expanded under President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. (Penumudi, 7/27)

The head of St. Louis-based Centene is shooting down speculation it will bid on any units being unloaded by larger companies that are considering a merger. There have been reports the St. Louis-based health insurer is interested in trying to acquire units that would have to be divested by the potential combinations of Aetna and Humana or Anthem and Cigna. (Pratt, 7/26)

Centene Corp. has earmarked $300 million to cover potential losses from business the company picked up in its $6 billion acquisition of Health Net Inc. last year, company officials said Tuesday. During the company’s second-quarter conference call Tuesday morning, executives disclosed that they had discovered $300 million in “premium deficiency reserves,” or an estimate of a potential loss, mainly due to the increased use of substance abuse treatment centers in California and unfavorable results in the company’s individual commercial business in Arizona. (Liss, 7/27)

Three-fifths of enrollees in the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program who are facing steep premium increases will be eligible to invoke a little-known feature of the program that will allow them to stop paying premiums but still keep some coverage, the Office of Personnel Management has said. The paid-up provision allows enrollees whose premium is increased beyond a certain percentage to stop paying premiums, with benefits then reduced. The triggering percentages vary according to the age at enrollment and take into account all increases since that time; FLTCIP rates also increased for many enrollees in early 2010. (Yoder, 7/26)

Just seven states achieved a passing grade for making usable healthcare price information available to consumers, a new study finds. The other 43 states failed at price transparency because they didn't collect claims data from all payers or they failed to make the data accessible to the public through a website, according to the 2016 Report Card on State Price Transparency Laws. (Barkholz, 7/26)

New Hampshire received national praise — and tied for top score — helping residents make educated choices on health care, according to an annual report card. “Only three states — New Hampshire, Colorado and Maine — received an A for providing detailed pricing on a variety of procedures through easy-to-use public websites, backed by rich data sources,” said the report by two nonprofit organizations focused on health reform, the Catalyst for Payment Reform and Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute. (7/26)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration opened the door on Tuesday to a change in its blood donor deferral recommendations, which currently prohibit donations from gay men for a year following their last sexual encounter in order to reduce the risk of transmitting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In December the FDA overturned a 30-year ban on all blood donations from men who have sex with men, saying the change was based on science showing an indefinite ban was not necessary to prevent transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus. The FDA is now signaling it may go further. (Clarke, 7/26)

The Food and Drug Administration is seeking comments on the possibility of changing its policy of requiring a one year deferral period before gay men can donate blood. The FDA said in a notice in the Federal Register that it is looking for comments on the potential to use “individual risk assessments” rather than the current blanket one year deferral for men who have sex with men, intended to guard against the spread of HIV. (Sullivan, 7/26)

The humanitarian organization currently has less than a five-day blood supply on hand, according to a statement. Shortages are often caused when more blood and platelets are distributed to hospitals faster than donations are coming in, according to the organization. (Bowerman, 7/26)

Blood supplies are low again this year, and the American Red Cross is extending an urgent call for donations that began two weeks ago. Shortages are common in the summer. Many potential donors are on vacation, and blood drives at high schools have to be put on hold. But this year, blood suppliers are feeling the crunch several weeks earlier than expected. (Bouscaren, 7/26)

Every summer as Americans slather on sun lotion, they are reminded of the dangers of skin cancer. This year alone, more than 76,000 people in the United States will develop melanoma, the deadliest form of the disease, and about 10,000 will die from it. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said on Tuesday, however, that there still isn’t enough evidence to recommend total-body screenings and declined to take a position on the practice. (St. Fleur, 7/26)

The federally appointed U.S. Preventive Services Task Force gave the visual screening a rating of "I" — meaning there was insufficient evidence for it to weigh the potential benefits against possible harms — for Americans of average risk. Yet its statement drew immediate pushback, with some physicians saying the outcome might encourage people to skip the awkward ritual of stripping down for an examination by their doctor for melanoma and other skin cancers. "We make recommendations based on evidence only, not on expert opinion, and we put equal weight on the potential benefits and the harms," said David Grossman, vice chairman of the task force and a senior investigator at Group Health Research Institute. "And we really don’t have good evidence on the benefits of screening." (McGinley, 7/26)

For years, many dermatologists have urged patients to have a full-body visual check for skin cancer. But a new report by a panel of medical experts concluded for the second time in seven years that there is not enough evidence that these screenings benefit patients to recommend them as a preventive service. (Heredia Rodriguez, 7/26)

There's not enough evidence to prove that routine, full-body skin cancer screenings save lives when conducted across the general adult population, an expert panel finds. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released updated guidelines Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association and declined to recommend routine full-body screens. (Rice, 7/26)

Jonathan Goodman can recall most of the lectures he's attended at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He can recite detailed instructions given more than a year ago about how to conduct a physical. But at the end of his second year, the 27-year-old M.D.-Ph.D. student could not remember any class dedicated to addiction medicine. Then he recalled skipping class months earlier. Reviewing his syllabus, he realized he had missed the sole lecture dedicated to that topic. "I wasn't tested on it," Goodman says, with a note of surprise. (Jacewicz, 7/27)

Every day across the country, hundreds, if not thousands, of people who overdose on opioids are being brought back to life with naloxone. Hailed as a miracle drug by many, it carries no health risk; it cannot be abused and, if given mistakenly to someone who has not overdosed on opioids, does no harm. More likely, it saves a life. ... But naloxone, also known by the brand name Narcan, has also had unintended consequences. Critics say that it gives drug users a safety net, allowing them to take more risks as they seek higher highs. Indeed, many users overdose more than once, some multiple times, and each time, naloxone brings them back. (Seelye, 7/27)

The opioid overdose-reversal drug, naloxone, is now available without a prescription at all CVS locations in Texas, the pharmacy announced Tuesday. The company said that by August, pharmacies in a total of 31 states will be able to dispense the drug to patients. Naloxone is a Food and Drug Administration approved medication that has been used for decades by emergency medical personnel to reverse overdoses from drugs such as heroin, morphine, and prescription pain relievers like oxycodone. (Rice, 7/26)

A new Rhode Island prison program that provides medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction is getting attention from the Obama administration’s top drug control official. Michael Botticelli, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, toured the state women’s prison in Cranston on Tuesday. The state budget passed last month adds $2 million to a pilot program treating inmates with methadone and other medications that can reduce their dependence on opioids. (O'Brien, 7/26)

Authorities on Long Island say two dozen people have been arrested and nearly 4 kilograms of heroin and fentanyl have been seized in a 10-day drug sting. The Suffolk County district attorney is scheduled to announce the arrests on Wednesday in Hauppauge. Investigators say they found the narcotics at drug overdose scenes wrapped in lottery ticket paper stamped with the words Aleve, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Bridge or Clean Up. (7/27)

A substance abuse treatment facility in Franklin, Farnum North, has added 42 more inpatient beds. And with help from donations, the center can now start treating patients who lack insurance. Prior to the expansion, Farnum North was limited to 21 beds and had a waiting list of 40 people seeking treatment for drug and alcohol addiction. (Sutherland, 7/26)

Inside the updated building, beds lined single, double and triple rooms filled with soft carpets and plenty of light. The rooms were lined with soothing, scenic art, and they were connected with hallways full of fresh plants and flowers leading to group therapy rooms, a gym, a dining room, a chapel and office space. (Reed, 7/27)

The New Hampshire Judicial Branch will not comply with the state attorney general’s recent request to start reporting people with mental illness to the federal gun background check system. General Counsel Howard Zibel said in a letter last week that a new state law cited as cause for the change is “not sufficiently clear on its face for the judicial branch to begin the reporting that you request.” (Morris, 7/26)

In the year since [Christopher] Olmsted's death, the department has implemented changes, including creating a Crisis Intervention Team, to better deal with mentally ill people. It's part of necessary measures, officials say, as patrol officers continue to face a rising number of mentally ill people – in part because of reduced mental services – even though they are not as equipped for those encounters as medical and mental health professionals. Mental disturbance calls, coded by police and 911 dispatchers as 103M calls, were up 21 percent in 2015 compared to two years before. (Lane, 7/26)

As the nation continues to process the deaths of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and police officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, it’s worth keeping in mind that the circumstances of those killings were not all the same. And demonstrators across the country aren’t protesting only police violence against black citizens. They’re also venting grievances about their own stifling living conditions, under which it’s often difficult to ride, walk, or even breathe without police suffocating black lives further. Place and environment matters when discussing police violence: This is the crux of the University of California, Davis professors Lindsey Dillon’s and Julie Sze’s argument in a forthcoming article for the academic journal English Language Notes. (Mock, 7/21)

engthy waiting lists for rooms for Alzheimer’s patients are forcing caregivers to put their loved ones in less specialized facilities — which often levy additional fees for every extra service required to keep those vulnerable residents safe. Does the patient need a daily prompt to take her medication? Tack $25 on to the monthly bill. Does he need to be reminded to go to lunch and dinner? That’ll be another $75 a month. Checking blood sugar might cost $55 a month. Double that if the staff is also in charge of injecting insulin. Showering. Dosing out medication. Clipping toenails. It all carries a fee. (Thielking, 7/27)

Two studies released at an international Alzheimer's meeting Tuesday suggest doctors may eventually be able to screen people for this form of dementia by testing the ability to identify familiar odors, like smoke, coffee and raspberry. In both studies, people who were in their 60s and older took a standard odor detection test. And in both cases, those who did poorly on the test were more likely to already have — or go on to develop — problems with memory and thinking. (Hamilton, 7/26)

We tend to think about Alzheimer’s disease as affecting our brains. But as we try to arm ourselves against it, maybe we should be worrying about our bowels as well. According to a recent study done at the University of Chicago Medical Center, mice who underwent a long course of antibiotics had more diversity in the community of bacteria living in their guts than did mice who did not. They also showed significantly fewer "amyloid plaques” — a key element of Alzheimer's — in their brains. (Betuel, 7/26)

A burgeoning opportunity for copper producers relies on a simple premise: that the base metal is good for your health. Copper is used in everything from construction to electrical wiring, but it also has antimicrobial properties that kill 99.9% of bacteria on its surface within two hours, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. That makes it a potential weapon for combating the spread of infections in hospitals and public areas. (Yang, 7/25)

The World Health Organization is moving toward declassifying transgender identity as a mental disorder in its global list of medical conditions, with a new study lending additional support to a proposal that would delete the decades-old designation. The change, which has so far been approved by each committee that has considered it, is under review for the next edition of the W.H.O. codebook, which classifies diseases and influences the treatment of patients worldwide. (Belluck, 7/26)

Americans are shrinking -- not as individuals, but as a population. In 1914, American men were the third-tallest group in the world, and American women ranked fourth. Today they rank 37th and 42nd respectively. And the average heights have stopped increasing, with men peaking in 1996 and women way back in 1988. (Chakrabarti, 7/26)

A U.S. lawmaker is renewing his push for Congress to toughen requirements on medical-device warnings, calling Olympus Corp.’s 2013 decision against issuing a broad alert to U.S. hospitals about scope-related superbug outbreaks “despicable.” U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said internal Olympus emails about that decision, detailed for the first time in a Los Angeles Times/Kaiser Health News article, were “incredibly disturbing” and the company officials involved should face questions at a Congressional hearing. At least 35 patients in American hospitals have died since 2013 after developing infections tied to tainted duodenoscopes. (Terhune, 7/27)

Houston-area prosecutors dropped charges on Tuesday against two anti-abortion activists indicted for using illegal government identifications to secretly film a Texas Planned Parenthood facility, saying they could not adequately investigate the case. David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were indicted by a grand jury in January and faced up to 20 years in prison after being charged with tampering with a governmental record. Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson said in a statement her office was limited in what it can investigate under Texas law due to procedural matters with the grand jury process. (Herskovitz, 7/26)

“The grand jury took the investigation where the facts led it, however Texas law limits what can be investigated after a grand jury extension order is issued,” District Attorney Devon Anderson said in a statement. “In light of this and after careful research and review, this office dismissed the indictments.” Anderson, a Republican who ran as a “proud, pro-life Texan mother of two” during the 2014 election, supported the charges when they were handed down in January, stressing at the time that at the outset of the investigation, she stated that “we must go where the evidence leads us.” That didn’t sit well with many members of her party. (Graczyk, 7/26)

David Daleiden, one of the activists, said just hours after the ruling that he plans to release “more shocking and damning” footage involving Planned Parenthood once a gag order is lifted in a civil case in California. Mr. Daleiden, 27 years old, and Sandra Merritt, 63, each faced a felony charge of tampering with government records for using fake California driver’s licenses to access a Planned Parenthood clinic. The charge carried a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison. (Hobbs, 7/26)

Planned Parenthood had hailed the grand jury's actions as vindication of its vehement denials that its staff violated any laws. Tuesday’s dismissal of charges against the activists clears up a twist in Texas Republican’s ongoing fight against the women’s health organization, but Planned Parenthood officials said the charges were dismissed on a technicality and not because the activists are innocent. (Ura, 7/26)

An audit released Tuesday by Auditor General Eugene DePasquale found deficiencies in the way the Pennsylvania Department of Health enforced the state's minimum standard of 2.7 hours per day of direct nursing care. The audit covered the period from Jan. 1, 2014, through Oct. 31, 2015. Only last July did the health department start accepting anonymous complaints about nursing homes. (Brubaker, 7/26)

A mosquito that’s common in California has become the latest identified carrier of the Zika virus, potentially multiplying the population of vectors capable of spreading the disease. Until last week, researchers believed the virus could only be spread by two types of aedes mosquito much rarer in California and the U.S. But new research by a UC Davis ecologist and a top Brazilian science institution pins the southern variety of the culex mosquito – known as the southern house mosquito – as a potential vector of the disease, which can only be transmitted when a mosquito bites an infected person and then bites someone else. (Caiola, 7/26)

Health officials in Los Angeles and Orange counties are recommending that all gay and bisexual men receive meningitis vaccinations, amid an outbreak of the potentially fatal disease disproportionately affecting men who have sex with men. Local health departments were previously recommending vaccinations only for people considered high-risk, such as men who are HIV positive. “We acknowledge this broadens our prior recommendations, but, after careful consultation with the CDC and health officers in other affected jurisdictions, we consider that this expansion of the vaccination recommendations is a necessary step to suppress this outbreak,” said Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauser, L.A. County Interim Health Officer, in a statement Tuesday. (Karlamangla, 7/26)

Death and infertility were just two of the risks a doctor described to Kryston Skinner when she chose to have an abortion last year. ... But some of the information she was given was misleading or medically wrong, contained in a long, controversial booklet that state lawmakers require doctors to give women at least 24 hours before an abortion procedure. Medical experts have long denounced the booklet, saying important sections — such as those connecting abortions to the likelihood of breast cancer and infertility — are wrong. (Pattani, 7/27)

State health care regulators have launched an inquiry into plans by the University of Connecticut Health Center to end primary clinical pediatric services starting Oct. 1. And the top Republican in the state Senate, Minority Leader Len Fasano of North Haven, is questioning whether UConn improperly skipped the state certificate-of-need process before scheduling the end of primary pediatric services. But the university said Tuesday that this process is not required to cease services in this instance. (Phaneuf, 7/26)

[Douglas] Hernandez, who started volunteering with the Good Samaritan Gwinnett Health Center in April 2015, said the woman said she felt lonely and without purpose. ...[Paige] Havens said the current location will allow for more than 20,000 interactions with patients per year. She said the nonprofit gained six more staff members and now has 22 available for pediatrics, prenatal care, primary care, dentistry, and individual and family counseling. (Wells, 7/25)

In a recent study, the father-daughter team of David and Ashley Bradford say in the 17 states with a medical marijuana law in place by 2013, Medicare saved approximately $165.2 million because of lower prescription drug use. If medical marijuana was approved in every state, the overall savings to Medicare would have been around $468 million. That’s a lot of green. (Mathis, 7/26)

A dentist who was fired by Penn Dental Medicine is suing the University of Pennsylvania, alleging he was wrongfully terminated in retaliation for reporting that a fellow dentist was providing unnecessary treatment to make more money. In its legal response, Penn claims it fired Steven S. Pesis because he reviewed patients' records without permission, in violation of university policies and the federal law that protects the confidentiality of patients' medical information. (McCullough, 7/27)

Though a low-slung medical office building in Manassas City, Va., may seem like an unlikely place to find a cure for cancer, that’s where Peter B. Adeniji was offering his miracles, police say. For only $1,200 a bottle, Adeniji’s special herbal mixture would do what science and proven medications could not, authorities say he promised numerous patients. The promises ended Monday when police from a Prince William County drug task force raided Adeniji’s office and his home in Bristow, seizing medicines, ingredients for Adeniji’s mixtures and $17,000 cash, authorities said. (Jackman and Shapiro, 7/26)

A high-profile Massachusetts drug price transparency bill appears headed for the legislative graveyard. With just days to go before lawmakers were set to adjourn for the year, on July 31, the bill had not seen a vote. If it fails, it would join about a dozen similar bills introduced in legislatures by consumer advocates in 2015 and 2016, sometimes with help from the insurance industry. The bills were fiercely opposed by the pharmaceutical industry. (Appel, 7/25)

A senior senator wants to know if Medicare's prescription drug benefit is vulnerable to manipulation by pharmaceutical companies that set very high prices for medications. In a letter Monday to Medicare's top administrator, Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, said policymakers must ensure the Part D prescription program serving some 38 million beneficiaries "is free from exploitation," and asked if it meets that test as currently structured. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 7/27)

Eli Lilly & Co. reported Tuesday that revenue rose more than expected in the most recent quarter, as sales of new drugs padded increases in established products. “Lilly is in the midst of one of the most productive periods of new product launches in our company’s history, with new medicines making a substantial contribution to our revenue growth for the first half of the year,” Chief Executive John Lechleiter said. Recently released drugs, including diabetes treatment Trulicity and cancer drug Cyramza, helped push 10% volume growth in the quarter. (Steele, 7/26)

Nearly 40 percent of the spots that ran during ABC, CBS, and NBC’s broadcasts of the convention touted pharmaceutical companies, prescription medications, or over-the-counter drugs. Lots of those ads also popped up on cable networks CNN and Fox Business. All told, about 60 such spots ran during convention broadcasts over the week, according to the data from iSpot. (Robbins, 7/22)

As prices for prescription drugs keep rising, several organizations have developed different ways to assess the value of new medicines based on such attributes as cost, quality of life, and effectiveness. But a new survey finds that even as health plans continue to criticize drug prices, they have not yet embraced these new tools. None of the 11 plans queried actively rely on these new methods and a majority do not expect to do so next year either, according to the survey conducted by Avalere Health and released today. The tools are being developed by four groups — the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, the National Comprehensive Care Network and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. (Silverman, 7/26)

“If you had chickenpox, then the shingles virus is already inside you.” That’s what Terry Bradshaw says in that TV commercial, the one where he basically performs a home invasion on three middle-aged football fans and then frightens the bejesus out of them with medical scare talk. The ad promotes Zostavax, a vaccine sold by Merck & Co. that helps prevent shingles in people 50 or older. And when I first saw it, I found myself in the unusual position of actually agreeing with a Big Pharma company. ... It was the start of a hallucinatory journey that underscored, in its own small way, just how hard it is for patients to navigate today’s medical-industrial complex. In recent years, medical experts and policy makers have been telling us we need to become better health care consumers and think of medicine in the same way we think of other products and services we buy. I found that was almost impossible to do. (Krasner, 7/26)

With both U.S. presidential candidates promising action on drug prices, November’s election could trigger a sea change in the industry, Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez figures. In an interview with the Financial Times, Jimenez predicted that pricing pressures in the U.S. will only increase when a new administration takes over, whether that administration is helmed by Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump. (Staton, 7/20)

Last September, U.S. regulators faced a dilemma: whether to allow importation of drug ingredients from a Chinese factory with a history of poor quality controls, or face shortages of treatments for American cancer patients. Six months earlier, visiting Food and Drug Administration inspectors had uncovered what the agency later called “broad data manipulation” at the factory, located in Taizhou, about 200 miles south of Shanghai. Information about the potency and purity of some product batches had been deleted, making it difficult to investigate a significant increase in customer complaints, the FDA said in a warning letter to the plant’s owner, Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Co. The agency issued an indefinite ban on the factory in September, a first for Hisun, one of China’s leading exporters of pharmaceuticals products. Yet to avoid possible shortages of drugs, the FDA allowed the plant continue exporting about 15 ingredients for use in finished drugs in the U.S., including nine key cancer medicine components. Hisun says that it takes quality seriously and has complied with requirements. (Edney, 7/22)

Can Gilead Sciences pull another rabbit out of the M&A hat? The biotech became a Wall Street darling thanks to an $11 billion deal that landed the blockbuster Sovaldi and Harvoni hepatitis C treatments, but the drugs are no longer delivering the same revenue growth that have excited investors. (Silverman, 7/26)

The US Department of State is being accused of inappropriately interfering with efforts by the United Nations and two countries to ensure access to affordable medicines for poor people. In a blunt letter sent on July 20, dozens of patient advocacy groups charged that State Department officials questioned the premise of a UN panel devoted to exploring wider access, pressured the Colombian government not to sidestep the patent on a Novartis cancer drug, and pressed India to adopt policies that could result in higher drug prices and eliminate the production of lower-cost generics. (Silverman, 7/25)

Generic drug price hikes have come under close scrutiny lately, as reports continue to surface of significant and seemingly inexplicable increases, often for widely used drugs like levothyroxine or digoxin, a heart medicine, whose out-of-pocket costs to consumers have been modest for years. What gives? Health care professionals like your pharmacist often blame drug manufacturers, claiming they raise prices simply because they can, said Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere Health, a consulting firm. There’s no question that happens. But there are other reasons that generic drug prices may increase as well. (Andrews, 7/26)

For months, the trade group representing big drug makers has argued that Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Turing Pharmaceuticals, which was once run by Martin Shkreli, were outliers for brazen pricing practices that outraged Americans. At every turn, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America has worked hard to convince lawmakers and the public that its members are not the equivalent of “hedge funds” that exist to set sky-high prices while failing to sufficiently invest in developing new medicines. But earlier this month, the trade group made a curious move. Among five companies that were just added to its roster, two of them — Jazz Pharmaceuticals and Horizon Pharmaceuticals — have also relied on excessive pricing to fuel their growth, while investing much less than other drug makers in research and development. (Silverman, 7/26)

Controlling healthcare costs was one of the main goals of the President’s healthcare law, but millions of American patients have seen quite the opposite happen over the past six years. Facing higher compliance and coverage expenses on top of onerous mandates, healthcare companies have increased costs dramatically. Pharmaceutical companies, for instance, have struggled with the large up-front costs associated with navigating life-saving medications through the convoluted approval processes at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). And insurance companies, in order to meet all coverage requirements while insuring high-risk policy holders at the same rates as low-risk policy holders have hiked premiums while simultaneously increasing out-of-pocket costs for enrollees. (Christine Harbin, 7/26)

If you wonder why doctors are not mobilizing against the opioid epidemic, or the ridiculously high price of prescription drugs, just look at this statistic: drug and medical-device makers made payments of more than a quarter of a billion dollars in 2015 to California doctors. That’s from federal records. Other research by the ballot initiative campaign to mandate lower price prescription drugs through Prop 61 shows the California Medical Association’s (CMA) president has a medical practice that in Riverside that received more than $1.6 million from drug and medical device makers from August 2013 through the end of 2015. Other CMA trustees got big payments too, and the Association’s foundation itself is funded big time by drugmakers. (Jamie Court, 7/21)

As both political parties are completing the process of selecting their presidential candidates, we have a unique opportunity to draw attention to issues affecting all Americans. One topic so far overshadowed by the horse race election coverage is the skyrocketing cost of medicine. Out-of-control prices for prescription drugs are steadily bankrupting our healthcare system. Price hikes are putting treatment out of the reach of too many people, as well as raising health insurance premiums for all of us. And the rising costs are stealing from our state and federal healthcare programs, including Medicare. (Marian Tasco, 7/23)

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has highlighted "two underlying trends" affecting Medicare Part D, the prescription-drug program. The trends cited in the March 2016 status report follow the classic good news-bad news scenario. (7/26)

We’ve just entered the “sticker shock” season of healthcare reporting: News stories are brimming with reports of double-digit premium requests from insurance companies, amid dire warnings about the impact on consumers. Public health expert Benjamin Sommers of Harvard calls this “a new U.S. healthcare tradition: headlines about proposed premium increases under the Affordable Care Act and predictions of the law’s demise.” This year brings an additional theme — the trend’s putative effect on the presidential election. Some of the figures are certainly eye-catching — some insurers in some states are seeking increases of more than 30%. In California, where the state exchange negotiated increases of only 4.2% in 2015 and 4% this year, rates will rise by an average 13.2% next year. (Michael Hiltzik, 7/26)

Thousands of Illinoisans heeded federal law and bought health insurance last year via the state's Obamacare exchange. They signed up with Land of Lincoln Health, a state-approved insurer. They paid their premiums and deductibles. Many counted on that coverage to manage chronic illnesses or other long-term treatment. (7/26)

How did something that should have been uncontroversial – relatively modest funding to fight a new infectious disease in the U.S. – become so hard that Congress left Washington for the summer (mosquito season) without passing legislation to combat the Zika virus? The obvious answer – that our gridlocked political system cannot complete even the simplest task – does not fully explain things. ... The largest factor appears to be lawmakers’ failure to appreciate the risk Zika poses. (Ron Klain, 7/25)

It’s tempting to believe that scientific discoveries can be weighed for their value to society. Then the good ones could be pursued and the bad ones set aside. That’s obviously hard to do. Think about progress that happens by accident. Who’s to judge whether its eventual use is most likely for healing or killing? (Faye Flam, 7/26)

Americans aren’t very enthusiastic about using science to enhance the human species. Instead, many find it rather creepy. A new survey by the Pew Research Center shows a profound distrust of scientists, a suspicion about claims of progress and a real discomfort with the idea of meddling with human abilities. The survey also opens a window into the public’s views on what it means to be a human being and what values are important. (Gina Kolata, 7/26)

The US Senate recently passed legislation designed to address the nation’s opioid addiction epidemic, and President Obama is expected to sign it into law. Among other things, the bill promotes the use of opioid contracts. These are written agreements between doctors and patients about the conditions for prescribing opioids long term for chronic pain. This is great news. It could also harm patients. Opioid contracts clarify for doctors and patients how to prescribe these dangerous medications. By doing so, they can formalize safer approaches to opioid prescribing. That’s why they are already required by law in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. (Tim Lahey, 7/26)

This year, trust accounting shows that Social Security and Medicare have a combined surplus of $17.1 billion. Just above that, you'll see the federal budget accounting. It shows that in spite of employment taxes, taxes on Social Security benefits, trust fund interest and premiums for Medicare B and D, these programs were short $354.5 billion. Their cash shortage represented 80 percent of the entire federal deficit for 2015. All other government programs, after tax collections, operated at a loss of $83.9 billion. (Scott Burns, 7/26)

The health care world is full of colloquial terms like value or affordability that mean different things to different stakeholders. Often how you define them and what you think of them depends on your place within the overall health ecosystem. It’s a classic case of “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” One such term is effectiveness. We all want medical treatment to be effective, and understanding what that word means to different stakeholders is critical to having a productive dialogue — whether you are in a hospital, a research center, or on the floor of Congress. Here is a brief history of the concept of effectiveness, a few insights about its many meanings, and the debates we can expect to have about it in the years ahead. (Murray Ross, 7/26)

CalPERS is responsible for the retiree pension and health benefits for 1.8 million current and former employees on the payrolls of the state and 3,000 local governments (but not those serving Los Angeles city or county) and school districts. Its funding comes from three main sources: about 13% from public employees, 22% from state and local governments and 65% from investment returns. The employees’ contributions are set by contract (and guided by state law), so the main variables are the contributions from state and local employers and the amount earned by the fund’s investments. (7/27)

The Republican-led General Assembly has a long list of actions that compete for the title of most outrageous, but there’s no contest in choosing the one that ranks as most mysterious. That is the unwavering commitment of Republican leaders to changing the state’s Medicaid system. ... The proposed changes call for Medicaid to be managed, at least in part, by private companies, but the reasons for the changes are melting away. Medicaid costs are coming in under budget and the non-profit that oversees much of the program, Community Care of North Carolina, has had remarkable success in finding ways to save money and improve health care for children, pregnant woman and disabled people who are covered by the state-federal health care program. (7/26)

In 1966, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhuman.” While major advances have been made in health care, ethnic and racial disparities remain in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of many illnesses, particularly prostate cancer. (Lannis Hall, Arnold D. Bulliock, Angela L. Brown and Graham Colditz, 7/27)

A concierge practice refers to a practice in which the physician charges each patient an annual retainer fee. There are several types of concierge primary care practices. So called “direct care” describes a practice in which the annual fee covers all primary care services. Within that types of practice, the physician does not bill health insurance for services. In another type of concierge primary care practice, the physician does contract with a health insurer and submits claims to the insurer for covered services. However, the annual fee goes toward providing extra amenities, such as longer clinic visits, direct access 24/7 to one’s personal physician by cellphone, email or text, and the guarantee of prompt access for appointments — meaning either same-day or next-day appointments. (Juliet Mavromatis, 7/26)

Ohio is now the 26th state to legalize medical marijuana -- a great accomplishment for advocates and patients. But does the bill go far enough? While the bill states that patient information will be kept confidential, there is a failure to protect patients working in zero-tolerance companies that perform drug testing. This is a clear inconsistency in the legislation's logic. By mandating that such information should be confidential, lawmakers acknowledge that stigma surrounding marijuana can threaten a patient's livelihood. However, because the law doesn't intervene with drug-testing policies, patients can be discovered anyway and fired from their job. (Samantha Santoscoy, 7/27)