The Obama administration has less than a month left to achieve its goal of enrolling 9.1 million people in insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, but appears to be nearly there. More than 7.1 million consumers have now signed up for coverage, according to this week's release of enrollment numbers from the Department of Health and Human Services. That number includes new enrollees and automatic re-enrollments through the HealthCare.gov platform. The new total means the administration is about 80 percent of the way to its goal, though it's likely even closer, since that 7.1 million doesn't include enrollments by consumers in states running their own health insurance exchanges.
Measles is one of the most infectious diseases known to humanity. Now, it's spread in Disneyland, a theme park visited by millions from all over the world, any of whom could have carried the potentially deadly virus back home. The first case in Arizona was reported Thursday. Here are six reasons doctors are afraid of measles: 1. It floats in the air — and stays there for hours after the sick person has left. Remember all the rumors about Ebola, most of which turned out not to be true? They are true for measles. It&'s an airborne virus that lingers in the air. Now think about all those long lines in crowded, enclosed spaces at a place like Disneyland. People infected with measles are contagious for around nine days.
You'd think drug and medical device makers would know how to spell the names of their own products. But when companies submitted data to the federal government last year on their payments to doctors, some got the product names wrong. Forest Laboratories misspelled its depression drug, Fetzima, as "Fetziima" 953 times — in more than one-third of all the reports on the drug. Medical device company Amedica Corp. sometimes called its Preference screw system "Preferance." Amid much anticipation and after a lengthy delay, the government in September unveiled its Open Payments database, saying it would bring transparency to relationships between physicians and the drug and medical device industries.
U.S. health insurers that waged a campaign against Obamacare hit an all-time high on the stock market Wednesday after UnitedHealth Group Inc. said it would add hundreds of thousands of new customers because of the law. The Standard & Poor's 500 Managed Health Care Index -- which includes the five biggest U.S. insurers -- closed at 1,031.18 on Wednesday in New York, the highest level since at least 1994. Health insurers have said that the Affordable Care Act has cost them billions in taxes and fees -- including $1 billion in 2014 for UnitedHealth -- and burdened them with new regulations.
Blue Shield of California issued a counter offer to Sutter Health on Wednesday that would extend the previous contract between the two companies through 2016. Sutter proposed earlier this week that Blue Shield let patients keep their Sutter doctors until the end of this year. The two salvos in a nasty contract fight between one of the largest health systems and one of the largest health plans in the state sound good for patients but protect the special interests of the one behind the offer. Unable to reach agreement on terms for a new contract that covers thousands of members in Northern California, Sutter and Blue Shield let the old one expire on New Year's Eve.
More health care providers could be encouraged to work in underserved areas of Washington state under a pair of bills to be introduced in Olympia next week that would help those providers pay back their student loans. Senate Bill 5010 and House Bill 1080, which have bipartisan sponsors and are supported by a number of Washington state health organizations, would restore and increase a currently underfunded state loan repayment program for health professionals working in rural areas. The legislation would give the incentive to a wide range of health care professionals to work in state- and federally designated areas that are considered underserved. Many of these rural areas are in Eastern Washington.