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OVERNIGHT HEALTH: Suit over birth-control mandate dismissed
A federal judge in Missouri has dismissed one challenge to the Obama administration's divisive birth-control coverage mandate. Frank O'Brien, a Catholic CEO based in St. Louis, argued that following the policy and covering a range of birth-control methods for female employees would violate his religious beliefs. In a ruling late Friday, U.S. District Judge Carole Jackson backed the Obama administration, rejecting that "requiring indirect financial support of a practice, from which [the] plaintiff himself abstains according to his religious principles, constitutes a substantial burden on ... religious exercise."
O'Brien runs a company, O'Brien Industrial Holdings LLC, that processes ceramic materials. His suit was one of more than 24 currently pending against the administration policy, which came as part of the 2010 federal healthcare overhaul. Most suits are from Catholic businesses and schools that not only object to the use of birth control but consider some forms of it equal to abortion. Protestant plaintiffs tend to be motivated by the latter view.
Under the mandate, churches and houses of worship are exempt,
and religiously affiliated institutions don't have to pay for the
birth-control coverage through their own plans — their employees will
get contraception directly from the insurance company, still without a
co-pay.
States have also sued the Department of Health
and Human Services over the policy. In July, a federal judge dismissed a
lawsuit from Texas, Ohio, Florida, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Michigan
and Nebraska, ruling that they did not have standing to sue over because
the mandate does not go into full effect until next year. But in a
separate July decision, a federal court sided with a plaintiff, issuing a
temporary injunction that allowed one Colorado-based company not to
comply with the mandate on the grounds of religious expression.
Read more about the latest decision concerning O'Brien Industrial Holdings from The Associated Press.
This again: Think the Supreme Court has already decided the healthcare issue? Not if Liberty University has anything to say about. The conservative Christian school is asking the Supreme Court to revive its suit challenging the individual mandate. A lower court declined to rule on Liberty's case because of the Anti-Injunction Act, but the Supreme Court said the Anti-Injunction Act did not bar its suit against the mandate. So, Liberty said, the lower court was wrong and its decision should be vacated.
Doc shortage debate: The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) will launch an advertising campaign in Denver Tuesday to raise awareness for the U.S.'s looming doctor shortage. The campaign will coincide with the first presidential debate on Wednesday in Denver, and the AAMC plans to launch similar efforts for each subsequent debate in Kentucky, New York and Florida. The group is pushing for Congress to lift the cap on federal funding for government-backed hospital residencies, something a recent bill from Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) would do. The aging baby boomer generation, coupled with the newly insured Affordable Care Act beneficiaries, is expected to leave the United States short roughly 90,000 physicians by 2020. The AAMC is the group that administers the Medical College Admission Test, or MCAT.
Quality pays: Medicare is launching new pushes for quality in provider hospitals, rewarding the use of good clinical practices and penalizing high readmission rates for conditions such as pneumonia. The efforts were mandated by the healthcare reform law. In the first case, Medicare will retain 1 percent of its hospital reimbursements and redistribute money based on whether hospitals embrace current best practices — giving heart attack victims medication to avert blood clots within 30 minutes, for example. Penalties for high readmission rates will deprive hospitals of 1 percent of their reimbursements, or about $280 million throughout the program this year. Read more at Healthwatch.
Raising awareness: Monday marked the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, giving President Obama and federal Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius an opportunity to tout the healthcare reform law's free preventive benefits for women. The Affordable Care Act is bringing on "a new day for women's health," Sebelius said in a statement, by giving women "the potentially life-saving services they need to detect breast cancer before it spreads, without worrying how a copay would affect their family budget." The United States has recognized Breast Cancer Awareness Month since the 1980s. Healthwatch has more.
Tuesday's agenda
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) will hold a Steering and Policy Committee hearing on Medicare and the budgets authored by GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.
State by state
Medicaid eyed for all N.Y.'s ex-cons
California will require waivers for unvaccinated students
Nebraska law requiring parity in chemotherapy coverage ready to kick in
Lobbying registrations
Steve Buyer Group / RAI Services Company
Joanna Slaney / Environmental Defense Fund
Tompkins Strategies / National Federation of Independent Business
M.J. Simon & Company / Performant Financial Corporation
Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman / Norton Healthcare
Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman / Lee Memorial Health System
Directors Guild of America / self-registration
Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman / Catholic Health Partners
Bates Capitol Group / RAMM Technologies
Brown Rudnick / Roche Diagnostics Corporation
Mercury/Clark & Weinstock / Express Scripts
Thorn Run Partners / Novartis Corporation
Reading list
HPV vaccine found safe in large study
Survey: Doctors choose Romney over Obama
United Health announces $15 premium on Part D prescription plan
When the 'large' cookie is actually the smaller snack
What you might have missed on Healthwatch
Planned Parenthood launches anti-Romney blitz in Colorado
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