Democrat Deval Patrick said failure to act in time on the debt ceiling would immediately cost states hundreds of millions of dollars.

President Obama said Friday he could support Medicare means testing and cuts from the pharmaceutical industry.

"You can envision a situation where, for somebody in my position, me having to pay a little bit more on premiums or co-pays or things like that would be appropriate. And, again, that could make a difference," Obama said at a news conference Friday.

Obama has put relatively significant Medicare cuts on the table during negotiations over the debt ceiling, even as other Democrats — especially in the House — draw a hard line against benefit cuts.

Obama said he wants to "make sure that current beneficiaries, as much as possible, are not affected" by Medicare cuts.

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The Medicare prescription drug program has cut seniors' drug costs by more than a third since its start five years ago, according to a new industry-funded report.

The report comes as Democrats push to extract more savings from the program in a deal to raise the debt ceiling.

The report, by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics, concludes that the average costs for medicines in the top 10 therapeutic classes in the Part D program declined from $1.50 to $1 between January 2006 and December 2010. The report also projects that costs will continue to decline, to 65 cents by the end of 2015, a 57 percent decrease since 2006.

The decline is due to a "very competitive Part D market environment," institute director Murray Aitken told reporters in a conference call, with "a lot of plans competing on price."

Auditors from the Health and Human Services Department are raising new concerns about possible fraud in Medicare payments to nursing homes.

The HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said fraud, waste and abuse are the most likely explanation when nursing homes collect payments that are far higher than the national average.

The findings are part of a report on situations in which Medicare does not cover a patient's stay in a nursing home but does pay for certain, specific procedures during the stay. One category of services includes drug treatments, medical equipment and other supplies. Some nursing homes were paid more than three times the national average for those services, the OIG said.

The report says some of those payments turned out to be justified upon further review — for example, one high-cost facility maintained its own specialty unit. But "explanations are limited for extremely high average daily payments," the report warns.

The average cost for some patients was as high as $160 per day, compared with a national average of $3.39.

"Such high average daily payments lend themselves to concerns of potential fraud, waste, and abuse," the OIG said.

Utah Medicaid advocates have penned a scathing column in The Salt Lake Tribune slamming Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Republican Gov. Gary Herbert following Thursday's field hearing on Medicaid.

The column takes the two to task for "partisan attacks," "political spin" and "election year posturing." The field hearing focused on the program's shortcomings, particularly its state and federal cost, widespread fraud and poorer outcomes than under private insurance. 

"The more that one looks at this program, the more clear it is that this program cries out for fundamental reform," Hatch said.

The column points out that Utah's Medicaid program covered 60,000 more people in 2010 than three years earlier, for 16 percent less.

"Covering more people with less money is called efficiency — doing more with less — and it's exactly what politicians say they want," wrote Lincoln Nehring, senior health policy analyst for Voices for Utah Children. "Let's have an honest conversation that acknowledges the costs of covering uninsured Utahans through Medicaid and CHIP [Children's Health Insurance Program], but one that also recognizes the value they deliver every day for our state and the families who live here."

The Generic Pharmaceutical Association applauds new bipartisan legislation that incentivizes states to keep their Medicaid costs down by shifting to generics.

The Los Angeles Times reports on the growing appetite in Washington for raising Medicare costs on seniors.

A new report on Accountable Care Organizations draws attention to the importance of managing health information. The report is the first in a series of White Papers anticipated from the American Health Information Management Association.

1,000 cuts: Lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced bipartisan legislation Thursday to remove restrictions on tax-exempt health spending accounts, the latest provision of the healthcare reform law to come under attack by Democrats. The bill was sponsored by Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) in the Senate, and Reps. Lynn Jenkins (R-Kansas) and Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) in the House. Healthwatch's Julian Pecquet has the story.

The bill drops one day after Rep. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.), a key centrist, testified against the law's Medicare cost-control panel.

Lean prices: The medical-device lobby released a report Thursday championing the industry's value for money as debt-ceiling negotiators seek to cut healthcare spending wherever they can. Read the Healthwatch story.

Contracts galore: The Government Accountability Office has a list of all the contracts awarded and consultants retained to assist in implementing the healthcare reform law.

A new AARP report on state insurance exchanges says consumers will have an easier time comparing health plans if they're not presented with too many options.

AARP analyzed several existing Web portals for insurance to help states figure out the most effective designs for their exchanges' websites. The exchanges are envisioned as one-stop shops for individuals and small businesses to compare and purchase insurance policies.

AARP recommends that states develop tools to help consumers easily narrow their choices, which could be particularly important in states that elect not to let their exchanges keep plans from participating in the exchange as long as they meet federal standards.

"Consider the burden of consumer decision making in deciding how many health plans to offer," the report states. "In general—fewer, rather than more, choices will assist in decision making."

Lawmakers introduced bipartisan legislation to remove restrictions on tax-exempt health spending accounts.