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HHS to greenlight more state Medicaid work requirements.The Trump administration will approve more state requirements that require certain Medicaid beneficiaries work or train for work as a condition of staying enrolled in the program, even though a lawsuit knocked down a related provision in Kentucky and another suit is pending in Arkansas. The intention was announced Thursday morning by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma. The remarks are the first she has made declaring how the Trump administration would proceed following the legal blockades. “We are committed to this issue and we are moving closer to approving even more state waivers,” Verma said at the Medicaid Managed Care Summit in Washington, D.C. At least eight other states — Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Utah, and Wisconsin — have pending requests for similar work requirements.

Azar to rip ‘Medicare for all’ as threat to traditional Medicare. Echoing what has become a popular theme for Republicans on the campaign trail, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is expected to blast “Medicare for all” proposals as a threat to traditional Medicare in a speech at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. “Under Medicare for All, no one’s even promising that you can keep your plan, or keep your doctor,” Azar will say in a speech later today, according to advanced excerpts. “The main thrust of Medicare for All is giving you a new government plan and taking away your other choices. The problems don’t stop there: As I’ll explain, broadening the Medicare system will undermine the security access seniors currently enjoy, come at a staggering cost to taxpayers, and ignore what seniors are showing they want from Medicare today.”

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Supreme Court to take up Medicare payments case previously decided by Brett Kavanaugh. The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a case involving a dispute over Medicare payments to hospitals. The previous decision on the case handed the win to hospitals, in an opinion written by Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who is facing a hearing Thursday for his Supreme Court nomination focusing on claims that he committed sexual misconduct. Hospitals are seeking more funds from Medicare, saying that the government relied on an incorrect calculation since 1983 that resulted in them being underpaid.  The Department of Health and Human Services countered that too much time had passed since the decision on payments, and that it was too late to challenge. But United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with hospitals, saying that the program continues to underpay. “Saving money is a laudable goal,” Kavanaugh wrote in the opinion, “but not one that may be pursued by using phony facts to shift costs onto the backs of hospitals.” The ruling included two other judges, including Judge Merrick Garland, whose Supreme Court nomination by former President Barack Obama was blocked by Senate Republicans.

North Dakota offers plan to reduce premiums up to 20 percent. North Dakota’s insurance regulators outlined a plan on Wednesday they hope will reduce premiums from 10 to 20 percent, according to the Grand Forks Herald. They propose to create a reinsurance program, the largest of any state, that would work through having the state cover high medical claims for Obamacare insurers with the intention they would lower premiums overall. The goal is to blunt finalized premium hikes for 2019 of up to 25 percent and as low as 2.29 percent.

House sends healthcare and defense spending bill to Trump. The first on-time annual funding for the Pentagon in a decade cleared the last congressional hurdle with a House vote and now heads to President Trump’s desk. The legislation on Wednesday advanced by a wide bipartisan margin of 361-61. Trump has indicated he will sign the $674 billion legislation, which includes a nearly $20 billion spending increase and is part of a minibus funding three other federal departments — Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. Trump has four days to sign the bill and last week called it “ridiculous” because it lacks funding for his border wall, which raised worries Trump might reject the bill. But Republicans say they’re confident Trump will accept it. “Yes, I am confident he will sign it,” House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said. “This funds our military, this funds opioids, this does a lot of the things we all want to accomplish together and we’ve had very good conversations with the president.”

Funding for medical research, opioids in spending bill. The appropriations bill includes several healthcare-related provisions, most notably $6.7 billion is allocated for the opioid epidemic. The National Institutes of Health also got another boost, this time with a $2 billion increase to its funding of around $38 billion. It is the latest boost for the agency, a move that research groups cheered. “This kind of consistent, year-over-year funding increase ensures research started in one budget year can continue into the next and promising developments can move from the lab to the patient as quickly as possible,” said Chris Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

Anti-abortion groups call on Trump to veto spending bill over Planned Parenthood funding. A coalition of four anti-abortion groups is pleading with President Trump to veto the appropriations bill, which preserves federal funding for Planned Parenthood. “Since Congress will not lead, we are asking you to do so,” the groups implored Trump in a letter released Wednesday. “The current spending bill from Congress includes no provisions to get taxpayers out of the abortion business and was purposefully drafted to exclude some of your other critical priorities.” The letter — signed by the anti-abortion groups March for Life, Students for Life, Live Action, Heartbeat International, and Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee — is the latest sign of frustration from anti-abortion activists that Planned Parenthood continues to get federal funding despite full GOP control of Washington. Senate and House appropriators have shied away from including controversial amendments called “poison pills” into the appropriations bill in order to not imperil bipartisan support. Wednesday’s letter noted that Trump told anti-abortion voters and groups during the 2016 campaign that he would not fund Planned Parenthood.

Poll finds growing opposition to Kavanaugh. Opposition to Kavanaugh is rising, particularly among Republican women, as he battles several allegations of sexual misconduct, according to a new poll. Thirty-seven percent of registered voters oppose Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation, up from 33 percent last week, according to a new Morning Consult/Politico poll. Kavanaugh still has support from most Republicans, but that number fell 11 points over the last week. Currently, 58 percent of Republicans want to confirm Kavanaugh, down from 69 percent last week. That drop was caused in large part by an 18 point decline in support from Republican women, although nearly half still back confirming him. Forty-nine percent of Republican women support confirming Kavanaugh, while 15 percent are against confirming him. The most recent poll was conducted from Sept. 20-23.

Bipartisan opioid bill would boost treatment, but not the funding advocates hoped for. Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill hope to combat the opioid epidemic in part by expanding access to addiction treatment, a key part of the major legislative package unveiled late Tuesday. But some advocacy groups say that the specific way the legislation addresses the problem — through grants — isn’t enough, and that a more lasting funding stream is needed. The legislation, the Substance Use Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment for Patients and Communities Act, is the final bipartisan, bicameral compromise version of legislation both chambers have passed, and appears headed to President Trump’s desk soon after final votes in the House and Senate. While the legislation addresses various facets of the opioid epidemic, a majority of its measures are meant to expand treatment for addiction.

Watchdog clears HHS of wrongdoing in Obamacare repeal tweets, videos. The Trump administration did not violate lobbying laws by putting out social media posts blasting Obamacare, the Government Accountability Office has concluded. Democratic lawmakers had asked the agency to take a look at the case, in which the Department of Health and Human Services released a video on Twitter and YouTube of small business owners discussing how they were harmed by Obamacare. The lawmakers alleged that HHS officials violated a law that bans appropriated federal dollars from being used to lobby proposed legislation. The GAO disagreed, saying in a report released late Tuesday that the videos did not call on viewers to contact Congress.

White House provides $4 million for drug courts to fight opioid addiction. The White House is providing $4 million in grants to go toward training officials on how to divert people with drug addictions into treatment programs, the Office of National Drug Control Policy announced Wednesday. The diversion approach, known as “drug courts,” is intended to help keep people out of jail or prison after they have committed a nonviolent drug offense. People with addictions have to meet certain requirements including random drug testing, and appear before a judge to discuss their progress on finding a job, attending school, and staying away from drugs. Officials and lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have been pushing for these kinds of approaches, which focus on treatment and prevention rather than incarceration, to combat the opioid crisis.

The grants will be allocated to the National Association of Drug Court Professionals to help communities beginning in 2019 and lasting until 2020.

FDA may list retailers following food recalls. Stores who have sold products that are found to be tainted and are recalled would be named publicly under draft guidance released Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration. At this time the stores are shrouded in secrecy, leading people to avoid food altogether or to not find out at all whether the food they have bought is dangerous. The FDA does sometimes name retailers, but rarely, and so consumers don’t always know when they get food poisoning that the product they ate had been recalled.  

Adolescents are drinking less in Europe: WHO. Adolescents in Europe aren’t drinking as much as they used to, according to a World Health Organization report published Wednesday.

The University of St. Andrews studied drinking habits of European adolescents in 36 countries for a period of 12 years. The report found that 28 percent of 15-year-olds started drinking at age 13 or younger in 2014. However, the rate fell from 46 percent in 2002. One in 10 adolescents reported being drunk at age 13 or younger, but that rate has decreased by more than half since 2002. Excessive drinking is still common with a quarter of boys and more than one in five girls saying they’ve been drunk two or more times by age 15. WHO recommended changes at the national and regional levels such as increasing alcohol prices, restricting alcohol availability, and promotion and sponsorship bans to curb the issue.

World leaders commit to plan to fight tuberculosis. World leaders at the United Nations General Assembly agreed Wednesday to new targets to treat 40 million people with tuberculosis by the end of 2022. The effort announced by the World Health Organization on Wednesday also would provide 30 million people with treatment to prevent tuberculosis. The U.N. held the first high-level meeting on tuberculosis as part of the assembly taking place in New York this week. Government leaders agreed to provide $13 billion a year by 2022 to improve tuberculosis care and another $2 billion for research, WHO said. The organization did not elaborate how much each country would donate to the tuberculosis effort. Research will also center on new drug-resistant variants of the disease. Tuberculosis killed 1.6 million people in 2017 and sickened 10 million people, WHO added.

RUNDOWN

NPR VA adding opioid antidote to defibrillator cabinets for quick response

Axios Aetna to sell Medicare drug plans as part of CVS deal

Washington Post Federal employee healthcare premiums to rise 1.5 percent on average for 2019

The Hill Wilkie vows no ‘inappropriate influence’ at VA

Associated Press Louisiana’s ‘admitting privileges’ abortion law upheld

Modern Healthcare Association health plans spark tussle between state regulators, business groups

Bloomberg Private Medicare plans faulted by watchdog over denials of care

Maine Public Radio Medicaid expansion legal battle to continue in Portland on Thursday

CNBC Anxiety is expensive: Employee mental health costs rise twice as fast as all other medical expenses