Kavanaugh Took Swipe At Administration Just Days Before Nomination With Ruling On Medicare Payments
The hospitals that brought the suit said Medicare had been using the flawed data since 1983. The federal government tried to bar their claims, saying hospitals should not be able to challenge factual determinations made many years ago. “Saving money is a laudable goal,” Judge Brett Kavanaugh said, “but not one that may be pursued by using phony facts to shift costs onto the backs of hospitals.”
The New York Times:
Hospitals Challenge Medicare Payments, With Help From Judge Kavanaugh
A federal appeals court has cleared the way for hospitals around the country to seek more money from Medicare, based on evidence that the government has been using faulty data to calculate costs for decades. The case, which was decided in June, featured a concurring opinion by Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump’s choice for the Supreme Court, who heaved a broadside at the Department of Health and Human Services just days before he was nominated. (Pear, 7/16)
Politico:
Conservative Group Drops Another $1.4 Million To Confirm Kavanaugh
The conservative Judicial Crisis Network is dropping another $1.4 million on ads to help Brett Kavanaugh get confirmed to the Supreme Court. The group's ad buy this week will bring its total spending to $3.8 million, according to an official familiar with the efforts. The latest batch of ads will target four Democratic senators from conservative states on national cable and broadcast networks in their home markets: Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Doug Jones of Alabama. (Everett, 7/16)
In other national health care —
NPR/ProPublica:
Health Insurers Tap Data Brokers To Help Predict Costs
To an outsider, the fancy booths at a June health insurance industry gathering in San Diego, Calif., aren't very compelling: a handful of companies pitching "lifestyle" data and salespeople touting jargony phrases like "social determinants of health. "But dig deeper and the implications of what they're selling might give many patients pause: A future in which everything you do — the things you buy, the food you eat, the time you spend watching TV — may help determine how much you pay for health insurance. (Allen, 7/17)
Politico:
Veterans Spending Dispute Raises Specter Of Stopgap
Inviting more stopgap spending, the White House has fired off an official warning against congressional efforts to blow through budget limits. Top Trump administration officials sent a letter Monday cautioning lawmakers against raising spending caps to accommodate shifts in funding for a popular veterans health program, though they stopped short of threatening a veto. (Ferris and Scholtes, 7/16)
The New York Times:
Psychology Itself Is Under Scrutiny
The urge to pull down statues extends well beyond the public squares of nations in turmoil. Lately it has been stirring the air in some corners of science, particularly psychology. In recent months, researchers and some journalists have strung cables around the necks of at least three monuments of the modern psychological canon. ... The assaults on these studies aren’t all new. Each is a story in its own right, involving debates over methodology and statistical bias that have surfaced before in some form. (Carey, 7/16)
The New York Times:
It’s 4 A.M. The Baby’s Coming. But The Hospital Is 100 Miles Away.
A few hours after the only hospital in town shut its doors forever, Kela Abernathy bolted awake at 4:30 a.m., screaming in pain. Oh God, she remembered thinking, it’s the twins. They were not due for another two months. But the contractions seizing Ms. Abernathy’s lower back early that June morning told her that her son and daughter were coming. Now. (Healy, 7/17)