New Suit Claims Administration’s Approval Of Arkansas’ Medicaid Work Requirement Is Unconstitutional

Reuters: Trump Administration Sued Over Arkansas' Medicaid Work Requirements
Advocacy groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging the decision by President Donald Trump's administration to allow Arkansas to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients in the state. The lawsuit, filed against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in federal court in Washington on behalf of three Medicaid recipients in the state, claims that the federal Medicaid law does not allow the administration to approve work requirements. (8/14)

In other national health care news —

Modern Healthcare: Trump's Immigrant Healthcare Rule Could Hurt Low-Income Populations
Healthcare leaders warn that a pending Trump administration rule penalizing legal immigrants for using government benefits like Medicaid would hurt public health efforts and reduce their ability to serve millions of low-income children and families. According to a revised draft of the 223-page rule leaked in March, the Trump administration will allow immigration officials to consider legal immigrants' use of public health insurance, nutrition and other programs as a strongly negative factor in their applications for legal permanent residency. The change also applies to citizens' and legal residents' requests to bring family members into the U.S., as well as to young people who have legal status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as Dreamers. (Meyer, 8/14)

The Hill: CVS Launches Program Targeting Expensive New Drugs 
CVS Caremark will allow its clients to exclude coverage of drugs with extremely high launch prices under a new program the company said is aimed at pressuring manufacturers to lower drug costs.According to CVS, launch prices have been steadily rising for years, and are completely up to the discretion of the manufacturer. The high prices put an unsustainable burden on the country’s health system, CVS said.  (Weixel, 8/14)

Politico: Oral Arguments In Texas Obamacare Suit Set For Sept. 10
Oral arguments have been scheduled for Sept. 10 in a Texas lawsuit seeking to strike down Obamacare as unconstitutional. The case was filed in February by 20 Republican state attorneys general. They’re seeking a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of the federal health care law. (Demko, 8/14)

The Hill: Google Parent Invests $375M In ObamaCare Startup Oscar
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is investing $375 million in Oscar Health, a startup health insurance company seeking to redefine the industry by using technology and data. The infusion of funding from the parent of a major technology giant is a vote of confidence in Oscar Health, which has been closely watched for how well it will be able to shake up the health insurance industry. (Sullivan, 8/14)

The New York Times: The ‘Zombie Gene’ That May Protect Elephants From Cancer
Elephants ought to get a lot of cancer. They’re huge animals, weighing as much as eight tons. It takes a lot of cells to make up that much elephant. All of those cells arose from a single fertilized egg, and each time a cell divides, there’s a chance that it will gain a mutation — one that may lead to cancer. Strangely, however, elephants aren’t more prone to cancer than smaller animals. Some research even suggests they get less cancer than humans do. (Zimmer, 8/14)

The New York Times: Should You Choose A Female Doctor?
Does gender matter when choosing a doctor? Whether your doctor is male or female could be a matter of life or death, a new study suggests. The study, of more than 580,000 heart patients admitted over two decades to emergency rooms in Florida, found that mortality rates for both women and men were lower when the treating physician was female. And women who were treated by male doctors were the least likely to survive. (Parker Pope, 8/14)