The Sacramento Bee: Covered California Adds 425,000 New Enrollees, Sees Increase In Younger Residents
More than 425,000 Californians – including a bigger percentage of younger residents – signed up for new health insurance policies by last week’s Obamacare enrollment deadline, Covered California officials announced Thursday. The last four days before the Jan. 31 cutoff saw a rush of last-minute enrollees, as nearly 100,000 people signed up, said Peter Lee, the state program’s executive director. Overall, about 1.6 million Californians have selected a plan for 2016, including those who renewed their policies from last year.

California Healthline: Another 425,000 Sign Up For Covered California
More than 425,000 Californians have signed up on the state’s health insurance exchange — with nearly 100,000 rushing to enroll in the last four days before the 2016 open enrollment period ended Jan. 31, officials said Thursday. The exchange, Covered California, had estimated it would attract between 295,000 and 450,000 new enrollees during its third open enrollment season since the Affordable Care Act took effect. In addition to the new enrollees, about 1.15 million existing consumers re-upped this year, officials said, for a total of about 1.57 million. (Feder Ostrov, 2/4)

The Los Angeles Daily News: Guess Who’s Signing Up More Under The Affordable Care Act? Young People
More young, hearty residents enrolled into health plans offered under Covered California this year compared with the last two years, which shows social media campaigns and word of mouth appear to be working, officials said Thursday. (Abram, 2/4)

KPCC: More Young Adults Among New Health Insurance Enrollees
Continuing a two-year upward trend, young adults accounted for 37 percent of those who newly signed up for health insurance by the time open enrollment ended last Sunday, according to Covered California. In the Affordable Care Act's first open enrollment period two years ago, 29 percent of first-time enrollees were in the coveted 18-34 age group. The figure was 34 percent in the sign-up period that ended last year. (Aguilera, 2/4)

The Sacramento Business Journal: Covered California Meets Enrollment Goals In Latest Signup Season
Covered California officials on Thursday said the state-run health insurance marketplace hit its target for signups in 2016. Preliminary tallies show that more than 425,000 new customers signed up in the open-enrollment period that ended Jan. 31. (Young, 2/4)

The New York Times: Health Care Signups Exceed Hopes, With 4 Million Newcomers to Federal Marketplace
About 12.7 million people signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act or had their coverage automatically renewed in the third annual open enrollment season. Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said the signups exceeded her goals and her expectations. “Open enrollment for 2016 is over, and we are happy to report it was a success,” she said. Most of the plan selections were for people in the 38 states — more than 9.6 million — who used the federal website, HealthCare.gov. The other 3.1 million people were enrolled in states that run their own marketplaces. (Pear, 2/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Federal Health-Care Enrollees Exceed Goals
Top administration officials said they were especially excited to see 4 million first-time users of HealthCare.gov among the total, suggesting they had done better than expected in signing up those uninsured who may have been hard to win over. “We knocked the lights out this year,” said Kevin Counihan, the chief executive officer for the federal website and head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services unit charged with implementing the health law. (Radnofsky, 2/4)

The Washington Post: Affordable Care Act Enrollment Grows Modestly This Year, To 12.7 Million
Health policy experts said the numbers were in line with recent government predictions that growth in coverage through the law’s marketplaces is slowing sooner than originally expected. Of those who signed up through HealthCare.gov, 4 million people — about 2 in 5 — are new customers, the figures show. But it is not clear how many are in the niche group that HHS targeted in its recent outreach efforts: the approximately 10.5 million Americans who remained uninsured despite being eligible to buy insurance through the ACA exchanges. (Goldstein, 2/4)

The Sacramento Bee: Jerry Brown Selects California’s First Medical Marijuana Chief
California has found its czar for medical marijuana. On Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown announced the appointment of Lori Ajax, currently the chief deputy director of the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, to the newly-created post overseeing the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation in the Department of Consumer Affairs. (Koseff, 2/4)

The San Francisco Chronicle: Republican Lori Ajax Named As State’s 1st Medical Marijuana Czar
California has its first weed czar — otherwise known as chief of its Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation — and it’s a Republican, Lori Ajax, who is now chief deputy director of the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. (Garofoli, 2/4)

CALmatters: How High-Cost Specialty Drugs Impact California
What’s behind the jaw-dropping cost of new “specialty drugs” like Orkambi, which has a sticker price of $259,000 per year for cystic fibrosis patients? Orkambi is listed as a “specialty tier” drug in some private health plans. That category is reserved for high-cost drugs, or, in the federal government’s view, for drugs that cost more than $600 a month and are used by a small proportion of patients. Specialty drugs are already proving to be a financial burden on one California agency, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which purchases health benefits for active and retired state workers.(Bartolone, 2/4)

Payers & Providers: Should Cancer Drugs Be Rationed?
A Los Angeles-based advocacy group for pediatric cancer patients has proposed a framework to cope with ongoing and future shortages of oncology drugs. The proposal, put forth by the Children's Oncology Group and published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, suggests a combination of identifying which drugs are in shortage, evaluating the severity of the shortage, and then formulating an allocation plan for such drugs. (2/4)

The Sacramento Business Journal: Chinese Research Firm Pours Badly Needed Cash Into Local Biotech Firm
A Chinese stem-cell research company invested $15 million into regenerative medicine company Cesca Therapeutics Inc., the company reported Wednesday. (Anderson, 2/4)

The San Francisco Business Journal: After Early Drug Breakthroughs, Tobira CEO Makes A Dash For NASH
​Laurent Fischer helped push groundbreaking HIV-fighting drugs to market for AIDS patients. So why not tackle another disease where a treatment could be equally lifechanging? (Leuty, 2/4)

Los Angeles Times: Why Did So Many California Kids Get Whooping Cough Despite Being Vaccinated?
When California had its biggest pertussis outbreak in more than half a century in 2010, the kids who fell most sick were 10- and 11-year-olds. That struck public health experts as odd. Children receive five doses of the vaccine that protects against the illness — also known as whooping cough — by the time they're 6, so that population should have been fully inoculated. (Karlamangla, 2/4)

KQED: Whooping Cough ‘Booster’ Vaccine Protection Fades Quickly, Kaiser Study Shows
In the late 1990s, a new version of the whooping cough vaccine was introduced. The big benefit was that it had fewer side effects. But in the years since, evidence has been mounting that this newer vaccine loses its effectiveness — and fast. (Aliferis, 2/4)

The Sacramento Bee: Amid Camping Debate, Sacramento’s Backpack Doctors Tackle Homeless Health Care
Abram Nunn approaches a trash-strewn homeless camp with caution, stepping gingerly between still-warm cook stoves, heaps of tattered blankets and makeshift teepees. A few lounging pit bulls snap to attention as the young physician assistant gives his usual greeting: “Medical team’s here! Anybody sick?” ... Nunn and the rest of the Elica Health street medicine team are used to it. They’ve been working for months to earn the trust of Sacramento’s outer-edge dwellers. ... Roughly 5,000 homeless people live in Sacramento in a given year, according to estimates from homeless advocates. The county, city and nonprofit groups provide about 1,000 beds, and those who don’t find shelter have to curl up in alleys, under bridges and in tents along the city’s two rivers. Hundreds more of the homeless have been stationed outside City Hall since December to protest a longstanding anti-camping ordinance that forbids people from sleeping in public spaces. (Caiola, 2/4)

The Associated Press: Official: Massive LA-Area Gas Leak Could Be Capped In A Week
A California official outlined a plan Thursday to cap a massive Los Angeles-area gas leak by the end of next week. The final phase to intercept the ruptured Southern California Gas Co. well is expected to begin Monday, said Wade Crowfoot, an adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown. If all goes according to plan, it should to take contractors about five days to permanently seal the well that has been leaking since October. (Melley, 2/5)

The Los Angeles Times: BMI Mislabels 54 Million Americans As 'Overweight' Or 'Obese,' Study Says
Good news for some in the high-BMI crowd: A new study from UCLA finds that some 54 million Americans who are labeled as obese or overweight according to their body mass index are, when you take a closer look, actually healthy. (Khan, 2/4)

The San Diego Union-Tribune: The CDC Wants Women To Stop Drinking Unless They Are On Birth Control
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention created quite a stir with its new recommendation Tuesday, calling on women of childbearing age to stop drinking unless they were on birth control. The report says that 3.3 million U.S. women, or 7.3 percent, were at risk for having a child with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. These disorders are associated with a series of developmental and intellectual disabilities, and occur in 1 of every 3,334 births. (Wheaton, 2/5)

NPR: Women Blast CDC's Advice To Use Birth Control If Drinking Alcohol
New advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention aimed at preventing fetal alcohol syndrome has created quite a stir. The CDC estimates that about 3 million women "are at risk of exposing their developing baby to alcohol because they are drinking, sexually active and not using birth control to prevent pregnancy." So the CDC is now advising women to stop drinking if they are trying to get pregnant or not using birth control with sex. That's right, abstain from drinking. (Aubrey, 2/4)

The Associated Press: Doctor Faces Life Sentence For Over-Prescribing Painkillers
A doctor convicted of murder for prescribing "crazy, outrageous amounts" of painkillers that left three patients dead could get life in prison at her sentencing scheduled for Friday. Dr. Hsiu-Ying "Lisa" Tseng's second-degree murder conviction in October is rare for a physician. It came after a dozen of her patients died during an epidemic of prescription drug abuse. The powerful painkillers Tseng prescribed included oxycodone, sold as Percocet and other brand names, and hydrocodone, popularly known under the brand name Vicodin. (Myers, 2/5)

The Ventura County Star: VCMC Nurses Say Wages, Turnover Compromise Care
Leaders of a nurses union at Ventura County Medical Center say noncompetitive wages spawned high infection rates and other patient safety issues by pushing experienced nurses to private hospitals. They cited Medicare fines over infections and other injuries acquired by patients after being admitted. The nurses are set to meet with county administrators Friday as part of a bargaining process that followed temporary raises. (Kisken, 2/4)

Payers & Providers: Eight Hospitals Fined For Safety Issues
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has issued administrative penalties and fines totaling $483,650 to eight hospitals for incidents that jeopardized the lives of patients. Details about the incidents released by the CDPH last week indicated that they led to four patient deaths. (Shinkman, 2/4)

Los Angeles Times: Clinton And Sanders Vigorously Spar In New Hampshire Debate, A Sign Of Things To Come

The New York Times: In Democratic Debate, Candidates Clash On Money’s Role

The Associated Press: Debate Takeaways: Clinton, Sanders Mix It Up Over Wall St.

Politico: Clinton And Sanders Get Ugly

The Washington Post: Democratic Candidates Exhibit A New Ferocity In Last Debate Before N.H. Vote

The New York Times: Martin Shkreli Invokes The Fifth Amendment In House Appearance

NPR: House Hearing Probes The Mystery Of High Drug Prices That 'Nobody Pays'

The Associated Press: Drug Exec Takes The Fifth On Capitol Hill, Angers Lawmakers

The Wall Street Journal: Martin Shkreli Pleads The Fifth Before Congress

Politico: Martin Shkreli Calls Lawmakers 'Imbeciles'

The Wall Street Journal: 5 Things To Know About Today’s Drug-Price Hearing

The Wall Street Journal: FDA Gets Tougher On New Painkillers In Light Of Overdoses
The Food and Drug Administration, hoping to reduce deaths related to the abuse of powerful painkillers, said it would insist that new versions of the drugs get tougher scrutiny and that manufacturers gather evidence about their effects once they are on the market. The changes were announced by Robert Califf, the FDA’s deputy commissioner and the White House’s nominee to become commissioner. (Burton, 2/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Companies Form New Alliance To Target Health-Care Costs
Twenty major companies—including American Express Co., Macy’s Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.—are banding together to use their collective data and market power in a bid to hold down the cost of providing workers with health-care benefits. The newly formed alliance of companies, which cover about four million people among them, plan to share information about members’ employee health spending and outcomes, with an eye toward using findings to change how they contract for care. (Radnofsky, 2/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Cigna Profit Falls 8.8%
Cigna Corp. on Thursday said its fourth-quarter profit fell 8.8% as the health-care provider took a hit from charges related to its proposed merger with Anthem Inc., though revenue increased. The company also gave full-year guidance below analysts’ expectations, saying it expects earnings of $8.85 to $9.25 a share, compared with estimates of $9.30 a share, according to Thomson Reuters. (Steele, 2/4)

Reuters: Hospitals Can Be 'Urban' And 'Rural' At Same Time: U.S. Appeals Court
The federal appeals court in New York struck down a U.S. regulation that made it harder for hospitals to provide better medical care at lower cost by claiming they were "rural" for some purposes and "urban" for others. Thursday's decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a victory for hospitals in urban areas including the acute care Lawrence + Memorial Hospital of New London, Connecticut, which said the Department of Health and Human Services' "reclassification rule" forced it to overpay for drugs that patients needed. (Stempel, 2/4)