“All options are on the table to fix this system, as long as they respect drug safety and keep patients at the center. President Trump is willing to work with Republicans and Democrats to achieve lower prices. He will continue taking action until we have a truly competitive market for prescription drugs — one in which prices will finally go down, not up.” —Alex M. Azar II Secretary Health and Human Services

The Trump administration’s top health official asked Congress on Friday to pass its new prescription drug discount plan and provide it to all patients, not just those covered by government programs like Medicare. The plan would take now-hidden rebates among industry players like drug companies and insurers and channel them directly to consumers when they go to pay for their medications. (Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press)

Members of Congress from both parties served notice on pharmaceutical companies on Tuesday that the days of unchecked drug-price increases were over and that they would be held politically accountable for exorbitant prices. The new reality became apparent at simultaneous but separate hearings of House and Senate committees where lawmakers said that the relentless increases were unsustainable and unacceptable. (Robert Pear, New York Times)

With little fanfare, a private Medicare delivery system owned by insurer Anthem Inc. moved thousands of elderly patients with diabetes from costly new insulin drugs such as Sanofi’s Lantus to older and cheaper insulin products. The health system saved millions. But many of the patients ended up better off financially, too. While blood sugar increased slightly on average, there was no rise in emergency-room visits or hospitalizations from dangerously low or high blood sugar. That’s the conclusion of a new study from Harvard Medical School researchers that could change how diabetics are treated and change the fortunes of drugmakers. (Robert Langreth, Bloomberg News)

Frustrated by federal inaction, state lawmakers in 41 states have proposed detailed plans to lower soaring prescription drug costs. Some measures would give state Medicaid agencies more negotiating power. Others would disclose the pricing decisions of the drug manufacturers and the companies that administer prescription drug plans. The more ambitious proposals would bump up against federal authority, such as legislation that would allow importing drugs from Canada or alter federal statutes on the prices states pay for drugs in Medicaid. (Michael Ollove, Stateline)

A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by Maryland’s Democratic attorney general that sought to protect the Affordable Care Act from threats by the Trump administration to undermine it. The judge, Ellen L. Hollander, appointed by President Obama, ruled that the state’s attorney general had not proved that the administration is failing to enforce the sprawling 2010 health care law. (Amy Goldstein, Washington Post)

While nearly every Democratic lawmaker now says they believe in the eventual goal of Medicare for all, the party is far from united on how to get there. “Medicare for all" has become a litmus test for 2020 Democrats, but the party is struggling to balance the grassroots enthusiasm for the cause with the political challenges of making it a reality. Kamala Harris was the latest candidate to come under fire from the left, right, and center. (Alice Miranda Ollstein, Politico)

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and three other liberal presidential candidates support a Medicare-for-all bill, which would create a single-payer health plan run by the government and increase federal spending by at least $2.5 trillion a year, according to several estimates. But Ms. Warren’s determination to sidestep an essential but deeply controversial issue at the heart of the single-payer model — would people lose the choices offered by private insurance? — illustrated one of the thorniest dilemmas for several Democrats as the 2020 primary gets underway. (Jonathan Martin and Abby Goodnough, New York Times)

The rate of hospital-acquired conditions declined by 13 percent from 2014 to 2017, saving providers $7.7 billion and preventing 20,500 hospital deaths, according to preliminary data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (Maria Castellucci, Modern Healthcare)

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma on Tuesday said the agency is exploring ways to apply its value-based payment models beyond Medicare and encourage more providers to buy in to the programs. Currently, only 14 percent of Medicare providers participate in value-based arrangements, Verma said at the CMS Quality Conference in Baltimore. But the agency hopes its new cadre of models will change that. (Robert King, Modern Healthcare)

As Tennessee officials move forward with a plan to require able-bodied adults to work, volunteer, or go to school in order to keep state-funded health insurance, a new study finds that 68,000 could lose that benefit entirely as a result. Georgetown University Health Policy Institute researchers based their findings on what happened in Arkansas, which became the first state to impose a work requirement on Medicaid recipients in August. (Anita Wadhwani, Nashville Tennessean)