Morning Headlines 10/26/17

Cerner EHR implementation at VA to take ‘7 to 8 years’

VA Secretary David Shulkin, MD told the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs that the transition from VistA to Cerner will take seven to eight years, with the first go-live anticipated 18 months after contracts are signed.

CRISPR 2.0 Is Here, and It’s Way More Precise

Published in both Nature and Science, researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard describe a new gene-editing technique that improves on CRISPR-Cas9. The new approach rearranges atoms within a DNA strand to repair mutated chemical bases, rather than cutting and replacing the problematic area of the DNA, resulting in a more precise editing tool that could one day treat a range of inherited diseases, some of which currently have no treatment options.

Judge rejects bid by 18 states to revive Obamacare subsidies

In San Francisco, US District Judge Vince Chhabria upholds President Trump’s executive order stopping cost-sharing subsidy payments to insurers.

Bipartisan health-care bill would reduce deficit by $4B over 10 years

The CBO says the bipartisan Alexander-Murray bill, designed to stabilize the ACA individual marketplaces, would reduce the deficit by nearly $4 billion over the next 10 years.