Fierce Healthcare’s reporters fill us in on the day 2 doings at the JP Morgan healthcare conference in San Francisco.

In the same vein, Healthcare Dive informs us that “Cigna is partnering with tech-savvy payer startup Oscar Health to jointly sell commercial health plans to small businesses as the Bloomfield, Connecticut-based payer looks to capitalize on Oscar’s simplified strategy to expand its footprint in the small group market.”

About five years ago, the FEHBlog heard the American Medical Association’s then president elect explain that he takes heart disease death statistics with a grain of salt because doctors historically have listed heart disease as the default cause of death for older patients when no autopsy is ordered. This Wall Street Journal article, however, suggests that our country has a serious problem with heart disease.

Americans are dying of heart disease and strokes at a rising rate in middle age, normally considered the prime years of life. An analysis of U.S. mortality statistics by The Wall Street Journal shows the problem is geographically widespread. Death rates from cardiovascular disease among people between the ages of 45 and 64 are rising in cities all across the country, including in some of the most unlikely places.

NPR Shots discusses the current state of concierge medicine and is younger cousin direct primary care in the U.S.