Healthcare winners in 2015

House Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Nancy Pelosi surprised everyone by pushing through repeal of the hated sustainable-growth rate formula for Medicare physician payment, replacing it with a value-based system to take effect in 2019.

Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini has said he expects the Humana deal to close sometime in the second half of this year.

Anthem CEO Joe Swedish (right) succeeded in his bid to acquire Cigna Corp. in a deal valued at $54 billion and that kept him in the top job, though that deal also faces antitrust review.

Cerner Corp. CEO Neal Patterson and Leidos CEO Roger Krone led their consortium to win a $4.3 billion Defense Department contract to serve the Military Health System's 55 hospitals and 600 clinics.

McConnell

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton won overwhelming bipartisan House passage of the 21st Century Cures Act, a bill designed to speed development of new drugs and medical devices and boost NIH funding.

Pence

Sylvia Mathews Burwell

Pharmaceutical companies raised prices and continued to rack up solid profits even as the clamor grew from providers, insurers, policymakers and patient advocacy groups for measures to curb prices and spending on prescription drugs.