IOM essential benefits report — long-awaited — expected out later this week

The report will offer the Institute of Medicine's recommendations regarding how the health law's essential benefits package should be determined. In other health law news, federal regulators also must decide whether family planning should be included as a preventive care benefit. Religious groups say the "carve-out" exemption included in the draft regulations is too narrow.

Politico Pro: Exchange Week: IOM Report To Drop Friday
We may say it a lot, but Friday can't get here soon enough this week. That's because the Institute of Medicine is set to release its long-awaited report on essential health benefits Oct. 7 -; but more on that in a minute. And now that the Sept. 30 exchange establishment grant deadline has passed, states that haven't asked for their share of the pie will have just a short window of time to decide whether they will meet the final deadline in December for Level One establishment grants (Millman, 10/3).

The Hill: New Health Care Law Battle: Family Planning
A major provision of Democrats' health care reform law has stoked a bitter fight over contraceptives. Federal regulators must soon decide whether family planning should be included in the preventive care benefits that insurance plans must cover without a co-pay starting next year. Religious groups say an exemption carving them out is too narrow; women's groups don't think the exemption should exist at all. The Department of Health and Human Services crafted the exemption in proposed regulations unveiled in August. Public comments were due by close of business Friday, and they flooded in (Pecquet, 10/1).

In state-level implementation news -;

Minnesota Public Radio: Showdown Coming in Minn. Over Health Exchanges
Minnesota appears headed toward a showdown over health insurance exchanges, one of the pillars of the federal health care overhaul. Under the law, Minnesota, like all states, will eventually have an exchange -; an online marketplace where consumers and small businesses can compare and buy health plans. But there's a battle shaping up over who will design and run it. ... DFL Gov. Mark Dayton has secured millions in federal dollars to design a Minnesota health insurance exchange. But whether the Dayton administration has the authority to turn those designs into reality is an open question (Stawicki, 10/3).