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Administration's waivers of health law raise questions about 'mini-med' plans

The White House on Thursday defended granting waivers to some employers from a key provision of the new health care law, saying it was the best way to keep people insured until the law fully takes effect.

11 Oct 2010

Political Ads, rhetoric on health law heating up races in Alaska, Nevada, Pennsylvania

Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller said this week that his family took benefits years ago from Medicaid and a state program for low-income children and pregnant women despite his criticism of entitlement programs, The Associated Press reports.

11 Oct 2010

Young adults continue to represent Americans without health insurance

Young adults continue to represent one of the largest groups of Americans without health insurance, with nearly 15 million people aged 19-29 uninsured in 2009-an increase of more than 1 million over 2008, according to a Commonwealth Fund report released today. However, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is poised to make a significant difference for this population, as up to 12.1 million could gain subsidized insurance once all of the law's provisions go into effect in 2014.

8 Oct 2010

Leavitt Partners introduces Health Reform Bracketology

Lots of people handicap elections. Very few take the next step and say what it means for health reform. Borrowing from the time-worn tradition of creating brackets for various sporting events, Leavitt Partners introduces Health Reform Bracketology, a systematic analysis of various election outcomes and what it means to the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

8 Oct 2010

Opeds: Editorials weigh in on success -- or not -- of 'Obama's' health reform

Six months after the passage of health care reform, it is easy to forget how far we have come in such a short time. It will take years to make the law's most important changes.

8 Oct 2010

Michigan judge rules individual mandate in health law is constitutional

"A U.S. judge on Thursday upheld a key part of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law that requires Americans to obtain coverage, rejecting a challenge by a conservative interest group. The Thomas More Law Center filed a lawsuit in Michigan the day Obama signed it into law. It argued that the provision requiring Americans buy coverage by 2014 under threat of penalty was beyond Congress' authority and an unconstitutional tax" (Pelofsky, 10/7).

8 Oct 2010

First Edition: October 7, 2010

Today's headlines include stories on waivers given some companies that offer only minimal health insurance coverage, insurers' political efforts during this campaign season and efforts in New York to bar the use of food stamps to buy soda.

7 Oct 2010

Should Medicare consider cost-effectiveness when setting reimbursement rates?

Medicare reimbursement rates should be based on how cost effective the treatment is for a particular illness, according to a piece by two policy experts in the October edition of Health Affairs.

7 Oct 2010

Health care votes haunt anti-abortion Dems; Republicans confront challenges with 'pledge'

Anti-abortion Democrats are facing stiff opposition in their bids for re-election because of their votes for health reform. Organizations like the Susan B. Anthony List and other anti-abortion groups are now attacking former allies who once sided with them on abortion. "Now, SBA List is engaged in a multimillion-dollar attack on its former allies, replete with bus tours and billboards alleging that members 'voted for taxpayer-funded abortion.'

7 Oct 2010

Health reform facing early legal tests

Matt Sissel of Iowa City, Iowa, proudly served in Iraq as a combat medic. But he says he objects to being 'conscripted' into an overhauled federal health care system.

7 Oct 2010

Feds try to address hospitals' and doctors' concerns about accountable care organizations

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz told a meeting of 300 health industry representatives Tuesday his agency would explore an 'expedited review process' for hospitals and doctors looking to determine if new partnerships they form to provide care would violate antitrust laws. He was one of several top federal officials trying to address the concerns of hospitals and doctors.

7 Oct 2010

Daschle warns opponents can still damage health law and stirs controversy on public option

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle has written a book about the struggle to overhaul the health system. But while promoting this book, some of Daschle's comments about White House strategy on the public option have stirred a controversy.

7 Oct 2010

Feds agree to waive minimum health insurance requirement for 30 companies while 3 GOP congressmen begin probe of health law costs

The federal government has issued a waiver for 30 companies so that they do not have to abide by a provision of the new federal health law that would have required the companies to provide a minimum of $750,000 in health insurance coverage for covered employees, Bloomberg reports.

7 Oct 2010

3.5 million Calif. residents eligible for tax credits in future exchange; N.Y. prescription drug aid for seniors cut back; Idaho trims dental providers in Medicaid

An estimated 3.5 million Californians would be eligible for federal tax credits to slash the cost of their health coverage when they begin buying policies through a new statewide insurance marketplace in 2014, a study released Tuesday found.

7 Oct 2010

Queensland health workers unhappy with pay rise

As a protest against the Queensland government's pay offer, thousands of health workers plan to stop work in Brisbane on Thursday. This would include health practitioners, psychologists, physiotherapists, radiographers and scientists. The rally would take place outside Parliament House in Brisbane at noon. The outrage followed the state government's 2.5 per cent a year pay rise offer over three years.

6 Oct 2010

First Edition: October 6, 2010

Today's headlines include reports about the early legal tests facing the new health law and more on the politics swirling around the measure's sweeping reforms.

6 Oct 2010

Health overhaul implementation updates: States fret, Sebelius hits The Hill

In a congressional appearance Monday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asked lawmakers to move beyond politics and focus on successfully reforming American health care.

6 Oct 2010

Mass. hospital sale talks seeking to protect employee retirement plans; Conn. Gov. ask for waiver in preexisting insurance plan

Representatives of Caritas Christi Health Care, the private equity firm seeking to buy it, and the attorney general's office are working on a tentative agreement to protect the retirement plans of 13,000 employees and keep the chain's hospitals open for at least five years.

6 Oct 2010

SJMHS and IHA announce strategic merger to develop new integrated health network

Saint Joseph Mercy Health System (SJMHS) and IHA, the region's leading physician group practice, both of Ann Arbor, Mich., today announced a strategic merger with the goal of developing a new integrated health network. The merger is expected to be effective on or before December 31, at which time IHA will be a member of SJMHS and will initially serve as the integrated physician enterprise for these St. Joseph Mercy Hospital markets: Washtenaw, Livingston and portions of western Wayne and south western Oakland counties.

6 Oct 2010

Sebelius: Medicare Advantage cuts won't hurt plans

Will the health law curb private Medicare insurance plans, known as Medicare Advantage, or won't it? Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters Monday that it won't, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. "Ms. Sebelius said the decision by a large Massachusetts insurer to leave the Medicare Advantage market is not a harbinger of the program's decline.

6 Oct 2010

Health Reform News and Research

Administration's waivers of health law raise questions about 'mini-med' plans

Political Ads, rhetoric on health law heating up races in Alaska, Nevada, Pennsylvania

Young adults continue to represent Americans without health insurance

Leavitt Partners introduces Health Reform Bracketology

Opeds: Editorials weigh in on success -- or not -- of 'Obama's' health reform

Michigan judge rules individual mandate in health law is constitutional

First Edition: October 7, 2010

Should Medicare consider cost-effectiveness when setting reimbursement rates?

Health care votes haunt anti-abortion Dems; Republicans confront challenges with 'pledge'

Health reform facing early legal tests

Feds try to address hospitals' and doctors' concerns about accountable care organizations

Daschle warns opponents can still damage health law and stirs controversy on public option

Feds agree to waive minimum health insurance requirement for 30 companies while 3 GOP congressmen begin probe of health law costs

3.5 million Calif. residents eligible for tax credits in future exchange; N.Y. prescription drug aid for seniors cut back; Idaho trims dental providers in Medicaid

Queensland health workers unhappy with pay rise

First Edition: October 6, 2010

Health overhaul implementation updates: States fret, Sebelius hits The Hill

Mass. hospital sale talks seeking to protect employee retirement plans; Conn. Gov. ask for waiver in preexisting insurance plan

SJMHS and IHA announce strategic merger to develop new integrated health network

Sebelius: Medicare Advantage cuts won't hurt plans

How ELRIG Is Helping Mid-Career Scientists Navigate Leadership, Career Change and Redundancy

The role of UV-Vis in biopharma QC

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