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Aetna honored with 2014 Innovation in Reducing Health Care Disparities Award

Aetna was honored today by the National Business Group on Health (NBGH) with the 2014 Innovation in Reducing Health Care Disparities Award. Aetna is a three-time recipient of the award that recognizes organizations for their commitment to equality in health care and exceptional support for cultural diversity.

8 Mar 2014

Obama gives Latinos full court press

The president appeared at a town-hall-style event Thursday, hosted by Spanish-language media outlets, to urge Latinos to sign up for insurance options made available by the health law before open enrollment ends March 31.

8 Mar 2014

First Edition: March 7, 2014

Today's headlines include stories about new studies that attempt to measure the health law's headway in signing up uninsured Americans for health coverage.

7 Mar 2014

Viewpoints: Revamping health law regs -- again; Arkansas decision on Medicaid reverberates nationwide

The Obama administration wrote a new chapter Wednesday in the "if you like your health plan, you can keep it" chronicles, decreeing that plans it once derided as "junk" or "substandard" can remain in effect until October 2017 -- long after the next presidential election. The point, administration officials say, is to help those in the market for individual or small-group plans make a smoother transition into Obamacare (Jon Healey, 3/5).

7 Mar 2014

Highlights: Va. mental health budget; Calif. nursing home Bankruptcy; nurses' practice in Minn.

Lawmakers in Richmond are deep in budget negotiations and will soon decide which parts of the mental health-care system will receive a funding boost. The House and Senate proposals have a number of differences, and what emerges will likely be a mash-up of the two (Shin, 3/5).

7 Mar 2014

Medicaid expansion: With Arkansas 'private' plan authorized for another year, officials now focus on possible fixes

After surviving an effort earlier this week to defund it, supporters of the state's private option are now working on alterations that will smooth its future. Meanwhile, the back-and-forth over whether to pursue the expansion continues in Virginia and Utah.

7 Mar 2014

White House says risk corridors will be budget neutral; key health law official resigns

In news on the implementation of the health overhaul, administration officials seek to rebut Republican charges that the risk corridors will be a "bailout" for the insurance industry. Meanwhile, Gary Cohen, who helped oversee many of the rules for rolling out the law, is leaving the government.

7 Mar 2014

Cataract surgery followed by use of contact lenses may be better solution for infants

For adults and children who undergo cataract surgery, implantation of an artificial lens is the standard of care. But a clinical trial suggests that for most infants, surgery followed by the use of contact lenses for several years—and an eventual lens implant—may be the better solution.

7 Mar 2014

Groups, insurers, officials mobilize for health law enrollment push

March 31 is the deadline for signing up for insurance, and young adults and minorities are among the groups being targeted.

7 Mar 2014

Obama administration announces new round of health law rule changes

Among the wide-ranging set of changes, the one drawing the most attention is the administration's decision to allow some consumers to keep health coverage into 2017 that does not comply with the overhaul's minimum standards.

6 Mar 2014

Feds to probe troubled state exchanges

The Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, will look at what went wrong with several state exchanges, including Oregon's, which failed to deliver despite large infusions of federal money.

6 Mar 2014

House votes to delay individual mandate

The House took its 50th vote to change the health law, passing a bill that would delay the individual mandate to carry health insurance for one year. The measure will likely never be taken up in the Democrat-led Senate.

6 Mar 2014

First Edition: March 6, 2014

Today's headlines include reports about health law rule changes announced yesterday by the Obama administration.

6 Mar 2014

Four MAXIMUS centers recognized as Certified Centers of Excellence

MAXIMUS, a leading provider of government services worldwide, announced today that four of its customer contact centers have been recognized as "Certified Centers of Excellence" by BenchmarkPortal.

6 Mar 2014

$600M for health law implementation in President's proposed budget

In the meantime, the budget also proposes $5.5 billion for "risk corridors" in 2015 to pay insurers who find themselves with a higher number of sicker and older people they must insure. Some call that program a bailout.

6 Mar 2014

Feds give South Dakota's partial Medicaid expansion plan a thumbs down; Utah may need a special session

News outlets report on these and other state efforts to address issues related to expanding the state-federal health insurance program for low-income people.

6 Mar 2014

Viewpoints: Obama's budget punts on entitlements; Medicaid debate rankles states

There is a lesson in this unexpected juxtaposition nevertheless: No nation can safely base its tax and spending plans on inflexible commitments. Political life, both domestic and international, is too unpredictable. Yet U.S. government spending is mostly on autopilot. The government is scheduled to lay out $3.8 trillion this fiscal year - 70 percent of which will go to mandatory-spending programs, chiefly Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the federal debt. Mr. Obama's plan for fiscal 2015 does not change this; it would increase overall spending slightly, paying for it with selected tax increases, while shifting money among priorities here and there. But these tweaks would take place within the same 30 percent of discretionary spending that the current budget contains (3/4).

6 Mar 2014

White House to announce 2nd renewal for old health plans

Americans who kept health plans that didn't comply with the health law's coverage requirements will be able to renew those policies again, sources tell media outlets. The Obama administration is expected to announce the extension today.

6 Mar 2014

CBO projects lower health law cost; Oregon lawmakers seek marketplace probe

The cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office takes into account lower-than-projected enrollment this year. Meanwhile, Oregon's Democratic senators ask the Government Accountability Office to examine federal funding of that state's website a day after House Republicans make a similar request.

6 Mar 2014

Arkansas House votes to fund Medicaid expansion private option

The measure, which extended for one year this "private" approach to expanding health insurance coverage to low-income state residents, failed in four previous votes. Its opponents say the debate is not over -- they are just "hitting the pause button."

6 Mar 2014