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Facing Medicare funding cuts, Virginia hospitals push for Medicaid expansion

Expanding the program for low-income residents would help bring new revenue to the hospitals. Meanwhile, supporters of Medicaid expansion offer a new proposal in Nebraska and a young man in Utah diagnosed with cancer faces treatment problems because he lost his Medicaid coverage.

16 Jan 2014

First Edition: January 16, 2013

Today's headlines include reports that a federal judge on Wednesday rejected a legal challenge related to the health law's insurance subsidies.

16 Jan 2014

Health law's prevention funds diverted to other programs in $1T spending bill

New details emerge about the cut to the health law's Prevention and Public Health Fund in the $1 trillion spending bill, but a jobless benefits extension in Congress stalls. In the meantime, a mental health plan pushed by President Obama will get spending bill funds.

16 Jan 2014

Bill seeks team-based approach to caring for Medicare patients with chronic illness

Sen. Ron Wyden plans to unveil a bill to encourage team-based care in the program for older and disabled Americans. In the meantime, Medicare readies to deliver payment data for individual doctors on a "case-by-case" basis.

16 Jan 2014

First Edition: January 15, 2014

Today's headlines include reports about the announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services that people who get their health insurance through high-risk insurance pools will have an extra two months before this program ends.

15 Jan 2014

Viewpoints: 'Celebrating' enrollment numbers; Maryland's website 'debacle;' abortion battle moves again to high court

Today the federal government released the most comprehensive data yet about who signed up for Obamacare through Dec. 28. There's reason to cheer for both the law's supporters and its detractors. ... Today's numbers don't settle the question of whether the administration will hit its goals for enrollment in the exchanges, measured either in raw numbers or demographic breakdown. But they show that those goals are within reach (Christopher Flavelle, 1/13).

15 Jan 2014

Lawmakers introduce $1T spending bill with health law prevention fund cuts

The $1 trillion spending bill that lawmakers introduced Monday cuts $1 billion from the health law's Prevention and Public Health Fund and holds down funding for other health law programs to 2013 levels, but leaves it otherwise untouched.

15 Jan 2014

First Edition: January 13, 2014

Today's headlines include news about how the health law's enrollment process is working and about the federal government's decision not to renew the contract for the company that was overseeing the repairs for healthcare.gov.

13 Jan 2014

Obama administration proposes Medicare drug change

In a move that some fear could compromise care for Medicare recipients, the Obama administration is proposing to remove special protections that guarantee seniors access to a wide selection of three types of drugs.

13 Jan 2014

First Edition: January 10, 2014

Today's headlines include reports about Maryland's plan to reduce hospital spending.

10 Jan 2014

Chamber Of Commerce details its updated strategy to deal with health law trouble spots

The Chamber's President and CEO Thomas Donohue vowed first and foremost to fight against the overhaul's employer mandate, but noted that in other cases the organization will work to fix flaws rather than repeal the measure.

10 Jan 2014

Longer reads: Hospice drains Medicare; false Obamacare 'horror stories;' growing up without vaccines

Hospice patients are expected to die: The treatment focuses on providing comfort to the terminally ill, not finding a cure. To enroll a patient, two doctors certify a life expectancy of six months or less. But over the past decade, the number of "hospice survivors" in the United States has risen dramatically, in part because hospice companies earn more by recruiting patients who aren't actually dying, a Washington Post investigation has found. Healthier patients are more profitable because they require fewer visits and stay enrolled longer (Peter Whoriskey and Dan Keating, 12/26).

9 Jan 2014

New study compares blood pressure management in the US and England

In the US but not in England, patients on low incomes with high blood pressure have their condition managed poorly compared with those who earn more.

9 Jan 2014

First Edition: January 9, 2014

Today's headlines include reports about how the politics of the health law continue to play out on Capitol Hill.

9 Jan 2014

Viewpoints: Health law debate on contraceptive coverage; Cuccinelli: No investigators for Medicaid fraud; 50 years after the famed report on smoking

The Little Sisters of the Poor, an organization of Roman Catholic nuns that runs nursing homes around the country, is testing the contraceptive coverage mandate of the Affordable Care Act. Last week, we're sorry to say, the nuns won a temporary reprieve from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Under the law, most employers are required to provide their employees with health insurance that covers birth control. But the Obama administration agreed to a compromise for nonprofit religious groups that object to contraception, exempting them from paying for such coverage. Instead, insurers agreed to absorb the cost. All the religious organization has to do is fill out a simple form attesting to its situation. Unfortunately, even that was too much for the Little Sisters of the Poor (1/7).

9 Jan 2014

Researchers investigate how workplace environment in primary care settings affects NPs' ability

More than a dozen states have passed legislation expanding the role of nurse practitioners (NPs) so they can help fill the shortage of primary care providers in the U.S. But a new study from Columbia University School of Nursing, published in the Journal of Professional Nursing, suggests that the organization and culture in health care settings often impedes the full utilization of NPs so that state laws expanding scope of practice may not be sufficient to relieve the nation's primary care crisis.

9 Jan 2014

Democrats reject GOP offer: Jobless benefits for health law suspension

Republicans are pushing proposals involving suspending parts of the health law in return for extending unemployment aid. Lawmakers also are making progress on a $1 trillion spending bill, again with health law negotiations at the center.

9 Jan 2014

FDA approves Actavis' ANDA for Telmisartan Immediate-Release Tablets

Actavis plc today announced that it has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on its Abbreviated New Drug Application for Telmisartan Immediate-Release Tablets, 20 mg, 40 mg and 80 mg, a generic equivalent to Boehringer Ingelheim's Micardis. Actavis intends to launch the product immediately.

9 Jan 2014

Health industry insiders analyze, predict and prescribe

Kaiser Health News checks in with former HHS chief Michael Leavitt while CQ HealthBeat details insights from another insider, Robert Laszewski.

9 Jan 2014

First Edition: January 8, 2014

Today's headlines include news from Capitol Hill about how current events offer a window into the dynamics of the 2014 campaign season.

8 Jan 2014

Medicare News and Research

Facing Medicare funding cuts, Virginia hospitals push for Medicaid expansion

First Edition: January 16, 2013

Health law's prevention funds diverted to other programs in $1T spending bill

Bill seeks team-based approach to caring for Medicare patients with chronic illness

First Edition: January 15, 2014

Viewpoints: 'Celebrating' enrollment numbers; Maryland's website 'debacle;' abortion battle moves again to high court

Lawmakers introduce $1T spending bill with health law prevention fund cuts

First Edition: January 13, 2014

Obama administration proposes Medicare drug change

First Edition: January 10, 2014

Chamber Of Commerce details its updated strategy to deal with health law trouble spots

Longer reads: Hospice drains Medicare; false Obamacare 'horror stories;' growing up without vaccines

New study compares blood pressure management in the US and England

First Edition: January 9, 2014

Viewpoints: Health law debate on contraceptive coverage; Cuccinelli: No investigators for Medicaid fraud; 50 years after the famed report on smoking

Researchers investigate how workplace environment in primary care settings affects NPs' ability

Democrats reject GOP offer: Jobless benefits for health law suspension

FDA approves Actavis' ANDA for Telmisartan Immediate-Release Tablets

Health industry insiders analyze, predict and prescribe

First Edition: January 8, 2014

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