FAQ: What’s At Stake If Congress Repeals The Medical Device Tax
Getting rid of the tax, which helps raise money to fund the health law, might help break the budget battle logjam.
FAQ: Seniors On Medicare Don’t Need To Apply To The Health Law Marketplaces
The online exchanges that open Oct. 1 are not aimed at Medicare beneficiaries, but the 2010 health law does affect seniors in other ways.
Report Looks At Income Disparities For Seniors On Medicare
Lawmakers considering major changes to entitlement programs as part of a deficit reduction package might want to consider this: Future Medicare recipients won’t be much better off financially than current beneficiaries, according to a new analysis from the Kaiser Family Foundation. In measures of income, savings and home equity, the current disparities that now exist between […]
FAQ: What You Need To Know About The New Online Marketplaces
These marketplaces open Oct. 1 and will allow individuals and small businesses to compare insurance coverage.
Rx For Docs: AMA Answers Obamacare Questions
As we get closer to 2014, consumers are being surrounded by news coverage, ads and opinions about the health law. And many of them are turning to their doctors for advice. The American Medical Association wants to help doctors with answers. Today, the AMA is launching a new website to help answer frequently asked questions that physicians might hear from […]
GOP Lawmakers Demand Information From Groups Getting Navigator Grants
In a letter that the administration described as a “blatant and shameful attempt to intimidate,” the Republican House members direct groups to provide a written description of the work they intend to do, the number of employees and volunteers, their duties and how much they’ll be paid.
IRS Ruling On Same-Sex Couples Has Implications For Health Law
Thursday’s announcement that the federal government will give the same tax treatment to legally married same-sex couples as they do to heterosexual couples may have ripple effects for the 2010 health care law. The decision from the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service means that the income of legally married same-sex couples will be […]
AMA President Optimistic About A Fix For Medicare’s Doctor Payment Formula
Debated and despised, the Medicare physician payment formula may finally be on the way out — at least that’s what AMA President Ardis Hoven believes. Known as the “sustainable growth rate” or SGR, the formula routinely threatens double-digit payment reduction to doctors until Congress steps in at the last minute to stop the cuts. Currently a […]
Administration Releases New Rules To Implement Health Law’s Individual Mandate
As congressional Republicans push for a delay in the 2010 health law’s individual mandate, the Obama administration Tuesday announced final regulations implementing the requirement that most Americans have health insurance coverage by Jan. 1 or pay a fine. The document from the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service is in addition to regulations the Department of […]
As Lawmakers Roam Their Home Territory, Health Law Arguments Simmer
The battle over the Affordable Care Act shows absolutely no signs of abating, so it’s no surprise that the packets distributed by both parties on Capitol Hill for members heading home for the August recess paint the 2010 health care law in starkly different ways. Before leaving town for the five-week-long break, House Republicans held […]
A Conservative Re-Envisioning Of The Health Care Overhaul
Tired of hearing policy experts and politicians debate the 2010 health care law? What if you took the Affordable Care Act out of the conversation? If you could scrap the nation’s current health care system and build a new one, what would it look like? A group of health care experts from Stanford University, the Harvard Kennedy […]
Head Of Rx Drug Makers Group Says Obama Budget Plans Cause Concern
John Castellani, the head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, notes support for health overhaul but says efforts to change Medicare Part D program and companies’ control of biologic drugs “would do serious harm to our industry.”
Republicans Ready To Try Obamacare Repeal – Again And Again
The House will vote next week on measures to delay the 2010 health law’s individual and employer mandates, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday. The votes would be the 38th and 39th time House Republicans have voted to repeal all or part of the law. Congressional Republicans saw a new opportunity to kill or weaken President Obama’s signature […]
AMA To Do ‘Whatever We Can’ To Help Carry Out Health Law
The American Medical Association will do “whatever we can in our power” to help implement the 2010 health care law, the group’s president said Tuesday. In an interview taped for C-SPAN’s Newsmakers, Ardis Dee Hoven, who became the AMA’s 168th president last month, said the White House has not approached her or the AMA directly […]
Employers To Get An Extra Year To Implement Health Law Requirement On Coverage
In announcing the delay, the administration says it will give businesses time to comply and allow the government to consider simpler solutions.
HHS Seeks To Address Religious Employers’ Concerns In Contraceptive Coverage Final Rule
Updated at 3:45 p.m. The Obama administration issued final rules Friday governing contraception coverage in the sweeping 2010 health care law that officials said more clearly respond to concerns from religious groups that object to this requirement. But it’s unclear if the new rules will shield the administration from charges that requiring employers who oppose contraception […]
Hospital Officials Complain To Senate Panel About Medicare Efforts On Observation Care
Overly aggressive practices of contractors charged with recovering inappropriate Medicare payments are causing headaches for hospitals and patients, hospital executives told the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday. Recovery Audit Contractors – or RACs – uncover and collect improper payments made to hospitals, physicians, clinics and other providers. In 2011 the audits resulted in the return of nearly a half […]
GAO Report Points To Challenges In Setting Up Federal Health Insurance Marketplaces
The report says that the administration “has many key activities remaining to be completed.”
Health Law Provisions To Expand Kids’ Dental Coverage May Fall Short, Advocates Say
Some lawmakers and children’s advocates say that without changes, certain health law provisions designed to expand children’s dental coverage may not work as intended.
GOP Lawmakers Press Sebelius To Help Child Awaiting Transplant
A child in desperate need of a lung transplant clinging to life. Long waiting lists of patients who need organs and too few donors to meet the demand. Rules that govern who gets what life-saving organs – and when. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had to confront all those issues on […]
