Medicare Plan to Link Cost to Performance Rankles Hospitals - NYTimes.com

Medicare Plan to Link Cost to Performance Rankles Hospitals - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON — For the first time in its history, Medicare will soon track spending on millions of individual beneficiaries, reward hospitals that hold down costs and penalize those whose patients prove most expensive."

Republican governors move ahead on health exchanges - POLITICO.com

Republican governors move ahead on health exchanges - POLITICO.com: "A small but growing number of prominent, Republican governors — including Mitch Daniels and Haley Barbour — are taking the lead to shape a key component of the health care overhaul their party fought so hard to kill."

GOP Sticks to Plan on Medicare - WSJ.com

GOP Sticks to Plan on Medicare - WSJ.com: "Republican lawmakers reaffirmed Wednesday their embrace of a controversial Medicare overhaul despite an electoral setback, ensuring the federal health program will remain a divisive issue through the 2012 election."

Experts defend Medicare board - POLITICO.com

Experts defend Medicare board - POLITICO.com: "The much-maligned Independent Payment Advisory Board finally has some champions. One hundred health policy experts and economists sent a letter, obtained by POLITICO, to congressional leaders early this week urging legislators to back off their many attempts to repeal the health reform provision."

Northwestern Survey Finds FDA Predictability a Top Concern Among Medtech Firms; Europe Preferred for Product Approval-InHealth.com

Northwestern Survey Finds FDA Predictability a Top Concern Among Medtech Firms; Europe Preferred for Product Approval-InHealth.org: Two-thirds of small medical device and diagnostic companies––the drivers of innovation in the sector––are obtaining clearance for new products in Europe first, suggesting delayed market entry in the U.S., according to a comprehensive industrywide survey about FDA’s 510(k) product review process by researchers at Northwestern University."

CCTA Tests Prompt Follow-Up Care But Do Little to Stop Heart Attacks: Johns Hopkins Hospital Study - WSJ.com

CCTA Tests Prompt Follow-Up Care But Do Little to Stop Heart Attacks: Johns Hopkins Hospital Study - WSJ.com: "Screening patients for heart disease with a heart-imaging test prompted greater follow-up care but had little to no effect on the number of heart attacks and other cardiovascular events in those patients, a new study found."

GOP braces for Medicare blowback - POLITICO.com

GOP braces for Medicare blowback - POLITICO.com: "This week, an off-year special election in Buffalo and a purely symbolic vote in the Senate might tell Republicans all they need to know about the mercurial politics of Medicare reform. First up is New York’s 26th District in a special election Tuesday. If Democrat Kathy Hochul wins — she is leading by 4 to 6 points in the latest polls — it not only would be a setback for House Republicans but would send a message to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and his key lieutenants that their Medicare overhaul plan could become a serious political liability."

Sebelius steps into political fray - POLITICO.com

Sebelius steps into political fray - POLITICO.com: "HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius went to Capitol Hill Thursday to help Democrats refine their message on the House Republican budget: It’s going to cut seniors benefits today."

Some Tea Party freshmen still adjusting to D.C. politics - USATODAY.com

Some Tea Party freshmen still adjusting to D.C. politics - USATODAY.com - USA TODAY interviewed Noem and other Tea Party-supported freshmen in Congress to gauge how they were transitioning from their 2010 campaigns, where they promised to change Washington, to actual governing in D.C."

OPINION: CA Gov. Brown is too eager to embrace taxes - WaPost

OPINION: CA Gov. Brown is too eager to embrace taxes - WaPost

Feds argue for individual health insurance mandate - POLITICO.com

Feds argue for individual health insurance mandate - POLITICO.com: "The Obama administration argues that the states suing over the constitutionality of the health care reform law would risk leaving uninsured Americans “on the street after a car accident” without the law’s requirement that nearly all Americans buy health insurance."

Rep. Paul Ryan: Health reform hurting economy-politico.com

Rep. Paul Ryan: Health reform hurting economy-politico.com: House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan framed health care costs and the president’s health law as key drivers of the nation’s economic and fiscal problems Monday, while warning that the president’s plan could lead to waiting lists for today’s seniors.

Cardiac Society Draws Bulk of Funding From Stent Makers - ProPublica.com

Cardiac Society Draws Bulk of Funding From Stent Makers - ProPublica.com: "A Pittsburgh hospital informed 141 patients earlier this year that they may have received unneeded angioplasties and stents, the tiny mesh tubes inserted to keep arteries open."

Nursing Homes Seeking Reprieve From Health Care Law - NYTimes.com

Nursing Homes Seeking Reprieve From Health Care Law - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON — It is an oddity of American health care: Many nursing homes and home care agencies do not provide health insurance to their workers, or they pay wages so low that employees cannot afford the coverage that is offered."

Medicare cost-cutting job could be worst in D.C. - POLITICO.com

Medicare cost-cutting job could be worst in D.C. - POLITICO.com: "Wanted: nationally known health care experts to serve on controversial health care board that will make painful Medicare spending cuts. Must be willing to quit current job to do it. Also, must be willing to go through bloody and humiliating confirmation fight. That's the job description for the 15 members of the new Independent Payment Advisory Board - the new panel created by President Obama's health care law to come up with ways to cut Medicare spending if it grows too fast."

California hits $25B pothole on way to health-care reform - POLITICO.com

California hits $25B pothole on way to health-care reform - POLITICO.com: "SAN FRANCISCO — When it comes to implementing the health care reform law, California has just one place it wants to be: way out in front.
“We want to be the lead car,” California Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley told POLITICO in January, shortly after the state became the first in the nation to pass legislation allowing it to set up a health exchange."

Appeals Court Questions Health Law's Foes - WSJ.com

Appeals Court Questions Health Law's Foes - WSJ.com: "A federal appeals-court panel Tuesday questioned the state of Virginia's right to sue to overturn the federal health-care overhaul and showed sympathy to the Obama administration's arguments on the substance of the law."

Data On Edwards Lifesciences Valves Digs Into Stroke Risk - WSJ.com

Data On Edwards Lifesciences Valves Digs Into Stroke Risk - WSJ.com: "Elderly patients who received Edwards Lifesciences' (EW) catheter-delivered heart valves in a key study faced a risk of complications, including strokes, because of factors like how much calcified material was caked on their original valves, according to new data."

2012 battlefield: The Supreme Court - POLITICO.com

2012 battlefield: The Supreme Court - POLITICO.com: "Despite a concerted drive by their ideological critics, two Supreme Court justices – Elena Kagan and Clarence Thomas – signaled late last month that they have no intention of recusing themselves from the court’s all but inevitable consideration of the Obama administration’s new health care law."

Republicans Shelve Medicare Overhaul Plan - NYTimes.com

Republicans Shelve Medicare Overhaul Plan - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON — House Republicans signaled Thursday that they were backing away from the centerpiece of their budget plan — a proposal to overhaul Medicare — in a decision that underscored both the difficulties and political perils of addressing the nation’s long-term fiscal problems."

New W.H. battle: Corporate taxes- politico.com

New W.H. battle: Corporate taxes- politico.com: The Obama administration is quietly gearing up for a high-profile launch in May or June on what may turn out to be the most heavily lobbied issue of the year: corporate tax reform.

States turn to work-arounds on health insurance exchanges - POLITICO.com

States turn to work-arounds on health insurance exchanges- POLITICO.com: "State governments across the country are exploring work-arounds to get health exchanges up and running after Republican legislators and tea party protests have blocked state laws to implement this piece of health care reform."

WHO takes on chronic disease - The Washington Post

WHO takes on chronic disease - The Washington Post: "The World Health Organization focused for decades on infectious diseases, but now it’s putting non-communicable diseases near the top of its agenda."