6th Circuit Court of Appeals panel upholds individual mandate - POLITICO.com

6th Circuit Court of Appeals panel upholds individual mandate - POLITICO.com: "The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld the health reform law’s controversial requirement that nearly all Americans buy insurance, marking a significant win for President Barack Obama in the legal battles over his signature legislation."

California Legislature passes budget - The Washington Post

California Legislature passes budget - The Washington Post: "SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Exercising their new majority-vote authority, California Democrats on Tuesday closed the remainder of what had been a gaping budget deficit by relying on a combination of deep spending cuts, optimistic revenue projections and new fees that are sure to be challenged in court."

Surgeons Who Tested Medtronic's Infuse Failed to Report Problems - WSJ.com

Surgeons Who Tested Medtronic's Infuse Failed to Report Problems - WSJ.com: "Surgeons who conducted clinical trials to test a Medtronic Inc. bone-growth protein widely used in spine surgery didn't report serious complications that arose in those trials in their research papers, a new study says.
Over the past decade, 15 of those surgeons have collectively received at least $62 million from the medical-device giant for unrelated work, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Medtronic documents and of recent disclosures made on the company's website."

Top Democrats reject new plan to cut Medicare spending - The Washington Post

Top Democrats reject new plan to cut Medicare spending - The Washington Post: "Leading congressional Democrats immediately recoiled Tuesday from a new proposal to cut $600 billion in Medicare spending over the next decade — in part by raising the eligibility age."

Health exchanges: A new gold mine - POLITICO.com

Health exchanges: A new gold mine - POLITICO.com: "Cheryl Smith and Brett Graham may live in Salt Lake City — but you’d be hard pressed to find them in Utah these days. The pair lead the health exchange practice at the consulting firm Leavitt Partners and, ever since the health care reform law passed, they have been in hot demand."

Edwards LifeSciences: Sapien panel date set for July 20 - MassDevice

Edwards LifeSciences: Sapien panel date set for July 20 - MassDevice: "Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE:EW) will get its much-anticipated date with the FDA for its flagship Sapien transcatheter heart valve device on July 20. The federal watchdog agency's circulatory system devices advisory panel will review the company's pre-market approval application for the Sapien system. If it gets a green light from the panel, it should gain approval from the watchdog agency for commercial sale in the U.S., possibly by the end of the summer (the FDA is not bound by its advisory panels' recommendations, but usually follows their guidance). Edwards filed its PMA application in October 2010 and has staked its flag on an October 2011 release, sinking about $40 million into a launch that CEO Michael Mussallem said will allow the company to compete in 200 to 400 centers in the U.S."

Weaning the Hill off Medicare formula - POLITICO.com

Weaning the Hill off Medicare formula - POLITICO.com: "The Medicare physician payment formula is often attacked as a budget gimmick that holds down federal spending on paper, even though everyone knows the cuts it imposes will never come into effect."

Health and Human Services deadline to disarm mini-med waivers? - POLITICO.com

Health and Human Services deadline to disarm mini-med waivers? - POLITICO.com: "Employers and insurers who offer bare-bones health coverage have until Sept. 22 to either request or reapply for a reprieve from stricter federal insurance requirements — a move that effectively defangs a repeated criticism from Republicans just as the 2012 election season begins in earnest."

Senate Dems: Health law reins in Medicare - POLITICO.com

Senate Dems: Health law reins in Medicare - POLITICO.com: "Top Senate Democrats argue that if Republicans want to find savings in Medicare, they can build on the health care reform law passed last year instead of cutting benefits. “The Affordable Care Act makes significant changes to our health care system to control health care costs, changes that are already under way,” several Senate Democrats write in a letter to be sent to Republican Leader Mitch McConnell today. “To protect Medicare, we should build on these kinds of delivery system reforms, rather than cut seniors’ benefits.”"

GOP and taxes: Republicans shifting their stance - latimes.com

GOP and taxes: Republicans shifting their stance - latimes.com: "Reporting from Washington— One of the most treasured tenets of the Republican Party — 'No new taxes' — has been thrown open to debate by a simple question: What, exactly, is a new tax? The answer, argues Grover Norquist, the godfather of contemporary anti-tax conservatism in Washington, is anything that increases federal revenue. Thus, closing loopholes that have allowed corporate giants and millionaires to slice away at their tax bills would constitute an unacceptable new tax — unless a comparable tax cut is made elsewhere."

GOP ‘doughnut hole’ redistricting plan proposed - The Salt Lake Tribune

GOP ‘doughnut hole’ redistricting plan proposed - The Salt Lake Tribune: "Democrats have repeatedly called for creating a new U.S. House district that is totally within Democratic Salt Lake County, known as a 'doughnut hole' plan. GOP Senate President Michael Waddoups offered such a plan Wednesday — but he made his doughnut hole Republican-flavored."

Republican presidential candidates attend first debate - The Washington Post

Republican presidential candidates attend first debate - The Washington Post: "The leading contenders for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination appeared together onstage for the first time Monday. But they used the debate to train their fire on President Obama rather than to define their differences."

Some Programs OK’d By Health Law Lacking Funding - Kaiser Health News

Some Programs OK’d By Health Law Lacking Funding - Kaiser Health News: "While the health care law has survived Republican efforts to repeal it, some of its individual initiatives are in limbo or limping along because of funding problems. The law authorized the new efforts but didn’t provide appropriations for them. That has to occur separately – and given current deficit woes, as well as wrangling between Democrats and Republicans, the programs might never get off the ground, some experts say."

More Scrutiny for Doctors Profiting From Medical Devices They Use - ProPublica

More Scrutiny for Doctors Profiting From Medical Devices They Use - ProPublica: "Five senators are calling for an investigation into a system that gives surgeons a financial stake in the devices they use on their patients. The inquiry comes after a Wall Street Journal investigation of Dr. Vishal James Makker, a surgeon with a questionable track record for performing multiple spinal operations on his patients."

Lieberman: How we can save Medicare - POLITICO.com

Lieberman: How we can save Medicare - POLITICO.com: "Taking ideas from both Republicans and Democrats, Sen. Joe Lieberman is proposing his own plan to save Medicare. Writing in Friday’s Washington Post, the retiring Connecticut independent suggests that Congress raise the eligibility age and raises taxes on the wealthy to keep the program solvent – ideas that have been widely opposed, respectively, by Democrats and Republicans."

Senators Request Probe of Surgeons- wsj.com

Senators Request Probe of Surgeons- wsj.com: Five U.S. senators asked the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services to open an investigation into physician-owned distributorships, middleman entities that allow surgeons to profit from the medical devices they use on their patients, to determine whether they are legal.

Judges Weigh Limits of Health Care Law - NYTimes.com

Judges Weigh Limits of Health Care Law - NYTimes.com: "ATLANTA — In perhaps the weightiest of the dozens of challenges to the Obama health care law, a panel of appellate judges grappled Wednesday with the essential quandary of the case: if the federal government can require Americans to buy medical insurance, what constitutional limit would prevent it from mandating all manner of purchases and activities?"

Medicare pay board is losing vital support - POLITICO.com

Medicare pay board is losing vital support - POLITICO.com: "One of the key provisions in President Barack Obama’s health care reform law — his preferred method for getting Medicare costs under control — is facing a groundswell of opposition from unexpected corners."

As ACO Comment Period Ends, Private Insurers Remind Medicare They Were First - NationalJournal.com

As ACO Comment Period Ends, Private Insurers Remind Medicare They Were First - NationalJournal: "America’s Health Insurance Plans, the biggest U.S. insurance lobby, weighed in on the question of accountable care organizations on Monday, saying Medicare should use the experience of private insurers as a template."

Medical device industry calls for government to weigh costs of new regulations - The Hill's Healthwatch

Medical device industry calls for government to weigh costs of new regulations - The Hill's Healthwatch: "Significant regulations that impact the health sector should be required to produce an 'innovation impact statement,' the medical device industry said Monday."

Calif. Medicaid cuts pit HHS vs. DOJ - POLITICO.com

Calif. Medicaid cuts pit HHS vs. DOJ - POLITICO.com: "Much of the health policy world was stunned when acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal filed an amicus brief in a Supreme Court case on May 26 arguing against Medicaid patients and providers suing California over changes to its Medicaid program."

States slow to adopt health-care transition-washingtonpost.com

States slow to adopt health-care transition-washingtonpost.com: As many legislatures around the country have finished their work for the year, fewer than one-fourth of states have taken concrete steps to create health insurance marketplaces, a central feature of the federal law to overhaul the U.S. health-care system.

MN Republican drafting medical device regulatory overhaul bill - The Hill's Healthwatch

Minnesota Republican drafting medical device regulatory overhaul bill - The Hill's Healthwatch: "Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.), the co-chairman of the bipartisan House Medical Technology Caucus, told lawmakers on Thursday that he's working on legislation to simplify the approval process for medical devices."

Opinion: Now's the time to redraft ACO rule - POLITICO.com

Opinion: Now's the time to redraft ACO rule - POLITICO.com: "If there was one element of the controversial Obama health care law that Republicans could have embraced as part of a bipartisan compromise, it was the concept of the Accountable Care Organization, a grouping of doctors and hospitals that provide treatment in a more efficient and cost-effective manner. Republicans, in fact, even included ACOs as part of the Patient Choice Act, their alternative to the health care bill."

Democrats press Barack Obama on Medicare - POLITICO.com

Democrats press Barack Obama on Medicare - POLITICO.com: "House Democrats pressed President Barack Obama on Thursday to keep his word and stand firm on Medicare as negotiations with Republicans over raising the debt ceiling heat up."

Report Finds Inequities in Payments for Medicare - NYTimes.com

Report Finds Inequities in Payments for Medicare - NYTimes.com: "WASHINGTON — Medicare uses inaccurate, unreliable data to pay doctors and hospitals, the National Academy of Sciences said Wednesday."

Health Law Gets Mixed Reception From Appeals Court - WSJ.com

Health Law Gets Mixed Reception From Appeals Court - WSJ.com: "CINCINNATI—The Obama administration's legal defense of its health-care overhaul got a mixed reception from a federal appeals court here Wednesday, as judges grappled with the constitutionality of the law's requirement that individuals carry health insurance or pay a penalty."

Utah unveils ambitious overhaul of Medicaid - The Salt Lake Tribune

Utah unveils ambitious overhaul of Medicaid The Salt Lake Tribune: "Utah health officials on Wednesday unveiled a 91-page blueprint for overhauling the state’s Medicaid program, billing it as way to preserve the low-income health safety net."

N.Y. slow to set up health exchange - POLITICO.com

N.Y. slow to set up health exchange - POLITICO.com: "New York has all the makings of an ahead-of-the-curve state when it comes to implementing health reform. It has passed progressive health policies prohibiting insurers from charging higher premiums based on age, gender or pre-existing conditions. It has taken the lead on health information technology and enrollment systems, enough to catch the eye of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and net a $27 million Early Innovator Grant. It takes one of the federal reform law’s most popular provisions even further by allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until age 29 instead of 26."