The Year Ahead: Health Care In Cross-hairs As Fiscal Talks Resume, ACA In Full Swing

The Year Ahead: Health Care In Cross-hairs As Fiscal Talks Resume, ACA In Full Swing-insidehealthpolicy: The New Year's Eve clash over 'doc fix' offsets will most certainly be dwarfed by a major battle expected in the weeks ahead as lawmakers again target health care cuts and dive into entitlement reform in their bid to avert the delayed, but still-looming budget sequester and to raise the debt limit. The new year already started with a bang when Congress in the first hours of 2013 pushed through a high-stakes bill that averts budget sequestration for two months and patches Medicare physician payments for one year, but targeted hospitals, pharmacies, medical imagers and Medicare Advantage plans to pay for the physician patch.