House Democrats Urge CMS Against Caving to Pressure to Reduce Medicaid Rolls

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona and 41 other House Democrats have written a letter to top Department of Health and Human Services officials urging them not to grant waivers to states permitting them to reduce Medicaid coverage levels beyond their right to do so under the health law. Read more »

Much-Criticized IPAB Gets a Boost in Kaiser Poll

Americans appear to have more confidence in the ability of an independent panel to trim Medicare spending than they have in bureaucrats, politicians or insurers, according to a new poll released by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Read more »

Medicare Beneficiaries Already Burdened by Health Costs, Kaiser Reports Say

Lawmakers may be eyeing public programs like Medicare for cuts in their debt ceiling talks, but beneficiaries already are shouldering a substantial portion of their own health spending. Read more »

CMS Mandates Operating Rules to Cut Red Tape in Doctors' Offices

Pause for a moment and enter the arcane world of electronic health care transactions—things like checking on whether a patient is covered by a health plan or determining the status of a patient's insurance claim. Read more »

McClellan Unfazed by Storm of Criticism of ACO Proposal

Mark McClellan, the former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator who is leading a concerted effort to spawn the growth of accountable care organizations, said that he expects Medicare officials to ink the first Medicare ACO contracts next spring. Read more »

Lieberman, Coburn Serve Up Smorgasbord of Medicare Changes

At a time when some debt ceiling negotiators are considering charging wealthier Americans more for Medicare, two senators not directly involved in those talks unveiled a variety of suggested program changes that would involve affluent Americans paying more—raising the possibility that some of their ideas could find their way into a debt ceiling deal later this summer. Read more »