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Selected stories from the daily newsletter CQ HealthBeat from the week of January 28, 2013. Provided as a service under rights licensed by The Commonwealth Fund. The full-text version of this newsletter is available in the newsletter archive.
People who would qualify for Medicaid under the health law's expansion but live in a state that decides not to expand the program would be exempt from the individual mandate, under a recently proposed Obama administration rule. The move is an acknowledgment that not all states will expand the health program for the poor. Read more »
Many states still need to either pass laws or issue new regulations that will enable them to enforce some critical health care law insurance provisions, something that could complicate nationwide implementation of the overhaul, according to a recent Commonwealth Fund analysis. Read more »
With its budget to implement the health law squeezed tighter and tighter, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services faces an uphill battle to conduct the outreach needed to educate the uninsured about its coverage programs and assist in their enrollment. Read more »
The estimated 11 million illegal immigrants living in the United States probably would still not qualify for federal health care benefits under an immigration policy overhaul recently proposed by a group of senators. Read more »
More than 500 health care organizations will participate in the Department of Health and Human Services' bundled payments initiative, the agency announced last week. This effort will test whether paying groups of providers a lump sum for a patient's treatment will lower costs without undermining the quality of care. Read more »
Congress should consider increased payments and other ways to bolster the primary care physician workforce before next year's expansion of health care insurance coverage, witnesses recently told a Senate panel. Read more »