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A new bill proposed last week in the Rhode Island Senate would establish one of the first state health benefits exchanges.  Such exchanges, as contemplated by the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), will permit individuals and small businesses to compare health insurance plans and purchase coverage. …
Read More Rhode Island Health Insurance Exchange Proposed

On January 7, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a proposed rule to establish a value-based purchasing (VBP) program to reward hospitals for providing safe, high-quality care. The program would provide higher reimbursements to hospitals performing well on quality measures relating to both patient experience and clinical process of care, or to hospitals making performance improvements in those areas. …
Read More Healthcare News from Capitol Hill and the Department of Health and Human Services – January 24, 2011

The IRS delayed application of the nondiscrimination rules under Internal Revenue Code section 105(h) to fully-insured group health plans. This IRS notice is welcome relief to employers who lacked any substantive guidance on how to structure their group health plans and other arrangements to comply with these rules. …
Read More The IRS Delivers Welcome Relief to Fully Insured Group Health Plans by Delaying Affordable Care Act Nondiscrimination Rules

On 14 December 2010, the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced that it is to undertake a study of competition in the UK private healthcare market. Such studies, which typically last for 6-12 months, can lead to the OFT making recommendations to government on how competition could be improved and/or a full market investigation reference to the Competition Commission (CC). …
Read More UK: OFT to Launch Market Study into Private Healthcare

Lawmakers worked to complete their legislative “to do” list during the lame duck session of Congress, including tax relief legislation, a continuing resolution to keep the government running into next year in the absence of regular FY 2011 appropriations bills, and a host of other end-of-session priorities. In health-related news, such priorities included a one year patch to prevent deep reimbursement cuts from impacting physicians. In addition, two legal challenges to the new healthcare reform law also made headlines last week. …
Read More Healthcare News From Capitol Hill and The Department of Health and Human Services – December 20, 2010

On December 8, 2010, the United States House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 3987, the Red Flag Program Clarification Act of 2010, to exempt lawyers, doctors, accountants, and other professionals from the Red Flags* Rule.  Having been approved by both Houses of Congress, the Act requires only President Obama’s signature to become law. …
Read More Congress Passes Act to Exclude Attorneys, Other Professionals From Reach of Red Flags Rule

Lawmakers returned to Washington last week to continue the lame-duck session of the 111th Congress, clearing a short-term solution to the pending Medicare cuts for physicians. Meanwhile, the President’s bipartisan fiscal commission finalized and released a report aimed at greatly reducing the federal deficit, though the details of the plan proved to be unpopular among those affected by the corresponding spending cuts. …
Read More Healthcare Update: Healthcare News From Capitol Hill and The Department of Health and Human Services – December 6, 2010