Legal & Regulatory Issues

The annual report of the Medicare Trustees said the program will run out of funds five years earlier than previously estimated due to a slower economy, according to a report by the Hill.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is demanding "significant" near-term cuts in Medicare and Medicaid in exchange for agreeing to raise the federal debt limit by early August, according to a report by Bloomberg.  

A budget proposal unveiled yesterday by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and eight other Republican senators includes block grants for Medicaid but leaves Medicare and Social Security largely untouched, according to a report by The Hill.

President Barack Obama and Congressional Republicans agree Medicare costs must be curbed, but they disagree on how to do so, according to a report by Newser.

Two federal court rulings on challenges to the healthcare reform law—one upholding it and the other striking down part of it – are entering oral arguments on the appellate level, according to a report by Bloomberg.   Three judges appointed…

A new survey by the Massachusetts Medical Society shows that the state's healthcare reforms, instituted by Republican Mitt Romney when he was governor, are malfunctioning, according to an editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

Short Hills Surgery Center in Millburn, N.J., is the largest ASC in the state by size, with eight ORs. Here Nancy Easley-Mack, LPN, business office manager of the surgery center, discusses five steps in moving from out-of-network to in-network reimbursement.…

Two more senators have proposed bills to publish Medicare claims data online, following the introduction of a joint transparency bill by Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) last month, according to an American Medical News report.

With Republicans retreating from their proposal to revamp Medicare, Congress' efforts to cut federal healthcare outlays will likely focus all the more on Medicaid, according to a report by the Hill.  

While almost everyone in Massachusetts is covered under the state's healthcare reform law, some residents face long waits to see a physician because some physicians are unwilling to deal with the state's subsidized insurance programs, according to a release by…