Articles and Blogs

Congress Passes Massive Budget Bill with Numerous Health Care Provisions In the early morning of February 9, Congress passed a two-year budget deal containing substantial implications for health care. The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 sets new limits on how much the federal government can spend in the next two years. The budget deal... READ MORE

GOP Moving Away from ACA Repeal Efforts Congressional Republicans met for their annual policy retreat this week in West Virginia. Key GOP lawmakers stated that there are no imminent plans to try again to fully repeal the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”). Instead, they are shifting their focus to passing legislation to lowering health care... READ MORE

Congress Votes to End Government Shutdown After a three-day government shutdown, the Senate voted 81-18 on Monday to fund the government through February 8, 2018. The continuing resolution (“CR”) was then sent to the House, where it passed 266-150. President Trump subsequently signed the bill into law on January 22. The three-week CR includes... READ MORE

Federal Government Shutdown Looms as Deadline Nears On January 18, the House passed a four-week continuing resolution (“CR”) that would fund the federal government through February 16. While a vote in the Senate is expected on Friday or sometime over the weekend, the bill’s chances of passing the upper chamber remain uncertain as of... READ MORE

CMS Allows States to Establish Medicaid Work Requirements On January 11, CMS issued new guidance that will allow states to establish work requirements for certain Medicaid recipients for the first time in the program’s history. Through a letter to State Medicaid Directors, CMS outlined criteria for the types of employment proposals targeting able-bodied, working-age... READ MORE

Congress Returns to Crowded 2018 Legislative Calendar The Senate returned to Washington this week to begin the second session of the 115th Congress. The House returns Monday of next week, which gives Congress eight legislative days to fund the federal government for Fiscal Year 2018. Prior to departing for 2017, Congress passed a temporary... READ MORE

Congress Passes Stopgap Spending Bill to Avoid Government Shutdown After passing the most significant tax reform legislation since 1986, Republicans in Congress narrowly avoided a government shutdown on December 22 by passing legislation that temporarily funds the government through January 19, 2018. The House voted 231-88 to approve the short-term spending bill, and the Senate quickly... READ MORE

House and Senate Republicans Reach Deal on Tax Reform On December 13, House and Senate Republicans announced they’ve reached an agreement on how to reconcile the differences between their respective tax reform bills. Although text of the legislation has not been released, reports indicate the final version will repeal the ACA’s individual mandate and... READ MORE

Current Tax Reform Proposals Have Significant Implications for Health Care Industry As House and Senate conferees began working to reconcile the differences between the tax bills passed by their respective bodies, the health care industry waits to see what’s included in the final product. After failing to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act... READ MORE

GOP Tax Bill Moves Forward with Individual Mandate Repeal On November 29, the Senate voted to begin debate on the GOP tax reform bill that includes repeal of the ACA’s individual mandate. Currently, at least two of the three Senate Republicans who blocked the ACA repeal and replace legislation earlier this year, Sens. John... READ MORE