Law and regulation

U.S. health insurers will have to justify big premium rate hikes under new rules issued by the U.S. Health and Human Service Department last week.

Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the establishment of health care exchanges to enable individuals to purchase health insurance on the open market is proceeding as scheduled.

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) to expedite review of Virginia’s lawsuit challenging PPACA’s individual mandate.

The U.S. Supreme Court took no action Monday on a request to speed up a ruling on President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will pump up to $1 billion, funded under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, into a new program to dramatically increase patient safety within two years.

Missouri's Democratic attorney general on Monday joined the largely Republican-led effort to have President Barack Obama's 2010 health care overhaul ruled unconstitutional.

As you might have guessed from my previous posts, I’m more or less in favor of the health care reform mandates, but there are still individual rules I’m concerned about, and some I’m definitely confused about. This post focuses on one such confusing rule--the requirement for payers to use 85% member premiums toward the MLR (Medical Loss Ratio). Simply, payers must spend at least 85% of the amount they collect toward the cost of care.

Two potentially significant issues that were immediately identified by employers about W-2 Form reporting under the health law were how small employers and retiree health care plans would be impacted.

Several members of Congress from both political parties expressed support for the role of the agent and broker post-health care reform to a crowd of more than 700 at February's National Association of Health Underwriters annual Capitol Conference in Washington, D.C. - including calls for the medical loss ratio provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to be altered.

A March 17th hearing on the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act had more of a July 4th sensibility, with fireworks igniting before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health.

The Obama administration on Tuesday appealed a judge's ruling in Florida that struck down its landmark health care overhaul law as unconstitutional because it required Americans to buy health care insurance or face a penalty.

The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded seven grants totaling $241 million to assist "early innovator" states in building the information technology infrastructure necessary to operate state-level health information exchanges mandated under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

President Barack Obama extended an olive branch on Monday to states struggling to implement his health care law, offering support for a proposal that would give them some flexibility in carrying out its key parts.

To make sense of the past and looming health care reform changes, employers may transfigure into the Roman god Janus this year, with one head focused on the decisions of 2010 and the other fixed on the future.

On Capitol Hill the rubber has met the road on health reform. Last month saw three noteworthy attacks on PPACA. First the House passed the PPACA repeal bill that House Speaker John Boehner had promised. Then came the ruling by a federal district court judge in Florida that the entire law is unconstitutional. This was followed by passage in the Senate of a bill to repeal PPACA's widely disliked 1099 tax reporting burden.

As President Barack Obama's health care reform package worked its way through Congress in 2009 and early 2010, Randy Flem kept a close eye on the proceedings. When Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act into law on March 23, 2010, Flem knew it was time to dive in. A veteran of the political process, "I had this belief that I could make a difference," says Flem. "So I just moved forward."

It was just last March when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law. Now, one year later, the one thing that seems to be most certain ... is that nothing is certain at all.

A new study in Health Affairs examines insurance coverage disruptions that could occur under the health law as individuals or families move between Medicaid coverage and subsidized coverage from private insurers that’s purchased through online state insurance exchanges.

With Federal District Court Judge Roger Vinson ruling PPACA unconstitutional in 26 states that joined in a class action lawsuit, what happens to Obama Administration efforts to implement provisions of the law as the legal issues move to the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court?

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Florida ruled Jan. 31.