Law and regulation

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.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, have introduced and pledged to pass a bill to repeal the expanded 1099 reporting requirements in the health law.

A recent survey of nearly 3,000 physicians shows high levels of displeasure with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and a lot of them don't like electronic health records either.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a new funding opportunity for state grants to help states implement health insurance exchanges (HIEs).

Most employers are aware that Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code requires all forms of nonqualified deferred compensation plans to be amended and restated prior to Dec. 31, 2008.

After a week’s delay following the shootings in Tucson, Republicans in the House of Representatives will kick off their health reform effort overhaul today. Yesterday the House began debating the Republicans’ measure, “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” (H.R. 2).

A vote in the House of Representatives on the “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act” (HR 2) scheduled for Jan. 12 has been postponed in the wake of last weekend’s shootings in Arizona, and although a new date has yet to be scheduled, Capitol Hill watchers expect the legislation to resurface soon.

The Internal Revenue Service recently issued Notice 2011-1 regarding the application of the nondiscrimination rules under Internal Revenue Code (Code) section 105(h) to non-grandfathered insured group health plans pursuant to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

If you were one of the millions of professionals who were out of the office between Dec. 24 and Jan. 3, welcome back to the grind.

Flush with victory from last November's midterm election, Republican strategists are delving into possible measures to repeal or significantly hamper existing health care reform legislation.

The regulatory process to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has initiated a government request for public comments on value-based insurance design (VBID).