Health-Exchange-Alert

Democrats defending the Affordable Care Act still hope the Supreme Court will review the controversial case over the law’s future this term and urge the judges to the reject a GOP request to extend their filing deadline to March.

A new coalition of right-wing groups is lobbying Congress to adopt a surprise billing fix that doesn’t include a benchmark payment rate, like the policy in the compromise hammered out by the Senate health and House Energy & Commerce committees.

House Education & Labor Committee Democrats are gathering information from the Department of Labor that could lay the foundation for legislative action to bolster the federal government’s enforcement of mental health parity law when it comes to employer-sponsored plans.

Hours after the Supreme Court rejected Democrats’ call to quickly review the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, the GOP attorneys general challenging the law asked for additional time, until March 17, to make their pitch that the case should stay out of the high court, regardless of the timing.

The Supreme Court said Friday (Jan. 17) that it will once again wade into the contentious fight over the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employers provide coverage for birth control in employee health plans.

The administration has released the proposed rate review calendar and other technical guidance insurers need to prepare for the 2021 plan year, but midway through January stakeholders are becoming increasingly anxious because HHS is yet to release the draft exchange rule that sets policy on networks, open enrollment, drugs and other key issues.

The insurance industry, seniors’ organizations, hospitals, small businesses, health advocates and a bipartisan coalition of 56 economists back Democrats’ calls for the Supreme Court to review the Fifth Circuit’s ruling over the Affordable Care Act, arguing it is imperative to resolve the future of the health law as quickly as possible to remove the vast cloud of uncertainty created by the decision.

State legislators looking to fund initiatives to improve their health care markets have a new opening now that Congress has repealed the federal tax on health insurance plans effective 2021, says Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, managing director of Manatt Health.

The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to let it start enforcing tougher immigration restrictions on people who use Medicaid or other forms of public assistance, even as litigation over the policy works its way through the lower courts.