Some GOP-counties in Oregon backed Medicaid-funding measure

It wasn't only Democratic-leaning counties in Oregon that voted to impose a tax on hospitals and health insurers to pay for Medicaid for low-income residents - several counties that voted for Donald Trump also helped propel the ballot measure to resounding "yes" vote. As president, Trump endorsed Republican bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid.

Menendez trial: Some bribery charges dropped

A judge threw out three bribery charges and one fraud count against U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez but left intact other charges as he faces a new trial. The Record and NorthJersey.com's John Ensslin reporting live from the courthouse plaza in Newark with an update that the jury in the corruption trial of Sen. Bob Menendez has declared itself deadlocked.

The Giving Season Is Over: Practical Advice for Patient Assistance…

Right before Christmas last year, the Department of Justice announced an ominous settlement: United Therapeutics, a manufacturer of pulmonary arterial hypertension drugs, agreed to pay more than $200 million to settle allegations it violated the Anti-Kickback Statute . United Therapeutics' alleged kickback was supporting - and purportedly benefiting from - a Patient Assistance Program charitable foundation that helped patients pay expensive co-pays for United Therapeutics' drugs.

Idaho says no Obamacare needed for some new insurance plans

Concerned about soaring health care costs, Idaho on Wednesday revealed a plan that will allow insurance companies to sell cheap policies that ditch key provisions of the Affordable Care Act. It's believed to be the first state to take formal steps without prior federal approval for creating policies that do not comply with the Obama-era health care law.

Florida Federal Court: Escobar Requires Reversal of $348 Million False Claims Act Jury Verdict

The United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida vacated a large jury verdict in a False Claims Act case against the owners and operators of nursing homes because the evidence did not satisfy the materiality standards articulated in the U.S Supreme Court's 2016 opinion in Universal Health Services v. Escobar .

Work requirements may prompt more states to expand Medicaid

In an ironic twist, the Trump administration's embrace of work requirements for low-income people on Medicaid is prompting lawmakers in some conservative states to resurrect plans to expand health care for the poor. Trump's move has been widely criticized as threatening the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion.

Oregon approves new taxes to address Medicaid costs

Oregon approved taxes on hospitals, health insurers and managed care companies in an unusual special election Tuesday that asked voters - and not lawmakers - how to pay for Medicaid costs that now include coverage of hundreds of thousands of low-income residents added to the program's rolls under the Affordable Care Act. Measure 101 was passing handily in early returns Tuesday night.

Mick Mulvaney finds himself in middle of another shutdown

Mick Mulvaney stormed Washington as a tea party lawmaker elected in 2010, and he hasn't mellowed much as director of the Office of Management of Budget at the White House. In both spots, he's been at the center of a government shutdown.

Mulvaney finds himself in middle of another shutdown

Mick Mulvaney stormed Washington as a tea party lawmaker elected in 2010, and he hasn't mellowed much as director of the Office of Management of Budget at the White House. As a congressman in 2013, Mulvaney was among a faction on the hard right that bullied GOP leaders into a shutdown confrontation by insisting on lacing a must-pass spending bill with provisions designed to cripple President Barack Obama's signature health care law.

Government shutdown may be first since 2013, but isn’t unheard of

The government has partially shut down three times in the past quarter-century - and far more often in decades past. Shutdowns have led to furloughs of several hundred thousand federal employees, required many government activities to be stopped or curtailed, and affected wide swaths of the economy.

Shutdown is first since 2013, but not exceptional

Staffers bring in boxes of barbecue as a bitterly-divided Congress hurtles toward a government shutdown this weekend, Friday, Jan. 19, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Staffers bring in boxes of barbecue as a bitterly-divided Congress hurtles toward a government shutdown this weekend, Friday, Jan. 19, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

President Donald Trump addresses the March of Life participants

US President Donald Trump has pledged support to the anti-abortion movement he once opposed, telling thousands of activists demonstrating in the annual March for Life, "We are with you all the way". In an address broadcast from the White House Rose Garden, Mr Trump said he is committed to building "a society where life is celebrated, protected and cherished".

Blame game in full swing as government shutdown looms

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., arrives at the Capitol in Washington, Friday as a bitterly-divided Congress hurtles toward a government shutdown this weekend in a partisan stare-down over demands by Democrats for a solution on politically fraught legislation to protect about 700,000 younger immigrants from being deported. WASHINGTON >> A bitterly divided Congress hurtled toward a government shutdown this weekend in a partisan stare-down over demands by Democrats for a solution on politically fraught legislation to protect about 700,000 younger immigrants from being deported.