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Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker won federal approval Thursday to expand Medicaid coverage to as many as 83,000 low-income childless adults while ending coverage for about 77,000 childless adults who earn between 100% to 133% of the federal poverty level.

The state of Maryland is announcing a new initiative with the federal government to modernize the state's unique rate-setting system for hospital services.

The US Chamber of Commerce says it aims to include the Affordable Care Act in its list of 2014 objectives. Nearly 2 years ago, the chamber voiced its intent to repeal the health reform bill after it was enacted in 2010.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has accepted that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is here to stay and, rather than continue calling for its complete repeal, will work this year to change what it sees as flaws in the 2010 law, the business group's president and CEO said Wednesday.

Call it the $2.8 trillion enigma. That's the amount Americans spent on health care in 2012. The good news is that health spending slowed unexpectedly for the fourth consecutive year. The enigma is that no one really knows why. Despite many theories, there's no expert consensus.

Restaurants know customers eat more at fixed-price buffets than when they pay À la carte. Economists have been saying for years that the same kind of behavior goes on in the federal Medicare program for seniors and the disabled.

2014 has been identified as the make-or-break year for electronic health records (EHRs). Despite a more than $22 billion federal investment to reward meaningful use of EHR technology, new report findings suggest that the government has failed to put protections in place that would prevent the technology from increasing costs, including through overbilling.

Hospital officials, Democratic lawmakers and advocates for the poor complained Monday that the state's proposed rule on health insurance navigators could cripple efforts to educate Texans about their coverage options.

State governments have a unique opportunity to transform the current health care system into one that provides higher-quality care at lower costs.

In an effort to save $1.3 billion over five years and curb the abuse of prescription drugs that Medicare pays for, the CMS is proposing an array of changes to Medicare's Part D and Advantage programs.

Across the country, Medicaid expansion varies among states. Some experts worried about whether that variation would drive Americans to relocate to other states so that they could obtain better medical coverage. However, those concerns are likely to prove unfounded, according to a recent study from Harvard.

Hospitals across the nation delivered $45.9 billion in uncompensated care during 2012, according to an annual study of the American Hospital Association.

The share of individuals who will gain insurance coverage under the federal healthcare reform law will vary sharply from state to state, according to a report released Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

New federal estimates show that U.S. health spending growth continued to grow at a historically low rate in 2012 even as the economy rebounded.

An annual report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finds that health spending totaled $2.8 trillion in 2012, which accounted for 17.2% of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) and was down slightly from the 17.3 % of GDP in 2011.

Republican leaders in Idaho on Friday dampened expectations about broadening Medicaid healthcare eligibility this year for poor residents in the state, on the same grounds they balked in 2013: Before taking extra federal money, the existing system should be overhauled to encourage beneficiaries to take personal responsibility for their health.

Behaving well in elementary school could reduce smoking in later life.

Hospitals in the U.S. have rebounded from the Great Recession and are showing stronger operating margins than in years past, even as more care shifts from inpatient to outpatient.

While government officials have spent months scrambling to fix the federal health law's botched rollout, another issue is looming that could create new headaches for states, health plans and patients.

The Affordable Care Act has been touted as a means to control costs and improve quality of care. One initiative in that effort is to steer patients away from visiting the emergency department (ED). That undertaking may prove to be challenging.

The health IT market is poised for strong growth.

Iowa state legislature, which is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, came up with an alternative: Federal expansion dollars would pay for managed care policies that poor people would select on the HealthCare.gov site.

January 2014 has arrived, and with that Affordable Care Act coverage begins. Over the next 12 months, the administration will thoroughly consider the ways in which it can control the rising costs of healthcare in the United States. This is especially true for the nation's Medicare program.

Emergency rooms may be a preferred choice for care among 3.9 million people newly enrolled in the U.S. Medicaid program for the poor, according to a study that suggests Obamacare's costs may be higher than expected.

A coverage gap in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) means that many children will not be eligible for dental coverage, which was mandated as one of the 10 essential health benefits for adequate health insurance.

Hospitals and medical practices across the United States are bracing for confusion and administrative hassles as new insurance plans under President Barack Obama's healthcare law take effect.

Narrow networks are here to stay. Some of the nation's top payers and providers are leading the way.

Low-income and disabled people who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid and belong to Medicare Advantage plans consistently score worse than other Medicare Advantage enrollees on the performance measures that determine plan eligibility for bonus payments from the CMS.

Over two million people have enrolled in health insurance plans through the federally run HealthCare.gov and state healthcare enrollment websites, a US administration official said on Tuesday. HealthCare.gov covers 36 states, and another 14 states have their own websites.

A look back at some of the InFocus blog highlights of 2013.