HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Government financing of human embryonic stem cell research can continue, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The decision was an important victory for the Obama administration in a legal battle that is far from over. The 2-to-1 ruling, by a panel of judges from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, blocks a lower-court decision last August holding that such research is illegal under a law that bans public spending on research in which human embryos are damaged or destroyed.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is finalizing details for a new reimbursement method, required by last year’s health care law. Consumer advocates say tying patient opinions to payments will result in better care. But many hospital officials are wary, arguing the scores don’t necessarily reflect the quality of the care and are influenced by factors beyond their control.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Senior citizens, whose fierce opposition to the 2010 health overhaul law helped propel Republicans' midterm election gains, have little appetite for the House GOP's plans to turn Medicare into a voucher-type program that sends beneficiaries to private plans but limits the amount of federal funding, according to a poll released today.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Political push back surrounding the Paul Ryan budget plan continues to feed the Democrats' view that they may have a 2012 opportunity with older voters. For instance, at home in their districts this week some Republicans are facing voter anger. And House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, says he is "not wedded" to the Ryan approach to reduce Medicare spending by transforming the program.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Supreme Court has rejected a call from Virginia's attorney general to depart from its usual practice and put review of the health care law on a fast track. Instead, judicial review of President Barack Obama's signature legislation will continue in federal appeals courts.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Anxiety is rising among some Republicans over the party’s embrace of a plan to overhaul Medicare, with GOP lawmakers facing tough questions back in their districts. House leaders have scheduled a Tuesday conference call to discuss strategies for defending the vote they took this month on a budget that would transform the Medicare as part of a plan to cut trillions in federal spending.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: At home in their districts, Republicans are taking positions — and heat — on the Ryan budget plan, which would make significant changes to the Medicare program. Meanwhile, President Barack Obama is taking his message on the road.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: President Barack Obama declared Wednesday that congressional Republicans are pushing a radical plan to trim Medicare and Medicaid, ramping up the rhetoric before a friendly crowd at the headquarters of Facebook. Still, as Obama and Congress approach crucial decisions on spending and the national debt the president said he thinks a bipartisan accord is possible.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Democrats and Republicans are joining to oppose one of the most important features of President Obama’s new deficit reduction plan, a powerful independent board that could make sweeping cuts in the growth of Medicare spending. Mr. Obama wants to expand the power of the 15-member panel, which was created by the new health care law, to rein in Medicare costs.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: President Barack Obama is planning to ignore language in the 2011 spending package that would ban several top White House advisory posts. House Republicans tacked on language to the contentious spending bill to cut the salaries for four so-called czars — policy advisers appointed to assist the president on health care, climate change, autos and manufacturing, and urban affairs.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: House Republicans on Friday muscled through a budget plan that pares federal spending by an estimated $5.8 trillion over the next decade while reshaping Medicare in a proposal that immediately touched off a fierce clash with Democrats.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: A bold but politically risky plan to cut billions of dollars from the federal budget is coming to a House vote, with insurgent Republicans rallying behind the idea of fundamentally reshaping the government's role in health care for the elderly and the poor.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Even as President Obama laid out his own deficit reduction plan, House Speaker John Boehner was forging ahead with plans for his caucus to vote on Rep. Paul Ryan's sweeping blueprint to radically reshape Medicare and Medicaid — and he offered unswerving support for the proposal.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: In a stinging rebuke to Republican budget-cutters, Obama acknowledged that the debt must be tackled faster than he has previously proposed, but he rejected GOP calls to make fundamental changes to Medicare and Medicaid and to scale back his initiative to expand health care coverage to the uninsured.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: President Obama will focus on four items in today's speech on reducing the federal debt, the White House says in a statement: Lower domestic spending, less defense spending, excess spending in Medicare and Medicaid, and elimination of tax breaks that favor the wealthy.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced a national program to help save 63,000 lives and up to $35 billion in health care costs over the next three years by preventing hospital-related injuries. ... Sebelius said under the Partnership for Patients, HHS would invest up to $1 billion in federal funding through the Affordable Care Act.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: In a speech Wednesday, Obama will propose cuts to entitlement programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and changes to Social Security, a discussion he has left to Democrats and Republicans in Congress. He also will call for tax increases for people making over $250,000 a year, a proposal contained in his 2012 budget, and changing parts of the tax code he thinks benefit the wealthy.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: With the high-stakes negotiations currently at an impasse, the differences among the GOP, Democrats and the White House involve more than just the total dollar figure attached to spending cuts. It also involves controversial "policy riders." Meanwhile, without resolution, a government shutdown is just hours away.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Remember all those allegations from Republicans that the Affordable Care Act would inevitably lead to health care rationing? It turns out the same might be true of the House GOP budget plan for Medicare. At least that's the conclusion of the Congressional Budget Office.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The budget document unveiled yesterday by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R- Wis., includes sweeping changes to the Medicare program. For instance, the plan would mean that, for people younger than 55, Medicare would be transformed into a "premium-support" program. It would also raise Medicare's eligibility age and leave the program's "doughnut hole" intact.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: House Republicans plan to propose Tuesday historic changes to Medicare, Medicaid and other popular programs that pour federal money into Americans' lives, arguing that a sacrifice now will keep those programs solvent for the future.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: House Republicans plan this week to propose more than $4 trillion in federal spending reductions over the next decade by reshaping popular programs like Medicare, the Budget Committee chairman said Sunday in opening a new front in the intensifying budget wars.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of the nation's sweeping health care reform law on June 8, according to an order by the appellate court. The order grants the Obama administration's motion for an early hearing, which could enable the Supreme Court to get the case as soon as late this year or early in 2012.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Hospitals, insurers and groups of doctors will be able to form networks called Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) with the aim of cutting health-care costs by pooling services under regulations the Obama administration released. The program may save the government as much as $960 million in the next three years after any performance incentives are paid to providers.