HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Obama administration prevailed Wednesday in the first appellate review of the 2010 health care law as a three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that it was constitutional for Congress to require that Americans buy health insurance.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Senators Coburn and Lieberman jumped into Congress’ cut-the-deficit competition on Tuesday, proposing to raise the age of Medicare eligibility to 67 and increase monthly premiums for millions of current beneficiaries. Democrats reacted with criticism of the proposal. Republicans betrayed no sign of support either.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: As the high-level negotiations continue, health care advocates are stepping up their campaigns to protect against Medicare and Medicaid cuts, and physicians groups maintain that a permanent fix to Medicare's physician payment formula should be included in the debt-ceiling legislation.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Alarmed by a shortage of primary care doctors, Obama administration officials are recruiting a team of "mystery shoppers" to pose as patients, call doctors' offices and request appointments to see how difficult it is for people to get care when they need it. It will also try to discover whether doctors are accepting patients with private insurance while turning away those in government health programs that pay lower reimbursement rates.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: A federal judge ruled Friday that the State of Indiana could not cut off money for Planned Parenthood clinics providing health care to low-income women on Medicaid. Planned Parenthood provides services other than abortion, including family planning and screenings for cancer and sexually transmitted diseases.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Google is giving up on its vision of helping people live healthier lives with online personal health records. In the drive to apply information technology to health care, personalized health records are the element that relies most heavily on individual motivation and efforts. They are controlled by the consumer, and require individuals to put in, update and edit their health data.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Both Democrats and Republicans appear to be increasingly entrenched on key issues, including changes to entitlement programs like Medicare. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office issued a daunting report, warning that the national debt will exceed the size of the national economy by 2021.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Federal regulators are pushing back a deadline for states to establish consumer protection standards for health plan denials, appeals and independent reviews. States will now have until Jan. 1, 2012, to approve legislation that complies with these standards, instead of the original deadline of July 1.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The American Medical Association reaffirmed its support for the most contentious plank of the new health care law — requiring most Americans to carry insurance or pay a fee — but not before a lengthy debate at its annual meeting in Chicago this past weekend.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The future of Medicare and Medicaid will be a hot topic as negotiations on the debt ceiling continue this week. At least three bipartisan meetings helmed by Vice President Biden have been scheduled, and both parties began to make concessions this past week as a possible deal appeared to emerge.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Obama administration said Friday that it was shutting down a program that had provided exemptions from the new health care law for many employers and labor unions offering bare-bones insurance coverage to workers. No more applications will be accepted after Sept. 22, federal health officials said.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Congress took aim Wednesday at physicians who inappropriately order MRIs and concluded that Medicare costs in this area are surging partially because physicians are increasingly buying their own high-tech equipment. When they can perform diagnostic tests in their own offices, doctors get to pocket the profits.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Republican presidential nomination debate featured a question about the new health law. The candidates pledged to repeal it and Mitt Romney defended the health reform law he signed while governor of Massachusetts. Former Minn. Gov. Tim Pawlenty made news when he backed away from confronting Romney on the Massachusetts plan.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Even as Vice President Joe Biden gave his most optimistic assessment yet of budget talks he’s leading, President Barack Obama's Democratic allies in the Senate signaled a harder line on Medicare. That stance is complicating any effort to produce a deal to cut the deficit by $2 trillion or more over the coming decade.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: If the Obama administration had any doubt that its signature healthcare law faces a severe challenge in court, it was erased soon after Chief Judge Joel Dubina opened the proceedings here. "I can't find any case like this," Dubina said. "If we uphold this, are there any limits" on the power of the federal government?

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: In perhaps the weightiest of the dozens of challenges to the Obama health care law, a panel of appellate judges grappled Wednesday with the essential quandary of the case: if the federal government can require Americans to buy medical insurance, what constitutional limit would prevent it from mandating all manner of purchases and activities?

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Blue Shield of California, is promising to limit its profits and give the bulk of any excess income it makes back to policyholders who are buying coverage. The insurer plans to cap its profits at 2% of its revenues. If in any given year it makes more money because the cost of providing health care was lower than it expected or because it made more money from its investments, it will give the excess back to the community.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Last month, insurer Aetna received approval from Connecticut regulators of its request to reduce premiums on individual policies by an average 10 percent, starting in September. Yes, you read that right: reduce the premium. The decrease, which affects 15,000 consumers will save those policyholders $259 annually, on average.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Medicaid will stop paying for about two dozen "never events" in hospitals, such as operations on the wrong body part and certain surgical-site infections. Currently, about 21 states have such a nonpayment policy. The 2010 federal health law expands the ban nationwide. The rule published gives states until July 2012 to implement it.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Say goodbye to the food pyramid, that symbol of healthy eating for the last two decades. In its place officials are dishing up a simple, plate-shaped symbol. It consists of four colored sections, for fruits, vegetables, grains and protein. Beside the plate is a smaller circle for dairy, suggesting a glass of low-fat milk or perhaps a yogurt cup.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: In the last two years, personal medical records of at least 7.8 million people have been improperly exposed, according to the government data. One particularly egregious case involved information about 1.7 million patients, staff members, contractors and suppliers of NY hospitals and clinics operated by the Health and Hospitals Corporation.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Arizona says it is no longer able to finance its Medicaid adequately. As part of a plan to cut costs, the state has proposed imposing a $50 fee on childless adults on Medicaid who are either obese or who smoke. In Arizona, almost half of all Medicaid recipients smoke; about one in four Arizonans is overweight, according to the CDC.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Patients would be able to find out who has looked at their electronic medical records under a proposed change to the HIPAA rule opened up for public comment on Tuesday. Patients would obtain the information by requesting an access report, which would document who electronically accessed and viewed their protected health information. Although providers are currently required to track access to such information, they don't have to tell patients.