HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Here's one attempt to decode the debate and figure out what a deficit-reduction deal — any deal — would mean for the health care sector and the Affordable Care Act, starting with the programs and initiatives that are most at risk. Prevention Funds: High Risk ... Medicaid Eligibility and Funding Expansions: High Risk ... CLASS Act: Moderate Risk ... Individual Mandate: Low Risk.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Thomas Moore Law Center formally asked the Supreme Court Tuesday to reverse an appeals court decision upholding the health care reform law. Marking the first appeal of its kind to reach the nation's highest court, the conservative legal group continues to insist the mandate requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance is unconstitutional.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Democratic and Republican leaders are preparing their own backup plans as possibilities for a bipartisan approach appear increasingly dim. Both political and policy-oriented differences are making the process difficult. Medicare, Medicaid, other entitlement programs and even Tricare are in play.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Democratic and Republican leaders are preparing their own backup plans as possibilities for a bipartisan approach appear increasingly dim. Both political and policy-oriented differences are making the process difficult. Medicare, Medicaid, other entitlement programs and even Tricare are in play.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: A key provision in President Obama's health care law that would allow Americans to save money for elderly long-term care has been put on the chopping block as part of a sweeping $3.7 trillion deficit-reduction plan proposed by a bipartisan group of senators known as the "Gang of Six." The provision is known as the CLASS Act, or the Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act, and was designed to relieve pressure on Medicaid and help keep Americans out of nursing homes by enabling them to save for future senior assistance with issues like eating, bathing or dressing as they get older.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Efforts to fix a glitch in the health care reform law could backfire on thousands of people with disabilities, The Hill has learned. Republicans want to change a part of the law that made 3 million middle-income people eligible for Medicaid. The law excludes Social Security income when determining eligibility for health insurance exchange subsidies or Medicaid, causing many middle-class people to become eligible for Medicaid starting in 2014.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: New consumer-controlled health insurance plans could get seed money from the government to increase competition – and maybe cut prices -- under new rules announced Monday by the Department of Health and Human Servives. The health department hopes at least one "co-op" will launch in each state and anticipates funding a total of 57 around the country.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: At a closed-door meeting Friday morning, GOP leaders turned to their most trusted budget expert, Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, to explain to rank-and-file members what many others have come to understand: A fiscal meltdown could occur if Congress fails to raise the debt ceiling.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The $350 billion or so in potential cuts to Medicare and Medicaid over 10 years that were identified in budget negotiations would shift the cost of medicine to public hospitals, the states and individuals, but wouldn't do much to tackle rising health care costs themselves.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: In a big step to carry out the new health care law, the Obama administration unveiled standards on Monday for insurance marketplaces that will allow individuals, families and small businesses in every state to shop for insurance, compare prices and benefits and buy coverage.

HCR Update fromMark Sanna: Political leaders retreated to hard-line positions Sunday after talks to reach a comprehensive deficit reduction deal sought by President Barack Obama effectively broke down over Republican resistance to tax increases. House Speaker John Boehner said Saturday that the insistence by Obama and Democrats on raising revenue through higher taxes prevented any chance that Republicans could support a major deal that also would cut spending and reform entitlement programs such as Medicare.

President Obama is pressing congressional leaders to consider a far-reaching debt-reduction plan that would force Democrats to accept major changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for Republican support for fresh tax revenue.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: President Barack Obama called a budget-deficit summit Thursday at the White House, suggesting he and congressional leaders are moving closer to a deal that would clear the way for a vote to raise the government's borrowing limit and avoid default.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: CMS issued proposed Medicare rules that would increase hospital outpatient rates by 1.5%, increase ambulatory surgical center payments by 0.9%, and decrease physician reimbursement by 29% beginning Jan. 1, 2012. The proposal also would establish performance periods, standards and a "weighting scheme" for the fiscal 2014 hospital program.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Obama administration officials are offering to cut tens of billions of dollars from Medicare and Medicaid in negotiations to reduce the federal budget deficit, but the depth of the cuts depends on whether Republicans are willing to accept any increases in tax revenues. Administration officials and Republican negotiators say the money can be taken from health care providers like hospitals and nursing homes without directly imposing new costs on needy beneficiaries or radically restructuring either program.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services officially agreed this week to pay for Provenge, an expensive new "vaccine" to treat prostate cancer. CMS announced the final decision to immediately start covering Provenge, which costs $93,000 a patient, and typically gives men suffering from an incurable stage of the disease an extra four months to live.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Insurance brokers won a round in their battle over the future of sales commissions on Thursday when a key committee of state insurance regulators voted to endorse a controversial bill now before Congress. The task force of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners said they would endorse the bill, which would remove sales agent fees from administrative costs insurers must report under a provision in the federal health law.