HCR Update from Mark Sanna: A new survey from the Center for Studying Health System Change and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that one in five Americans reported trouble paying medical bills last year.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate passed legislation extending a Social Security tax cut, which included a provision that delays--for two months--the 27.4 percent cut in reimbursement to Medicare providers, including doctors of chiropractic.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Most members of the U.S. House of Representatives joined their Senate colleagues on Tuesday in going back home to their districts without agreeing on a tax measure that also contained a provision calling off the scheduled 27.4% cut in reimbursement to Medicare providers, including doctors of chiropractic.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Supreme Court will hear arguments on President Obama's healthcare law over a three-day span from March 26-28. The schedule further confirms the universal expectation that the court will issue a ruling on the healthcare law next June, at the height of the 2012 campaign.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: As part of the 2009 stimulus bill, the federal government provides incentive payments to doctors and hospitals to adopt electronic health records. Some 57 percent of office-based physicians now use electronic health records, a 12 percent jump from last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: In a major surprise on the politically charged new health care law, the Obama administration said Friday that it would not define a single uniform set of “essential health benefits” that must be provided by insurers for tens of millions of Americans. Instead, it will allow each state to specify the benefits within broad categories.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The specter of nursing strikes is looming on both coasts, as newly empowered nurses’ unions confront hospitals pressed to cut costs amid changes in health care financing. In New York, over 6,000 registered nurses are poised to walk out of three of the city’s most prestigious hospitals before the year’s end. A 24-hour walkout is set for Dec. 22 in California.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives, largely on a party-line vote, passed a bill which contained language calling off the scheduled 27.4% cut in reimbursement to Medicare providers, including doctors of chiropractic. The measure calls for a 1% increase in reimbursement rates in years 2012 and 2013.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Unless lawmakers step in, doctors treating Medicare patients will see a 27% cut in reimbursements in January. House Republicans would block the cut and replace it with increases of 1% a year in 2012 and 2013. That would cost $39 billion, the budget office estimates. The cost of a 10-year fix, $300 billion or more, is so high that Congress is not seriously considering it.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: A state legislative audit says Maryland paid $426,000 in Medicaid to 10 people who were dead. The audit, released Wednesday, also found that between January 2008 and August 2011, $2.5 million in erroneous payments were made for 323 people who may have already been dead.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The latest United Health Foundation’s America’s Health Rankings unveiled today has a scary message for the nation: Obesity has ballooned from 11.6% of the adult population in 1990 to 27.5% in 2011.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The House and Senate are already heading in different directions as they work towards a catchall, end-of-the-year bill that, in part, holds off a 27% Medicare physician pay cut. That's largely because they're looking at completely different ways to pay for it — leading to a potential year-end clash over the $22 billion price tag.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Dr. Donald M. Berwick, the official in charge of Medicare and Medicaid for the last 17 months, says that 20% to 30% of health spending is “waste” that yields no benefit to patients, and that some of the needless spending is a result of onerous, archaic regulations enforced by his agency.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Department of Health and Human Services today released its final medical loss ratio rule. The rule will ensure that health insurance companies spend at least 80 percent of consumers' health insurance premiums on medical care rather than on income, overhead and marketing expenses.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: More than 2,400 health care providers and advocates sent a letter to Secretary of HHS today objecting to recommendations made by a panel of the Institute of Medicine regarding what benefits must be covered in state health insurance marketplaces developed under the Affordable Care Act. The critics objected to the group's decision to start with a typical small business plan rather than a more comprehensive plan offered by larger employers.