HCR Update from Mark Sanna: While the rest of us have to wait until June, the justices of the Supreme Court will know the likely outcome of the historic health care case by the time they go home this weekend. After months of anticipation, thousands of pages of briefs and more than six hours of arguments, the justices will vote on the fate of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul in under an hour Friday morning.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: On day 3, the justices seemed divided on both questions before them: What should happen to the rest of the law if the court strikes down its core provision? And was the law’s expansion of the Medicaid program constitutional? The justices considered what sort of tasks it makes sense to assign to Congress, what kinds of interaction between federal and state officials are permissible and even the political character of the lawsuits challenging the law.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: With the fate of President Obama’s health care law hanging in the balance, a lawyer for the administration faced a barrage of skeptical questions on Tuesday from four of the Supreme Court’s more conservative justices, suggesting that a 5-to-4 decision to strike down the law was a live possibility.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Supreme Court begins its constitutional review of the health-care overhaul law Monday with a fundamental question: Is the court barred from making such a decision at this time? The justices will hear 90 minutes of argument about whether an obscure 19th-century law — the Anti-Injunction Act — means that the court cannot pass judgment on the law until its key provisions go into effect in 2014.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act turns two on Friday. The law is headed to the Supreme Court on Monday.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: On Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives, largely along party lines, passed  H.R. 5, a bill designed to abolish an independent board responsible for curbing Medicare spending growth and restricting medical-malpractice lawsuits. An amendment was added on the House floor that would end the current exemption from antitrust laws that health insurance companies currently enjoy.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna:The fight over President Barack Obama's health-care overhaul has featured nearly three years of name-calling and shouting matches. But don't expect to hear supporters accused of creating "death panels," or opponents of preferring the uninsured to "die quickly," when the issue lands at the Supreme Court next week.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Across the country, dozens of lawsuits against generic pharmaceutical companies are being dismissed because of a Supreme Court decision last year that said the companies did not have control over what their labels said and therefore could not be sued for failing to alert patients about the risks of taking their drugs.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Here's a thought that can't comfort President Barack Obama: The fate of his health care overhaul rests with four Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices. His most sweeping domestic achievement could be struck down if they stand together with Justice Clarence Thomas, another GOP appointee who is the likeliest vote against.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: HHS issued a final rule on Friday regulating student health plans offered by universities. They spell out that religious universities will largely have to follow the same rules for providing contraceptive coverage for their students that they will have to for their employees. But self-funded student plans will be exempt, because HHS does not have the authority to regulate them under current law.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: If President Obama's health care law is to withstand legal challenge, government lawyers must convince a majority of justices that the health care marketplace is unique. By not buying insurance, their argument goes, millions of Americans transfer $43 billion in health care costs to others in the form of higher premiums.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The much-anticipated final regulations for health insurance exchanges -- released Monday in a 644-page document -- emphasized the broad latitude states will have in developing and implementing their own health insurance marketplaces by 2014. The virtual shopping centers will aim to make the process of buying health insurance as easy as navigating a site like Amazon.com.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Spending on genetic tests has reached $5 billion annually and could top $25 billion within a decade, according to an insurance industry study published Monday. The rise in spending is likely to intensify the debate over genetic testing as policymakers and employers struggle to contain spiraling healthcare costs.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The White House has begun an aggressive campaign to use approaching Supreme Court arguments on the new health care law as a moment to build support for the measure seen as President Obama's signature legislative achievement, hoping to shape public opinion on an issue at the center of the battle for the White House and Congress.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: A study published in the journal Health Affairs this week found that doctors who use electronic health records may order more diagnostic testing, and therefore drive up the cost of health care, despite claims to the contrary by the federal government and health IT industry.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The prices of drugs used most widely by older Americans rose by nearly 26% from 2005 to 2009 — nearly twice the rate of inflation — according to a report issued Tuesday by AARP.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Cigna Corp. CEO David M. Cordani's total compensation climbed 25 percent last year, as the nation's fourth-largest health insurer launched a $3.8 billion acquisition, and its stock outperformed the broader market. Cordani, 46, received compensation valued at $18.9 million last year from the Bloomfield, Conn., company, according to an Associated Press analysis of a regulatory filing Monday.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Cost estimates for a key portion of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law have ballooned by $111 billion from last year's budget. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., wants to know by Monday why the estimated cost of helping millions of middle-class Americans buy health insurance has jumped by about 30%.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: When originally asked whether Medicare should continue as it is today — with the government guaranteeing a certain set of health benefits for seniors — or be changed “to a system in which the government would guarantee each senior a fixed amount of money to put toward health insurance,” 70% of respondents to a recent WSJ survey wanted to keep it as is, with 25% preferring a change.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: This week the Senate upheld President Obama's birth control policy, voting to kill a Republican effort to let employers and health insurance companies deny coverage for contraceptives and other items they object to on religious or moral grounds.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: Federal officials busted a health care fraud plot this week involving 10 doctors, nine clinics in New York City and 105 corporations, all in service of a health care fraud ring that federal authorities say conspired to steal more than a quarter of a billion dollars from insurance companies.

HCR Update from Mark Sanna: The Democratic-led U.S. Senate is expected on Thursday to defeat a largely symbolic measure that would exempt employers such as Roman Catholic hospitals, universities and charities from a controversial White House rule requiring free birth control coverage.