In This Issue:

- President Obama Releases FY2016 Budget Proposal

- Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

- Other Federal Regulatory Initiatives

- Congressional Initiatives

- Other Health Care News

- Upcoming Congressional Hearings

- Excerpt from President Obama Releases FY2016 Budget Proposal:

Today, President Obama released his $4 trillion budget proposal, which includes over $1 trillion in health care-related funding. Building on his State of the Union address, the President’s budget included the following top level funding requests for health care priorities.

..Medicare: The budget outlines approximately $350 billion in Medicare savings over the next ten years to be gained by cuts to provider reimbursement and an additional $84 billion in structural reforms. While a large amount of these savings comes from extending Medicaid drug rebates for Part D for low-income enrollees, other changes include adjusting payments for post-acute providers, reducing Medicare coverage of bad debt, and increasing income-related premiums under Parts B and D.