In This Issue:

- Changes Ahead for Health Policy In 2015

- Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

- Other Federal Regulatory Initiatives

- Congressional Initiatives

- Other Health Care News

- Upcoming Congressional Hearings

- Excerpt from Changes Ahead for Health Policy In 2015: Last week ended with an announcement that Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Marilyn Tavenner will leave the agency in February. Tavenner has served at the agency for over six years as Administrator.

Current Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Deputy Administrator Andy Slavitt will take over Tavenner’s role at CMS. Slavitt, who joined HHS after 20 years of private sector experience, including at UnitedHealth Group and Optum, will take charge of the agency as it is faced with a number of key challenges—including a Republican Congress which will much more aggressively pursue changes to the ACA and the upcoming Supreme Court ruling in King v. Burwell—which could potentially have a tremendous impact on ACA subsidies. ML Strategies and Mintz Levin have described the implications of King v. Burwell in greater detail in our alert, On the Verge of Melt-Down: Core of ACA at Risk and Remedial Options Scant If Supreme Court Rules Against Government in King v. Burwell.