Sens. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) have introduced the Medicare Audit Improvement Act, a bipartisan companion bill to the House version that aims to reform Medicare Recovery Auditors, better known as Medicare RACs, according to an AHA News Now report.

Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has proposed to do away with the $85 billion sequester cuts for this year by rerouting money expected to be saved by ending combat operations of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report by ABC News, potentially reinstating $10.7 billion in Medicare spending through October.

A pain clinic regulation bill was passed by the Georgia Senate last week, according to a report by The Washington Post.

The Missouri Senate has approved legislation that requires insurance companies to cover medical services provided electronically if they cover the same service provided in person, according to a KRCG 13 report.  

The Indiana Senate has passed legislation that is aimed at regulating pain clinics and prescriptions of large amounts of pain medication, according to a Courier-Journal report.  

Montana State Sen. Ed Buttery (R-Great Falls) has sponsored a bill that would require health insurers to cover services provided via telemedicine, according to an Independent Record report.  

Republican senators have reintroduced a bill to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board — a structure the lawmakers say will result in healthcare rationing, according to a report from The Hill.

Leadership from Baltimore-based Ameritox, a pain medication monitoring company, spoke at a recent briefing on Capitol Hill regarding the importance of ensuring that chronic pain patients have access to medications they need, while keeping communities safe.

F. James Whalen, MD, an orthopedic surgeon practicing in Machias, Maine, recently announced he would run for the Maine State Senate as an independent candidate, according to a Bangor Daily News report.

Thomas Zdeblick, MD, a spine surgeon and chairman of the department of orthopedics and rehabilitation at the University of Wisconsin in Madison who co-authored three studies with Medtronic and received the highest-known physician payments from the company at $21 million, is defending his financial relationship and disclosure policy with Medtronic, according to a Wisconsin State Journal report.