Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, HHS will pay 100 percent of states' cost to insure certain newly eligible adult Medicaid beneficiaries in states that expand the program, according to a final rule issued by the department.

Minneapolis-based Medtronic supports repealing the 2.3 percent federal medical device excise tax, according to Twin Cities Business.

Saturday, March 23, marked the three-year anniversary of President Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The legislation has undergone and continues to experience a bevy of challenges since its enaction, but it's recently gained broader acceptance as the law of the land.

Today, HHS issued a final rule on essential health benefits that must be covered when health insurance is expanded in 2014.

As things currently stand, 22 states and the District of Columbia have committed to expanding Medicaid to nearly all non-disabled adults with household incomes at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty line ($14,856 per year for an individual and $30,657 per year for a family of four in 2012), with three more states likely to follow, according to data from the Advisory Group and the Kaiser Family Foundation (pdf).

Healthcare saw some major changes in 2012, most stemming from 2010's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, others coming from market forces and physician shortages. These changes have influenced physician recruitment across the country — both in terms of the types of physicians that hospitals and health systems are looking for and where the physicians are going.

To that end, The Medicus Firm, a Dallas-based physician search company, rounded up the top 12 specialties it placed last year and the five states with the most physicians placed in 2012. Jim Stone, president of The Medicus Firm and president-elect of the National Association of Physician Recruiters, explains what last year's statistics reveal for physician recruitment in the future.

With just one year remaining before the largest parts of the federal health reform law take effect, 2013 will be a busy year for hospitals as they prepare for the biggest changes in healthcare since Medicare was introduced in 1965.

Physicians have faced many changes in their profession in 2012, including the growing trend of employment, increased utilization of electronic medical records and more responsibility as they take the lead in care teams as the healthcare community strives to become more coordinated. These changes, and their effects, will carry over into the new year.

The Physicians Foundation identified five issues that will likely have the largest impact on physicians in 2013, based on research studies and policy papers. "We hope [the research] will help…healthcare providers formulate smart policy decisions that are beneficial to America's patients and doctors," said Walker Ray, MD, vice president of The Physicians Foundation and chair of the research committee.

Here are the top five physician issues the foundation identified and how hospitals and health systems can help.

CMS is asking for public comment on new measure specifications for potential use by eligible professionals in the Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs, which were developed under contract by Mathematica Policy Research and the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

Twenty states will operate their own insurance exchanges in 2014, while more than a third will turn to a federally run exchange, according to a report from The Hill.