Lobbying news and information

After a lengthy lobbying effort by not-for-profit hospitals to preserve their tax-exempt status, three Illinois hospitals are waiting on refunds totaling nearly $10 million for taxes paid while the battle was raging.
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The Illinois State Medical Society is supporting a bill that would raise physician license fees 67% to stabilize operations of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation's medical unit.
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Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan officials hoped to start the new year with an operational overhaul that included ending its tax-exempt status, changing how it's regulated and transforming itself from a charitable trust to a customer-owned nonprofit. Instead, they're beginning 2013 doing what...
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The charge that AARP's lobbying is driven primarily by the profits it derives from its Medigap insurance plans, which supplement standard Medicare coverage, has been a staple of congressional Republicans since the seniors group threw its considerable weight behind passage of Patient Protection and...
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More than two-thirds of voters oppose deficit-related Medicare and Medicaid cuts to hospitals, according to a hospital-funded survey. And the findings are likely to figure prominently in hospitals' Capitol Hill lobbying.
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A little-noticed tax break for investor-owned hospitals that was tucked into a deal last spring aimed at saving the Illinois Medicaid program from collapse will cost the cash-strapped state at least $10 million a year in lost revenue.
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Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe's decision to fully support expanding Medicaid under the federal healthcare law guarantees that debate over the federal program will dominate the agenda when lawmakers convene in January.
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The medicine cabinets at Northeast Ohio's hospitals are sparse these days, and while it's no fault of their own, a nationwide drug shortage has forced pharmacists to come up with creative ways to make supplies of medications last.
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The Essential Health Benefits Coalition—which includes employer trade associations, pharmacy benefit managers and health plans—urged federal health officials to give health plans flexibility as they develop benefit packages to comply with essential health benefit rules under healthcare...
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The American Hospital Association reported an almost 20% rise in profits for fiscal 2011, according to tax documents.
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