Fabulous weekend. UConn defeated Gonzaga 88-83 in overtime yesterday, and the Redskins pulled out a surprise 10-3 victory over the Eagles today.

The Federal Workforce subcommittee published a press release about the resolution of the Blue Cross FEP out-of-network surgery issue as did Sen Ben Cardin (D Md). The Federal Workforce Subcommittee’s chair Danny Davis (D Ill.) has been nominated to serve on the Ways and Means Committee. Rep. Davis has stated that he has requested a waiver to continue serving as the Federal Workforce subcommittee’s chair.

The Federal Workforce subcommittee is part of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. In the next Congress, Rep. Ed Towns (D NY) and Rep. Darrell Issa (R Calif) will serve as the Committee’s chair and ranking minority member respectively.

On December 18, the Congressional Budget Office release reports on budget options for health care and key issues in analyzing major health reform proposals. The Galen Institute provided an interesting overview of these reports as did the Kaiser Foundation.

Also on December 18, CMS released quality ratings on the Nation’s 16,000 nursing homes that participate in Medicare or Medicaid.

On December 19, the Washington Post’s Federal Diary column discussed the issue of whether federal annuitants with FEHB coverage should sign up for Medicare Part B. Joe Davidson, the Federal Diary columnist, interviewed Tammy Flanagan for his report. Ms Flanagan has had three columns in Govexec.com on the same issue.