Congress has not yet resolved the Medicare cut issue. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanded that the Senate act on the tax extenders bill as a precondition to resolution of the Medicare cut issue. The Washington Post reports that the Senate has not been making much visible progress. Meanwhile Medicare continues to process Part B physician claims with the statutorily mandated 21.2% reduction. ABC News estimated that 50 million Medicare claims have been affected.

The White House released another major healthcare reform regulation on Tuesday.  That interim final regulation concerns elimination of pre-existing condition limitations, elimination of aggregate lifetime and annual dollar limits, anti-rescission, and certain patient protections applicable to plans which are not grandfathered under the regulation released last Thursday.

The New York Times reported this week on insurer efforts to implement the patient centered medical home concept.