From SAMHSA's Weekly Financing News Pulse: National Edition - August 26, 2011: In July, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials awarded 106 waivers exempting health plans from the health reform’s annual benefit limit requirement, bringing the total number of waivers to 1,472.  HHS will stop accepting waiver applications on September 22; however, waivers granted or renewed by September 22 will run through 2013.  In other health reform news, on August 23, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced plans to hear oral arguments in Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder’s (R) challenge of the national health care reform law during the week of October 17.  Originally filed last July in U.S. District Court, Lieutenant Governor Kinders’ suit contends that the law’s individual insurance mandate is unconstitutional, the law’s expansion of Medicaid could force Missouri to raise state taxes, and the law improperly alters state officials’ compensation by changing their health care plan.  The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently rejected the law’s legality, while the 3rd and 6th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals have upheld it.

View the August 26 Financing News Pulse: National Edition here (PDF | 180.16 kb)