The Senate on Thursday voted to send President Trump two major spending packages to fund the federal government through fiscal year 2020 that include several health care provisions, such as eliminating three Affordable Care Act taxes and raising the federal minimum tobacco-purchasing age to 21.

Candidates seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination for president during Thursday's primary debate again clashed over so-called "Medicare-for-All" proposals—closing out the final debate of this year with a topic that has dominated the Democratic presidential primary debates so far.

The House on Tuesday voted to approve two major spending packages that would allocate a total of nearly $1.4 trillion to fund the federal government, including health agencies, through the end of fiscal year 2020.

A federal judge on Monday rejected a request from the American Hospital Association and others to block site-neutral payment cuts to off-campus hospital facilities, which are scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, 2020.

Congressional negotiators on Monday released a nearly $1.4 trillion spending agreement that would fund the federal government, including health agencies, through the end of fiscal year 2020 and includes several health care provisions—such as measures to permanently repeal three Affordable Care Act taxes, delay cuts to Medicaid disproportionate-share hospital payments, raise the minimum tobacco purchasing age, and more.

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday voted to approve a proposal to create a three-digit dialing code for the United States' suicide-prevention hotline.

CMS might have improperly paid Medicare Advantage plans an estimated $6.7 billion in 2017 after the plans added diagnoses to beneficiaries' files that in some instances were not supported by medical records, according to an HHS Office of Inspector General report released last week.

Moody's Investors Service in a recent report said nonprofit hospitals and health systems should see an increase in revenue in 2020, upgrading the sector to a stable outlook.

The House on Thursday voted 230-291 to pass House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) bill intended to lower prescription drug prices in the United States, and voted 201-223 to reject a bill introduced by House Republicans that was intended to serve as an alternative to Pelosi's measure.

Elisabeth Rosenthal, a physician and editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News, in a New York Times opinion piece recalls her husband's recent experience navigating the U.S. health care system and argues that "[m]uch of what we accept as legal in medical billing would be regarded as fraud in any other sector."