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House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan's (R-Wis.) latest fiscal proposal would prevent the Obama administration from giving states waivers under welfare reform.

The budget, unveiled Tuesday, includes a provision to hamper federal officials from granting additional flexibility under the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program.

The opportunity for waivers was announced last summer, touching off a political firestorm as Republicans accused President Obama of "gutting" welfare's work requirement.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius joined Twitter on Monday.

The first tweet from @Sebelius was accompanied by a photo of her at a laptop — a format the White House has also used to verify that President Obama is actually writing his own tweets and other social-media messages.

"Hello Twitterverse. I’m looking forward to reaching out to you and talking about the great work happening at @hhsgov," Sebelius tweeted.

Federal regulators are warning manufacturers to stop labeling products as “latex free,” calling the claims “scientifically inaccurate.”

The healthcare sector added 32,000 jobs last month, continuing its record of consistently strong gains.

Doctors' offices and outpatient health centers saw the biggest gains, adding 14,000 jobs in February. Nursing homes added 9,000 new workers, and hospitals also added roughly 9,000 jobs, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.

Healthcare has been a consistent leader in the steadily improving employment rate. The sector added 23,000 jobs in January, when employment in healthcare had jumped by 320,000 over the year.

Three Western states are running out of time to set up their own exchanges, Kaiser Health News reports. Read more...

Paul Ryan's budget will preserve both tax increases and Medicare cuts in current law, The New York Times reports.

The Los Angeles Times says California's insurance exchange could partner with Wal-Mart.

Florida Republicans are divided over Rick Scott's plan to accept the healthcare law's Medicaid expansion, Kaiser Health News reports.

The federal Health department is making the adoption of information technology (IT) a major priority for U.S. healthcare in 2013.

Obama administration officials announced Wednesday that initiatives like electronic health records and interoperability among medical providers will be a major focus in the coming year.

Marilyn Tavenner, Medicare and Medicaid's acting administrator, praised President Obama's healthcare law for encouraging the moves and helping to lower costs. 

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is partnering with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to hold meetings in five states nationwide in an effort to formulate a rule that curbs antibiotic use in livestock used as food.

Last year, the FDA proposed to require a veterinary prescription for any antibiotic in animals that would become food, and is reaching out to the industry, the public and local communities about the challenges that those regulations may impose.

In an earlier study, the FDA found that 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the United States are used on animals. Penicillin and other drugs are often mixed into food or water to prevent cows, chicken, pigs and other livestock from getting sick in crowded pens.

The House Ways and Means Committee approved a bill Wednesday to prevent the Obama administration from giving states waivers under welfare reform.

The 28-14 vote sets the stage for an eventual floor vote on the measure (H.R. 890), which echoes a similar bill from last year.

The Obama administration announced last summer that it would allow states to apply for waivers under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, or welfare reform, so they could test new ways to increase employment among welfare recipients.

With the sequester in effect, expect a big week as healthcare stakeholders weigh the impact of budget cuts. In Washington, hospitals will convene a major conference, and the House healthcare committees will explore issues ranging from the Affordable Care Act to U.S. mental healthcare to entitlement reform.

The Federation of American Hospitals is holding its public policy conference Tuesday — just in time to discuss the potential impact of the sequester.
 
Scheduled to speak are: Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio); Reps. Charles Boustany Jr. (R-La.), chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Oversight, and Kevin Brady (R-Texas), chairman of the House Ways and Means subcommittee on Health; and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Marilyn Tavenner.