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Doctors will get a 1.68% pay hike in Medicare starting March 9 under a deal struck over the weekend to fund part of the government. The pay bump is among multiple Medicare payment policies that now will run until the end of December. That year-end deadline lines up with the expiration of telehealth pay policies, setting the stage for a large health legislative package and giving Congress another shot at aligning hospital and doctor office payments and reforming the business practices of drug middlemen. (Wilkerson and Cohrs, 3/3)

Hospitals and other providers waiting for Congress to complete a slew of overdue spending bills are pressing for swift action to eliminate financial uncertainty—which lawmakers themselves compounded with the odd double deadline they set for themselves. Congress passed a short-term spending bill Thursday that established two deadlines: one on March 8 to pass a half-dozen full-year appropriations bills, including the Food and Drug Administration's, and a second on March 22 to approve the remaining six spending bills. (McAuliff, 3/1)

Congressional leaders on Sunday finally revealed long-awaited bipartisan bills to fund parts of the government for most of the year, setting off a bicameral sprint to avert looming shutdown threat in less than a week. The weekend rollout entails six full-year spending bills to fund a slew of agencies until early fall, including the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Transportation (DOT), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Veterans Affairs (VA), Justice (DOJ), Commerce and Energy. (Folley, 3/3)