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The Trump administration is poised to issue a rule unwinding an Obama -era requirement that employee health benefits include contraception, which will spark a fresh round of litigation over an issue that has been before courts for six years. Federal health officials are expected to finalize a regulation that would allow employers with religious or moral objections to birth control to omit coverage for contraception from their workers’ plans, according to two people familiar with its contents. The regulation closely mirrors an earlier, leaked draft, they said. (Hackman and Radnofsky, 8/16)

The Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday appointed 14 people from outside government to join a new commission tasked with addressing serious mental illness throughout the United States. The Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee, which consists of 10 leaders or designees from federal departments and 14 outside experts, was created via the 21st Century Cures Act, which then-President Barack Obama signed into law in December. (Facher, 8/16)

The Trump administration's moves to cancel two mandatory bundled payment models and scale back on another means the CMS has to work hard to push providers into value-based care, experts say. On Tuesday, the CMS cut the number of locations mandated to participate in the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement, or CJR, model from 67 to 34. It also canceled Episode Payment Models and the Cardiac Rehabilitation incentive payment models that were supposed to begin on Jan. 1, 2018. (Dickson, 8/16)

The Trump administration's bid to end or alter three Obama-era tests of alternative approaches to Medicare payments prompted both applause and disappointment on Wednesday from the health care industry. Some groups expressed a desire to push ahead with a drive to use reimbursement policy to try to improve the quality of health care, while others conveyed relief at the prospect of an end to potential payment challenges. (Clason, 8/16)

The National Park Service announced Wednesday that, effective immediately, it will no longer allow parks to ban the sale of plastic water bottles, which have long been criticized for littering lakes and forests. Since 2011, as part of the Green Parks Plan adopted under former President Barack Obama, the Park Service has encouraged the use of tap water and refillable bottles on federal lands, while allowing parks the option to prohibit the sale of disposable water bottles in shops, hotels and vending machines. (Alexander, 8/16)