From negotiating passage of a managed care organization tax during a special legislative session on health to mandatory use of prescription drug databases, here are highlights of several (but not all) health-related laws effective in 2017.

President Obama will have up until his last day in office to sign the 21st Century Cures Act into law.

The ongoing intense policy debate over prescription drug costs may be a key factor in delaying progress on federal legislation on medical research.

Here are the four options qualifying providers may select from in order to begin participating for the first performance period, scheduled to begin January 1, 2017. Selecting an option is important to ensure that a practitioner is not penalized in 2019.

Current Senate Bill SB 482 by State Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) would require physicians to check California's Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES) database when prescribing Schedule II or III drugs to a patient for the first time, and regularly if treatment continues.