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Assessing the Affordable Care Act

9 Responses

1. Dr. Pruitt, on March 27, 2011 at 10:20 PM said:

   San Antonio Medical Foundation

   I attended the San Antonio Medical Foundation breakfast last Wednesday, March 23 at the Double Tree on 410. The featured speaker was Tommy Thompson, former Wisconsin Govenor and HHS Secretary and Dr. A. Grover.

   Thompson started off by saying that 1 out of 7 in Bexar County are involved in health care. Over $1 billion in current construction on health care facilities in San Antonio proper. He then talked about Health Care Reform, and walked the audience through the politics in Washington and how Pelosi succeeded in getting the bill passed. But, he said that the bill is “not a law, but an outline” that will take five years to figure out. He said that if Obama wins a second term, the bill will not undergo any significant changes. But, if Obama loses in 2012, he predicted significant changes overall.

   Thompson said that if anyone in the audience thought that the health care bill will go away and it will be business as usual, they were smoking something illegal. “Not going to happen” he opined. And he specifically addressed the physicians in the audience by stating that those who continue their practice as usual, will go out of business. He predicts that doctors will become involved with integrated practices, many joining hospital payroll’s as employees, others starting concierge services.

   Dr. Atul Grover then spoke for about 20 minutes. He said that 6% of all hospitals nationally provide 41% of all charity care and 28% of Medicaid patients. He predicted Medicare payment cuts of over $155 billion over the next ten years and 16 million more people on Medicaid. He said physician issues include the Sunshine Act, Pay Value Modifiers and Quality Reporting requirements. He spent the most part of his presentation outlining the current physician shortages and future physician shortages.

   The audience was composed of hospital administrators/personnel and physicians. There must have been 500 in attendance. The meeting lasted one hour.

   Source: William Rusteberg
   [Risk Manager]
   Industry news & updates @ http://blog.riskmanagers.us/

   Notice: Email is not confidential nor proprietary and is forever imbedded in the public domain.

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2. Ann Miller RN MHA, on April 14, 2011 at 10:26 AM said:

   Obama ‘Framework’ Would Lower Healthcare Spending by $480 Billion Over 12 Years

   President Barack Obama offered a deficit reduction “framework” Wednesday that would reduce projected healthcare spending by $480 billion as part of an effort to achieve $4 trillion in deficit reductions over the next 12 years.

   Obama’s plan would create first-time Medicare spending caps—based on per beneficiary growth in spending relative to per capita growth of GDP—enforced by the controversial Independent Payment Advisory Board or by the secretary of HHS. That 15-member body—created by the 2010 healthcare law—has drawn concerns from healthcare providers over its power to cut provider payments without Congressional approval to achieve billions of dollars in Medicare spending reductions

   Source: Rich Daly, Modern Healthcare [4/13/11]

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3. Mary, on April 16, 2011 at 12:07 PM said:

   How Health Law’s Tax Increases Affect Docs and Their Practices

   There is little doubt that every physician in the U.S. has an opinion on the 2010 healthcare legislation and its impact on medical care in this country. What is less clear is whether or not most physicians understand the tax ramifications of the new law.

   And so, the following are some of the most significant tax provisions of the healthcare law.

   http://www.physiciansnews.com/2011/04/11/health-care-reform%E2%80%99s-tax-increases-what-it-means-for-you-what-you-can-do-about-it/

   Mary

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4. Mary, on April 25, 2011 at 11:54 PM said:

   Supreme Court Won’t Fast-Track VA Reform Suit

   The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to fast-track oral arguments in a lawsuit in which a Virginia federal judge struck down the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requirement that nearly all private individuals purchase health insurance.

   Virginia Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli II had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to bypass the normal appeals process and take up oral arguments immediately in his case against the ACA. Although it was an extraordinary request, Cuccinelli argued that the high cost and far-reaching implications of the law augured in favor of a swift resolution. The Supreme Court issued a one-sentence denial Monday morning saying it was declining to grant Cuccinelli’s “writ of certiorari before judgment” without elaborating on its reasoning.

   Source: Joe Carlson, Modern Healthcare [4/25/11]

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5. Cindy, on June 9, 2011 at 6:45 PM said:

   Judges Sharply Challenge Health Care Law

   A top Obama administration lawyer defending last year’s healthcare law ran into skeptical questions recently from three federal judges, who suggested they may be ready to declare all or part of the law unconstitutional.

   Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal K. Katyal faced off against former Bush administration Solicitor General Paul Clement in what has become the largest and broadest challenge to the healthcare law thus far.

   In all, 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Business joined in urging the judges to strike down the law.

   http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-healthcare-court-20110609,0,1457877.story

   Cindy

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6. Ann Miller RN MHA, on August 14, 2011 at 12:48 AM said:

   Appeals Court Strikes Down Individual Mandate in Reform Law

   In a 304-page opinion, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on Friday struck down the individual insurance mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but allowed the rest of the sweeping law to stand. In its decision, a divided three-judge panel of the federal appeals court ruled in favor of 26 states that had joined a lawsuit in Pensacola, FL which argued the reform law should be struck down because it relies on an unconstitutional expansion of federal power.

   The ruling means that the Supreme Court will now have the classic split in the circuit courts that it often relies on when deciding whether to take on a case. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law in June, and the losers in that case filed for permission last month to have their case heard by the Supreme Court.

   Source: Joe Carlson, Modern Healthcare [8/12/11]

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7. Charlie, on August 21, 2011 at 4:10 PM said:

   Half of U.S. Employers Could Stop Health Benefits When ObamaCare Kicks In

   Up to 50% of employers will “definitely or probably pursue alternatives” to their current health insurance plans when ObamaCare becomes fully operative in 2014, according to a McKinsey and Company survey.

   These alternatives include dropping health coverage altogether, offering defined contributions for insurance or offering coverage only to certain employees.

   An estimated 156 million non-elderly Americans get their health coverage at work, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Based on this, Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, an Alexandria, Va. research organization focusing on free-market health-care reform and tax policy, says as many as 78 million Americans will be forced to find other sources of coverage.

   McKinsey analyst Alissa Meade paints an even bleaker picture. She told a meeting of health insurance executives last November that “something in the range of 80 million to 100 million individuals are going to change coverage categories in the two years” after insurance mandates take effect in 2014.

   The McKinsey study also found that at least 30% of employers would save money by dropping health coverage – even if they completely compensated employees for the change through other benefit offerings or higher salaries. That’s because they no longer would be burdened by insurance costs that have consistently risen faster than inflation.

   Source: http://www.financialadvisorpublications.com/docs/compdoing.html

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8. Ann Miller RN MHA, on November 3, 2011 at 10:24 AM said:

   Kaiser Poll Finds More Opposition to Health-Care Overhaul Law

   Some 51% of respondents in a major monthly poll now say they have an unfavorable opinion of the legislation passed by Democrats in March 2010, and just 34% of them feel favorably about it, according to a telephone survey of 1,223 people carried out earlier this month.

   http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2011/10/28/kaiser-poll-finds-more-opposition-to-health-care-overhaul-law

   Ann Miller RN MHA

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9. Donna, on November 15, 2011 at 10:39 AM said:

   Supreme Court to Review Healthcare Reform Law

   The Supreme Court announced it will review whether Congress has the power to compel nearly all Americans to purchase health insurance or face a tax penalty and whether the federal government’s effort to expand state Medicaid programs amounts to illegal coercion.

   In a regular Monday morning order posted on its website, the court announced that it would hear oral arguments on a total of four specific questions raised in federal circuit court decisions that split on the legality of the so-called individual mandate to buy insurance in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Observers have said that decisions for cases argued in the court’s spring term would likely be published by June, which could thrust the case into the national run-up to the November 2012 presidential election.

   Source: Joe Carlson, Modern Healthcare [11/14/11]

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