Hacking the Affordable Care Act

Workers' Compensation is really "married" to the Affordable Care Act (AFA). As that law is modified so will workers' compensation medical delivery. Today's post was shared by The Health Care Blog and comes from thehealthcareblog.com

By ROGER COLLIER It may say something about expectations for the Affordable Care Act that the simplistic “just repeal Obamacare” cries of Congressional Republicans are starting to be supplemented by proposals for its replacement. The most detailed so far is from the conservative American Enterprise Institute, which has published an unexpectedly non-doctrinaire study authored by Harvard professor Michael Chernew and seven other respected academics. It’s far from perfect, but it’s worth reading. Structural details of the AEI proposal, modestly titled “Best of Both Worlds,” aren’t always clear (page 1 lists four “principles,” page 5 lists five “priorities”, and page 16 lists three “major planks”), but it does attempt a bipartisan approach, combining ideas from left and right. Some of these ideas have been contained in other proposals, such as those of Wyden and Bennett and Fuchs and Emanuel (which may damn the AEI proposal in right-wing eyes), and most recently in a THCB piece by Martin Gaynor. They include the elimination of the employer coverage tax preference, the provision of “premium support” subsidies for most individuals, and the establishment of a national insurance exchange. Together, they are designed to encourage individual choice and responsibility and to maximize competition between insurers, while removing some of the inequities of the present system (and of the ACA). The AEI...

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No Shopping Zone: Medicare Is Not Part Of New Insurance Marketplaces

Medicare is integrated with many aspects of state workers' compensation programs. From medical fee setting to reimbursement for conditional payments under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act. Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from www.kaiserhealthnews.org

While the Obama administration is stepping up efforts encouraging uninsured Americans to enroll in health coverage from the new online insurance marketplaces, officials are planning a campaign to convince millions of seniors to please stay away – don't call and don't sign up. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) "We want to reassure Medicare beneficiaries that they are already covered, their benefits are not changing and the marketplace doesn't require them to do anything," said Michele Patrick, Medicare's deputy director for communications. To reinforce the message, she said the 2014 "Medicare & You" handbook – the 100-plus-page guide that will be sent to 52 million Medicare beneficiaries next month -- contains a prominent- notice: "The Health Insurance Marketplace, a key part of the Affordable Care Act, will take effect in 2014. It's a new way for individuals, families, and employees of small businesses to get health insurance. Medicare isn't part of the Marketplace." Still, it can be easy to get the wrong impression. "You hear programs on the radio about the health care law and they never talk about seniors and what we are supposed to do," said Barbara Bonner, 72, of Reston, Va. "Do we have to go sign up like they're saying everyone else has to? Does the new law apply to us seniors at all and if so, how?" Enrollment in health plans offered on the marketplaces, also called exchanges, begins Oct. 1 and runs for six months. Meanwhile, the two-month sign-up period for private health plans for...

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Tacking Health Care Costs Onto California Farm Produce

Today's post was shared by WCBlog and comes from www.nytimes.com

Farm labor contractors across California, the nation’s biggest agricultural engine, are increasingly nervous about a provision of the Affordable Care Act that will require hundreds of thousands of field workers to be covered by health insurance.

While the requirement was recently delayed until 2015, the contractors, who provide farmers with armies of field workers, say they are already preparing for the potential cost the law will add to their business, which typically operates on a slender profit margin.

“I’ve been to at least a dozen seminars on the Affordable Care Act since February,” said Chuck Herrin, owner of Sunrise Farm Labor, a contractor based here. “If you don’t take the right approach, you’re wiped out.”

Obamacare Will Be Collecting Workers' Compensation Medical Records

The implementation of Affordable Care Act data collection regulations will include the collection of medical information concerning work related accidents and injuries.  The coalition of this information will broadly advance the concept of universal medical care and impose yet another route for the Centers for Medicare and Medicare to strengthen enforcement under the Medicare Secondary Payer Act.

The largest and most expansive database of personalized medical information is being established under the umbrella of an newly created unit under the authority granted to the Internal Revenue Service, The Federal Data Services Hub. Personal medical records, including electronic medical records, will be incorporated into the program. 

"On March 23, 2010, the President signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 
(P.L. 111-148). On March 30, 2010, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 
(P.L. 111-152) was signed into law. The two laws are collectively referred to as the Affordable 
Care Act. The Affordable Care Act creates new competitive private health insurance markets –
called Exchanges – that will give millions of Americans and small businesses access to 
affordable coverage and the same insurance choices members of Congress will have. Exchanges 
will help individuals and small employers shop for, select, and enroll in high quality, affordable 
private health plans that fit their needs at competitive prices. The IT systems will support a 
simple and seamless identification of people who qualify for coverage through the Exchange, tax 
credits, cost-sharing reductions, Medicaid, and CHIP programs. By providing a place for onestop shopping, Exchanges will make purchasing health insurance easier and more understandable 
and will put greater control and more choice in the hands of individuals and small businesses."

Read more about "Federalization" and workers' compensation: