Question

Due to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), residents of the United States are now facing a different side of the insurance spectrum with increased premiums and/or deductibles. They also have the ability to "shop" around for which insurance policies best meets their needs.

In your initial post, give your perspective on how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) impacts reimbursement policies.

AT LEAST SIX SENTENCES - WITH A REFERENCE LISTED ALSO.

Answer 1

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a legislation. A per ACA’s tenture it is difficult to estimate what effects it will have on any part of healthcare, such as reimbursements and revenue cycle management. The ACA is changing healthcare in enormous ways. The effects of ACA on provider reimbursement will manifest in the short and long term.

The changes in the provider reimbursement policy are due to a sudden increase in patients, as long term plans developed for the new generation of payment and care delivery models. This caused in increase in volume might provide a boost in revenue, but there was the risk of overloading physician practices. Some practices requires to hire new providers or staff to handle the increase in volume. And if payers are not providing proper or timely reimbursement, providers were to drop those plans.

Some insurers were lowering reimbursement rates to those closer to what Medicaid pays to providers. But the aim of the ACA and insurance exchanges is to demolish homogeneity of patient types for practices. The exchanges will ideally bring in a greater number of young patients, alongside older patients who will require regular care.

The ACA, individual and small group health plans are required to cover maternity coverage and mental health and substance abuse disorder services. Here, again, payers will be required to reimburse providers for these services, which will likely grow in popularity as more patients are insured. Payers are more accountable than, primary care physician will be billing for a greater number of services, due to the emphasis the ACA places on preventative care.

Due to all the above it is only the time will tell how reimbursement works out for these physicians, the ACA is to boost in the medical staffing industry. The ACA already recognizes and has creative incentives like scholarship funding, loan repayments and forgiveness programs among other benefits to expand the number of primary care doctors, nurses and physicians assistants.