Question

Affordable Care Act requires most health insurance plans to cover preventative services that have received an "A" or "B" grade recommendation from the U.S.

Briefly summarize the key points of the ACA provision
In what ways does the ACA provision positively or negatively impact the healthcare decisions of a consumer?
How are the ACA provisions impacting your healthcare organization?
What is your role as a healthcare administrator in implementing the ACA regulations in your healthcare organization?

Answer 1

Obamacare also is known as the Affordable Care Act signed into law in 2010 aimed to provide affordable health coverage to all Americans. It was meant to protect the people against insurance strategies used by insurance companies to restrict care or drive up costs. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of Obamacare. The federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (P.L. 111-148), signed March 23, 2010, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, signed March 31, 2010, is also referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or simply as “federal health reform.” The 900+ page act contains many provisions, with various effective dates.

Key Federal Provisions
Provisions included in the ACA are intended to expand access to insurance, increase consumer protections, emphasize prevention and wellness, improve quality and system performance, expand the health workforce, and curb rising health care costs.

Expand Access to Insurance Coverage

Increase Consumer Insurance Protections

Emphasize Prevention and Wellness

Improve Health Quality and System Performance

Promote Health Workforce Development
The ACA addresses workforce issues through a number of provisions, including reforms in graduate medical education training; increases in health profession scholarship and loan programs; support for training programs for nurses; support for new primary care models, such as medical homes and team management of chronic diseases; increased funding for community health centers and the National Health Service Corps; and support for school-based health centers and nurse-managed health clinics.

Positive impact:

Made Health Care More Affordable

More Screenings Are Done

Lower Drug Costs

Limitless Care Time.

Many Americans Now Have Insurance Coverage.

Negative impact:

Increased Premium Costs.

One Can Be Penalized In Case You Are Not Insured.

Signing Up Can Be Complicated.

The ACA’s attempts to address the shortage are unproven and limited in scope, and the significant financial investment will not produce results for years due to the training pipeline. With the ACA’s estimated 190 million hours of paperwork annually imposed on businesses and the health care industry, combined with shortages of workers, patients will be facing increasing wait times, limited access to providers, shortened time with caregivers and decreased satisfaction. The health care workforce is facing increased stress and instability, and a major redesign of the workforce is needed to extend care to millions of Americans.

Health administrators are also participating in a shift in compensation methods for healthcare providers. Traditionally, doctors have been paid on a fee-per-service basis, regardless of the outcome. The ACA creates a value-based model in which providers are paid based on the quality of the care they provide. While the fee-based compensation model is still dominant, insurers and employers are increasingly moving to the new system. Health administrators are at the forefront of the new era in American healthcare brought on by the ACA. The law has unquestionably created challenges, and administrators are responding by learning new skills and finding creative solutions that benefit both patients and providers.