Healthcare is evolving in the Obamacare economy and clinicians must think and plan ahead to maintain and grow their practices.
To help practitioners thrive in the Obamacare economy, In Touch EMR founder, Nitin Chhoda, and Sherry Marchand, compliance, billing and coding specialist, will be offering The Obamacare Economy Workshop Series over the next 12 months.
The Affordable Health Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010. The law covers more than 2,500 pages and is the biggest change in healthcare in more than 150 years.
To fully appreciate the outcomes of Obamacare, it’s important to look at the history of healthcare in the U.S.
The Rise Of Health Insurance Systems
Canada, the UK and other countries have a system of socialized medicine.
In the U.S., it’s a combination of government subsidized care that includes Medicare and Medicaid, employer-based coverage, and direct sales in which people purchase their own insurance.
Prior to World War II, healthcare insurance was a commodity that people bought for a rainy day. It wasn’t even considered a necessity. Diseases like diabetes weren’t even factors in healthcare.
Over time, employers began offering healthcare to attract employees.
The self-employed and others wanted a similar option and private healthcare insurance came to be.
The government got involved with healthcare programs to address the needs of the elderly and disabled.
The first healthcare plan bill was proposed in 1854 for the insane. President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted healthcare as part of the Medicare program in 1933.
President Lyndon B. Johnson oversaw the passage of Medicaid in 1964, but it took almost 17 years for a majority of the states to come on board.
President Jimmy Carter and President Bill Clinton tried to overhaul the system but failed.
Benefits And Repercussions
Obamacare has a number of benefits. It makes Medicaid more accessible for low-income families, makes Medicare better in some ways, and created a group of core services that healthcare plans must include.
It also makes patients more responsible for their coverage and managing their health.
Obamacare was designed to fix a broken system and it’s now the law. It was a major leap and the legislation will mean significant changes for clinicians.
Practitioners need to know what impact it will have on patients, physicians surrounding them, and their own private practice.
Clinicians must decide if they’ll focus on prevention or maintenance.
The Obamacare Economy Workshop Series will help clinicians maintain profitability, sustain their operations and grow their practice. Physicians don’t have to go into survival mode.
Systems and people are the backbone of a practice and clinicians must be more efficient in everything they do, from scheduling to billing.
Every physician must plan ahead to optimize the patient experience – the government is watching everything clinicians do.
The Obamacare Economy Workshop Series of webinars and CDs is designed to help practitioners revolutionize their practice in an evolving healthcare environment.
