Practice Management
Some urgent care operators may be starting the new year with old worries about what the Affordable Care Act, known alternately as ACA or Obamacare, means for their centers. More specifically, there is concern that the shift away from PPO, in which patients can choose any provider in their network, to more rigid HMOs—many of which require patients to have preauthorization/referral to use urgent care or pay increased steerage—could hurt the industry. Where optimists hoped …
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URGENT MESSAGE: Five years after the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)—also known as the “Affordable Care Act,” or “Obamacare”—many independent urgent care practices are still uncertain of their obligations. In addition to legal mandates, a competitive job market can make a compelling case for offering or subsidizing employee health benefits. Alan A. Ayers, MBA, MAcc is Practice Manager Editor of The Journal of Urgent Care Medicine, a member of the …
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Come January 1, the latest provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to go into effect will require companies that employ 50–99 people to offer acceptable health coverage to at least 95% of their full-time workers. Since that would include many urgent care centers, it’s likely that some operators will see their healthcare spending go up. However, savvy marketers will seize on the opportunity to demonstrate the value of their occupational medicine services to local …
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The United States Senate is the latest—and certainly the most prestigious—body to recommend pulling the plug on the Affordable Care Act (ACA, also known as Obamacare). The Senate followed the lead of the House of Representatives by passing a new bill on December 3 that essentially repeals ACA. Passage of the new bill may be a moot point, as President Obama is likely to veto it. Once heralded by proponents as the salvation of uninsured …
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Urgent message: As the Affordable Care Act encourages greater integration of health insurers, hospitals, and physicians, urgent care will play an important role in increasing patient access, improving clinical outcomes and reducing health care costs. ALAN A. AYERS, MBA, MAcc, Experity Hospitals across the country are partnering with doctors and health insurers—linked by an electronic health record (EHR)—to form accountable care organizations (ACOs) as a way to control health care expenditures by coordinating patient care. …
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