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 …
Read MoreJOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP In the conclusion of my October 2012 column on ObamaCare I wrote that no matter the outcome (of the presidential election) our future will not be boring. Fourteen months later, it has not been boring and we are just around the corner from imposing the individual mandate (aka tax penalty) on those who don’t have minimal insurance coverage. However, before we cross the starting line let’s review a bit …
Read MoreJOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, published the Supreme Court’s decision in National Federation of Independent Business v Sebelius on June 28, 2012. With a few exceptions, the decision upheld the bulk of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also known as Obamacare. In the next few paragraphs I will attempt to make some sense out of the ruling and how, if applicable, it applies to …
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