The Supreme Court may not yet have decided the Affordable Care Act's fate, but several major health insurers have pledged to adopt many of the law‘s reforms regardless of the Court‘s decision, HHS has reported that more than 200,000 people have already gained access to care because of just one program within the law, and CMS has established a new data center to help it transition per the law‘s intent.
AT THE AGENCIES
HHS reported that a new phone-center program funded by the Affordable Care Act has already helped more than 200,000 people in 22 states to gain access to health insurance. The Community Assistance Program sent states grant money to establish help lines for consumers with questions about their health insurance. Over the past year, 60 percent of callers to those lines received full case-management services while 40 percent received educational or referral services.
CMS established a new data center to strengthen CMS’s data management capabilities and help it improve delivery of care. The Office of Information Products and Data Analysis will attempt to learn lessons from the data it manages as CMS transitions to a value-based purchaser of care from a fee-for-service payer.
Overall, HHS has missed the statutory deadlines on 47 percent of the regulations that were given deadlines by the language of the Affordable Care Act.
ON THE HILL
The House voted in favor of repealing a 2.3 percent tax on medical devices, which would have become effective in 2013 under the Affordable Care Act. The White House has already threatened to veto the legislation should it arrive on the president’s desk, but expectations are that the legislation will not pass the Senate.
IN THE STATES
The Massachusetts State House voted almost unanimously in support of a new plan to restrain the growing cost of the 2006 Massachusetts health care overhaul. The legislation, which emphasizes strict oversight and aims to reduce costs by some $160 billion over 15 years, must now be reconciled with a Senate-passed version before advancing to Gov. Patrick for consideration.
THIRD PARTIES
Several large U.S. health insurers vowed this week to implement major components of the Affordable Care Act regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on the law this summer. These insurers vowed, for example, to permit dependents to remain on their parents’ policies until age 26, to avoid imposing lifetime dollar limits on policies, and to avoid rescinding individual insurance policies except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation of facts.
Recent polls on the Affordable Care Act indicate support for the law is still divided, but more people than not say they support its overturning by the Supreme Court. A new CNN/ORC poll suggests 51 percent of Americans oppose the law, while 43 percent support it, and a CBS/New York Times poll indicates 41 percent believe the court should completely overturn the law while an additional 27 percent say the Court should strike down only the individual mandate.
THIS WEEK
On Thursday (6/14) in 215 Dirksen, the Senate Finance Committee held a roundtable discussion titled "Medicare Physician Payment Policy: Lessons from the Private Sector."
To view our compilation of recent health care reform implementation news, click here.