Today, we are achieving yet another milestone, by implementing an important provision of the Affordable Care Act that will improve the collection of data on HHS-sponsored surveys. With this advance, we as a nation can better understand and target health disparities and ultimately move toward eliminating them.
Today, we have more good news. The Medicare Part B monthly premium paid by most beneficiaries, which helps pay for physicians’ services, outpatient hospital services, certain home health services, and other items, is rising by only $3.50 despite earlier projections of a much bigger jump.
Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced final rules for a new program designed to encourage primary care doctors, specialists, hospitals, and other health care providers to coordinate their care. Created by the Affordable Care Act, these rules on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) add to the menu of options for providers looking to better coordinate care for patients and will make it easier for providers to deliver high quality care and use health care dollars more wisely.
These rules followed months of comment and soliciting feedback from stakeholders across the health care industry. Here’s what people are saying about the new rules.
Your doctors try hard to give you the best care possible, but it can be a challenge to get all the information they need to protect your health. For people with Medicare, this is particularly important because a significant number of people over age 65 and those with disabilities live with one or more chronic conditions. That is why I’m so pleased with the work we are doing with doctors and hospitals to find ways to improve care and reduce costs. When doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers are able to work together they provide better, more coordinated health care. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, they can do that by becoming an Accountable Care Organization (ACO).
This week, you can expect to hear more from us about one of the most important goals of the health care law, the Affordable Care Act: taking down barriers so you can spend more time with your doctor, reducing costs and ensuring you get the best care. When you get the time you need to talk with your doctor and ask questions, you can work with your doctor and be as healthy as possible.
As we suspend work on implementing CLASS, we are recommitting ourselves to the ultimate goal of making sure Americans can get the long-term care they need, whether it’s a working-age mom with disabilities who needs daily support right now or a young man at his first job who wants to protect himself and his family against the possibility of huge long-term care costs in the future.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and it’s an important time to consider the role that each of us can and must play in combating this disease.We know that early detection can make all the difference. And I am proud to be a part of an Administration that is working hard to ensure that affordable and accessible preventive care is a reality.
Today we have good news from the National Health Service Corps. Thanks to the investments we made in the Affordable Care Act and the Recovery Act, the numbers of doctors, nurses, and health care professionals in this program has nearly tripled in the last three years. And for the first time in its nearly 40 year history, the National Health Service Corps can count more than 10,000 members in its ranks.
he Affordable Care Act calls for a risk adjustment program that aims to eliminate incentives for health insurance plans to avoid people with pre-existing conditions or those who are in poor health. Risk adjustment ensures that health insurance plans have additional money to provide services to the people who need them most by providing more funds to plans that provide care to people that are likely to have high health costs. Insurance plans then compete on the basis of quality and service, and not on the basis of whether they can attract healthy people.
Open Enrollment is your chance to review your health care coverage and see if you need to make any changes, or if you are happy sticking with the plan you have. The health care law extended the Open Enrollment period and made it earlier – giving you more time to make choices and giving Medicare time to process everything so your coverage starts without a hitch on January 1st.This year, you can make any changes as early as October 15.
A top priority for this Administration is improving the quality and lowering the cost of care for the millions of Americans enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid (known as “dual eligibles” or Medicare-Medicaid enrollees).
Starting today, you will begin to have more information about your health insurance premiums. This year, in every State and for the first time ever, the Affordable Care Act requires insurance companies to publicly justify their actions if they want to raise rates by 10 percent or more.
Today, we posted the first set of explanations from insurance companies. Right here on HealthCare.gov: http://companyprofiles.healthcare.gov/.
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month – a time to remember those who have lost their lives to breast cancer, those who are battling it now, and to celebrate with those who have survived. It is also a time to reaffirm our commitment to fighting breast cancer and to remind ourselves of the importance of prevention and early detection.
Earlier this week, Community Transformation Grants were distributed to 61 states and communities with more than 120 million residents to help keep people safe from the threats of heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and other leading causes of illness and death.