Health providers are joining with community organizers, insurers to get the word out on health law benefits

Apr 25 2013

The New York Times examines how the law's backers are working to explain it to the public. Meanwhile, other outlets report on accountable care organizations and concerns -- from business leaders and HIV advocates -- about changes coming from the overhaul.

The New York Times: Racing To Spread Word About New Health Plans
President Obama and the Democrats passed the 2010 health care law to make medical insurance available to more than 30 million people who do not have it. But with recent studies showing that as many as three-fourths of those people are unaware of their new options, health care providers are joining community organizers and insurance companies in an ambitious effort to spread the word in the six months remaining before the health plans become available (Pear, 4/23).

The New York Times: A Health Provider Finds Success In Keeping Hospital Beds Empty
Advocate Health Care, based in Oak Brook, Ill., [is] a pioneer in an approach known as "accountable care" that offers financial incentives for doctors and hospitals to cut costs rather than funnel patients through an ever-greater volume of costly medical services. Under the agreement, hospital admissions are down 6 percent. Days spent in the hospital are down nearly 9 percent. The average length of a stay has declined, and many other measures show doctors providing less care, too (Lowry, 4/23).

The Fiscal Times: The CEOs Driving Our Recovery Fear Obamacare
But the National Center for the Middle Market-;run out of Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business-;offers a glimpse into how these [privately held] businesses think. On Wednesday, the center released its first quarter 2013 survey of companies with revenues between $10 million and $1 billion. The survey indicates that Obamacare and health insurance costs are the primary challenge for this group of 197,000 companies that account for 43 million jobs (Boak, 4/24).

Medpage Today: HIV Care Groups Fear Post-ACA Future
Community-based providers of HIV care and social services are expressing fear they could disappear as the health system becomes more integrated and their funding sources potentially dry up. In a panel discussion Tuesday on the future of Ryan White Program providers in a post-Affordable Care Act (ACA) world, organizations at the 10th Annual National Summit on Health Disparities here said they need to learn how they will fit into the more integrated health system that health reform efforts have created. … Although the Ryan White program will not be disappearing with the advent of the ACA, the program's role in paying for services is unclear given the new, integrated healthcare systems now being formed (Pittman, 4/23).