Healthcare reform and the physician business owner

What do you really know about healthcare reform? 

And do you even care?

The past few years have thrust healthcare into the limelight, with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act (PPACA) in March 2010. And confusion has reigned ever since.

Once in a while, I come across good explanations that attempt to demystify the PPACA. As much as I'd like to be an ostrich with my head in the sand, mainly to escape the rancor and fury of those decrying the Act and the cries of those begging for meaningful change, I can't escape its impact on my clientele and readers.

For those of you who are interested and trying to make sense of the news, outrage and potential impact on your practice or executive role in a healthcare organization, here are a few of the more helpful resources:

1. From the American College of Physician Executives comes this video:

Healthcare Reform: A Spectator's Guide, by Sarah Freymann Fontenot BSN, JD. SHe concludes with a plea for "physician leadership, direction and well-educated voices" to help guide the debate and to produce the outcomes that really matter - quality, patient satisfaction, accuracy in billing, education and community.
This 47 minute informative video illuminates what's happening at the intersection of healthcare, the law and politics without taking any particular stand.  

2. From the American College of Physicians, An Internist's Practical Guide to Understanding Health Reform is a document written without legalese, accompanied by useful tables, plenty of useful links and even a patient summary. It's 109 pages long, so I don't encourage you to print it!

3. Finally, from the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions comes a document titled The Physician Workforce: Opportunities and challenges  post-health care reform. Here, the impact of PPACA is discussed on the physician workforce.

This is one of the most instructive parts of the document (the text is tiny but you can read the document at the above link):

 

The bottom line, whether you believe that the PPACA will hold up as being constitutional or not, is that the typical physician practice, as we have known it, is headed for change. As are the issues that physician executives in healthcare organizations must grapple with.

Are you ready for the ride? 

Comments

[Edward]

I have been in the health care business since 1980 and the Affordable Care Act is still mysterious. I suppose the Supreme Court (this year) will make a ruling on the validity of some (or all) of the Act.