Category: Uncategorized

Senator Hatch Attacks Proposed ACA Premium Tax Credit Regulations

U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, says the premium subsidy provisions of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care act (Affordable Care Act) does not authorize the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to allow individuals purchasing coverage through a federal health insurance exchange to receive the tax credits and subsidies authorized under new Internal Revenue Code § 36B to offset the cost of being mandated to buy health insurance created under Affordable Care Act Section 1311.

CMS Celebrates 1st Anniversary of Strategic Framework on Multiple Chronic Conditions

December 14, 2011 marked the one-year anniversary of the release of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Strategic Framework on Multiple Chronic Conditions (Plan), a plan aimed at improving the overall health status of individuals with multiple chronic conditions. CMS is marking the anniversary by touting what it sees as early successes.

ONC Awards Key Contract To Develop Patient Electronic Consent Trial Project

One of the key elements to maximizing electronic health care transactions is determining how patients will provide their consents electronically. Stiking the correct balance between ensuring patient understanding and ability to effectively express their consent while making it financially and operationally viable for health care providers and payers to use the electronic consent process is a challenging but critical process.

ONC’s Office of the Chief Privacy Officer recently awarded a contract to APP Design, Inc. to find an efficient, effective, and creative way to help patients better understand their choices about whether and when their health care provider can share their health information electronically, including sharing it with a health information exchange organization. The project team will design, develop, and pilot innovative ways to electronically carry out existing patient choice policies, while improving business processes for health care providers. To learn more about the E-Consent Trial project, please see the Statement of Work. ONC’s formal launch of the E-Consent Trial Project will be in October.

Join Project COPE: Help Develop Real Tools To Meaningfully Empower Patients & Improve Health Care Access, Affordability & Quality

With all the recent debate about health care policy reforms, it is important to keep the focus on the practical needs of patients and their families in dealing with an illness or disability, and simple steps that health care providers, employers, insurers and other payers, churches and other community organizations, and regular people can do to meaningfully help patients and their families effectively access and pay for care and meet other related challenges attendant to illness and disabilities.You can access information about how you can arrange for training on “Building Your Family’s Health Care Toolkit,” using the “PlayForLife” resources to organize low cost wellness programs in your workplace, school, church or other communities, and other process improvement, compliance and other training and other resources for health care providers, employers, health plans, community leaders and others here