Republicans Inching Towards Obamacare Overhaul Health Care Deal
Republicans and the Trump administration are reported to be close to amending the health care proposal on overhauling Obamacare.nnThe Trump administration’s push to revive the moribund GOP health care proposal has apparently paid some dividends. The White House and key Republicans in the House of Representatives are reportedly close to an agreement to amend the bill so that states could opt out of two popular Affordable Care Act provisions, including one that requires individual insurance plans to cover 10 “essential health benefits.”nnThe other provision, known as “community rating,” bars insurers from varying premiums based on health status or medical history. It also requires insurers, under “guaranteed issue” rules, to offer coverage to all who want it. A proposal from Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-N.J., who leads the moderate GOP Tuesday Group, would allow individual insurers to charge plan members different rates based on their health status.nnThe proposal was negotiated with Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., who heads the conservative House Freedom Caucus. The caucus announced their support for the deal on Wednesday. That could allow a House vote by Friday on the bill. House passage of the GOP bill would give President Donald Trump a key legislative success ahead of his 100-day mark this weekend. However, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., wouldn’t speculate on timing for a possible vote.nnRep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., who often sides with the Freedom Caucus, said he will support the revised proposal after “acceptance of the fact that we’re not going to repeal the Affordable Care Act.”nn“It’s not a repeal, lets be clear,” Sanford told reporters on Wednesday. “I think it’s very important to be clear with the American public and not to oversell this thing: ‘Oh we repealed it’. No we didn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act. We have trimmed back a couple of its key features…I think that, in short form, it’s the most you can get out of this conference. “nnMacArthur’s proposal addresses the Affordable Care Act’s community rating system, in which the entire pool of plan enrollees pays the same premium rates. That spreads the higher costs of sicker plan members among all who buy coverage. Both guaranteed issue and community rating helped cut the number of uninsured people with pre-existing conditions by 3.6 million, or 22 percent, from 2010 to 2014, according to federal estimates.n
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This article was originally posted on Miamiherald.com.
Welter Healthcare Partners is excited to present our helpful career advancing tips and strategies to sharpen the skills prospective employers look for in a coder!nnPRACTICE: I’m sure you’ve all heard the old adage: Practice makes perfect! As simple as it sounds, most of us don’t make or take the time to adequately practice, especially when approaching a new project, subject or task. It takes an incredible amount of hours to master a subject…10,000 hours to be exact! Acknowledge the level of difficulty associated with any new task. Plan and prepare for mistakes. Pick your battles. Ensure enough time is set aside to complete the task at an exemplary level. Leverage all tools and resources. And Keep Practicing!!!
One of the best life lessons I ever learned is always hire higher! Hire people better than yourself! Some managers are intimidated to do this, thinking they may be replaced, they may lose control, etc. If that could happen it will anyway! Always recruit and hire people better and when possible more knowledgeable than yourself! If they are not more knowledgeable can they learn? Can they grow? Can they take your organization to beyond where it is today?nnIn a service business (and healthcare is the biggest one by far) proper staffing is not just one thing that needs to be done well it can be the only thing that needs to be done well, because when done right the rest will be taken care of.nnWe do staff recruitment and placement and we do it well!nn
About R. Todd Welter • MS, CPCnFounder and President of Welter Healthcare Partners
The staff is everything! We cannot do it without them.nnOur (and your) most valuable asset is the staff, their abilities, their training, their insights, their work ethic. If this is true, why do so many do it so poorly? When we buy a copier, lease space, buy a car, etc. we do research, we ask around, we make comparisons. Many practices hire staff based on a quick interview, maybe a background check and hope!nnSo many people are so good at writing resume’s making even the smallest experience look amazing. We—as employers—cannot say anything bad about a former employee when asked by a potential employer. That leaves us to make what could be a huge and costly decision based on an interview. All the world is a stage and anyone can be good for the 30 min (at most) interview.nnStaff recruitment and Placement is one part science and one part art:nnThe Science: Being able to see all the different websites, monitoring careers, having market trust and a network which allows for honest and straightforward assessments from former employers, neighbors, and colleagues.nnThe Art: That intuition and experience that allows for placement: Finding the best person, personality, attitude and ethos for the position, job and the culture.nnWe do staffing and we do it very well!nn
Welter Healthcare Partners is excited to present our monthly Code Spotlight! Each month, Welter Healthcare Partners will spotlight a unique CPT or ICD-10 code to profile and discuss practice applications of the code, as well as pertinent guideline reminders. nn99291: Critical Care Services (99291-99292 – Critical care, evaluation, and management of the critically ill or critically injured patient; first 30-74 minutes) are some of the most heavily scrutinized codes in all of CPT! They are a huge target for all payers and have put many Critical Care/Pulmonology practices out of business or on the dreaded Pre-Pay system due to lack of compliance. Here are some of the essentials for compliantly billing for critical care services:n