Obamacare Repeal Bill Falls Short in Senate
The Health Care Freedom Act, which would have repealed employer and individual mandates while leaving some part of the ACA in place, was voted down by the Senate early this morning.nnIn a session that lasted into the wee hours Friday morning, the Senate voted down a “skinny” bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), dealing a big blow to the chamber’s Republican leadership.nnThe vote was 49-51 to defeat the bill — known as the Health Care Freedom Act — which would have repealed the employer and individual mandates, but would have left other elements of the ACA in place. It also would have defunded Planned Parenthood and repealed the medical device tax. Along with all of the Senate’s Democrats and its two Independents, three Republicans — John McCain of Arizona, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Susan Collins of Maine — also voted against the bill.n
nThis article originally posted on HealthLeadersMedia.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!nnConversation Skills – The art of smooth conversation centers on the communicator’s ability to effectively convey ideas and information. Conversation skills take practice, patience, and development over time and will gradually lead to having constructive and enjoyable conversations with others. The rise of social media has made human interactions and conversation generally more difficult. Keep in mind – a conversation is a 2-way street – it’s not all about you and what you are saying! During a conversation, there should be a noticeable balance between talking and listening, which can be reinforced by appropriate body language. Listen to understand what the other person is saying and not just to formulate your response. It is important to be interested in the other person’s input and ideas, which will make you more interesting to talk to, which in turn makes the conversation flow more smoothly.
Due to the recent interest to repeal and replace Obamacare, healthcare-provider groups have called on Congress to cut a bipartisan deal on healthcare reforms!nn”The best approach would be for Congress members to reach across the aisle and address some of the specific problem areas of the Affordable Care Act,” Elizabeth “Betsy” Ryan, JD, president and CEO of the New Jersey Hospital Association, told HealthLeaders.nn”To me, letting Obamacare fail would be a dereliction of government’s responsibility to the people. This is not just a political fight to be won—these are real people, real families, whose healthcare is at stake.”nnPartisan congressional approaches to repealing, replacing, or repairing the PPACA are likely destined for the scrapheap, Nicholas Schilligo, MS, vice president of public policy at the Chicago-based American Osteopathic Association (AOA), told HealthLeaders. “Any meaningful solution is going to require bipartisan discussion, including hearings that thoroughly examine and vet a lot of the issues that are going to be put forward.”nnThis past weekend’s collapse of the Senate’s Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill, the Better Care and Reconciliation Act (BCRA), prompted Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to call on his Senate colleagues to pass repeal-only legislation. The Kentucky Republican’s repeal-only plan includes a two-year grace period to give Congress time to craft a replacement for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).n
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nnAs a group, doctors are ill-prepared to meet the requirements of a law that will change the way they are paid, shows a survey of a thousand physicians by the American Medical Association and Big Four auditing firm KPMG.nnThat lack of preparedness could hit them in the pocketbook, even amid new flexibility shown by CMS in last week’s proposed changes that would delay mandatory reporting data for another year and reduced reporting burdens for small physician practices.nnPhysicians must choose one of two reimbursement tracks under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). One, known as the Merit-based Incentive Payment System, is where most physicians will start, but some will participate in approved Advanced Payment Models (APMs) that will reward physicians with as much as 5% annual payment bonuses in return for taking more upside and downside risk based on value measures.nnIn either scenario, physicians rate themselves as less prepared than they should be, with half calling MACRA requirements “very” burdensome, according to the survey.nnMore than 56% of those surveyed still planned to participate in the MIPS program in 2017, while 18% are expected to quality for higher and more stable payment as an APM participant.n
nnAs part of the new coding format for our newsletter, Welter Healthcare Partners is excited to offer you a new surgery coding series in which we want to help you! The 2nd week of every month we will highlight a complicated surgical case. This week we are highlighting a general surgery case. We want to hear from you! If you have a complicated surgery case and need help with coding, please upload the operative note by clicking on the link below. Remember to remove ALL patient protected health information and organization identifiers. Welter Healthcare Partners will not use any medical records submitted in which PHI is not removed and protected.