This great article about the Health Care Reform Law was published on TampaBay.com today.  It has some great information regarding why Florida has rejected money, other states' actions, and reactions to Florida's decisions.

"In fighting health care law, Florida rejects millions in federal aid

By Janet Zink, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau

In Print: Wednesday, June 8, 2011

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TALLAHASSEE — Florida already leads a lawsuit challenging the federal health care law, but state officials are going a step further and ignoring the law almost entirely — rejecting millions of federal dollars to provide health care for retirees, seniors, children and people with disabilities.

So far this year, Gov. Rick Scott and the Republican-led Legislature have returned or refused to spend at least $19 million in federal money associated with implementing the health care law. Scott also has stopped any state planning for the creation of mandated health care exchanges, which will allow consumers to comparison shop for health insurance plans.

The decisions put Florida at odds with conservative governors in Texas, Indiana and Wisconsin, who are fighting the constitutionality of the health care law on one hand and planning for it on the other.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta is scheduled to hear arguments today in the suit pitting 26 states against the federal government.

"Like a lot of other states, Florida is involved in the lawsuit itself, but there's a big difference," said Eddie Vale, a spokesperson for the Washington-D.C.-based nonprofit Know Your Care, established to educate people about the federal law. "While other states are suing, they are still going ahead with passing regulations that are necessary, working with Health and Human Services where necessary to bring the benefits of the federal health care law to their residents."

Take Wisconsin and Indiana, which are parties to Florida's lawsuit. Governors in both states have signed off on planning for the health care exchanges required by the federal law. In Florida, Scott has not.

Pennsylvania, also part of the lawsuit, has 2,684 residents signed up for a program that provides low-cost health insurance to people with pre-existing conditions, such as cancer and diabetes, who can't buy coverage anyplace else. Pennsylvania runs its own program with funding from the federal government and has more enrollees than any other state.

In Florida, only 770 people are enrolled in the same plan, and the state has declined to run its own program.

Texas has accepted $276 million for a program that provides health insurance to people over 55 who have retired but aren't yet eligible for Medicare. Much of that money is going to Texas state employees.

Florida, by contrast, has accepted only $15 million for the early retirement program — with local governments taking the money. Scott is planning to accept $37 million for the program, but that was because the payout was agreed to by former Gov. Charlie Crist, officials said.

The issue in Florida isn't necessarily over the money, it's the portion of the federal law that requires people to buy health insurance or pay a tax penalty. That requirement is to take effect in January 2014.

Florida filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the so-called "individual mandate" provision moments after President Barack Obama signed the act into law in March 2010, arguing that the government can't force people to buy a product..."

To read more click: http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/in-fighting-health-care-law-florida-rejects-millions-in-federal-aid/1174120

Health Care Reform: The Timeline for 2011 and 2012

Great article posted today on PrimePay's blog about Health Care Reform:

"One of the best and easiest to understand sources for outlining the health care reform changes and when they take effect comes from the HealthCare.gov website.  Their health care reform timeline is broken out by year and then also by the different types of benefits that the law provides to consumers. 

In this blog posting, we’ll focus on what will be changing in 2011 and 2012.  Tuesday’s article will focus on 2013 and 2014.  Below are some of the highlighted changes of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, by year... along with the effective dates and links to download more information.

2011: HEALTH CARE REFORM

Improving Quality and Lowering Costs

• Offering Prescription Drug Discounts.  Seniors who reach the coverage gap will receive a 50 percent discount when buying Medicare Part D covered brand-name prescription drugs.  Download the brochure… Closing the Prescription Drug Coverage Gap.  Effective January 1, 2011.
• Providing Free Preventive Care for Seniors.  The law provides certain free preventive services, such as annual wellness visits and personalized prevention plans for seniors on Medicare.  Effective January 1, 2011.
• Improving Health Care Quality and Efficiency.  The law establishes a new Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation that will begin testing new ways of delivering care to patients.  Effective January 1, 2011.
• Improving Care for Seniors After They Leave the Hospital.  The Community Care Transitions Program will help high risk Medicare beneficiaries who are hospitalized avoid unnecessary readmissions by coordinating care and connecting patients to services in their communities.  Effective January 1, 2011.
• Introducing New Innovations to Bring Down Costs.  The Independent Payment Advisory Board will begin operations to develop and submit proposals to Congress and the President aimed at extending the life of the Medicare Trust Fund.  Administrative funding becomes available October 1, 2011.

Increasing Access to Affordable Care

• Increasing Access to Services at Home and in the Community.  The new Community First Choice Option allows states to offer home and community based services to disabled individuals through Medicaid rather than institutional care in nursing homes.  Effective beginning October 1, 2011.

Holding Insurance Companies Accountable

• Bringing Down Health Care Premiums.  To ensure premium dollars are spent primarily on health care, the new law generally requires that at least 85% of all premium dollars collected by insurance companies for large employer plans are spent on health care services and health care quality improvement.  Effective January 1, 2011.
• Addressing Overpayments to Big Insurance Companies and Strengthening Medicare Advantage.  The new law levels the playing field by gradually eliminating Medicare Advantage overpayments to insurance companies.  Effective January 1, 2011.  Download the brochure… Medicare and the New Health Care Law – What it Means for You.

2012: HEALTH CARE REFORM

Improving Quality and Lowering Costs

• Linking Payment to Quality Outcomes.  The law establishes a hospital Value-Based Purchasing program (VBP) in Traditional Medicare. This program offers financial incentives to hospitals to improve the quality of care.  Effective for payments for discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2012.
• Encouraging Integrated Health Systems.  The new law provides incentives for physicians to join together to form “Accountable Care Organizations.” These groups allow doctors to better coordinate patient care and improve the quality, help prevent disease and illness and reduce unnecessary hospital admissions.  Effective January 1, 2012.
• Reducing Paperwork and Administrative Costs.  Health care remains one of the few industries that relies on paper records.  The new law will institute a series of changes to standardize billing and requires health plans to begin adopting and implementing rules for the secure, confidential, electronic exchange of health information.  First regulation effective October 1, 2012.
• Understanding and Fighting Health Disparities. To help understand and reduce persistent health disparities, the law requires any ongoing or new Federal health program to collect and report racial, ethnic and language data.  The Secretary of Health and Human Services will use this data to help identify and reduce health disparities.  Effective March 2012.

Increasing Access to Affordable Care

• Providing New, Voluntary Options for Long-Term Care Insurance.  The law creates a voluntary long-term care insurance program – called CLASS (Community Living Assistance Services and Supports) – to provide cash benefits to adults who become disabled.  The Secretary shall designate a benefit plan no later than October 1, 2012.

Look for our next blog article on the health care reform timline for 2013 and 2014. "

 Posted by Nancy Mullin.

HealthCare Reform Breakdown CONT.

More from Mike Vogel's Florida Trend article:

"NEW REGULATIONS

Closed Counter
Before: Employees could use their health savings account, flex savings account or health reimbursement account money to pay for over-the-counter meds.

Now: If workers want to spend their money on over-the-counter purchases, they’ll need a doctor’s prescription.

Implication: Employees and doctors won’t bother with prescriptions for runny noses, so employees will ratchet down the money they park in accounts.

Class Distinctions
Before: Businesses could put their employees in different “classes” with different coverage for each class. A restaurant company, for instance, might put wait staff in one class and chefs, administrative staff and executives or owners in another.

Now: All are treated equally — or companies will pay significant penalties down the road if they “discriminate” in favor of highly paid employees. That raises concerns that some companies may drop coverage altogether rather than absorb the cost of adding dozens of employees, says Robert Pariseau, president of West Florida operations in Tampa for benefits company AGIS.

Exception: Companies can grandfather their existing plans — and avoid the penalties — provided they don’t make substantive changes to the plans such as increasing the share of the premium employees pay for coverage by more than 5%. That rule against major changes could force employers to give up grandfather status rather than absorb rising insurance costs. How many companies will seek or maintain grandfather status is unclear. The rules aren’t finished and the size of the penalties won’t be announced until the middle or later part of this year, giving companies a year to decide what to do. “Penalties could be huge,” Barber says. Some companies, if they can’t offer key talent a better plan or some healthcare perk, instead pay bonuses so high-value employees can obtain the coverage they want on their own. “They’re having to think outside the box to maintain their competitive advantage in recruiting talent,” Farmer says.

Care Standards
New: Small-business insurers must pay out 80 cents of every premium dollar for patient care. Insurers of larger employers have to pay out 85%.

Implication: Insurers will see margins pressured and so may cut back on broker commissioners, administrative costs or services to businesses and their employees. “I don’t see how the service gets better if they have to cut the administrative costs, maybe drastically,” Pariseau says. “It’s a low-margin business anyway.”

Tax Credit
New: A tax credit for small companies of up to 35% of their premium cost. “It’s a good deal. It’s better than a deduction,” Barber says. "

HealthCare Reform Breakdown

Today I was reading up on the Health Care Reform just to see if anything new has come about since I last checked.  I didn't find anything new that I thought would benefit you substantially; however, I did come across this great article by Mike Vogel from FloridaTrend.com written a few months back that is extremely helpful.  He breaks down in very simple terms some of items that are being altered due to the Reform.  Over the next week or so I will be showcasing pieces of article to help you better understand the changes.

Here is the kickoff of Mike's fabulous article,

"Florida’s small-business owners are making like Scarlett O’Hara. When it comes to preparing for 2014 — when the bulk of the new healthcare law kicks in — they’ll think about it tomorrow.

The year 2014 is when the individual mandate and its penalties take hold along with insurance exchanges. For now, owners and managers are focusing on staying in business. Lacking the HR staff and time of larger companies, they feel they have enough to do absorbing this year’s health insurance rate increases. The sentiment is “we’ll worry about 2014 when it gets here,” says employee benefits adviser Steve Farmer, a senior vice president with Wallace Welch & Willingham in St. Petersburg. It’s not sloth; owners want to see what the courts and a Republican House and more balanced Senate do — and who is president in 2013..."