The Hudson Chamber of Commerce recently partnered with Southern New Hampshire Regional Hospital and hosted a "Health Care Today" forum. Business owners and community leaders attended the meeting with hope of becoming better educated to the constantly changing laws regarding health care.
"Health Care Today," a presentation by Southern New Hampshire Health System, will explore the elements of the new health care reform law and what it means for the members of the greater Nashua community. Health Care Reform affects everyone and the more consumers know about its many provisions, the better decisions they can make. Speakers will cover the legislation and the reform timeline through 2020, changes in insurance coverage and the Accountable Care Organization pilots. They will also address the affects this will have on the hospitals and the new ways that consumers may want to think about their healthcare" writes the Hudson Chamber.
The fact based summary provided the attendees a forum absent of any political agenda, how 'reform' may impact your health care, the efforts underway now to redesign health care as well as receive community feedback.
The speakers from SNHMC (Southern New Hampshire Medical Center) gave a brief history of health care, and referred to the "roots" of health care going back to 1847. Once known as 'accident insurance,' it was intended to cover lost wages, not the cost of health care, as health care costs were minimal at that time.
Today, health care premiums have been driven up by payments from commercial insurance providers to offset payments from "new technology and increased testing. We are also seeing increases in the numbers of uninsured or underinsured. The result is higher cost and cost shifting."
Cost shifting uses the payments from commercial insurance providers to offset the payments from Medicaid and Medicare to fail to cover the entire cost of services.
The current reform underway both nationally and within the State of NH break down into coverage mandates, payment reforms as well as new taxes. The 2,200 pages of legislation will be phased in over the next 10 years and will affect 47 million uninsured people in the US. Under the provisions of the Health Care Reform, health insurance will be provided for 32 million of that 47 million.
The main elements of the Health Care Reform involve payment reforms, coverage expansion, and new taxes. The cost of the reforms is estimated at $938BB. "The total cost is projected to be $938BB, funded with $455BB in net Medicare/Medicaid reductions and $438BB in tax increase" stated Mike Rose, Senior Vice President for Finance SHHS.
The reform timeline was broken out into three segments: 2011-2013, 2014-2017, and 2018-2020. During the first segment, the lifetime benefit cap would be banned, dependant coverage would be extended to age 26, no longer any pre-existing conditions, and health plans would now provide coverage for preventive services for both men and women.
During the second phase, 2014-2017, coverage expansion move up for Medicaid to 133% of the Federal Poverty level, employers with 50 or more employees that do not offer insurance will cost the employer $2,000 per employee, and companies with 200 or more employees must be enrolled into an offered health insurance plan, with the employee could opt out.
During this transition time, "insurers will be busy trying to get ahead of reforms the will take effect 2014. You can expect that insurers will become aggressive with medical policy underwriting" continued Rose. "Large employers will continue to manage their health care costs through benefit trimming and cost sharing with employees. More aggressive employers will push their insurance carriers and providers on shared risk. Others will consider work site care solutions and virtual care models to manage the health of their employees. Small employers will continue to decrease coverage opportunities for employees as they face premium inflations."
Hospitals, too, will be seeing this as a transitional time. "Forward thinking health systems will innovate and build on the competencies that will be necessary in a budget driven and increasing regulated market. Incentives will need to be aligned with outcomes, redundant care, avoidable doctor visits, poorly coordinated patient care and cost reduction created by limited hospital stays are coming under more and more scrutiny.
Southern NH Health System has created the blog, http://healthreformtalk.org/about/, in an effort to encourage discussion, commentary, and questions. Links to other Web sites have been posted as a service to assist those with questions and concerns.
