Obamacare turns 6

by: Julia Kyles, CPC Mar 23, 2016

Six years ago today, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) into law here's what Part B News wrote on March 23, 2010.

And here are some excerpts from some of the ACA stories that ran in PBN 3/25/10:

Historic health reform bill targets Medicare fraud, boosts prevention

Your practice will see lots of new opportunities from the massive, $1 trillion health care reform bill signed into law March 23, but you can expect to deal with new fraud mandates as well. The landmark legislation makes a number of changes to the Medicare program that will impact your practice over the next several years.

Here are three quick examples

A new government board will play a role in deciding how you are paid for delivering care to your patients.

You'll be forced to participate in the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) or watch your payments drop in five years.

You'll finally be paid for providing an annual preventive check-up to your Medicare patients.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama two days after it passed the House of Representatives by a 219-212 vote. Provisions in the 2,400-page bill make numerous non-Medicare reforms to the private insurance market and the law will ultimately help insure roughly 30 million more people.

Part B News also covered the fraud and abuse provisions in the rule.

Reform bill reduces timely claims deadline, adds enrollment rules

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act includes several anti-fraud, abuse and waste provisions, including reducing to 12 months the amount of time you have to submit a claim to Medicare.

The new law is projected to save Medicare billions of dollars through fraud prevention. Translation: Expect to see tougher statutes regulating your participation in Medicare. A clear example is the 12-month maximum to submit claims, effective Jan. 1, 2010. In the past, you've had between 15 to 26 months to file claims with your Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) or carrier (PBN 3/1/10).

IMPORTANT: Claims with dates of services before Jan. 1 must be submitted to your carrier by Dec. 31, 2010, the law states. Previous timely claims rules no longer apply.

For more coverage of this historic law, the policies it created and the attempts to overturn it, enter PPACA in the search box.

Blog Tags: accountable care, CMS, compliance, health care reform, HHS

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