It's a done deal. Health care reform measures in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) are now the law of the land.
President Barack Obama signed PPACA this morning after the House adopted the health care reform bill over the weekend. We've reviewed some of the bill's provisions impacting Medicare payments -- annual preventive care visits, making the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI) mandatory over the next five years, the creation of an Independent Payment Advisory Board, etc. We'll have more on this legislation in future issues of Part B News and www.partbnews.com.
You'll still hear about the bill over the next few days as the Senate attempts to pass "fixes" to the bill through a reconciliation process. But the main components of the bill are now law.
The AMA sent this statement during the signing ceremony:
"The president's signature on historic health reform legislation today is a monumental moment in the health of our nation. While more still needs to be done, this bill makes real progress toward providing coverage to all Americans and improving our nation's health care system. Physicians see firsthand the pain and heartbreak that being uninsured causes in the lives of America's patients. Today, we move forward to start to ease that pain"