Novalawcity

Understanding the New U.S. Health-care Environment, Part 2

According to an email from the Federal Depository Library Program:

"The Health Care Reform legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives is available on GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys). To view the electronic versions of the legislation, debate and vote click here for the press release: http://www.gpo.gov/pdfs/news-media/press/10news12.pdf

"In addition, printed copies can be purchase through GPO's Online Bookstore: http://bookstore.gpo.gov/collections/health-bills-reports.jsp."

The GPO PDF is chock-full of links, so I won't repeat them here.

Understanding the New U.S. Health-care Environment

On Sunday, March 21, 2010, the House passed H.R. 4872, the Health Care and Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010. The Act passed by a vote of 220-211. No Republicans voted for the bill, and 34 Democrats voted against it. The New York Times has an article on the history and context of the new law.

If you, like many people, are wondering how this new law will affect the U.S. health-care system, the Atlantic magazine's Web site has a useful, short article on the insurance and tax implications of the new law. The Wall Street Journal has a news story about what is in the new law, and has more coverage of the new law, with a time-line of when the changes go into effect. For example, there has been some confusion in the press about when the Act's restrictions on denials of coverage for pre-existing conditions goes into effect. This article clarifies this. For children, coverage denials for pre-existing conditions are banned starting in 2010. For adults, coverage denials for pre-existing conditions are banned starting in 2013.

The New York Times' David Brooks thinks the new health-care bill is good. For a contrary editorial, see this piece in the Wall Street Journal.

NTIS Reports Newsletter Focuses on Health Care Reform

This month's issue of the National Technical Information Service's Newsletter contains links to many federal government reports on various aspects of health care reform. The NTIS, a bureau of the Department of Commerce, "serves as the largest central resource for government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business related information available today." Unfortunately, the studies are not free of charge, but you can always check your local library!

Will Marry for Health Insurance

A Kaiser Family Foundation survey taken in April found that seven percent of Americans surveyed said they or someone in their family had married within the last year in order to have access to health care benefits.  The survey points out the impact that increasingly unaffordable health insurance is having on personal finances in the United States.  Concern over health care costs topped rising food costs, but fuel costs were a problem for even more Americans.  Hat tip to HealthLawProfBlog 

Florida Practitioner Profiling

Florida Practitioner Profiling is a database provided by the Florida Department of Health.  It includes required practitioner profiles "for all Medical Doctors (M.D.s), Osteopathic, Chiropractic and Podiatric Physicians, and Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioners licensed in Florida." The database can be search by name, profession, or license number, and there is also an advanced search option.  Results include information such as practitioners' education, hospital privileges, financial responsibility, and disciplinary actions within the last ten years.

Tip: State Agency Database Highlights