Fix Health Care Policy

Hearing Exposes Obamacare’s Implementation Challenges for States

Joshua Sharfstein (left), secretary of the State of Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, testifies on state exchanges and Medicaid expansion. (Photo: Chris Maddaloni/CQ Roll Call/Newscom)

Yesterday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing to discuss the implementation of Obamacare’s exchanges and Medicaid expansion, both of which are slated to begin in 2014.

Exchanges

Two officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services expressed confidence that exchange implementation was on schedule, stating, “All Exchanges will open for enrollment in October 2013.”

Despite their assurance, Dennis Smith, the Secretary of Health Services in Wisconsin—a state that has declined to operate a state-based exchange—is not convinced: “[W]e are not confident that the federal government has adequately prepared for handling an unprecedented number of applications, verifications, and enrollments.”

Read the rest on The Foundry…

Tags: additional costs, exchanges, implementation, Medicaid, ObamaCare, States

New Jersey Practice Struggles With Health Care Changes

For the past 10 years, Joseph and Victoria Schwartz have owned a small endocrinology clinic in Englewood, N.J. Lately they’ve faced their share of challenges — some a result of Obamacare, the health care law that faces a crucial repeal vote in the House this week.

As small-business owners, health care providers, patients and parents, the Schwartzes have been impacted by recent changes from all angles — and they haven’t liked what they’ve experienced.

Dr. Joseph Schwartz is the chief endocrinologist and his wife is his office manager. Over the years, their practice has grown to include two part-time physicians, both a full- and part-time physician’s assistant and about 10 additional employees — not to mention thousands of patients who’ve come to the clinic to be treated for various hormone-related disorders like diabetes, osteoporosis and thyroid dysfunction. At the same time, their family has grown, too. They’re about to have their sixth child.

For as long as Dr. Schwartz has been in practice, his priority has always been his patients: He’s often treated patients who couldn’t afford care for free and Mrs. Schwartz says he jokes he’d be OK if some patients had to pay him in chickens or eggs, as they might have had to do in the days of a “town doctor.”

But the Schwartzes’ ability to meet the needs of patients and the financial demands of their business has been tested. (Read the rest at The Foundry…)

Tags: additional costs, New Jersey physicians, ObamaCare, regulatory burdens