The Coming Flood of New Health Law Rules
Posted at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 16, 2012
Kaiser Health News highlights a string of new regulations and rules expected to be released in the coming days that are vital for implementation of President Obama’s health care reform law.
“Medical Device Excise Tax. Last February, the Internal Revenue Service proposed a rule on how to apply this 2.3 percent tax, which kicks in at the start of January. The major unresolved issues concern which devices will be included and how the tax is applied and collected.”
“Hospital Payments. Between 2014 and 2019, the government will cut $36 billion out of the money that goes to hospitals that treat large numbers of poor patients. The cuts were included in the health law under the rationale that many currently uninsured patients would be covered either through the expansion of Medicaid or through subsidized insurance. The administration has to figure out how it will allocate those cuts among hospitals—a task made more complicated by last summer’s Supreme Court ruling that allows states to opt out of expanding Medicaid.”
“Insurance plans. For the administration, some of the trickiest decisions concern how insurance policies must be designed, priced and sold starting next October, when open enrollment begins for the new online marketplaces, called exchanges, that will offer plans to individuals and small businesses.”
