While some 26 million Americans have gained insurance since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became effective in 2010, another 24 million U.S. adults are still living without coverage, according to a new report by the Commonwealth Fund, a private, nonprofit organization that supports health policy research and reform.
This is a concern because not only are uninsured adults likely to skip needed health services due to the cost, but a lack of insurance is also a risk factor for preventable hospitalizations and health declines due to chronic diseases, according to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation (http://ow.ly/Bs3a304bJR7).
So who are these uninsured Americans? According to The Commonwealth Fund survey (http://ow.ly/I8uZ304cB2b), 88% are Latinos under the age of 35 who earn less than $16,243 and/or work for a small business. "Half (51%) of the remaining uninsured live in one of the 20 states that had not yet expanded Medicaid at the time of the survey," states a press release issued by the Commonwealth Fund (http://ow.ly/gqsB304bJZk).
Case managers should take note of the survey findings.
"The Commonwealth Fund analysis is beneficial to all case managers, because the uninsured population compromises our most at high-risk groups of patients," says June Stark, RN, BSN, Med, director of care coordination at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston. "Most hospitals today seem to be the primary source of healthcare provision to the patients in their communities. Expanding the case manager's understanding of this population can contribute to the development of successful strategies for managing this group."
The study, called The Commonwealth Fund Affordable Care Act Tracking Survey, consisted of 15-minute telephone interviews. Interviewers conducted the interviews in two languages, either English or Spanish, between February and April 2016. The data was collected by calling a random, nationally representative sample of nearly 5,000 adults ages 19?64.
Since the ACA went into effect, the uninsured population shifted from mostly white adults to Latinos, according to the Commonwealth Fund press release. Results also show that renewed efforts to help uninsured individuals gain coverage might also be in order.
"The ACA held promise for many, especially those with incomes that could bear new market sticker prices, and as can be seen from the study, diverse populations benefitted from targeted reform marketing efforts," says Shawna Grossman Kates, MSW, MBA, LSW, CMA, the director of case management and bed management for RWJBarnabas Health in Toms River, New Jersey. "Yet it is very apparent that while there has been success with some at-risk populations, those with the lowest incomes who do not qualify for Medicaid are still struggling."
Every couple months, it seems questions arise about the 2-midnight rule and there are rumors that it may be going away. Below are some questions with answers from our expert Ronald Hirsch, MD, FACP, CHCQM, vice president of the Regulations and Education Group at Accretive Health in Chicago, to clarify where things stand today with regard to the 2-midnight rule.
Much of today's healthcare industry is reliant on third-party vendors. If you haven't asked your vendors whether they are compliant with HIPAA and have implemented sound information privacy and security programs, you are likely facing unknown?and possibly significant?risks. Covered entities (CE) and business associates (BA) are required by HIPAA to exercise due diligence when it comes to their BAs and BA subcontractors. Assessing the risk of those vendors is necessary, especially if those vendors support critical functions in support of CE operations.
HIPAA breaches haven't become less common. If the law was, in part, meant to reduce the amount of PHI released to unauthorized individuals, some may say its success is uncertain. HIPAA's requirements aren't prohibitively stringent: they provide a basic floor of privacy and security. If a covered entity (CE) or business associate (BA) does no more than comply with HIPAA, it will simply be doing the bare minimum to safeguard PHI. Although that may not sound difficult, some organizations continue to fall short and leave others wondering if HIPAA is enough to meet today's information security and privacy challenges.
The Health Information Management Reimagined (HIMR) taskforce is charged with envisioning for the HIM profession in 10 years. The HIMR vision was created to ensure current and future professionals are prepared for the future of HIM in the rapidly changing environment resulting from changes in healthcare, technology, and education. Under the direction of the Council for Excellence in Education (CEE), the taskforce comprises educators from all academic levels (associate, baccalaureate, and graduate) as well as HIM practitioners. The CEE oversight body comprises educators and practitioners who hold a variety of HIM credentials including Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT), Registered Health Information Administrator (RHIA), and other specialty credentials.
