Healthcare in 2013: What’s New?

Obamacare is going into full effect in 2013. So what can you expect?

Medicaid pay raise for family doctors
Effective: Jan. 1, 2013
What’s New: State Medicaid programs will be required to pay at or above the Medicare rates, with the additional money coming solely from the federal government.

Improving Medicaid preventive care
Effective: Jan. 1, 2013
What’s New: Obamacare will cover state Medicaid programs that choose to offer preventive services at little or no cost, following in the footsteps of health care reform’s earlier extensions of “free” preventive screenings, vaccinations and services across Medicare and private insurance plans.

Exploring ‘bundled’ payments in Medicare
Effective: By Jan. 1, 2013
What’s New: A new national pilot program will pay a flat rate to cover all care provided during a medical episode.

More Funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program
Effective: Oct. 1, 2013
What’s New: CHIP provides affordable health coverage for nearly 8 million kids from low-income families that make too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private health insurance. Health care reform extends federal CHIP funding to states through Oct. 1, 2015.

Certifying new state insurance exchanges
Effective: Ongoing
What’s New: New state insurance exchanges, designed to offer consumers and small businesses one-stop online shopping for affordable private health plans, are supposed to launch starting in 2014. They’re to be certified by the federal government during the coming year.

States have the option to set up an exchange on their own, partner with the federal government or let the feds run the exchange for them.

(Information via http://www.bankrate.com/finance/insurance/health-care-reform-changes-2013.aspx#slide=1#ixzz2Fhx6APFu)