August 2010 · Vol. 22, No. 0814 questions (and answers) about health reform and you
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has ramifications for ObGyns and their patients. ACOG’s director of government affairs answers our questions about the law.
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Fast Track
The health reform law extends Medicaid payments to free-standing birth centers and birth attendants and does not specify which kinds of practitioners can qualify as birth attendants
Beginning in September 2010, all plans—including those that existed before health reform was passed—must cover preventive health services without any patient cost sharing
As of January 2014, health insurance plans cannot use preexisting condition exclusions to deny women coverage due to pregnancy, previous cesarean delivery or domestic violence, or medical history, among other reasons
The law authorizes Health and Human Services to award $50 million over 5 years for the development, implementation, and evaluation of alternative medical liability reform initiatives
The Health and Human Services Secretary will set up a Web site, using PQRI data, that compares physicians in terms of quality of care and patient experience
The Health and Human Services Secretary now has authority to increase or decrease Medicare relative values, and payments, for services
Only about 34% of all ObGyn practices use electronic health records today
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Janelle
Yates,
Senior Editor, OBG Management 
With passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act earlier this year, big changes are afoot in the way Americans practice medicine. In a plethora of articles, blogs, and broadcast spots, the media have focused on what the new law portends for the average employee, employers, and the uninsured—but what, exactly, does it entail for ObGyns and their patients?
To find an answer to that overarching question—and 13 others—we invited Lucia DiVenere, director of government relations at the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, to join us in an extended discussion of the law and its ramifications. She offered insight into ACOG’s extensive lobbying efforts on behalf of women and the specialty and described the many ways ObGyn care will change in the near and proximal future, focusing on questions that you might find yourself asking, including:
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