The new healthcare law will bring a lot of questions for those who do not know about the many different aspects of the upcoming legislation. In order to get answers about the law, patients are turning to people in the hospital industry they can trust: nurses. Groups of nurses are going to gathering places to explain the Affordable Care Act to people who have concerns about the soon-to-be law. The nurses are primarily explaining the ACA to those who never had health insurance.
A new poll finds a majority of the public — especially those lacking health coverage — is unaware that new insurance marketplaces created by the health law are slated to open next week. The poll also found deep skepticism of media coverage of the law, with more than half the public saying they don't trust any media source to provide credible information. Two-thirds of the public were not aware when the new online marketplaces open to allow people without employer coverage to shop and purchase their own health policies, according to the poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.) These exchanges open Tuesday.
When Medicare was expanded in 2006 to include prescription drugs, the issue of the "doughnut hole" arose — a gap in coverage that could cost patients thousands of dollars before coverage resumed. The Affordable Care Act will make that disappear in 2020. But the legislation, also called Obamacare, will create another unintended gap in health insurance for residents of Texas and other states that did not expand Medicaid. Residents in this new "doughnut hole" make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but too little to qualify for subsidies on insurance bought through the state's federally run Health Insurance Marketplace, more commonly called the exchange.
The federal government says it's settled a discrimination complaint against a Flint hospital following accusations that black nurses were barred from treating a white newborn. The Flint Journal reports Friday the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission will conduct annual training for the management staff of Hurley Medical Center. The EEOC also will work with the hospital on other educational and developmental efforts aimed at Flint-area youth. Hurley Chief Executive Melany Gavulic says in a statement that she's pleased to work with the commission and receive its resources.
WakeMed Health & Hospitals faces challenges as the Affordable Care Act reshapes the U.S. health care industry, and the hospital system must now address those challenges while also hunting for a new leader. President and Chief Executive Bill Atkinson agreed Wednesday to step down, citing "differences in the future direction of the organization," officials said Thursday. He had led WakeMed since 2003. "There's a lot of pressure on hospitals right now, especially nonprofits like WakeMed with razor-thin profit margins," said David Ridley, health sector management faculty director at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.
President Obama denounced "irresponsible" Republican critics of his health care law Thursday, saying efforts to "blackmail" him into changing the plan could trigger a government shutdown and a U.S. credit default. "Now they're threatening steps that actually would badly hurt our entire economy," Obama said during a health care speech in Largo, Md. The speech came on the same day the administration announced a change in the online rules for small businesses: Some small-business owners wishing to enroll in new health care exchanges opening Oct. 1 will not be able to do so online at first.