Welcome to The ACP Advocate,
Open enrollment for 2016 gets underway this weekend, and health care advocates have some new ways to meet the challenges. Sign-up efforts include targeting specific groups with novel tactics. Those tactics include personal pitches to young people at sports bars, movie theaters, sporting events and the like as well as "theme weeks" during open enrollment to reach particular groups, including Latinos, Native Americans and the LGBT community.
In addition to the details offered in today’s first article, the ACP website has resources for physicians to help their patients enroll through the ACA marketplace. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services offers a fact sheet on its website about consumer-oriented changes to the healthcare.gov site and also developed a pocket guide for physicians and other health professionals.
Our second article today reviews a project proposed by ACP to help transform clinical practices so patient outcomes improve and costs go down. ACP has been awarded a four-year, $2.9 million grant from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. There are some important details you’ll want to know in this article.
A sidebar to your right provides a link to the statement from ACP reacting to the federal budget agreement. We’ll have more information tailored for you about the effects on your practices and your patients coming up in our next Advocate.
Until our November 13th issue – which will feature a look at ACP’s new policy paper on direct-contracting practices – and for more coverage of what's happening in Washington, take a look at my award-winning blog, The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty. You can also follow me on Twitter @BobDohertyACP.
As always, please send your feedback and suggestions on this newsletter to: TheACPAdvocate@acponline.org.
Yours truly,
Bob Doherty
Senior Vice President
Governmental Affairs and Public Policy
American College of Physicians |
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| In the news |
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Round 3 of ACA Open Enrollment Brings New Challenges
Sign-up efforts include targeting specific groups with novel tactics, advocates say
When it comes to the Affordable Care Act, it turns out that the first two times -- not the third -- may have been the charm.
Open enrollment for 2016 gets underway Nov. 1, and expectations appear ... (read more)
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| About this newsletter |
| The ACP Advocate is an e-newsletter, edited by the College's Washington, DC governmental affairs division, created to provide you, our members, with succinct news about public policy issues affecting internal medicine and patient care. To learn more about ACP's Advocacy and to access the ACP Advocate archives, go to www.acponline.org/advocacy. |
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| In focus |
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ACP Reaction to the Budget Deal |
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On Monday evening, it was announced that the White House and Congress had reached a bipartisan budget deal to avoid government shut-down. The deal has a number of provisions that affect health care funding and physician payments. President Wayne J. Riley reacted in a press statement on Tuesday. The next issue of the Advocate will take a closer look at the deal and what it means for physicians and their patients. |
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ICD-10 is Live! |
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Is the code valid? Use a book or electronic tool to confirm valid vs. invalid codes. CMS has a free look-up tool here and ACP has a 'Commonly Used ICD-10-CM Codes' list here. |
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