When the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments
about the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) last week, the news media went a little crazy.
Despite the evident skepticism of some justices about the individual mandate to
buy insurance, there still is no reason to assume that the High Court will knock
down the entire healthcare reform law--or even the individual mandate. One or
more swing votes are still in play, and nobody has a crystal ball that can
forecast the outcome.
But from the perspective of health IT, whether the
court chooses to strike down just the insurance mandate or the entire law is
critically important. As the Health Information and Management Systems Society
(HIMSS) pointed out recently, the statute includes
provisions related to "quality reporting initiatives, pay-for-performance
initiatives, adoption of state HIEs, operating rules and standards, and health
IT work force development."
That's just the beginning. The business model for
accountable care organizations (ACOs) is based partly on the Medicare shared savings program authorized by the
law--and ACOs cannot exist without a robust IT infrastructure. The ACA also
authorizes a bundled payment pilot that depends on coordination of care between
hospitals and post-acute-care facilities. And another ACA provision requires Medicare to levy penalties
for excessive readmissions, forcing hospitals to bolster their ability to
communicate with other providers and patients.
Read more: Health IT impact of Supreme Court decision depends on extent of ruling - FierceHealthIT http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/health-it-impact-supreme-court-decision-depends-extent-ruling/2012-04-02?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz1qugKrIcw
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