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AMA announces support of Affordable Care Act insurance exchange policies
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The American Medical Association announced their support of policies on health insurance exchanges formed by the Affordable Care Act at their policymaking meeting. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), “exchanges should be consumer-friendly venues for patients to purchase health insurance, but they have the potential to do much more.”
The exchanges would allow an open marketplace model that aims to increase competition and insurance options for patients. According to the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, a center within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, “States have a range of options for how the exchange operates from an ‘active purchaser’ model, in which the exchange operates as large employers often do in using market leverage and the tools of managed competition to negotiate product offerings with insurers, to an ‘open marketplace’ model, in which the exchange operates as a clearinghouse that is open to all qualified insurers and relies on market forces to generate product offerings.”
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange policies backed by the AMA would also back state, practicing physician and patient involvement in governance of health insurance exchanges.
 Peter W. Carmel |
“If they are developed well, health insurance exchanges will provide a new way for millions of Americans to obtain health care coverage from private insurers,” Barbara McAneny, MD, AMA board member, stated in a news release. “Physicians and patients should be involved in setting up and governing these bodies to ensure they best meet the health care needs of residents in each state.”
The AMA also strives to block implementation of 69,000 ICD-10 codes that would replace ICD-9’s 14,000 diagnosis codes, a move that may cost small physician practices $83,290 to implement and $285,195 for 10-physican practices to implement, according to a 2008 study.
“The implementation of ICD-10 will create significant burdens on the practice of medicine with no direct benefit to individual patients,” Peter W. Carmel, MD, AMA president, stated in the release. “At a time when we are working to get the best possible value for our health care dollar, this massive and expensive undertaking will add administrative expense and create unnecessary workflow disruptions.”
Other exchange policies adopted by the AMA include establishment of portable identification systems that would allow emergency medical personnel immediate access to patients’ medical histories through pin numbers attached to keys or clothing or stored in wallets and prevention of legal prohibition of male circumcision.
References:http://cciio.cms.gov/resources/files/guidance_to_states_on_exchanges.html
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