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HCR Bill Implementation Timeline - YR 2010 - (CORRECTED)

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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-14-10 09:48 PM
Original message
HCR Bill Implementation Timeline - YR 2010 - (CORRECTED)
Edited on Sun Mar-14-10 09:52 PM by FrenchieCat
A version I posted previously was not the most current timeline of implementation.
This one is more recent (thanks zmolly!)

This is the Senate Bill as is; not fixes or reconcilation actions are included.

2010

*(Retroactive to 2009)Encouraging Investment in New Therapies. A two-year temporary credit subject to an overall cap of $1 billion to encourage investments in new therapies to prevent, diagnose, and treat acute and chronic diseases. The credit would be available for qualifying investments made in 2009 and 2010.

*(Retroactive to 2009)Tax Relief for Health Professionals with State Loan Repayment. Excludes from gross income payments made under any State loan repayment or loan forgiveness program that is intended to provide for the increased availability of health care services in underserved or health professional shortage areas. This provision is effective for amounts received by an individual in taxable years beginning after December 31, 2008.

Immediate Access to Insurance for Uninsured Individuals with a Pre-Existing Condition.
Provides eligible individuals access to coverage that does not impose any coverage exclusions for pre-existing health conditions. This provision ends when Exchanges are operational.

Small Business Tax Credit. Initiates the first phase of the small business tax credit for qualified small employers for contributions to purchase health insurance for employees. The credit is up to 35 percent of the employer’s contribution to provide health insurance for employees. There is also up to a 25 percent credit for small nonprofit organizations.

Eliminating Pre-Existing Condition Exclusions for Children. Bars health insurance companies from imposing pre-existing condition exclusions on children’s coverage.

Prohibiting Rescissions. Prohibits abusive practices whereby health insurance companies rescind existing health insurance policies when a person gets sick as a way of avoiding covering the costs of enrollees’ health care needs. This takes effect for plan years beginning on or after the date that is six months after enactment.

Eliminating Lifetime Limits and Restricting Use of Annual Limits. Prohibits lifetime limits on benefits in all group health plans and in the individual market and restricts the use of annual limits. This takes effect for plan years beginning on or after the date that is six months after enactment.

Covering Preventive Health Services. All group health plans and plans in the individual market must provide first dollar coverage for preventive services. This takes effect for plan years beginning on or after the date that is six months after enactment.
Extending Dependent Coverage. Requires any group health plan or plan in the individual market that provides dependent coverage for children to continue to make that coverage available until the child turns 26 years of age. This takes effect for plan years beginning on or after the date that is six months after enactment.

Reducing the Cost of Covering Early Retirees. Creates a new temporary reinsurance program to help companies that provide early retiree health benefits for those ages 5 5-64 offset the expensive cost of that coverage.

Strengthening Community Health Centers and the Primary Care Workforce. Provides funds to build new and expand existing community health centers, and expands funding for scholarships and loan repayments for primary care practitioners working in underserved areas.

Improving Consumer Assistance. For plan years beginning six months after enactment, requires that any group health plan or plan in the individual market implement an effective appeals process for coverage determinations and claims. Also, requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to award grants to States to establish health insurance consumer assistance or ombudsman programs to receive and respond to inquiries and complaints concerning health insurance coverage.

Improving Consumer Information through the Web. Requires the Secretary of HHS to establish an Internet web site through which residents of any State may identify affordable health insurance coverage options in that State. The website will also include information for small businesses about available coverage options, reinsurance for early retirees, small business tax credits, and other information of interest to small businesses. So-called “mini-med” or limited-benefit plans will be precluded from listing their policies on this website.

Cracking Down on Health Care Fraud. Requires enhanced screening procedures for health care providers to eliminate fraud and waste in the health care system.

Reducing the Part D “Donut Hole” or Coverage Gap. Shrinks the Medicare prescription drug coverage gap by $500 and begins a 50 percent discount on brand name drugs and biologics when beneficiaries fall into the coverage gap. Currently, the coverage gap falls between $2,700 and $6,154 in total drug costs

Increasing Access to Home and Community Based Services. The new Community First Choice Option, which allows States to offer home and community based services to disabled individuals through Medicaid rather than institutional care, takes effect on October 1, 2010.

Improving Public Health Prevention Efforts. Creates an interagency council to promote healthy policies at the federal level and establishes a prevention and public health investment fund to provide an expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public health programs.

Strengthening the Quality Infrastructure. Additional resources provided to HHS to develop a national quality strategy and support quality measure development and endorsement for the Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP quality improvement programs.

Extending Payment Protections for Rural Providers. Extends Medicare payment protections for small rural hospitals, including hospital outpatient services, lab services, and facilities that have a low-volume of Medicare patients, but play a vital role in their communities.

Establishing a Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Establish a private, non-profit institute to identify national priorities and provide for research to compare the effectiveness of health treatments and strategies.

Ensuring Medicaid Flexibility for States. A new option allowing States to cover parents and childless adults up to 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL) and receive current law Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) will take effect.

Non-Profit Hospitals. Establishes new requirements applicable to nonprofit hospitals beginning in 2010, including periodic community needs assessments.

Expanding the Adoption Credit and Adoption Assistance Program. Increases the adoption tax credit and adoption assistance exclusion by $1,000, makes the credit refundable, and extends the credit through 2011. The enhancements are effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2009.

Excluding from Income Health Benefits Provided by Indian Tribal Governments. Excludes from gross income the value of specified Indian tribal health benefits. The provision is effective for benefits and coverage provided after the date of enactment.

Establishing a National Health Care Workforce Commission. Establishes an independent National Commission to provide comprehensive, nonbiased information and recommendations to Congress and the Administration for aligning federal health care workforce resources with national
needs.

Strengthening the Health Care Workforce. Expands and improves low-interest student loan programs, scholarships, and loan repayments for health students and professionals to increase and enhance the capacity of the workforce to meet patients’ health care needs.

Special Deduction for Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS). Requires that non-profit BCBS organizations have a medical loss ratio of 85 percent or higher in order to take advantage of the special tax benefits provided to them under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 833, including the deduction for 25 percent of claims and expenses and the 100 percent deduction for unearned premium reserves.

Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Fee. Imposes an annual, non-deductible $2.3 billion fee on the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry allocated according to market share and not applying to companies with sales of branded pharmaceuticals of $5 million or less.

Indoor Tanning Services Tax. Imposes a ten percent tax on amounts paid for indoor tanning services in lieu of the tax on cosmetic surgery. Indoor tanning services are services that use an electronic product with one or more ultraviolet lamps to induce skin tanning. The tax would be effective for services on or after July 1, 2010.

http://dpc.senate.gov/healthreformbill/healthbill50.pdf


This was the original thread with a more dated version: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=433&topic_id=222416&mesg_id=222416
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goclark Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-14-10 09:50 PM
Response to Original message
1. Thanks so much for this important information

:bounce:
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wildflower Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-14-10 10:21 PM
Response to Original message
2. Thanks! A question about pre-existing conditions:
Specifically, this part:

Immediate Access to Insurance for Uninsured Individuals with a Pre-Existing Condition.
Provides eligible individuals access to coverage that does not impose any coverage exclusions for pre-existing health conditions. This provision ends when Exchanges are operational.


Does this mean existing insurance companies will be required to insure these individuals, or is this essentially a public option?
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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Mar-14-10 10:30 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Existing insurance companies will be required to insure......
until the Exchanges are operational.

That's how I read it.
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wildflower Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-15-10 11:53 AM
Response to Reply #3
4. Okay, thanks!
Darn, I hoped they were sneaking a public option in there. :)
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HughMoran Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-15-10 12:09 PM
Response to Original message
5. Apparently the timeline is evil
Can't comprehend why people would unrec it - other than baseless anger...
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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-15-10 06:14 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Panic.
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Cha Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-15-10 05:53 PM
Response to Original message
6. KickR
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FrenchieCat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-16-10 02:32 AM
Response to Original message
8. Kick!
For Michael Moore.
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