Affordable Care Act

With the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, healthcare metrics and patient outcomes, especially mortality rates, are increasingly emphasized as integral measures of overall quality of care and hospital reimbursements ¹⁾ ²⁾ ³⁾ ⁴⁾.

The comprehensive Healthcare reform law enacted in March 2010 (sometimes known as ACA, PPACA, or “Obamacare”).

The law has 3 primary goals:

Make affordable health insurance available to more people. The law provides consumers with subsidies (“premium tax credits”) that lower costs for households with incomes between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level. Expand the Medicaid program to cover all adults with income below 138% of the federal poverty level. (Not all states have expanded their Medicaid programs.) Support innovative medical care delivery methods designed to lower the costs of Healthcare generally.

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Hammers R, Anzalone S, Sinacore J, Origitano TC. Neurosurgical mortality rates: what variables affect mortality within a single institution and within a national database? J Neurosurg. 2010;112(2):257-26.

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Spurgeon A, Hiser B, Hafley C, Litofsky NS. Does improving medical record documentation better reflect severity of illness in neurosurgical patients? Neurosurgery. 2011;58:155-163.

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Zalatimo O, Ranasinghe M, Harbaugh RE, Iantosca M. Impact of improved documentation on an academic neurosurgical practice. J Neurosurg. 2014;120(3):756-763.

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Reyes C, Greenbaum A, Porto C, Russell JC. Implementation of a clinical documentation improvement curriculum improves quality metrics and hospital charges in an Academic Surgery Department. J Am Coll Surg. 2017;224:301-309.