Te Patient Protection and Afordable Care Act (PPACA) Terry Jaqua 1 and Ecler Jaqua 2* 1 Trident University International, USA 2 Department of Family Medicine, Loma Linda University, USA * Corresponding author: Ecler Jaqua, Department of Family Medicine, Loma Linda University, 1200 California Street, Suite 240, Redlands, CA 92374. Tel: 909-558-6688, E-mail: ejaqua@llu.edu Citation: Terry Jaqua, Ecler Jaqua (2019) The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). J Nurs Healthcare Manage 2: 104 OPINION Volume 2 | Issue 1 ScholArena | www.scholarena.com Journal of Nursing and Healthcare Management Open Access Te Act attempts to stimulate innovation in healthcare so as to absorb impact in healthcare insurance coverage expansion and changes in funding. Reform initiatives on the delivery system include provisions for hospitals to receive incentive payments from the Federal government that will make hospitals embrace electronic medical records systems, spur meaningful use of Health Information Technology, and utilize e-prescribing (Taylor and Clinchy, 2012). Te law has provisions that are intended at spurring technological transitions in Medicare. In addition, the Act creates the Medicare Shared Saving Program (MSSP) specifcally for the ACO’s. Te aim of MSSP is to ensure individuals get better health care, the health of populations is improved, and achieve slower growth in health care costs by making profound improvements in this care. Accountable Care Organizations are expected to be responsible for providing care for a particular population of Medicare benefciaries. Te organizations have an opportunity to share in cost savings with Medicare if they succeed to deliver high-quality care while reducing costs. Moreover, the PPACA brings new funding sources through the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Te two funding sources will provide money for research and innovation grants that will be crucial in developing new care delivery models. Te research funds and innovation grants are essential in the modernization of research, education and care approaches (Taylor and Clinchy, 2012). Te Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute will avail $500 million each year from 2015 whereas the Centre for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has a kitty of $10 billion to be utilized as innovation grants by Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). Te Act also makes improvements in Medicare services for benefciaries including medication therapy management programs that will be tasked with prescription drug review, covering individuals exposed to environmental health hazards, and helping benefciaries learn about their doctors through the ‘Physician Compare’ website. Te Patient Protection and Afordable Care Act (PPACA) were signed into law on March 23, 2010. Tis signing into law ushered a new era in the United States healthcare. Te law incorporates elements such as state health insurance Exchanges, individual and employer responsibility provisions, group subsidies to individuals, small employers and Medicaid expansion [1]. Te Act has ten legislative Titles that are separate, but that address similar aims. Te aims of this Act is to achieve near-universal health care insurance coverage through combined eforts of employers, government and individuals, improve health care coverage’s quality, fairness, and afordability, improve efciency and value of health care, and strengthen access to primary health care through dimensions such as preventive and primary health care availability (Rosenbaum, 2011). Te fnal aim is to invest strategically in the health of the public by expanding community investments and clinical preventive care. Te Patient Protection and Afordable Care Act (PPACA) strengthen minimum coverage such as Medicaid. Under this law, all U.S citizens are expected to have healthcare insurance coverage. Te Act aims at expanding existing healthcare insurance coverage, and this will result in fundamental restructuring of Medicaid. Tis restructuring entails covering all U.S citizens and legal residents whose income is “less than 133% of the federal poverty level” (Rosenbaum, 2011). In addition, the Act also streamlines Medicaid enrollment. Te fve-year Medicaid’s waiting period for U.S legal residents will still apply to recently enrolled people, but they will qualify for enrollment and tax subsidies via the health insurance exchange [2]. Te full implementation of the law will see an increase in the number of Medicaid benefciaries by around 18 million [2]. Tis is due to eligibility expansion to include all legal residents who have incomes that are below 133% of federal poverty level (FPL). Additionally, 2 million people will enroll in Medicaid through employer-sponsored health insurance. Te Medicaid coverage will be extended to individuals who are 26 years-old who previously fell under foster care. Te fnancing of Medicaid will be through the Federal Medical Assistance Program (FMAP). Te Medicaid health insurance coverage for newly eligible people will be wholly covered by FMAP for the frst three years and 90 % for years that follow. Te Federal government will bear a huge proportion of newly eligible enrollees’ costs. Te Federal expenditures on healthcare will be paid through penalties paid by employers who choose not to ofer coverage and individuals who decide to remain uninsured. Te total amount of these penalties is projected to reach $72 billion by 2019 [2]. ISSN: 2639-7293 Article history: Received: 19 January 2019, Accepted: 04 February 2019, Published: 06 February 2019