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| UPDATE 1-Doctors, hospitals expect some confusion as Obamacare plans start - Reuters Posted: 01 Jan 2014 09:16 AM PST By Lewis Krauskopf and Julie Steenhuysen Jan 1 (Reuters) - Hospitals and medical practices across the United States braced for confusion and administrative hassles as new insurance plans under President Barack Obama's healthcare law took effect on Wednesday. More than 2 million people enrolled in private plans offered under the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, during the initial sign-up period for health benefits. Enrollment began in October and lasts through March, but Americans in most states had to enroll by last week to get coverage that takes effect with the start of the new year. The expansion of coverage through the new plans is one of the main parts of the 2010 law, the most sweeping U.S. social legislation in 50 years. Over time, the law - which requires most Americans to buy insurance, offers subsidies to help low-income people get covered and sets minimum standards for coverage - aims to dramatically reduce the number of Americans who lack health insurance, which the U.S. government has estimated at more than 45 million. After a difficult October launch plagued by problems with the website used to enroll people in coverage, the focus for the government and healthcare providers has turned to what will happen beginning on Wednesday when patients with the new coverage start to seek care. The law still faces political and legal hurdles. Roman Catholic Church-affiliated organizations obtained last-minute court injunctions on Tuesday that gave them temporary exemptions from a part of the healthcare law that requires employers to provide insurance policies covering contraception. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted one temporary injunction to Baltimore-based Little Sisters of the Poor and Illinois-based Christian Brothers Services, plus related entities. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, had 10,000 agents on call for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day to field questions from people dealing with enrollment problems. "We are ready ourselves to assist consumers as well with our full complement of call center representatives available," said Julie Bataille, spokeswoman for the CMS. At the start, confirming a patient's plan may present headaches for care providers. The Obama administration has acknowledged that errors occurred in transmitting enrollment data to insurers, especially early in the enrollment period. "It will be difficult for us to actually verify coverage - that's my concern," said Dr. William Wulf, chief executive of Central Ohio Primary Care, which has 250 primary-care physicians. The task could be made more difficult by decisions by the U.S. government and many states to push back enrollment deadlines toward the end of the year. The late deadlines mean that many enrollees who seek care initially may lack insurance cards or other proof of coverage. Wulf said his physician offices will assume existing patients are covered if they say they are when they come in for appointments and their coverage cannot be verified immediately. But if they require expensive tests, such as MRIs or heart-stress tests that can cost up to $700, the practice will check with insurers first to make sure the patient has coverage. Dr. Andy Chiou, chief executive of Peoria Surgical Group Ltd in Illinois, said that if the practice finds a "significant minority" of its patients do not have coverage when they believe they do, it might delay elective surgeries for patients until their insurance is confirmed. "For the protection of patients and us, we'll have to say, 'Sorry, you don't have insurance,'" Chiou said. POLITICAL STAKES HIGH For the Obama administration, the political stakes are high in ensuring a smooth transition period for coverage, particularly after the website's problems damaged the popularity of the Democratic president and the healthcare overhaul, his signature domestic achievement. Republicans, who have called Obamacare a costly program that will rob many Americans of insurance choices, have said they will make Obamacare's problems their top issue in the November 2014 elections, when control of Congress will be at stake. The U.S. government has tried to anticipate the coverage problems new enrollees might encounter. The federally run Healthcare.Gov website posted advice last week on what enrollees should do if they have not received an insurance card, encounter problems getting coverage for a drug prescription, or need to appeal a decision by an insurer. "For consumers whose marketplace coverage begins on January 1, we're doing everything we can to help ensure a smooth transition period," Kathleen Sebelius, the U.S. secretary of health and human services, said in blog posting on Tuesday. "What we are stressing to folks is that if they get to a provider (and) there is some confusion (about coverage), call their insurer," White House health policy adviser Phil Schiliro said. "If the insurer is not able to resolve it, they should call our toll-free number (800-318-2596) ... and operators will be there 24/7." Some healthcare companies are trying to get ahead of potential problems as well. The pharmacy chain Walgreen Co said on Monday it would allow consumers who had not yet received plan identification numbers from their insurers to get prescriptions at no upfront cost in January, if they could provide evidence of their coverage or pharmacy staff could otherwise confirm it. Wal-Mart said on Tuesday it would institute a similar practice. HOSPITALS READY FOR CHANGE Hospital executives said they were ready for potential hiccups with the newly insured. The vast majority of Americans have employer-based coverage and Medicare plans and can choose new plans every January, so executives said the beginning of the Obamacare plans represented a more intense version of an insurance transition period they were already familiar with. "Hospitals feel like they're pretty well prepared because they've had systems in place and tools in place to work through these sorts of issues," said Jeff Goldman, vice president of coverage policy for the American Hospital Association. "We expect an uptick in volume, but we don't think it's anything beyond what most hospitals are prepared to handle." As many as 7 million people were expected to sign up for coverage in the Obamacare plans for 2014, but enrollment is so far well short of that figure, largely because of the problems with the HealthCare.gov website. Residents of 36 states use the site to enroll. Those in the other 14 states use state-run websites. Hospitals, therefore, may have been preparing for more new enrollees than they are likely to see at this point. At New York's Montefiore Medical Center, staffers were trained on how the new healthcare plans work, partly so they could help patients resolve any coverage issues, said Lynn Richmond, the medical center's chief of staff. "There's not a lot of active worry on our part," Richmond said. "We feel ready to manage the hiccups." Indeed, many have eagerly anticipated the law's broadening of coverage. Across the country, hospital operators' finances have been weighed down by patients who have been unable to pay their bills because they lacked sufficient insurance. "We're looking forward to the first quarter and beyond because we feel we're in a very good position to benefit from the ACA," said Steven Campanini, a spokesman for Tenet Healthcare Corp, one of the largest publicly traded hospital chains. |
| UPDATE 1-World's first state-licensed marijuana retailers open doors in Colorado - Reuters Posted: 01 Jan 2014 09:28 AM PST (Updates with official opening of first stores) Jan 1 (Reuters) - The world's first state-licensed marijuana retailers legally permitted to sell pot for recreational use to the general public opened for business in Colorado on Wednesday with long lines of customers, marking a new chapter in America's drug culture. Roughly three dozen former medical marijuana dispensaries newly cleared by state regulators to sell pot to consumers who are interested in nothing more than its mind- and mood-altering properties began welcoming customers as early as 8 a.m. MST (1500 GMT). The highly-anticipated New Year's Day opening launched an unprecedented commercial cannabis market that Colorado officials expect will ultimately gross $578 million in annual revenues, including $67 million in tax receipts for the state. Possession, cultivation and private personal consumption of marijuana by adults for the sake of just getting high has already been legal in Colorado for more than a year under a state constitutional amendment approved by voters. But as of Wednesday, cannabis was being legally produced, sold and taxed in a system modeled after a regime many states have in place for alcohol sales - but which exists for marijuana nowhere in the world outside of Colorado. Scores of customers lined up in the cold and snow outside at least two Denver-area stores on Wednesday morning waiting for doors to open. "I wanted to be one of the first to buy pot and no longer be prosecuted for it. This end of prohibition is long overdue," said Jesse Phillips, 32, an assembly-line worker who was the day's first patron at Botana Care in the Denver suburb of Northglenn. He had camped outside the shop since 1 a.m. A cheer from about 100 fellow customers waiting in line to buy went up as Phillips made his purchase, an eighth-ounce sampler pack containing four strains of weed - labeled with names such as "King Tut Kush" and "Gypsy Girl" - that sold for $45 including tax. He also bought a child-proof carry pouch required by state regulations to transport his purchase out of the store. Robin Hackett, 51, co-owner of Botana Care, said before the opening that she expected between 800 to 1,000 first-day customers, and hired a private security firm to help with any traffic and parking issues that might arise. Hackett said she has 50 lbs (23 kg) of product on hand, and to avoid a supply shortage the shop will limit purchases to quarter-ounces on Wednesday, including joints, raw buds or cannabis-infused edibles such as pastries or candies. TURNING POINT IN DRUG CULTURE Like other stores, Botana Care also stocked related wares, including pipes, rolling papers, bongs, and reusable, locking child-proof pouches. Voters in Washington state voted to legalize marijuana at the same time Colorado did, in November 2012, but Washington is not slated to open its first retail establishments until later in 2014. Still, supporters and detractors alike see the two Western states as embarking on an experiment that could mark the beginning of the end for marijuana prohibition at the national level. "By legalizing marijuana, Colorado has stopped the needless and racially biased enforcement of marijuana prohibition laws," said Ezekiel Edwards, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Criminal Law Reform Project. Cannabis remains classified as an illegal narcotic under federal law, though the Obama administration has said it will give individual states leeway to carry out their own recreational-use statutes. Nearly 20 states, including Colorado and Washington, had already put themselves at odds with the U.S. government by approving marijuana for medical purposes. Opponents warned that legalizing recreational use could help create an industry intent on attracting underage users and getting more people dependent on the drug. Comparing the nascent pot market to the alcohol industry, former U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy, co-founder of Project Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said his group aims to curtail marijuana advertising and to help push local bans on the drug while the industry is still modest in stature. "This is a battle that if we catch it early enough we can prevent some of the most egregious adverse impacts that have happened as a result of the commercialized market that promotes alcohol use to young people," he said. Under Colorado law, however, state residents can buy as much as an ounce (28 grams) of marijuana at a time, while out-of-state visitors are restricted to quarter-ounce purchases. Restraint was certainly the message being propagated on New Year's Eve by Colorado authorities, who posted signs at Denver International Airport and elsewhere around the capital warning that pot shops can only operate during approved hours, and that open, public consumption of marijuana remains illegal. (Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Dan Whitcomb, Lisa Shumaker, Barbara Goldberg and Chris Reese) |
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