The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to simply as the ACA or Obamacare, was signed into law on March 23, 2010. The ACA is intended to expand access to health insurance coverage for millions of uninsured Americans by expanding eligibility for Medicaid and developing health insurance marketplaces where uninsured persons may be eligible for subsidies to make private health plans more affordable. While expanding access to health insurance is a big part of the ACA, there are many other purposes of the law, including provisions intended to reform the health care delivery system to produce better patient outcomes at lower cost.
AOTA was very active in the legislative process leading up to the passage and signing of the ACA, working to achieve victories such as inclusion of rehabilitation and habilitation in the essential health benefits package. AOTA has also been monitorting the regulatory process at the federal and state levels as the ACA has been implemented, and has been advocating for occupational therapy practitioners and consumers. The dynamic environment created by health care reform creates opportunities, but vigilant monitoring of implementation activities and carefully executed advocacy efforts are necessary to ensure occupational therapy is valued and protected in the future.
Please also see the Health Care Reform Implementation page on AOTA's website at: http://www.aota.org/Advocacy-Policy/Health-Care-Reform.aspx
How can OT inform a "systems-based approach to medication adherence?"
This blog posting outlines challanges and opporutities to improve medication adherence...along with the recommendation:
"What we need is a system-based view of overall medication use, management and patient adherence. Improving medication use is a systems challenge. For one thing, the appropriate decision making is complex. It not only involves the clinical process of matching individual patients with the right medication regimen, but also matching the patient with the right education, counseling, and services that help sustain adherence."
Part Of The Solution: Next Steps In Medication Adherence Policyhttp://healthaffairs.org/blog/2013/10/04/part-of-the-solution-next-steps-in-medication-adherence-policy/