The Top Ten Ways Health Care Reform Will Affect Your Practice

A breakdown of the Affordable Care Act, published online by the Annals of Internal Medicine, compiled by current and former members of the Obama administration, includes the following list of Key Summary Points of the law that will change the way medicine is practiced in the US:

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  Focusing care around exceptional patient experience and shared clinical outcome goals.
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  Expanding the use of electronic health records with capacity for drug reconciliation, guidelines, alerts, and other decision supports.
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  Redesigning care to include a team of nonphysician providers, such as nurse practitioners, physician assistants, care coordinators, and dietitians.
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  Establishing, with physician colleagues, patient care teams to take part in bundled payments and incentive programs, such as accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes.
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  Proactively managing preventive care—reaching out to patients to assure they get recommended tests and follow-up interventions.
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  Collaborating with hospitals to dramatically reduce readmissions and hospital-acquired infections.
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  Engaging in shared decision-making discussions regarding treatment goals and approaches.
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  Redesigning medical office processes to capture savings from administrative simplification.
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  Developing approaches to engage and monitor patients outside of the office (e.g., electronically, home visits, other team members).
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  Incorporating patient-centered outcomes research to tailor care appropriate for specific patient populations.  
  Medscape went to the American College of Physicians for an opinion.  ACP President says that it's not time to write off small practices yet.  What do you think?  Click on comments, below, to let me know.