Impact of Supreme Court ACA ruling: Preparing for the influx
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision today upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), while providing clarity, also opens the door to a degree of uncertainty.
Washington, DC-The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), while providing clarity, also opens the door to a degree of uncertainty.
Physicians, including ophthalmologists, will probably be seeing more patients in the coming years.
The court’s ruling “gives us clarity as to what the rules are going to be going forward. It clears the uncertainty,” said Peter J. McDonnell, MD, director and William Holland Wilmer Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, and chief medical editor of Ophthalmology Times.
The unknown stems from estimates that upward of 30 million to 40 million people are going to need or seek care now, or will be able to get care now, because they will have insurance.
“[The majority of] patients that come to the emergency rooms with eye problems in the United States . . . have no insurance currently,” Dr. McDonnell said. “So those people will start to have insurance and need care, and the bigger question will be how will we ophthalmologists help provide that care?”
Increased numbers of patients “will require more efficiency on our part,” Dr. McDonnell said, noting that greater collaboration among eye-care professionals will be necessary to provide quality care.
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