NCVHS is your advisory committee on health data, statistics, privacy, and national health information policy. NCVHS advises the Secretary on the adoption of standards, unique identifiers and code sets under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), as well as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, which calls for NCVHS to assist in the achie...

The United States has a trust responsibility to provide services to American Indians and Alaska Native (AI/AN) persons. However, a long-standing history of underfunding of the Indian Health Service (IHS) has led to significant challenges in providing services. Twentieth century laws, including the Snyder Act, Transfer Act, Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, and Indian Healt...

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expanded access to high-quality end-of-life care for Americans with serious illness, including cancer. Before the ACA was enacted in 2010, nearly 715,000 patients died in hospitals annually, despite evidence that most Americans prefer to die at home. Moreover, fewer than half of Medicare beneficiaries used hospice before death, despite evidence that hospice service...

The changing Latino demographic in the United States presents a number of challenges to health care policy makers, clinicians, organizations, and other stakeholders. Studies have demonstrated that Latinos tend to have worse patterns of access to, and utilization of, health care than other ethnic and racial groups. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 may ameliorate some o...

The changing organization, financing, and priorities of the U.S. health care system are creating new imperatives for employers, health care insurers, hospitals, and especially interprofessional health care practitioners. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 was created with the aim of decreasing overall health care cost, improving access to health care, and improving hea...

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) populations report poor physical and mental health outcomes while tribal health providers and the Indian Health Service (IHS) operate in a climate of significant under funding. Understanding how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) affects Native American tribes and the IHS is critical to addressing the improvement of the overall access,...

The Congressional Budget Office, the Rand Corporation, and the Urban Institute have estimated that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) will leave employer-sponsored coverage largely intact; in contrast, some economists and benefit consultants argue that the ACA encourages employers to drop coverage, thereby making both their workers and their firms better off (a "win-win" situa...

On March 23, 2010 President Barack Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (hereinafter “ACA”) into law. The enactment of the ACA was an enormous step in the history of the United States, as “no prior administration had successfully pushed national health reform through Congress, despite several attempts.” The Act was created with the primary goal of providing all American c...

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) contains substantial new requirements aimed at increasing rates of health insurance coverage. Because many of these provisions impose additional costs on the states, officials need reliable estimates of the likely impact of the ACA in their state. To demonstrate the usefulness of modeling for state-level decisionmaking, RAND undertook a preli...

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) contains substantial new requirements aimed at increasing rates of health insurance coverage. Because many of these provisions impose additional costs on the states, officials need reliable estimates of the likely impact of the ACA in their state. To demonstrate the usefulness of modeling for state-level decisionmaking, RAND undertook a preli...