Health Care Reform Law – Informational Web Sites

From recent postings at Medlib-L, a discussion list for medical librarians about informational sources for the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act (the Health Care Reform Law)

• HealthReform Source (The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation) with links in the areas of Basics, Research and Analyis, Public Opinion, The States (implementation and news), and Topics (as Employers, Health Care Costs, Long-term Care, and Uninsured.

• Health Insurance (MedlinePlus, published by US National Institutes of Health)
  Links to health care reform Web sites include

• Questions and Answers about Health Insurance: A Consumer Guide(Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)
• Experts Assess Impact of Health Reform on Mental Health Coverage(11/01/2010, American Psychiatric Association) – PDF
• Affordable Care Act’s Early Retiree Reinsurance Program(Dept. of Health and Human Services)
• Frequently Asked Questions about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Nondiscrimination Requirements(Dept. of Labor)

Take health care into your own hands

• Healthcare.gov (US Department of Health and Human Services)
  Topics include : Find Insurance Options,  Learn About Prevention, Compare Care Quality, andUnderstand the New Law

• Meaningful Use, Certification Criteria and Standards, and HHS Certification Process (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society)

• Health Reform Center (US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
• User’s Guide to Health Care Refrom (AARP)
• Health Care Reform: An Introduction (April 14, 2009, US Congressional Research Service)
  Covers concerns (coverage, cost/spending, and quality) and likely legislative issues)
• Health Reform: An Online Guide (Last updated May 2010 Slate)
  “Links to everything you need to know about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.”
• Health Care (US White House)
• Healthcare Napkins All (A slideshare presentation by Dan Roan)

Web sites I discovered through my parish’s Pax Christi meetings

Faithful Reform (http://www.faithfulreform.org/) with an email sign up…and easily found links to…

• “A Daily Dose of Truth” [currently 9 items, including the titles Medicare in Health Care Reform, The Requirement to Buy Insurance,The “R” word (Rationing), Small Business]

• Resources [currently includes items as  A Moral Vision for our Health Care Future, Power Point presentation: The Heart in Health Care Reform ]

Herndon Alliance: Healing America’s Healthcare (http://herndonalliance.org/) with an email sign up…and the tabs (links)

• The Resources tab includes talking point suggestions that can be used in discussions with others as well as mass communication and writing to representatives

• The Newsletter tab includes links to past Messages of the Week
  

A few journal/magazine articles (from Medlib-L postings)

• Beyond Repeal — The Future of Health Care Reform (New England Journal of Medicine Perspective Article)
• Health Care Reform (NY Times Topic page, updated Nov 3, 2010)
• A Primer on the Details of Health Care Reform (NY Times, August 9, 2009)
• Health Affairs articles*** (requires paid subscription) include: Fact vs Fiction [August 20, 2009] , Moving Forward with Health Care Reform [June 2010 feature issue] , and Key Issues in Health Reform (a Health policy issues brief)
• Finish the Treatment (April 11, 2010,The New Republic)
• Health Care Reform Bill 101 (March 22, 2010,Christian Science Monitor)
• Seven Falsehoods about Healthcare Reform (August 14, 2009, Newsweek)
• Pharmacists and Health Reform: Go for It! (Pharmacotherapy 2010; 30(10) : 967-972)

** For suggestions on how to get free/low cost medical articles, go to How to obtain free/low cost medical articles in medical and scientific journals