On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), a sweeping measure designed to expand access to health insurance (including subsidies, mandates, and market reforms); reduce health care spending (particularly in the Medicare program); expand federal fraud and abuse authorities and transparency requirements; impose new taxes and fees on health industry sectors; and institute a variety of other health policy reforms. The President also signed a second, related bill into law on March 30, 2010 – H.R. 4872, the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (Reconciliation Act) – which includes a series of "fixes" to the PPACA. The Reconciliation Act makes substantive changes to a number of the PPACA's health-related policies, including insurance coverage provisions, revisions to Medicare prescription drug coverage, Medicare Advantage and fee-for-service payments, Stark Law self-referral policy, and Medicaid matching payments, among many others.

The PPACA, as amended by the Reconciliation Act, is dramatic and far-reaching. Perhaps the most significant result of the PPACA will be the expansion of health insurance coverage to approximately 32 million Americans who currently receive no health benefits, principally through the expansion of the Medicaid program, and the imposition of health insurance mandates on employers and individuals. However, within the thousands of pages of the new laws are numerous provisions that will have a direct and material impact on nearly every component of the health care delivery and financing systems in the United States, including health insurers, health care providers, and manufacturers of pharmaceuticals and medical devices, as well as employers, taxpayers, and patients. Moreover, the impact of some of these provisions will be felt immediately, as certain provisions are effective upon enactment, and some have January 1, 2010 effective dates. This Alert concentrates on those provisions we believe are of most interest to health care providers and medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturers. We would be pleased, however, to provide analyses targeted at specific industry sectors, or to assist you in developing plans to respond to implementation of the new health reform legislation.

Please see our Alert for our in-depth analysis.

	Carol C. Loepere Partner Washington, D.C. +1 202 414 9216		Elizabeth Carder-Thompson Partner Washington, D.C. +1 202 414 9213		Debra A. McCurdy Senior Health Policy Analyst Falls Church +1 703 641 4283