2013 Year of Transition for New Jersey Health Care

TRENTON -- There is at least one certainty for New Jersey's healthcare environment in 2013 -- it will be very different a year from now.
The major pieces of the federal Affordable Care Act will be rolled out on January 1, 2014, but preparations for those changes are already underway and will dominate the healthcare landscape in New Jersey and across the country this year.
A set of related issues are at the forefront of those changes: whether the state expands Medicaid eligibility; whether it forms a partnership with the federal government to operate a health benefit exchange or allows the feds to be the sole operator; how a wide-ranging state Medicaid waiver is implemented; and how New Jersey’s providers expand new models for healthcare delivery.
Each of these issues have the potential to make a difference in how New Jersey residents receive healthcare, as well as how doctors, hospitals, and other providers are paid.