| Abstract | The Affordable Care Act is changing the way healthcare is delivered in the United States. The bill, which was signed into law in early 2010, requires everyone to have health insurance in the United States. The full impact of the law has yet to be fully realized because it is not fully implemented and will not be for several years. However, it has driven consolidation within the industry among providers for a myriad of reasons. Providers are consolidating in order meet the bill's requirements regarding quality and spending, which has impacts on spending as well as competition. The Affordable Care Act is affecting the decisions individual physicians make in deciding how they practice. The bill has serious implications for a physician's ability to practice care effectively, and they are choosing to consolidate or to sell their practices to large hospital systems and become employees to hospital systems in order to meet the requirements of the bill. These changes in the way individual physicians practice will have an effect on the way healthcare is delivered as a whole, and it is yet to be made clear whether or not this consolidation will be beneficial or not. |
