Erica Mu

Obamacare's enrollment period largely overlaps with the holidays, when potential enrollees' budgets and mental resources are stretched. So why not schedule enrollment season after the holidays, when tax refunds could give low-income consumers an extra nudge?

News reports on health reform tend to focus on patients and consumers. But how are doctors faring? Some voice complaints of administrative kinks, reimbursement struggles, and coverage confusion. But not all of these problems are new, and some docs emphasize the gains being made.

Telehealth has the potential to lessen physician shortages in rural areas and deliver care to those unable to travel. Proponents hail its efficiency. Why then has it been so hard to harness new technologies to expand care to areas and groups in desperate need?

By ensuring care for inmates after release, the Medicaid expansion could improve health and lower recidivism. But efforts to enroll inmates face many challenges, from a lack of basic infrastructure to poor coordination between health, corrections and social services departments.

After Obamacare's passage, California expanded its Medicaid benefits to allow those with mild to moderate mental health problems to receive care. But as the state's Medicaid numbers surge, some say there aren't enough providers to meet the rising demand.

Of the many projections made about the Affordable Care Act, one number stands out among the rest: 62 million. That’s the number of individuals who will gain mental health and substance abuse coverage under the ACA.

In the Health Leads program, physicians and health care providers “prescribe” basic resources to their patients such as food, housing, electricity, heating, even job training. The emerging model represents a shift in the way we think about health and the social factors that shape it.