The document discusses a series of "ObamaCare 101" educational workshops held in Los Angeles County to teach healthcare staff about the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The workshops aim to address the lack of understanding about how the ACA will be implemented and to explain its key components like Medicaid expansion, health insurance exchanges, coverage reforms, and the individual mandate. Attendees included staff from community clinics who interact with the public and have been fielding many questions about the healthcare law. Organizers hope the sessions increase awareness of the ACA changes and coverage options that will be available through the new law.

1. Teaching healthcare staff about ACA
Teaching healthcare staff about ACATeaching healthcare staff about ACAPermalink: https://
/teaching-healthc…-staff-about-aca/Discuss the implications for HR and the healthcare
workforce. No more than 200 words. Post your paper on moodle. 1.1. What key questions or
problems does the author raise (~20 words)? 1.2. What information, data, or evidence does
the author present to the point (~50 words)? 1.3. What is/are the author’s key
conclusion(s) (~20 words)? 1.4. How is/are the conclusion(s) justified (~50 words)? 1.5.
What are the implications of this issue for healthcare organizations and administrators
(~50 words)? 9/18/13 ˜ObamaCare 101² sessions in L.A. County designed to educate,
inform “ California Health Report | California Health Report By Robert Fulton Kandis
Driscoll, the workgroup director for the Insuring the Uninsured Project, stood at the podium
of a recent session of Obamacare 101 asked if anyone was familiar with what is known as
the individual mandate . A smattering of hands from the 90 or so attendees gingerly went
up. So Driscoll presented a slide explaining the mandate, breaking down the penalty of $95
or 1 percent of income a person will have to pay on their taxes in the first year if they don’t
secure insurance and how that penalty increases in coming years. The room filled with
murmurs. The individual mandate, a key provision of 2010²s Affordable Care Act and such a
hotly contested issue that it took a Supreme Court ruling last year to keep it in place, was
still news to some. œWe get mixed reactions to the individual mandate,�Driscoll said
following the workshop. œSome people have heard about it, and some people haven’t and
the people that have heard about it don’t know everything about it.�The Insuring the
Uninsured Project (ITUP) with form L.A. Care Health Plan, is presenting a series of
information sessions in Los Angeles County in the coming weeks.The workshops, titled
œObamaCare 101: An Educational Training on Health Reform,�are designed to educate the
staff of community clinics and community-based health organizations in the basic tenets of
health care reform. The workshops are for the staff that the general public deals with on a
daily basis, the folks on the front line of taking phone calls and answering questions. The
workshop at AltaMed was ITUP’s third, with at least nine total planned through the end of
September, and possibly more to come. œI think we’re all in a situation where there was a
bill and then it was passed and people spent the last three or four years trying to figure out
how to implement it, and there’s been a real information void during that period of time,�
said ITUP founder and director Lucien Wulsin. Wulsin said that a large number of the low-
income population who will be eligible to benefit from health care reform thinks that the
law has been repealed or will not take effect. He added that choices the public will need to

2. make are complex. œI think the biggest [challenge] is just having to explain a brand new
program for which there is no exact precedent,�Wulsin said. The ObamaCare 101
education sessions take a comprehensive look at the Affordable Care Act and explains key
9/18/13 ˜ObamaCare 101² sessions in L.A. County designed to educate, inform “ California
Health Report | California Health Report www.healthycal.org/archives/13418 2/2 Tw eet
11 0 components of health care reform: who is eligible for Medi-Cal expansion; how
Covered California, the state’s health insurance exchange, will work; reforms in the
insurance marketplace such as the extension of dependent care, elimination of lifetime
limits, prevention of insurance companies canceling coverage, and free preventative care;
the impact of reform on businesses big and small; and the individual mandate. Wulsin,
Driscoll and ITUP policy director Kiwon Yoo, answered questions from the audience during
and following their presentation. Many asked about the mandate, who will be eligible for
subsidies through Covered California, assistance for small employers who offer health
insurance and penalties for large employers who don’t. Patricia Etem, a Los Angeles area
public health consultant with Civic Communications Consulting, said she was comfortable
with her understanding of the basic tenets of the ACA heading into the workshop, but is
concerned by the complexities faced in determining who qualifies for what in the
exchanges. She added that she’s worried about the public missing the March 31, 2014 open
enrollment deadline for Covered California. œI think we have a lot of work to do, because I
was surprised that not everybody in this room heard about some things,�Etem said. Nick
Montes, an administrator with the Montes Medical Group, and Maricela Arceo, a patient
enrollment coordinator with the same group, also attended the session at AltaMed. Arceo
said she wanted a better understanding of who was going to become eligible for coverage
under the ACA. Montes added that staff frequently fields questions from the public
regarding the health care reform. œPatients always ask staff what are the changes that
might come about, what is this thing that I keep hearing about?�Montes said. Wulsin
founded the nonprofit Insuring the Uninsured Project in 1996 to advance health reform.
The ObamaCare 101 info sessions are funded by L.A. Care Health Plan, the nation’s largest
publicly operated health plan, and the California Community Foundation, in partnership
with the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County. During ITUP’s two-and-a-
half-hour presentation, Driscoll, 25, discussed how the ACA has impacted her directly. After
graduating from Loyola Marymount University three years ago, she was able to stay on her
parent’s health insurance plan until she found employment “ and employer-based health
coverage “ with ITUP. At least one attendee expressed surprise that the extended dependent
coverage provision of the ACA was already in place. Driscoll said that after these workshops,
people follow up with circumstantial questions after they’ve digested the information. She
added that some attend multiple sessions. œI really hope that people take away that there
are going to be more options available than are available now,�Driscoll said. œI don’t by
any means think the law is perfect, but it definitely has made it more accessible for more
Americans.�For more information on upcoming workshops, as well as access to the
information presented at the workshops, visit itup.org.