PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Laxmaiah Manchikanti AU - Joshua A Hirsch TI - Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010: a primer for NeuroInterventionalists AID - 10.1136/neurintsurg-2011-010036 DP - 2012 Mar 01 TA - Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery PG - 141--146 VI - 4 IP - 2 4099 - http://jnis.bmj.com/content/4/2/141.short 4100 - http://jnis.bmj.com/content/4/2/141.full SO - J NeuroIntervent Surg2012 Mar 01; 4 AB - The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the ACA, for short) became law on 23 March 2010. It represents the most significant transformation of the American healthcare system since Medicare and Medicaid. Essentials of ACA include: (1) a mandate for individuals and businesses requiring as a matter of law that nearly every American has an approved level of health insurance or pay a penalty; (2) a system of federal subsidies to completely or partially pay for the now required health insurance for ∼34 million Americans who are currently uninsured—subsidized through Medicaid and Exchanges; (3) extensive new requirements on the health insurance industry and (4) changes in the practice of medicine. The Act is divided into 10 titles. It contains provisions that went into effect starting on 21 June 2010 with many of the provisions going into effect in 2014 and later. The ACA goes well beyond insurance and payment reform. Practicing physicians will potentially be impacted by the Independent Payment Advisory Board and the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.