Hospitalists Brace for Challenges of Health Care Reform

According to Dr. Siegal, that's no surprise. “A lot of the implementation of these bills is subject to interpretation by CMS,” he noted. “The next 12-18 months will be phenomenally busy as CMS struggles to turn 2,000-plus pages of legislation into actionable statutes.”

He added that “it will be absolutely critical for hospital medicine to be represented in this process, and for us to lend our expertise to ensure that we get the outcomes that are intended. Only then will we really know if the bills are likely to deliver.”