Prevention in health care reform: the time has come.

NC Med J May/June 2010, Volume 71, Number 3 The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, has in it provisions that “ensure that all Americans have access to free preventive services under their health insurance plans and invests in prevention and public health to encourage innovations in health care that prevent illness and disease before they require more costly treatment.”1 What I intend to discuss and list in this commentary are the specifics of prevention and the investments in the public health infrastructure in the PPACA and crosswalk how certain provisions will help in the implementation of many of the recommendations of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine’s Prevention for the Health of North Carolina: Prevention Action Plan.2