The purpose of this paper is to review ways to reduce the cost of health care. This paper will…
The healthcare sector in the US has been in the spotlight for some time now regarding economic issues that intimidate to obstruct the entire system. This has led to an uproar particularly from the public that tends to feel the tweak the most and things keep on getting worse by each day. There is a emphasis on the over 46 million Americans who are uninsured, as well as the insured people, continue to wrestle with the problem of the ever increasing and the consequential out-of-pocket costs. The Obama Administration and the Congress are persistently engaged in ways that can subsidize health care spending, but they as well as other stakeholders need to transfer with speed in order to reinstate some bring the sector under control. In this paper I will discuss the most important and pressing economic issues that confront the United States healthcare industry today and will continue to do so into the next decade, analyze the most significant economic effects of the economic issues on healthcare industry, discuss entities stakeholders may use to address the selected issues from an economic perspective, determine the strategic manner in which the United States can apply best economic best practices from other countries in addressing these issues, assess the likelihood of government and or private sector effectively addressing the issues.…
Insurance acts as intermediary between buyer and provider and has no incentive to provide a better price or higher quality. This is especially true in the movement from the medical model to the business model of health care. “The United States spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world, in 2008 US healthcare costs were 2.3 trillion or 7,000 per capita. The US per capita cost is 45% greater than our northern neighbor Canada, and 33% greater than Norway”. (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2011). The business model is profit based. Requiring a profit almost always includes streamlining of services and mandating cost controls. Both of which limit the insured’s access to services, drugs, and new technology.…
In this first stage of managed care, businesses have depended on moving workers from indemnity plans to more affordable plans as their essential technique for controlling the expenses of health care (Sekhri, 2000). Health care facilities such as hospitals have less adaptability, but occasionally the market enables them to consult and negotiate with Managed Care Organizations on better repayment plans. Care groups attempt to control cost by negotiating. They attempt to restructure and achieve lower payment levels by providing enhanced, good quality health insurance. They control the cost because MCOs control the patients access to what specialist or physicians they can see and what labs and treatment facilities they can go to.…
The purpose of this research is to inform the healthcare industry how lowering costs in health care will impact healthcare organizations. This…
The history and economics in health care can be traced back to the late 1890’s, but became prevalent in the 1930’s. Over the course of the last century health care industry has evolved to multi-billion dollar industry. This evolution can be attributed to managed care and third party payee systems. The cost of care has been the forefront for debate for over the last two decades in the United States. The cost of care has rising so dramatically some Americans are unable to receive coverage for the health needs. After researching health care economics, a timeline of this evolution is apparent.…
The national debate over health care reform in the US has been going on for decades. Although the debate continues, the landscape of health care in the US is certainly about to change as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) was enacted on March 23, 2010. Many politicians, economists, health care providers and average citizens have weighed in on the topic with opinions as diverse as the country. The question is, will this reform be the cure for our ills or a bad pill to swallow? This paper serves as an examination of the economic and social impact of reform on the system of health care services and the delivery of same. In order to know where we are going, it is vital to know where we have been, therefore the background of national health care is reviewed and hypotheses about the impact it will have on the hospitals are made. In concluding the discussion of health care reforms’ impact on hospitals, it seems as though there will be both positive and negative implications and outcomes. It is the author’s contention that there will be a need to reestablish guidelines for service and delivery as well as cost containment of health care services. It is likely that the country will see a new model of health care.…
Our Healthcare system is clearly business based according to the article “Cost Conundrum” and on the movie “Escape Fire”. In the movie it had an impacting story of an older lady who had heart problems where she went to a doctor and they were going to charge her thousands of dollars were later she went to a different doctor and they charged her a couple hundred dollars for t he same procedure. I couldn’t believe that in a different office she would get the same procedure done for a lot cheaper than in the other doctor’s office. Also, it surprised me how the medical staff are giving all these medications to our soldiers were they are clearly abusing the medication and taking much more than they should. I was really happy to see that later the soldier who was overdosing on medications decided to stop and later tried a different form of medication of acupuncture. Although overdosing on medication is a problem in our country it is not the biggest one in our healthcare. Our healthcare system is the one that is collapsing. Our healthcare system is not like it was many years ago, our healthcare system is market based and doctors don’t focus on quality care on their patients and rather view them as dollar signs. In the article “Cost Conundrum” it states that McAllen is one of the most expensive healthcare markets in the country, many are unsure why it spends more per capita but it states that because the people there are obese and have cardiovascular diseases and fall under the poverty line. In the article it states “the way to practice medicine has changed completely before it was about how to do a good job, now it’s about how much will you benefit”. I clearly agree to this statement because I have gone through this experience with my father. He was diagnosed with diabetes at a late stage in which it caused a retina detachment on his left eye. When he was diagnosed I would…
health care system is dysfunctional and can no longer continue as it currently operates. With or without Affordable Care Act (ACA), there is a need for a deep change. The United States spends more money on health care because a nation is less healthy on the average than the rest of the developed world. The system is dysfunctional and ACA is fast-tracking the process of changes that will be faced by the economic and business challenges by health care organizations. The required adjustments to healthcare organizations operating budgets and methodologies for delivering medicine may become a big issue. Health care organizations will have to go from volume-based reimbursement in medicine based on the number of procedures done or patients seen to a value-based system that will give the same money for every patient regardless of the procedure performed. Health care organizations may have lower income since they will treat more patients. They may face cost-pressure factors such as the overall cost of medical care and the increased incidence of chronic disease, cost transparency and reference pricing, increased government role in paying for care, increased coverage and limited highly skilled medical workforce There is a prediction that forty million more people will be covered nationally, at reimbursement rates below the cost of providing that care (Adams et al.,…
There is a growing trend in the United States called pay-for-performance. Pay-for-performance is a system that is used where providers are compensated by payers for meeting certain pre-established measures for quality and efficiency (What is Pay-for-Performance, n.a.). We are going to be discussing what pay-for-performance is. There are different aspects of pay-for-performance which include; the effects of reimbursement by this approach, the impact cost reductions has on quality and efficiency of health care, the affects to the providers and patients, and the effects on the future of health care.…
government” (Frost and Sullivan, 2011). The law is passed by US congress to provide universal…
Defensive medicine is when providers prescribed unnecessary medicines and services to avoid liability rather than for the benefit of the patient. According to the study, the Congressional Budget Office then estimated that implementing tort reform would reduce total health care spending by about $11 billion and would reduce federal budget deficits by as much as $54 billion (Congressional documents and Publications, 2013). In addition, using a dataset of health plans representing over 10 million Americans annually between 1998 and 2006, the study found that the most common set of tort reforms during this period reduces premiums of employer-sponsored self-insured health plans by 2.1% (Avraham & Schanzenbach0. However, many argued that Tort reform did not cut health care cost. In article titled “Tort reform' didn't cut health care costs in Texas, study finds”, states that health care spending has increased annually everywhere, including in the states with caps on malpractice payouts and that Medicare payments to doctors in Texas rose 1 to 2 percent faster than the rest of the country (Roser,…
Problem Statement: Chronic diseases – such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and obesity – are the most common and leading causes of death in America.…
The U.S. healthcare is the most expensive in the world and yet one of the least in terms of quality when compared with peer countries. Consequently health reform has been on the fore front for several years. However there is no consensus on how best to go about reforming the system. The enactment of the ACA in 2010 was one of the boldest attempts to reform U.S. healthcare. Making healthcare affordable to Americans is one of the main goal of the ACT. There is ongoing debate on whether ACA has made healthcare…
The major concern in the United States is how to effectively control dramatically the rising health care costs. Many factors affect the rise in health care cost which includes the advancement of technology, the specializations, the aging population and the number of the diagnostic and treatment options available. The federal, state government and insurance company public or private continuously attempts and works to control the cost of the health care system. In addition, because of the manage care system, physician’s role to control the cost has its controversy and issues. The “gatekeeping” role to cost contain the health care system has a different perception among the consumers and providers. The goal of the health care system it to provide…