HCA 545 Assignment 2010 Health Care Reform Bill Impact Review

Healthcare policies have influenced significantly the provision of healthcare services in the modern American society. Over the past decade, several policies have been implemented with the aim of increasing access to healthcare and cost efficiencies in health care organizations. An example of such policies is the Health Care Reform Act of 2010. The act was adopted with the aim of ensuring that individuals from ethnic minorities in America accessed their needed care. The act also implied that the model of healthcare provision was transformed in the state to cover for the increasing patient population. The adoption of the Affordable Care Act increased the access of care by both individuals from ethnic minorities and non-minority persons who are unemployed. These changes have a significant impact on the US healthcare system. Besides the increase in the utilization of healthcare services, there is anticipated utilization of new methods of determining quality. These methods include the use of measurement metrics such as level of disease burden in the community, utilization of preventive services, and the health literacy level of the public. Therefore, it is critical to examine the roles and responsibilities of the healthcare management in addressing the complexities presented by the changes in the healthcare landscape in the state.

As shown above, the adoption of the healthcare reforms in 2010 created significant impacts on the healthcare system. The reforms were embraced with the aims of decreasing healthcare costs, increase access to healthcare by the population, and enhance the quality of care offered to the citizens. Despite these benefits, the reforms presented significant challenges to healthcare management. According to Mulligan and Castañeda (2018), the adoption of new reforms was anticipated to result in an increase in healthcare spending. However, experts in healthcare management were worried that the increase in spending was short lived since it failed to address the long-term impact of the reforms on healthcare management. The short-term nature of the impacts of the reforms imply that healthcare organizations will have to consider aggressive cost-containment interventions that are likely to increase costs of healthcare for the patients (Mulligan & Castañeda, 2018). Therefore, healthcare managers have to ensure that the costs of healthcare are contained to ensure quality, efficiency, and effectiveness in the provision of healthcare services.

The healthcare reforms also have a significant impact on the governance of health care organizations. Traditionally, health care organizations reported their quality measures for them to receive annual reimbursement for the services offered. However, this was changed with the adoption of healthcare reforms as from 2010. Consequently, health organizations are required to utilize the value based purchasing program where reimbursements will be made to only those hospitals with good scores. This change implies that health care organizations have to transform their practices to align with the new standards of care. For instance, healthcare organizations have been forced to adopt the use of electronic health records to enhance efficiency, safety, and quality of healthcare (Stock & Goldberg, 2017). Healthcare organizations also have to use predictive analytics to determine not only the current but future healthcare needs of the diverse populations.

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The healthcare reforms also have significant cost implications to the health care organizations. As argued by Mulligan and Castañeda (2018), achieving the quality scores set by the value based purchasing program requires the use of significant resources by health care organizations. They have to invest in new technologies that would promote the safety and privacy of the data of their clients alongside minimizing the operational costs. The models of healthcare also changed in response to the reforms. There is a need to shift from hospital based healthcare provision to home-based care where patients receive the care they need from their natural settings. As a result, health organizations have to reorganize their staffs to meet the emerging healthcare needs of their target populations.

The new reforms in healthcare also have significant financial implications. Firstly, they increase the financial liability among institutions of healthcare. Initially, healthcare reforms including the Affordable Care Act provided medical insurance cover to be covered by the government. However, this mandate changed with the entry of the current regime to the office. The entry of the current government saw the adoption of new policies that are aimed at abolishing the individual mandate. American citizens are supported to pay for their insurance. The employers are also required to pay for the insurance cover for their employees or ensuring that they are enrolled in a government program such as the Medicare and Medicaid. This decision has significant financial implications. Firstly, health care organizations are held responsible for paying medical insurance cover for their employees. As argued by scholars, this decision is likely to result in a significant rise in the operational costs of healthcare institutions. The spending of the government on healthcare is also expected to rise higher than the projected level since the users of healthcare services exceed those contributing for the coverage (Stock & Goldberg, 2017). Consequently, there is a need for institutions of healthcare to explore any possible cost-effective models that will ease the costs incurred by them.

There is also the financial cost that institutions of healthcare have to incur for them to achieve the goals of value-based purchasing program. Value based purchasing program requires health organizations to focus on ensuring quality in the provision of healthcare. This entails the acquisition of new medical technologies that would meet the expected needs of the diverse population. There is also a challenge of ensuring consistent and efficient of healthcare technologies to meet the needs of the healthcare consumers. Healthcare organizations can achieve consistent and effective use of technologies by providing up to date training to their workforce. Health care institutions also have to invest in new infrastructure that would promote sustained use of the new technologies (Rubino, 2018). Cumulatively, these demand the use of significant financial resources in health organizations for both human resource and infrastructural development, hence, the impact of the reforms.

The adoption of healthcare reforms also present significant challenges related to patient demographics. As shown earlier, the reforms aim at increase access to care and utilization by the diverse populations in the state. This change is expected to improve the health and wellbeing of the vulnerable populations in the state. For instance, the reforms saw most of the individuals from poor socioeconomic backgrounds improve their access to care. There has also been an increase in the provision of the insurance coverage to unemployed individuals irrespective of their ethnicities or socioeconomic backgrounds. The demographic changes in the access to healthcare imply that there is anticipated increase in the utilization of healthcare services. There is also the anticipated rise in the spending of the government on healthcare. Therefore, rather than reducing the costs spent on healthcare, analysts are worried that the reforms will increase healthcare costs further (Rice et al., 2014). Consequently, the hospitals face the challenge of ensuring optimum performance in them while addressing the diverse healthcare needs of the changing demographics of those they serve.

In summary, the adoption of healthcare reforms was perceived to be a great step in improving the quality of care offered to populations in America. The decision also aimed at increasing the access, affordability, and utilization of healthcare services. Despite these benefits, there are increasing concerns on the adverse impacts that the reforms have on healthcare. The reforms demand the use of new technologies to promote high quality and safe care. The technologies are also needed to ensure protection of patient’s vital information. There is also the need for infrastructural transformations that are needed to support new technologies for value-based outcomes. The reforms also translate into a change in patient demographics in the state. Therefore, institutions of healthcare must constantly explore the manner in which these issues can be addressed to promote efficiency in their operations and promotion of quality in healthcare.

References

Mulligan, J. M., & Castañeda, H. (2018). Unequal coverage: The experience of health care reform in the United States. New York, NY: New York University Press.

Rice, T., Unruh, L. Y., Rosenau, P., Barnes, A. J., Saltman, R. B., & van Ginneken, E. (2014). Challenges facing the United States of America in implementing universal coverage. Bulletin of the world health organization, 92, 894-902.

Rubino, L. (2018). New leadership for today’s health care professionals. New York, NY: JONES & BARTLETT LEARNING.

Stock, R., & Goldberg, B. W. (2017). Health reform policy to practice: Oregon’s path to a sustainable health system: a study in innovation. London, United Kingdom: Elsevier/Academic Press.

HCA 545 Assignment 2010 Health Care Reform Bill Impact Review