Financial Aspects of Health Care Delivery
Lashunda Brown
University of Phoenix
HCS/310 Health Care Delivery in the U.S.
Delores Usea
June 18, 2012
With the high cost of health care today, health insurance continuation is an important consideration for many unemployed individuals, job changers, dependents of covered workers, and retirees who no longer receive employer-provided benefits. Despite several laws in effect that make it possible to extend employer-provided health insurance, some workers continue to experience "job lock." This is a situation where workers, particularly those with pre-existing health conditions, feel that they must remain in a particular job for fear of losing their health insurance coverage. Many
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The best time to buy a policy is generally age 55 to 60. If you wait too long, premiums increase significantly and/or you could become uninsurable through some type of medical diagnosis. Premiums are lower in your 40s or early 50s but you could be paying them for a long time before coverage is needed.
COBRA benefits should be viewed as a “stopgap” until long-term health insurance (e.g., a new employer’s policy, a guaranteed renewable individual policy, or Medicare) is secured. For example, someone can retire at age 63 ½ and pay COBRA premiums for 18 months until Medicare eligibility at 65. A major disadvantage of COBRA for younger retirees is the potential for developing a serious health condition while on COBRA that makes it difficult or impossible to later buy affordable individual coverage. The longer people live, the more likely they will need assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs), such as bathing and eating. Nearly half of all Americans will need long-term care at some point in their life. Those most at risk are single, female, have no available support system living within 25 miles, and have had frequent falls and bone fractures, serious heart or lung problems, or a stroke.
Key features in the selection of a long-term care policy include: the amount of daily coverage, the length of coverage, types of benefits, the elimination period, the method of making inflation adjustments, and number of activities of
You have been asked by a health care magazine to write a series of articles focusing on health care financial concepts. The articles will be included in five consecutive issues and will be geared towards readers with little knowledge of finance. You must ensure that the articles are both informative and engaging to your audience. You must also ensure that your articles relate financial principles to the health care industry.
I really enjoyed this article, as it went into effective financial planning. The 2 major categories of cost are total charges (the patient's bill) and the cost of providing services. These 2 costs can be defined mathematically in the following indices: average revenue per patient day and the cost per patient day.
Then live another expected fifteen plus years past 65, and insurance that covers long-term care services will broaden to include more than institution care and will embrace a comprehensive selection of possibilities leaning towards home-based care services.
In many circumstances, people may move out of long-term care. Those recovering illness or injury may regain independence after they are well. Some may not every be able to live a life without long-term care again. It is noted that 40 percent of people over 65 will need two or more years of long-term care with half of those needing care for more than five years (Grote, 2011). Unfortunately, with today’s aging population, the numbers in the long-term care are most likely to keep increasing instead of transitioning people out. Of the 12 million people who need LTC, 6.6 million are age 65 or older and are likely to be Medicare beneficiaries and entitled to the LTC coverage that Medicare provides (Barton, 2006). That said, not everyone who
Therefore the annual interest rate is 8% and the effective annual rate compounded quarterly is 8.24%
According to a Kaiser Family report from 2013 increasing the eligibility age would reduce Federal net spending by $5.7 billion in just one year (from 2013-2014). This decrease in net spending also includes a Federal gross savings of $31.1 billion (Neuman, 2011). Not only would the increase in eligibility age save the Federal government over $300 billion long-term, it would also help to extend Social Security for at least 75 years (Khimm, 2013). Many individuals rely on both of these systems once they reach eligibility age so prolonging the Social Security system for at least 75 help all those involved no matter when you start participating in Medicare coverage. The CBO has estimated that by 2021 increasing the Medicare eligibility age would reduce Federal spending, net of premiums, and other offsetting receipts by $148 billion by just increasing the minimum eligibility age to 67 (Meyerson, 2012). They have a plan to increase the eligibility age by 2 months every year starting with those that are born in 1951 (those who turn 65 in 2016) and continue until 2029 when those born in 1962 turn 67 (Elmendorf, 2013). Continuing this 2 month increase each year until the age reached 70 years old would continue to save more and more for the Federal
Greater than 150 million workforces, pensioners and their household members receive their healthcare through occupation-based coverage, which, in accordance with the AFL-CIO, is the foundation of this nation state health care coverage and financing. Approximately one-third of occupation-based coverage comes through coalition-negotiated strategies. (The AFL-CIO, n.d.)
The uninsured and acquiring access to health care is one of the problems that the United States faces in regards to health care. An obstacle that individuals face is that gaining access to health care is linked to having a job. However, the problem does not stop there. The problem continues in the form that not every job gives people access to health care. Many employers will stop from offering individuals full time status because then they would have to offer some type of insurance plan. Thus, employers often hire people as part-time so as to not have to face giving people benefits they may deem too costly. Inherently, people are finding themselves without insurance due to the fact that acquiring health care is contingent on having a job. What does this mean for the jobless? Based on the linkage between health care access and being employed, it is rather visible that the unemployed would be faced with being uninsured and difficulty acquiring access.
If one specific job entitles healthcare while others do not, this means people are more likely to stay with that job and not move to another position, [3].
The higher cost of affordable Health care is also eroding the ease with which to afford other insurance that covers about 30 percent of Medicare enrollees ‘expenses. In 2005, about 89 percent of beneficiaries obtained such additional coverage, including through former employers (33 percent), medical policies (25 percent), Medicare advantage plans (13 percent), Medicaid (16 percent), or other programs (1 percent) (MedPAC). These supplemental insurance programs were all very helpful at the onset, but with the passage of time and as health care costs continued to rise, employers are finding it difficult to support these programs and as a consequence, a greater number of these employers are either reducing the benefit or eliminating these benefits especially those that affects their retirees thereby increasing the cost of these supplemental insurances.
Financial management is important to the organization because it provides pertinent finance and accounting information to help managers accomplish the purpose of the organization. Financial accounting provides accounting information to external users. On the other hand, managerial accounting is more for managers (internal users) to use for things like planning, budgeting, etc. The definition of finance has changed over the years, but it’s used to ultimately evaluate previous decisions and make assessments for future decisions of the organization.
Government financed health care typically has more control to place limitations on care offered to patients and doctors in order to keep costs down. Since payers must try to deliver the most care for the
The realization of such services should be supported with adequate funding. Again, the stakeholders of the organization should be the major contributors towards the long term care service provision funding. The continuum care is crucial in the sense that it ensures that the care of the patients continues amid all the challenges and at all times. In case of financial challenges, the government ought to lend a helping hand to assist fund the important services (Pratt, 2010). Other private organizations with keen interest in healthcare provision
Analyze the current health care delivery structure in your state. Compare and contrast the major determinants of healthcare market power.
This is the first pace in financial. It is the duty of financial manager to primarily recognize the goals of the company. The subsequently responsibility is to decide on the suitable steps that have to be applied achieve the goals of the company (Baker and Baker, 2007, p. 6).