Deanna Kitzke Future Direction of Health Care HCA 421: Health Care Planning and Evaluation Instructor: Michele Reed October 23, 2010 Future Direction of Health Care The future direction of health care has begun to make dramatic changes in the last year. With the new Healthcare Reform Bill in effect, many of those Americans that do not currently have health care coverage are going to be able to have it now. There has been a lot of controversy over whether or not this bill is a good idea and if it will help or hurt the American public. Other advancements in medical records have also impacted how patient information is stored. The Affordable Care Act has gone into effect slowly over the last year and will begin to have a positive …show more content…
When electronic medical records are in place, the need for most paper documentation is eliminated, as well as having to store all of the paper documentation. This would take the idea of “Going Green” and recycling to a new level if all health care facilities would start using electronic medical records. Another advantage of electronic medical records is the ability for all in a health care team to coordinate care. This helps avoid duplication of testing, prescribing medicines that in combination might be dangerous and the ability for anyone on the medical team to understand the approaches taken to a condition. A person with complex health issues may see several specialists, and can easily become confused by overlapping or contrary advice. (Christensen, 2010) Not only does having medical records electronic make things much more efficient, it will make documenting patient information much quicker. Getting lab results, x-rays, pathology reports and prescriptions entered without error due to poor handwriting or having items get “lost” on the way back are both benefits of electronic medical records. The term pay for performance or value-based purchasing is set up to reward hospitals, physicians and all other health care providers for meeting a predetermined set of measures of quality and performance. As the baby boomer generation is getting older, health care is making changes to accommodate them. Pay for
Pay-for-performance payment model – healthcare payment systems that offer financial rewards to providers who achieve, improve or excel their performance on specified quality of care and cost measures (HealthCare Incentives Improvement Institute, N.D.)
Electronic health records can lessen the disintegration of care by refining care coordination. The use of electronic health records will deliver providers with accurate information. This is especially important for those that see multiple specialists, and enable a smooth transition between care settings and receive treatment in emergency
Health Care in the United States is a vast industry that has many different types of people involved in the delivery of care. There are stakeholders that affect the daily operations of health care and they are not necessarily in a hospital setting. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, AHRQ, defines a “stakeholder” as persons or groups who have a vested interest in the clinical decision and the evidence that supports that decision ("Effective health care," 2011, p. 1). These stakeholders are making decisions that impact costs, procedures, and the future of
The Affordable Care Act includes changes to Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, and creates many conflicts and benefits around how it will affect health care in the future. Clearly, all items within the medical reform are connected, so that a positive impact in one area may inversely affect another. The primary change is the extension of health care coverage to the uninsured, but it comes with a cost. Costs include penalties, taxes, reduced medical access, and lower reimbursement rates for physicians and hospitals. The Affordable Care Act is conceived with a good purpose; as a result, everyone will now have access to affordable health care, although, “affordable” is not yet well defined. Health care providers will be able to continue their vocation of providing good care for our society, but in some cases, changes to insurance may still have a poor outcome.
The Affordable Care Act, often referred to as the ObamaCare was signed into law on March 23, 2010. It has created a lot of controversy since its debut. The Healthcare reform will affect all Americans. The issue has many Americans believing it is a great thing for our country while others believe it is a terrible idea and then of course there are those who don’t know what to think. By Jan 1, 2014 Americans will be required to purchase a health care policy or will have to pay a penalty. Ready or not it’s happening. First you would have to understand the background information of the program. As with all things there are pros and cons to the Affordable Care Act. Because it is a new law it is not flawless there is room for changes and recommendations.
The Affordable Care Act has resulted in a larger variety of the U.S. population receiving healthcare, thus a larger portion of the country have increasingly fought off and have overcome common diseases. Saying this, the Affordable Care Act has caused America to become healthier in the sense that they are getting the vaccines and medications that they need. However, due to recent studies, due to the larger influx of people needing healthcare, it has been found for hospitals, clinics, and healthcare
The changes taking effect on the health care system can be greatly utilized by Americans, whether it is in a good or bad way. Today, most Americans do not have health insurance because they cannot afford it. With the Affordable Care Act, these Americans will be able to receive health care benefits. President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in March 2010. It was created to increase access to insurance coverage, whether through a private
The US healthcare system is currently undergoing what is arguably its biggest change since its enactment in 1935 with the Social Security Act. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010 by President Barack Obama in an attempt to bring cost free preventative care to all American citizens. And while this may sound like good news since it will help take care of the 54 million Americans that were uninsured in 2010 when this Act was signed (Kocher 2010) not all of these changes to the healthcare system are beneficial. Many citizens will find themselves penalized by the fees and requirements of the ACA, along with many others
For the past several months, the news feeds have been full of stories on Obamacare, more accurately described as The Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act is the largest mandated healthcare change in the United States since Medicare and Medicaid began in 1965 (Mayer, 2013). It was signed into Law in 2010 designed to give all Americans access to healthcare. Whether you are for or against The Affordable Care Act one thing is above dispute, it has caused a Nationwide uproar. Now that we are in a new Presidential era, steps are being taken to “Repeal and Replace” Obamacare.
In March 23. 2010 the Health Care Reform law, also known as the “Affordable Care Act” was signed to enhance help for the United States health care system. This law is meant to “provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending, and for other purposes”. Although this is the most recent act to help the health care system, this effort to reform the system has been in action for many years with many failed attempts to succeed.
The Benefits of the Affordable Care Act to Our People and Our Health Care System
An Electronic Health Record is a computerized form of a patient’s medical chart. These records allow information to be readily available to authorized providers during a patient’s encounter with the healthcare system. These systems do not only contain medical histories, current medications and insurance information, they also track patients’ diagnoses, treatment plans, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images and lab tests/results (source). The fundamental aspect of EHRs is that they are able to share a patient’s information quickly across service lines and even between different healthcare organizations. Information is at the fingertips of lab techs, primary care physicians, pharmacies, clinics, etc. The
The future of healthcare if left as is, the system will falter and eventually, a new reform will be realized as necessitous (Garman, Butler , & Brinkmeyer, 2006). When the system proposed fail to meet
The future and direction of health care has been the topic of discussion amongst politician and U.S citizens today. There are several challenges surrounding the future and strategic direction in which health care should be heading. Accreditation, quality of health care and organization’s compliance; access to health care, maintaining a skilled workforce, information technology and pay for performance are some of the challenges that currently presenting itself in healthcare today. If health care is not dealt with appropriately it will have a significant effect an impact on the strategic direction in the future and direction of care.
Instead of using paper based records, technology allows physicians to use the electronic medical record (EMR) that improves the quality of programs. By using the EMR, this is not easy nor is it low cost. Physicians’ have to use this method as their daily task. There are some barriers that has been identified with the use of the EMR by the physicians we will discuss. There will be some suggestions made that might can help the policy interventions to overcome the barriers. This will include the support system of work/practice including electronic clinical data exchange, and financial rewards for quality improvement. (Sim, 2004)