Health Care Evaluation : The Department Of Health And Human Services

President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act on March 23, 2010. This law puts in place widespread health insurance reforms that expanded out over the last 4 years and continues to change the lives of many Americans today. Health care reform has been an extensively debated topic for multiple years, and the ACA is the first effective attempt at passing a law aiming to make health care not only affordable, but accessible for all individuals. The law impacts many Americans including, children, employers, government programs which includes federal and state, health plans and private insurers, health care coverage, health care cost, and the quality of care received. The main goal of the law is to expand health care coverage, broaden Medicaid eligibility, minimize and regulate health care cost, and improve the health care delivery system. In order to improve the health care delivery there have been new consumer protections established and an increase access to affordable care.

Goal The Affordable Care Act had the goal of the potentially increasing access to coverage for millions of Americans by implementation of market reforms. As well as the establishing new health insurance exchanges; and expanding the Medicaid eligibility for low-income adults (Keith & Lucia, 2014)

No one plans to have oneself or a family member diagnosed with a chronic disease or to be involved in a debilitating accident. Unfortunately, these situations are all too familiar and can happen every day. Having health insurance when these life changing events occur can provide a person or family

The American Health Care system needs to be constantly improved to keep up with the demands of America’s health care system. In order for the American Health Care system to improve policies must be constantly reviewed. Congress still plays a powerful role in public policy making (Morone, Litman, & Robins, 2008). A health care policy is put in place to reach a desired health outcome, which may have a meaningful effect on people. People in position of authority advocates for a new policy for the group they have special interest in helping. The Health care system is formed by the health care policy making process (Abood, 2007). There are public, institutional, and business policies related to health care developed by hospitals, accrediting organizations, or managed care organizations (Abood, 2007). A policy is implemented to improve the health among people in the United States. Some policies

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the U.S. government’s principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves. HHS is responsible for almost a quarter of all federal outlays and administers more grant dollars than all other federal agencies combined. The mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is to enhance the health and well-being of Americans by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services. In addition, HHS is also responsible to provide better services to people by adapting to new technologies to keep pace with the advancement in technology. As we compare the health and human services from last ten years to present, it is very clear to analyze how health and human systems have improved over the years. The Department manages programs that cover a vast spectrum of activities that impact health, public health, and human services outcomes throughout the life span.

Barton, Phoebe Lindsey. Understanding the U.S. Health Services System, Fourth Edition. Foundation of the American College of Healthcare Executives, 2010.

Recent health care reforms have already showed action in the health care industry, but there are a set of rules that will take effect January 1, 2014. The Affordable Care Act delivers better health security by providing a comprehensive health insurance

Healthcare policy is dynamic and ever changing, especially in our society today with the many changes in government control, insurance company influence, and actual delivery of healthcare services. In order to corral our healthcare system and ensure that there is quality control amongst all populations, health policies must be put in place. Health policy is defined as many things due to its dynamic nature but the assigned text expresses a definition that encompasses all aspects of what health policy is for us today, “Authoritative decisions made in the legislative, executive, or judicial branches of government that are intended to direct or influence that actions, behaviors, or decisions of others”(Longest, p. 5, (2010)). Among the many reasons why health policy is pertinent to our society an aspect of health policy that I feel is most important is in regards to public health practices. Health policy is the reason why populations that whom otherwise would not receive the absolute needed healthcare, actually get to receive healthcare. The financial aspect of healthcare is quite steep and more often than not healthcare services are not sought out by populations because they cannot afford to do so. With health policy the policymakers allow for the proper and equal disbursement of goods and services to ensure that everyone is remaining healthy no matter what

Once the foundation of the U.S. health care system was reviewed, we began our study of the new regulations. The Affordable Care Act contained three main provisions. The first provision was expanding Health Insurance Coverage. Elements of the regulation included offering coverage to the vast majority of currently uninsured Americans by expanding access to Medicaid to cover all non-elderly individuals below 133 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL), and establishing state-based health insurance exchanges, which will offer Americans a range of private health plan options, with federal tax

Health care systems are organizations that are formed to meet the overall health needs of the population. Health care is regarded as one of the leading cause in promoting not only physical and mental health but the well-being of the population. Legislation is implemented requiring government to offer services to all members of its society. The role of health services and the organizations that provide aid is to focus on the health of an individual and to uphold their human rights. According to WHO (2013), a “well-functioning health care system requires a robust financing mechanism, a well-trained and adequately-paid workforce, reliable information on which to base decisions and policies, and well maintained facilities and logistics to deliver quality medicines and technologies (World Health Organization; 2013).

The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as “Obamacare”, has drastically altered healthcare in America. The goal of this act was to give Americans access to affordable, high quality insurance while simultaneously decreasing overall healthcare spending. The ACA had intended to maximize health care coverage throughout the United States, but this lofty ambition resulted in staggeringly huge financial and human costs.

The mission of Hawaii Health Systems Corporation is to provide accessible, comprehensive healthcare services that are quality-driven, customer-focused, and cost-effective. The vision of the organization is to be the provider of choice for the communities it serves, the employer of choice for its staff, and the system of choice for its physicians (www.hhsc.org, 2014). The organization works with the physician base along with other service providers to plan and implement business ventures that will enhance the services offered to its patients. Employees and community leaders are included in the decision making processes to ensure adequate representation. Each facility has its own separate mission and vision statement that integrates into the overarching statement of Hawaii Health Systems Corporation.

Through statistical analysis, there were ten AHRQ inpatient quality indicators that are statistically different from that of the reference population. To determine which ones were significant, the reference population was compared to the risk-adjusted confidence interval. Those whose reference population was outside the risk-adjusted confidence interval were deemed as significantly different. These ten indicators are listed below in Table 1.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated that "The health of the individual is almost inseparable from the health of the larger community and that the health of every community in every state and territory determines the overall health status of the nation." It has now become clear that our economy in terms of healthcare insurance is not healthy; the healthcare system in the United States spends 1 cent of every healthcare dollar in the prevention of diseases and 99 cents on the cure. Our healthcare system is the most expensive and yet arguably among the least cost effective in the developed world. Despite the highest per person health care spending among the Organization for Economic Cooperation

Question one: Identify and outline three (3) significant issues in the case study? One (1) significant issue is to be identified from each of the following areas: