Market Competition In Healthcare

Healthcare is in a constant state of change with movements that impact rates, access and quality of care. Hospitals have become more competitive due to the rising cost of care delivery and the reduction in reimbursement from payers. This causes difficulty in delivering quality care to all patients, which is being measured by mandated patient perception surveys, Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). HCAHPS scores are part of value

Over the course of our countries history, the delivery of our health care system has tried to meet the needs of our growing and changing population. However, we somehow seem to fall short in delivering our goals of providing quality, affordable and accessible healthcare to our citizens. The history of our delivery system will show we continuously changed the delivery of our system however never mange to control cost. If we can come up with efficient ways to cut cost, the delivery of quality care will follow.

The next factor to consider is competitive position and healthcare firms can substantially ensure higher quality of care when pricing there products and services at an increased level. Aside from pricing, cost is another major aspect since it can drastically affect a company’s competitive position. A hard investment would involve a MRI device that insurance companies or healthcare organizations could reimburse the office at a higher rate for providing the patients of improved cost-efficient results. As a result, such benefits accrue primarily from savings in drug expenditures, improved utilization of radiology tests, better capture of charges, and decreased billing errors, (Wang et al., 2003). Physician providers are always in competition with the latest and greatest technology, EMR system, and most effective medication for patients.

The purpose of this paper is to conduct a comparative analysis between for-profit hospitals and not-for-profit hospital. It will discuss the characteristics of each as well as factors affecting the operations of both systems. Additionally, it discusses potential areas of improvement and some of the challenges associated with each relative to finance and operations.

Health care economics involves making plenty of choices. Individuals, groups, businesses, and organizations choose how to use resources . Economics and health care are linked, because health care professionals apply economics in their everyday professional activities. They are able to do this through resource allocation. Any health care organization has to plan out how they will use their resources to their advantage. Health care economics are able to incorporate terms like cost, quality, and resources. In this paper, I will compare these terms as they relate to health care economics. In this paper, I will also explain how they

A study done in 2001 found that diseases like obesity and heart disease were higher among patients in public hospitals than in for-profit hospital (Huang 2). This shows that private facilities are often better than public hospitals and emphasizes the idea that the best health care is for those who pay the most money for it. Additionally, private hospitals have a greater and often faster access to the current medical technology giving their patients the best treatment currently possible (Collins 8). On another note private hospitals are operated in more of a business like manner and therefore do not accept everyone if they feel like they cannot pay (Huang 1). As a result for profit hospitals receive more financial gain and are able to attract finer doctors because of the salaries offered. It was hoped that private hospitals and public hospital would be equal institutions but because private hospitals have a greater access to money and resources they are usually better than public hospitals.

In the United States the quality of health care that people receive changes in accordance to the region and is more than often just not sufficient. Because of the lacking care among these hospitals, federal policy makers and private organizations have put in motion a very important program that will collect and publicly report that gathered data on the quality of health care

One of the issues that is widely discussed and debated concerning the United States economy is the healthcare system. Unlike in the majority of developed and developing countries, the healthcare system in the United States is not public, meaning that the state does not provide free or cheap healthcare services. This paper addresses many of the factors contributing to the rising cost of healthcare.

“Within the health care industry, competition impacts several relational perspectives; with numerous studies reporting the impact of increased competition. For example, several studies have examined the relationships between competition and quality of health care (Zwanziger and Melnick, 1996; Enthoven, 1993; Kassirer, 1995; Chassin, 1997); between competition and health care system costs (Robinson and Luft, 1985; Robinson and Luft, 1987; Robinson and Luft, 1988; Zwanziger and Melnick, 1996; Zwanziger and Melnick, 1988; Robinson, 1991); and between competition and patient satisfaction (Miller, 1996; Brook and Kosecoff,

From 1991 going forward, the health care environment again experienced fundamental changes as a result of the deregulation of hospitals which according to Ingols and Brem (as cited in Swayne, Duncan, and Ginter, 2006) was occurring for the first time in a decade. According to the authors, the impact of the move was immediate. Following the deregulation, the financial viability of most hospitals was

price, quality, convenience, and superior products or services); however, competition can also be based on new technology and innovation. A key role of competition in health care is the potential to provide a mechanism for reducing health care costs. Competition generally eliminates inefficiencies that would otherwise yield high production costs, which are ultimately transferred to patients via high health service and delivery costs. With so much competition going on in the healthcare field and around the healthcare organization of my choosing, reducing cost for the patients will keep my organization in the competition for more patients to come

A competitive market is one that allows easy entry and exit: a market in which companies are generally free to enter or to leave at will. This does not describe the health care market in the US. There are certain assumptions that the competitive market model operates under some assumptions, first is the consumer/patient has full information about the nature of the services required, the anticipated results of their decision and the benefits obtain from the service. This is not true in health care often time the patient is operating at a distinct information disadvantage when they require health care services such as insurance. If a patient purchases health insurance often they don’t know enough information to ascertain if they have

There are many different forms of competition among health care organizations. Some of them are the prices of services, different co-pays someone will have to pay out of pocket, lower premiums, they have to be competitive in the quality of the service in which they perform daily. The health care competition is being advertised every day. The competitive nature of business cause them to reach out to the community. The health care industry has to fight for the approval of the community, the government, the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies and of course the stake holders as well as future investors.

In all industries, competition among businesses has long been encouraged as a mechanism to increase value for patients. In other words, competition ensures the provision of better products and services to satisfy the needs of customers (Glover & Rivers, 2009). In the health care industry, competition has an impact on many relational perspectives. There have been several studies examining the relationships between competition and quality of health care, competition and health care system costs, and competition and patient satisfaction. Some elements of competition in health care are price, quality, convenience, and superior products and

The problem at Memorial Hospital is the focus on costs instead of health care. When a health care provider does not take the primary business as the core value of the operation and make strategic and tactical decisions based primary on costs, it decreases the consumers’ (patients) satisfaction in long run. As consumers reduce or stop purchasing goods and services from the hospital, hospital may make more cost oriented decisions and falls into a negative cycle. Eventually the hospital may face the fate of loosing business to competitors and the possibility of closing the door.