Theu.s. Department Of Health And Human Services

Mental illness is an increasing problem in America. Currently about 26.2% of Americans suffer from a mental disorder. A mental illness/disorder is a medical condition that disrupts a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, and ability to relate to others and daily functions. Mental illness can affect humans of any age, race, gender and socioeconomic status. However the care that is needed to effectively cure and help the people affected by the illness is not equal for everyone here in American, especially for African Americans.

Approximately one out of every four Americans suffers from some form of mental disorder in a given year. About 3.5 million Americans suffer from severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia and manic-depressive illness. At least 40 percent of mentally ill people do not seek help or are not being treated, while many wander the streets homeless (Kornblum).

May 4, 1980 the doors of The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) were open. After the passing of the Department of Education Organization Act of 1979 that cause for the removal of the education components from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). When the doors of HHS were open, the department was led by Patricia Roberts Harris. Ms. Harris was once the secretary of HEW but that all changed. The department started its first year off with 140,000 employees and a budget of $226 billion. HHS started off with the same structure of HEW, the only differences were the Education Division and the vocational rehabilitation program was removed.

Texans are being short changed by the proposed Medicaid cuts. Legislature has told the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) that they must cut $350 million from the Medicaid funding over the next two years. In order to abide by the legislature’s demands, the HHSC has proposed cutting the reimbursement rates for pediatric physical and occupational therapists on average by 10 to 25 percent. And pediatric speech therapists would face cuts of 16 to 27 percent. Many feel that these cuts to the therapy payments have little to no effect on the services that children with disabilities receive. These individuals say that following the orders will assist in reducing the therapy rates and will reduce the practice of excess therapy. On the opposing side, it has been expressed that cutting therapy funds that the State of Texas provides has the potential to cause individuals within the pediatric population to lose crucial therapy services. The planned cuts have the risk to jeopardize the potential of our nation’s young. The cuts also make many agency’s that currently provide occupational, physical and speech therapy vulnerable to closures and lay-offs.

The United States Department of Health and Human Services has a pattern blood donation policies that is important to consider when evaluating their current policies. In the 1980s there was a lifetime ban on Haitians donating blood. There are notable parallels between the current MSM policy and the Haitian policy of the 80s. First, the high risk grouping was based on identity rather than behaviors. The policies were both based on assumption of high risk and stereotyping based on sexuality or race. Another shortcoming of the CDC has been the lack of representation of individuals who will be impacted by the policies. In both cases, Haitians and MSM have not been included in governing bodies that make these decisions. Finally, both policies

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the primary agency responsible for administering human services throughout the United States for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable. It makes healthcare insurance more affordable through the Affordable Care act (ACA), Medicaid, Medicare, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Implement and enforce public health safety, provide education and training, research, protect health care rights, and social services. It has a total of ten organizations that falls under its umbrella and offices and agencies that establish policies related to health care and legislation. It is instrumental in implementing laws and enforcing regulations that congress and executive branch mandates it to do.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) defines medically underserved area as ranking low on a scale that involves physicians per 1000 people, infant mortality rate, percentage below poverty level, and population >65 years old. 9 The HHS defines medically underserved population as that which includes “economic barriers (low income or Medicaid-eligible populations or cultural/linguistic access barriers to primary medical care services.” 9 According to the American Pharmacist Association, approximately 85% of US states have 61-100% of counties with medically underserved areas. 11 “28% of poor, 23% of near poor…[lack] health insurance coverage,” which is much higher than the national percentage of 13%.6 When reviewing the risk factors for vaginitis such as lack of health insurance, tobacco use, lack of bachelors degree, Hispanic origin, etc., many of the women suffering from the condition fall under the category of the underserved population as defined above. This means that clinics with the purpose of treating underserved areas and populations must have a heightened awareness of the prevalence and significance of vaginitis and must be interested in staying up to date on the most efficient medical practice strategies given the patient population.

In 2010, the U.S Department of Health and Human Services crafted the nation’s 10 year health agenda. Healthy People 2020 outlines key objectives aimed at improving the standard of care health consumers receive by improving both the quality and format of health information offered to consumers as well as improving the consumers’ ability to obtain and process that information. These objectives included supporting shared decision-making between patients and providers, increasing health literacy skills, and delivering accurate, accessible, and usable health information that is targeted or tailored to the individual. (“Healthy People.gov” 2015)

As you are well aware of, how patient care is delivered is ever-changing in the healthcare world in which we live in. Since the passing of the Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare” in March of 2010 the world of healthcare that we know has drastically changed. In 2011 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) developed new rules under “Obamacare”, aimed at helping doctors, hospitals and other provider’s better coordinate care by implementing Accountable Care Organizations, or ACOs Leavitt Partners has been actively tracking ACOs since 2010 and the number of current ACO’s in the United States as of January 2015 is 744. According to the Leavitt Partners survey, over 23.5 million people are being covered under one of the ACO models (Health Affairs Blog, 2015). According to these statistics and growing number of hospitals participating in ACOs, where is does your hospitals potential financial performance stand if it were to become part of an Accountable Care Organization (ACO)?

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG) on April 20, 2015, working in partnership with the American Health Lawyers Association and the Association of Healthcare Internal Auditors, published Practical guidance for health care governing boards on compliance oversight. The guidance describes the OIG’s expectations of the compliance oversight and the roles governing boards should play in a healthcare organization.

In a study conducted through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on “average 79 people will receive an organ each day; however, an average of 22 people die each day” waiting for transplants that cannot take place because of the shortage of donated organs (U.S. D.H.H.S). The average amount of patients waiting for an organ can reduce to zero with the continued development of 3-D printers. 3-D printing is a process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. The digital file is uploaded onto a computer software, and then the 3-D printer prints the digital file out onto different materials. The materials include plastic, resin, nylon, sandstone. The finish products become replicas of the digital file, and what was an idea is now a reality. Therefore, 3-D printers will one day be the future of organ transplants because over the past twenty years the technology industry has rapidly grown into the focal point in society. From advancement in communication, to the medical field, science and technology has shaped this world today. Thus, the American Government should invest more money into the medical field budget because the research conducted on new technology (3-D Printers) leads to more lives saved, and expands the opportunity of future medical breakthroughs.

The executive branch is a very powerful branch of the government. Decisions made from this branch affect all Americans. It is important for the people to pay close attention to congressional deliberations, as well as administrative decisions in order to be aware of the impact of these decisions on Americans and to ensure the executive is accountable for these decisions.

In understanding regulatory agencies the differences between regulation and legislation needs defining. Legislation is the law that has been passed by a voting process and regulation is the responsibility of the regulatory board appointed to enforce laws once the law is passed; it sets forth rules on how the laws are to be implemented and to what degree. In health care the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has the predominant responsibility to enforce legislation that impacts the health and well-being of Americans. Under the umbrella of HHS there are 13 regulatory agencies tasked with setting rules on the enforcement of the legislation passed by lawmakers.

At Universal Health Services, Inc. we want to evaluate our financial condition, so that we can assess how we are doing compared to our competitors. We also want to create a strategic financial plan for the next three years, so that we can continue to grow stockholder’s equity and to keep up and even take over our competition. One way to analyze our financial condition is through financial ratios. “Financial ratios are often used in benchmarking. Comparisons are made between the financial ratios of a firm and those of its peers or an industry standard. A financial ratio can be used as a yardstick for measuring how the firm stacks up against its competition” (Beckham, 2015).

Attention Getting Device: Every year, about 42.5 million American adults (or 18.2 percent of the total adult population in the United States) suffers from some mental illness, enduring conditions such as depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, statistics reveal. (newsweek.com)