Discuss two challenges facing the health professions. What are two policies that would address those challenges? What are the politics of those policy recommendations, if any? You may write about the health professions in general or choose a specific health profession to write about. Make clear in your entry if they are policies already adopted; proposed or under consideration; and/or ones that you would recommend”
While today is a time of growth, it is also a time of growing pains. The healthcare industry in the country is facing many challenges ahead in 2021. The most prominent challenges that the health care system faces is: service integration, service quality, internet connected medical device security, and publicly sustainable pharmaceutical pricing. The greatest challenge is improving healthcare quality of care while reducing cost. This issue can be solved by using intelligently leveraging clinical information for predictive analytics, precision medicine and population health analytics (Balasubramanian & Gallagher, 2019). Medical technology innovations continue to produce radical service delivery advancements. However, it will take some time before these advancements reach their full potential.
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There is a problem with information and service integration. The medical community welcomes big data advancement but implementation is not as fluid. Non-relational databases merge patient information from many sources, providing actionable metrics. Relational databases cannot efficiently manage unstructured information, such as clinical notes and transcripts. Very few care providers are able to transition from relational to non-relational databases using traditional electronic health records. Non-relational databases are able to fully exploit all recorded patient information despite the format. Some patients are not willing to share their medical information making non-relational databases hard to implement. Because of this limited information, drug manufacturers waste immeasurable expenses on research and development, which is passed on to consumers in the drugs’ prices. It is important to educate patients on how information sharing reduces costs and helps develop a more personalized service delivery plan.
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Another challenge is effective payment model discovery and implementation. Insurers and benefactors have recently instituted new payment models that use financial incentives that hinge on patient outcomes rather than service quantities. The incentives include bundled payments, global payments and shared savings. These incentives are the primary cause of high healthcare expenses in the US. Insurers simply pay for services rendered, patient advocates believe that traditional models incentivize care providers to provide quantity rather than quality health care. These providers receive disbursements directly; they are not keen to work collaboratively with others. This leads to increased expenses and unsatisfactory patient experiences (Robiner, 2006).
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The good news is, new payment models seek to alleviate these problems. Medicare serves as a proving ground for the new models. The organization improves, tests and implements new payment models to improve patient outcomes and decrease costs. The shared savings model has gathered more attention among care providers. The most effective model is using the Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). In this policy, these healthcare groups take responsibility for improving patient outcomes and reducing costs. This approach encourages providers to coordinate services and uniformly promote preventive practices. There is a problem with the urge to search for a win-win outcome with pharmaceuticals. Patients, insurers and regulators keep complaining about the exorbitant drug prices.
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The new policies require that these manufactures have to substantiate their pricing. These enterprises are also under scrutiny from the public, insurers, and pharmaceutical value assessment groups. Some pharmaceutical executives advocate for fair pricing and feel that insurers should reward organizations prescribing new, cost-effective drug treatments (Kreitzer & Meeker, 2009). Many groups have been formed to evaluate and monitor drug pricing. Each group uses its own formula to measure price traits by using parameters such as: economic viability, effectiveness, patient outcomes, and toxicity. Legislators are calling on drug prices determined strictly by manufacturing costs, which will significantly decrease medication fees.
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