Hardships Cause by Medicaid Discounting At Moross Health Center

Moross Health Center is a federally qualified health facility located in Detroit, Michigan. The health facility mainly provides primary healthcare as the initial point of contact for patients. However, it has all other specialized departments that focus on managing specific health conditions that require specialized care. Evaluation and treatment within the health center are offered to citizens of all ages. It is one of the health facilities in Michigan State, where Medicaid is accepted as one of the health insurance coverage programs. With consistent use of Medicaid over the years, there are vivid hardship instances that have been encountered by the facility that may contribute to complacency in advocating for it.

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Patient evaluation to make accurate diagnoses often requires the cooperation of both the patient and their healthcare provider. The cooperation includes the willingness to pay any procedure that the doctor feels will aid them in coming up with an accurate working diagnosis. It is, however, notable that Medicaid does not support all health procedures that are performed in Moross Health Center. Furthermore, patients may not be willing to spend out of their own pockets due to financial constraints or the assumption that the insurance coverage should cover the essential costs. This circumstance makes it difficult for healthcare providers to provide patients with quality healthcare as provided in the hospital’s mission (Henderson, Kizer, and Kravitz, 2018). Since health workers have their options limited, there is a direct impact on the patient outcome that may later appear to be a weakness on the institution’s side.

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Medicaid has come up with specific reimbursement programs that enable the healthcare providers to proceed with essential services with an expectation that their efforts will be paid for on completion of the health interventions. In many instances, the estimations and calculations made by the health insurance providers fall far below the actual costs. With consistencies in this occurrence, healthcare providers such as doctors and advanced care nurses are discouraged from accepting patients who covered by Medicaid. The healthcare facilities are often in need of funds to keep running. Reimbursements, on the other hand, take a period of 37 to 155 days to be processed (Millwee, Quinn, and Goldfield, 2018). Without prompt processing of these funds and channeling them to the health facility, most procurement and development programs remain at a standstill for a considerable time. Health administrators may instead prefer patients covered by other fast reimbursing insurance programs or those who pay out of their own pockets.

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Misappropriation of funds within the healthcare organization and by the Medicaid insurance provider is a significant reason for the perception that the program is failing. Federal funds occasionally fall into the hands of corrupt personnel who may opt to use them for their gain. When allocating federal funds to states to support their health needs, it is usual that wealthier and more populated states receive more funding than the poorer states (Gordon et al., 2018). The poorer states have more people falling under the vulnerable population and low socioeconomic class. They are expected to benefit more from the Medicaid program. Michigan is a highly populated state and receives its share of Medicaid from the federal government. The funds are further shared among all healthcare institutions that offer services to Medicaid patients. The funds are inadequate to support the goals of the health institution by the time it reaches the Moross Health Center. Due to this challenge, some organizations would instead pull out of Medicaid to run their operations without significant external interference.

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In many health environments such as nursing homes, Medicaid patients are often subjected to discrimination by healthcare workers. When patients switch from a privately paying option to Medicaid, there is a tendency to transfer them to less equipped portions in the hospital or another facility. This phenomenon is attributable to the hurdles that the healthcare facilities face when acquiring money from the federal state after treating or caring for Medicaid patients (Millwee, Quinn, and Goldfield, 2018). Though not a regular occurrence in Moross Health Center, it is a fear among the patients that they may become victims of such treatments. This scenario is commonly experienced by elderly patients admitted for long-term illnesses that make them almost entirely dependent on health institutions for their survival. Some facilities go a further mile by turning down Medicaid patients who need to be admitted.

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