As a future healthcare worker, I need to stay updated on the changes made within the healthcare system, such as regulation, law, and policy updates. It is essential to understand issues surrounding them as well as their nuance. Other students and I have thoroughly researched the subject in Health Policy and Regulations classes. These classes helped me to be prepared for my future healthcare career, as I learned about topics such as expansions of healthcare programs, policies, and fraud that can happen within the field.
In Healthcare Policy and Regulations classes, I researched several topics connected to the current state of healthcare: the first example would be the Medicaid eligibility expansion. When I wrote an essay on the subject, I learned about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), calling for an expansion of Medicaid and would expand the number of people who can apply for Medicaid support. Many Americans fall into the health care coverage gap without the expansion. While the change was drastically helpful, the Supreme Court ruled that the government should not force states to adopt this expansion by law. Because the expansion was made optional, fourteen states refused to adopt it, leaving millions of their residents without healthcare support. While the expenses would rise, most of them would be covered by the federal government (Kuhlmann et al., 2016). I analyzed Texas as the most uninsured state in the country, and came to a conclusion that if the state authorities continue to oppose the Medicaid expansion and other such policies, the state population will be more exposed to health risks than any other state. Medicaid support stays a hotly debated subject in many areas despite how positively it would affect citizens, mainly if they belong to the low-income population. This example made me analyze how local governments’ decisions can negatively impact the healthcare system and, therefore, the well-being of their residents.
When I wrote an essay on the Value-Based healthcare system, the class educated me on its core principle of basing healthcare services on quality rather than quantity. How much medical staff is paid is determined by the results of their work. For example, how well their patients feel at the end of the medical treatment affects their pay rate. Therefore the better results doctors achieve, the higher payment they receive. The potential long-term effects are promising, but healthcare providers will need to learn how to transition to this model and potentially struggle through short-term financial damage before reaching the desired results. This system is still relatively new, so many healthcare providers have not adapted it yet due to the potential financial risks, but it is slowly gaining traction. After studying the subject, I grew to understand the potential impact the Value-Based healthcare system can have on both patients’ health and doctors’ work.
Healthcare policies are the primary way the government tackles healthcare issues within societies. They are made to ensure that companies and governments prioritize people’s health and follow through with regulations designed to improve the quality of healthcare services (Kuhlmann et al., 2016). The class educated us on various healthcare policies that were designed to target specific issues and in this case the policy was 107RAD. It was implemented to counter the dangers of radiation poisoning among patients and medical personnel. The main reason for this was the rising number of computed tomography (CT) scans among patients. Due to the high level of radiation that affects the patients, the policy was implemented to prevent adverse effects, such as high risk of cancer. Researching healthcare policies allowed me to understand better how they are made and how they affect people and healthcare providers.
On the subject of healthcare fraud, I studied the subject of False Claims Act (FCA). While many cases of healthcare fraud affect patients, in this case it negatively impacts the system and healthcare providers instead. We studied how the government encourages people to report such cases, and the consequences for false healthcare claims and spending. Healthcare fraud is a serious subject that can negatively impact the healthcare system as a whole, and the government does not take it lightly. This is why when it comes to FCA violations the punishment can be either a monetary fine or even imprisonment. Researching this subject helped me understand how both healthcare providers and patients can negatively impact the system and other people due to their monetary schemes.
The healthcare system changes can be challenging to follow for a beginning medical worker, but it is essential to understand what is happening in the field. The classes I attended educated me on the healthcare system policy and regulations and how they change in the current day and age. As new regulations, policies, and updates appear regularly, they can drastically change people’s healthcare. Medicaid expansion and Value-Based healthcare system examples demonstrated to me how the system can change and at what pace, including possible obstacles that can happen to slow down the progress. On the other hand, I learned about more traditional topics of debate that have been happening continuously, such as healthcare fraud and regular policies. As a future healthcare worker, I need to keep updated on them because these changes affect the healthcare providers as well, and it is vital to know the nuances within the field.
Reference
Kuhlmann, E., Blank, R., Bourgeault, I., & Wendt, C. (Eds.). (2016). The Palgrave international handbook of healthcare policy and governance. Springer.