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Health care costs in the united states essayu
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High cost of healthcare is a significant topic in the United State today impacting everybody involved, from a national level to every person in society. The question in this paper is; “how the role of an advanced nurse practitioner (APN) in an urgent care setting helps to reduce that healthcare cost through billing and access to lower costing health care?” For the most part this question is supported with the literature provided. The summary of literature provided consists of the high cost of healthcare, nurse practitioners in an urgent care setting, billing and cost reduction. The growing trend in the United States is the reduction of physicians providing primary care thus creating a void in access to care; in turn there is an increase
Nurse practitioners (NPs), one type of advanced practice nurses, are licensed by the states where they practice and certified by private boards. Nurse practitioners hold advanced degrees in clinical practice and function in a wide variety of settings and across the life span. They provide a broad array of healthcare services ranging from managing treatment plans, to prescribing medications, to implementing health promotion services. As of 2014, 205,000 NPs were licensed in the United States with 86% of those prepared to deliver care to patients in primary care settings (NP Facts, 2015). The progression of the Nurse Practitioner movement that occurred in the 1960 and 1970s emerged as a creative and
The challenges that all acute care hospitals and facilities faces are the demand for highly specialized services has increased. The US population is constantly aging and the elderly tend to need more acute care services. Because many people lack health insurance, they tend to use emergency rooms in the hospitals as their source of care. The increase demand in acute care prompted hospitals to expand their facility
Nurses and physicians need to become partners in health care reform. We have a responsibility to provide competent care to our patients. National standards need to be put in place to decrease the inconsistencies in APN practice. Overwhelming data supports the APN over the physician in cost effectiveness, quality and access to care and many other aspects.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010 with the goal of expanding healthcare coverage to all Americans by reforming insurance policies and practices (Tillett, 2011). The ACA upsurges the demand for an increase in primary care providers in order to supply quality care to the much larger population that will have coverage and therefore acquiring healthcare. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) through its report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health has generated a solution to the shortage of primary care providers by promoting a transformation of the nursing profession to fill the gap.
Financial implications: Lower overall costs have been associated with NP (nurse practitioner) care. Studies show that the average cost of a nurse practitioner visit is approximately 25-30 percent lower compared to that of a physician visit. For exam...
In order to make ones’ health care coverage more affordable, the nation needs to address the continually increasing medical care costs. Approximately more than one-sixth of the United States economy is devoted to health care spending, such as: soaring prices for medical services, costly prescription drugs, newly advanced medical technology, and even unhealthy lifestyles. Our system is spending approximately $2.7 trillion annually on health care. According to experts, it is estimated that approximately 20%-30% of that spending (approx. $800 billion a year) appears to go towards wasteful, redundant, or even inefficient care.
About 32 million people will represent the newly insured, affecting the health care system and nurses are the fundamental in health system. Health care reform is positive for nurses. The health care bill provides money for advance practice and general nurse education. The law also creates a grant program for innovative safety net programs, such as nurse-managed health clinics. Due to the shortage of family Physicians, nurse practitioner programs are going strong. The health care reform is a good opportunity for nurses; the law will permit different approaches to deliver primary care and with the decreasing number of physicians going in to primary care, Nurses represent the best way to provide primary care to the millions of new insured people. (Satowski, 2010)
The role of the primary nurse practitioner (NP) has emerged in the US in the late 1960s. The development of the primary NP role in the US is widely perceived as a response to increased medical specialization and the accessibility to medical care ensured by Medicare and Medicaid programs. The increase in physicians’ specialization shrank the number of primary care physicians mainly in the rural and medically underserved areas. Meanwhile, access to medical care by low-income people increased the demand for primary care services. To meet this demand, nurses stepped in to breach the gap (Pohl & Tsui-Sui, 2014).
Since the 1990’s, the interest in nursing and the profession as a whole has decreased dramatically and is still expected to do so over the next 10-15 years according to some researchers. With this nursing shortage, many factors are affected. Organizations have to face challenges of low staffing, higher costs for resources, recruiting and reserving of registered nurses, among liability issues as well. Some of the main issues arising from this nurse shortage are the impact of quality and continuity of care, organizational costs, the effect it has on nursing staff, and etc. However, this not only affects an organization and community, but affects the nurses the same. Nurses are becoming overwhelmed and are questioning the quality of care that each patient deserves. This shortage is not an issue that is to be taken lightly. The repercussions that are faced by both nurses and the organization are critical. Therefore, state funding should be implemented to private hospitals in order to resolve the shortage of nurses. State funds will therefore, relieve the overwhelming burdens on the staff, provide a safe and stress free environment for the patient, and allow appropriate funds needed to keep the facility and organization operational.
Rising medical costs are a worldwide problem, but nowhere are they higher than in the U.S. Although Americans with good health insurance coverage may get the best medical treatment in the world, the health of the average American, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is below the average of other major industrial countries. Inefficiency, fraud and the expense of malpractice suits are often blamed for high U.S. costs, but the major reason is overinvestment in technology and personnel.
Sicko, a film by Michael Moore was released in 2007. The film investigates health care system in the United States. One would definitely get amazed by the facts and figures explained in this documentary. The movie explains failing health care system in the United States. America has advance medical technology, big hospitals, and educated health care professionals, but these facilities are not universal. The film starts by talking about true American stories; what some people have experienced from current health care system, those who had and did not had health insurances. The story starts by Adam, one of 50 million people in America who does not have health insurance. Due to an accident Adam required a medical treatment, but for the reason of not having any insurance he puts stitches on his leg by himself. The second story was about Rick, who accidentally cut the top of his two fingers, middle and the ring while working on the table saw. As a result of not having health insurance, Rick could not put the top of his middle finger back because it was costing 60,000 dollars and he did not had the money. So, he decided to put his ring finger back because it cost 12,000 dollars which he could afford. The movie does not go into the detail of 50 million people who do not have health insurance, but it’s about 250 million Americans who do have health insurance.
What Seems To Be The Problem? A discussion of the current problems in the U.S. healthcare system.
There has been a drastic cut in both the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates. According to Robert (2012), “cuts of more than $360 billion to Medicare and Medicaid will be made over the next 10 years. The focus of nursing needs to emphasize more on wellness care and prevention rather than acute care” (McNeal, G., 2012). Nursing practice will need to shift more towards community and population focused nursing. Baccalaureate prepared nurses are provided with a curriculum that includes both community health and leadership skills that are not included in the associate program. By encouraging associate’s degree nurses to obtain a bachelor’s degree in nursing, an increase in the awareness of the needs of the community and population may be seen. The IOM report has outlined the anticipated obstacles that healthcare will face if changes are not made. By allowing nurses to provide care within their full scope of practice, quality care may be provided at an affordable cost to the population. The use of advanced practice nurses in primary care may provide quality, access, and cost efficient healthcare to high-risk populations and possibly decrease hospital admission rates, thus lowering the overall cost of healthcare. If nurses partner with doctors and other healthcare providers, it may improve healthcare by providing seamless transitions (Institute of Medicine,
Why is health care so expensive? According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (2013), “The biggest reason is that United States health care delivers a more expensive mix of services. For example, a much larger proportion of physician visits in the United States are for specialist who charge higher fees.” For instance, if an individual has hemorrhoid symptoms, typically they can go to their general physician. Though, if more complications arise, they will need to schedule an appointment to see a gastroenterologist, who specializes in that area. Nevertheless, why are physicians that specialize in specific areas so expensive? Why do they recommended the more expensive prescription drug instead of the off brand?
Health care cost is unaffordable to those who are underinsured, uninsured and poor. Most of them might be working part time, multiple to job or underpaying job and can’t afford to miss a day or even an hour from their job. One way to reach these society would be thru retail or urgent care run by nurse practitioner and physician assistance because of their low cost, convenience of time frame and outcomes. Naylor and Kurtzman (2010) study demonstrates that patient outcomes: including mortality; satisfaction; physical, emotional, and social functioning, were found to be the same between those seeing nurse practitioners and physicians. It is important to educate the population how health care is changing fast and may have to redefine the future role of the physician as well as NPs. The only drawback of the retail or urgent care could be the reduced technical backup that may affect the overall quality of service provided (Burns, David and Helmsmen, 2011,