Reducing Cost Of The Us Healthcare System

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.

More and more people in the United States are running into issues with its Healthcare System. People in the United States depend on its Healthcare System to take care of them, but many of them are not receiving the care they need. There are many issues in the system, and until they get fixed, people will not be receiving proper care.

The problem is defined in America’s healthcare ranking as the most expensive, least available, and poorest quality health care in the world.

There is a growing trend where physicians are choosing different specialties instead of choosing primary care, primarily due to the low reimbursement rate in primary care. According to Iglehart (2014),” the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) still projects a shortage of 130,000 physicians by 2025, split almost equally between primary and specialty care” (para. 1). With this decline comes an answer, an increase in the number of nurse practitioners providing patient care, reported 154,00 in 2012 and growing every year (Iglehart, 2014). This increase in nurse practitioners’ helps fill that gap, allow greater health care access to the community, especially special populations. By gaining access to healthcare were a nurse practitioner is the provider not only with the special population have high quality affordable health care, a trusting long lasting relationship will develop. This relationship will break the barriers of; lack of trust, lack of health care education and discrimination. Nursing is a trusted profession that provides education and care that no other health care professional

According to Health Resources and Services Administration If the system for providing primary care in 2020 were to stay fundamentally the same as today, there will be an estimated shortage of 20,400 primary care physicians ("Projecting the Supply and Demand for Primary Care Practitioners Through 2020," n.d.). In addition this projection doesn’t include the decreasing number of people perusing the medical degree and the baby boomers retiring form this filed of science. In the hand we are experiencing a significant increase in NPs and PAs. Considering this projected shortage, which is actually a very frightening situation the increasing number of NPs and PAs, can effectively be integrated; we could reduce the number of physician shortage by over 69 percent in 2020.

Impact to Healthcare organizations - These increases in cost raise questions of health care expenses at the hospital level. As higher profits are sought, the cost will become unstable for all, thus causing many to postpone going to the doctor. However, there are many complicated problems associated with our healthcare system. We will focus on main issues that can correct many related problems within the current structure. More importantly, we need to find ways to ensure all Americans have access to health care; and we need to hone in on how we can get the best value for the $2 trillion dollars we spend annually on healthcare.

Primary care physicians are vital to prevention. These physicians are a patient’s first line of contact with the healthcare system and they have the difficult task of conducting checkups to screen for all diseases. Unfortunately, it is much more common for a medical student to specialize in another field due to a much greater salary and more narrowed scope of practice. As a result, the number of specialists is much greater than the number of primary care physicians, creating a

Is cost shifting fair in the name of being “my brothers’ keeper” or is it unacceptable to take from the haves and in turn, giving it to the have-nots. It sounds unfair; however, this is a common trend in the United States healthcare system. According to Cambridge dictionary, cost shifting is “a situation in which the price of one product or service is higher than it should be, in order to pay for losses on another product or service for which the price is too low.” The cost shifting trend affects patients with health insurance by compensating for the financial loss hospitals incur when services are provided to those without insurance.

health care costs in america are rising to help more people get access to proper health care. There is the side of the argument that raising costs of health care is unfair to those people who do not need as much coverage or those who do not want to pay or cannot afford health care. There is always the benefit if someone who does not have good enough coverage or someone who does not have enough coverage to cover there costs. I personally think that raising health care prices are a good thing because it makes health care more open to everyone

Cost containment is a way for the U.S health care delivery system to solve inflation in cost which will save money for the hospitals involved. According to “Health Care Cost Containment: A Contradiction in Terms?” cost inflation has many contributors including the increased cost in hospitalization, advancing medical technology, prescription drugs, professional degrees, legal settlements, and other related services (McConnell CR, 2002, p.70-71). All of these contributors are coming from different aspects of the health care delivery system but they all end up with the same results. Cost containment effort ideas can solve all of those problems as long as they are properly implemented and people really believe in helping to keep costs at a

Today, the United States is facing a shortage of about 16,000 primary care physicians and this number will continue to grow by 2025 (Amirault, 2014). Primary care physicians (PCPs) are the doctors who focus on overall health and offer the treatments and preventive screenings that save lives. A physician shortage is a situation in which there are not enough providers to treat all patients in need of medical care. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has long pointed out that the shortage of primary care physicians will be a major setback for the American healthcare system advancing (Amirault, 2014). The shortage of primary care providers presents

The United States healthcare system is often characterized as inefficient. This inefficiency becomes apparent when the U.S. healthcare system is compared to systems of other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The U.S. spends a much larger portion of its GDP on healthcare than any other OECD country, but experiences no better health outcomes in most cases. When the concept of efficiency within the healthcare market is understood, it is evident that the inefficiency that occurs within the U.S. healthcare system results largely from the structure of the private health insurance system in addition to the heterogeneity within the U.S. population.

“The United States spends a larger share of its gross domestic product (GPD) on health care than any other major industrialized country” (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2002). However, American’s health is not better than that of citizens of comparable countries. Health care in the U.S. is expensive for many reasons; newer technology, lack of standardized health plans, overuse of services, and highly paid medical professionals are a few. The identified concepts that would help reduce the cost of health care while improving population health. Changing the face of medicine in America from curative to preventative would reduce the cost of care in the long term. According to the CDC, the most expensive care is hospital care at 31% of the total health care expenditure. Therefore, creating better home health programs help to shorten hospital stays and reduce the risk of readmission for chronic illnesses or rehabilitation, which will lower overall cost of care. Continuing to promote coordinated care through evidence based medicine when treating and discharging patients from the hospital will reduce expensive hospital readmissions and lessen wasteful spending for double treatment or testing (The Commonwealth Fund). The U.S. Government has seen the need for change in order to reduce overall expenditure and provide health care to all citizens. Enaction of the ACA is an attempt to lift the burden of issues facing American healthcare. However, the ACA is not enough to fix the

Throughout recent history, tremendous improvements have been made to healthcare, greatly improving outcomes of patient care while also increasing the costs of such operations. Part of delivering quality care is, not only positive outcomes, but keeping the costs of these procedures at a price the patients who need them can afford. One huge factor in determining cost reduction in the healthcare system is the particular facility’s protocol and routine. Each healthcare facility has the opportunity to stress to its employees the need for individual efficiency and professionalism, including, but not limited to: cross training of employees, keeping all attention on the job during business hours, thorough and accurate paperwork, good communication/teamwork

The healthcare system plays a key role in the economic stability of our country, as every year trillions are spent in attempt to combat disease and health issues that plaque humanity. As it makes up a significant amount of the expenditures in the economy, so the costs associated with health care of those in pain from illness and injury, including lost productivity, increased need of assistance in living and also the cost of death in some cases, is important to the economic stability and over all standard of living in our country. The key to economic prosperity is balancing the need for care with the costs of illness to keep as many people healthy and well without breaking the bank of collective society. The costs of healthcare have been increasingly problematic in recent years with so many issues surrounding the current system. With the “total health care spending in the United States expected to reach $4.8 trillion in 2021, up from $2.6 trillion in 2010 and $75 billion in 1970, meaning that health care spending will account for nearly 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), or one-fifth of the U.S. economy, by 2021” (Aetna). With this in mind it is apparent that as we look at the trillion-dollar industry of the medical community it seems that it needs to be a major focus of our nation as a whole and with the many issues come many creative solutions. First let us analyze the reasons behind the current cost and the major problems facing this industry and than discus what