Based on the information presented in this paper, EHRs can be beneficial to the healthcare industry by saving money and reducing errors but also can benefit the patient by having the doctors and hospitals they go to be more efficient, convenient, and allows the caregiver to spend more time with the patient instead of updating paperwork. With the ease of new software in development, healthcare facilities will train properly and quickly so they are not losing focus on the patient. Cost may be a major factor now why the healthcare industry has not already embraced this technology but that will soon change with the new incentive programs coming in the near future. By 2014, these incentives will be in place and the healthcare industry will grow in the 21st
Pay for performance, also referred to as incentive pay or P4P incentive programs are designed to overcome the limitations of current reimbursement arrangements by aligning financial reward with improved outcomes. These idioms pertain to health care payment systems that reward health care providers for their efficiency. Under the current mode of operation, providers are paid for each service performed, giving our health care providers the financial enticement to perform as many services as they possibly can. This can possibly lead to abuse in over prescribing medication and ordering unnecessary testing. By adopting a pay for performance stance on impacting the preventative side of health care, a substantial savings in rising health care costs may be met.
Although the growing importance of these social value judgments may be acknowledged, we must not neglect individual patient values (Moore 2010). However, in daily practice, it is doctors who may incorporate these factors in their clinical decisions. Doctors make therapeutic decisions based on the available information for average patients, but they are aware that, sometimes, individual patient values may modify these decisions (Moore 2010). Patients may refuse a cancer treatment that is backed by clinical trial evidence and has positive cost-effectiveness, simply because they are reluctant to suffer the side effects of the therapy, or they may prefer avoiding an inconvenient preventive intervention because they are willing to take the bigger risk of getting the disease, or suffering the complication that the intervention sought to prevent (Moore 2010). Just as the scientific value judgments of organizations should be individualized for each patient by the doctor, social value judgments should be put within the perspective of individual value judgments (Moore 2010).
For example, if a market is saturated with an increased number of neurosurgeons, then each individual neurosurgical office will have a decreased demand for their services. While some healthcare providers will offer incentives for use of their services, such as discounted rates or contracts with insurance companies, this could assist in increasing the demand for that practice. Getzen (2007) surmises that the demand curve for medical care seeks to answer the following questions: “Given that there is not enough for everyone to have all that they need, how can optimal decisions be made? Who should get treated? How should resources used for medical care vary across groups?” (p. 25).
Although the initial cost of implementing the use of electronic files is significant, the US government will offer incentives to change to electronic records within the health care system. I. The effect on financial decision-making processes in technological advances A. Challenges 1. Outdated provisions of investments.
The programs tend to be geared toward patients with “high-cost conditions – including chronic conditions (such as diabetes, asthma, coronary artery disease, or congestive heart failure) and acute conditions (such as heart attack and hip and knee replacements)” (Mathematica, 2009, pg. 3). While applying emphasis on wellness and drives for positive outcomes, using technologies such as electronic medical records and computerized and systematic methods, will help provide improvement toward patient health outcomes. The goal for providers under pay-for-performance methodologies is to use “financial incentives to encourage improvements in the quality of care by rewarding providers that perform well on measures representing recommended services and practice modifications (e.g., implementing electronic medical records)” (Mathematica, 2013, pg. 3).
The insurance companies, pharmacies, and providers should help by lowering their costs so universal health care can have a chance for everyone in the country, not just Massachusetts. Keeping costs lower will make it affordable for their residents. The problem is, if the insurance costs do not lower, the middle class are the ones that will suffer the most. Massachusetts has said that low-income families will be subsidized. The wealthy will not have a problem paying high insurance premiums.
The Obama Care act is an act to beneficiate doctors and insurance companies by rewarding them. For example in an article named, “Top 10 Pros and Cons”, one of the pros says the following, “… Medicare will reward quality not quantity; thus, bonus payments will be given to those doctors and hospitals that provide good quality care” (2).This is saying that this act is opening the door to hospitals and doctors “to take care of their patients well” in order to earn the incentives from the insurance companies. Insurance companies also benefit because it means more advertisement because of the fact that they can blind people by promoting the best care of their doctors. This act can also deprive people from the doctors or insurance they are used to because they may not meet the criteria that the act wants. An example is from the “Top 10 Pros and Cons”, which says, “According to the experts,
For example, managed care providers emphasize on keeping enrollees healthy to reduce use of services and financial incentives for enrollees to use providers and procedures associated with the plan. All these can compromise the quality of healthcare provided to members. On the micro-level, managed care has changed healthcare delivery by enforcing measures aimed at reducing cost. For example, pay for performance (P4P) is a toll used in the U.S. to improve efficiency in healthcare systems by rewarding health care providers for following certain procedures. Such systems could compromise the quality of
I am not saying that the bill will not work or that it is not needed, I just believe that more effort and thought should have gone into the proposed plan and what implications it has on all involved before trying to go live with coverage. I guess like everything else, time will tell the overall effectiveness and benefit of Obama Care and will show if it has made us better and more compassionate for those who are less fortunate or has had the opposite effect and has done more damage than good to an already unstable health care industry. References Bailey, L. (2008). Obama and McCain on Health Care Reform. Business & Economic Review, 55(1), 24-29.