**Assignment: In a well-organized, focused essay, consider the importance of a financial issue in healthcare policy and its impact on the future of healthcare in the United States. Integrate at least three other sources from peer reviewed academic journals using APA editorial style.  

**Length Requirement: 5 to 7 pages

**Format: This assignment should be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 pt. font. Papers should have 1-inch margins. You must use proper APA citation. Please use Times New Roman, 12” font, double-spaced. A separate “Reference” page is required as per APA editorial style guide. Make sure to include a cover page and running head as per APA style.  Organization of your essay is important. In general, have a clear organizational plan; develop points with evidence and details in a coherent, logical, and non-repetitious way; and avoid frequent or serious errors in grammar, mechanics, word choice, and sentence structure.

Examples of topics include: Some example of top challenges for healthcare finance in 2020 as identified by https://hitconsultant.net/2019/09/13/top-10-challenges-issues-and-opportunities-healthcare-executives-willface-in-2020/#.Xh0aglNKi1s: 

1. Costs & Transparency – Implementing strategies and tactics to address the growth of medical and pharmaceutical costs and impacts to access and quality of care. 

2. Consumer Experience – Understanding, addressing and assuring that all consumer interactions and outcomes are easy, convenient, timely, streamlined, and cohesive so that health fits naturally into the “life flow” of every individual’s, family’s, and community’s daily activities. 

3. Delivery System Transformation – Operationalizing and scaling coordination and delivery system transformation of medical and non-medical services via partnerships and collaborations between healthcare and community-based organizations to overcome barriers including social determinants of health to effect better outcomes. 

4. Data & Analytics – Leveraging advanced analytics and new sources of data (history, labs, Rx, sensors, mHealth, IoT, Socioeconomic, geographic, genomic, demographic, lifestyle behaviors) to improve health outcomes, reduce administrative burdens and support transition from volume to value and facilitate individual/provider/payer effectiveness. 

5. Interoperability / Consumer Data Access – Integrating and improving the exchange of member, payer, patient, provider data and workflows to bring value of aggregated data and systems (EHR’s, HIE’s, financial, admin and clinical data, etc) on a near real-time and cost-effective basis to all stakeholders equitably. 

6. Holistic Individual Health – Identifying, addressing and improving the member/patient’s overall medical, lifestyle/behavioral, socioeconomic, cultural, financial, educational, geographic and environmental well-being for a frictionless and connected healthcare experience.

 7. Next Generation Payment Models – Developing and integrating technical and operational infrastructure and programs for a more collaborative and equitable approach to manage costs, sharing risk and enhanced quality outcomes in the transition from volume to value. (bundled payment, episodes of care, shared savings, risksharing, etc.) 

8. Accessible Points of Care – Telehealth, mHealth, wearables, digital devices, retail clinics, home-based care, micro-hospitals; and acceptance of these and other initiatives moving care closer to home and office. 

9. Healthcare Policy – Dealing with repeal/replace/modification of current healthcare policy, regulations, political uncertainty/antagonism and lack of a disciplined regulatory process. Medicare-for-All, single-payer, Medicare/Medicaid buy-in, block grants, surprise billing, provider directories, association health plans, and short-term policies, FHIR standards, and other mandates.