(Written Paper/Report)

“Current Health Services Administration (HSA) News Article/Trends in healthcare administration”.

Requirements: 

1. Choose current articles related to Health Services Administration (HSA) and or any article within the course required textbook. Your chosen article must be from a reputable source (journal article, newspaper, etc.) that has a date of publication. Your article  do not need to be  approved by the instructor, however, if you are not sure if the article you chose is acceptable notify the instructor via course email before the assignment is due. 

2. The article’s publication date should be from September of 2016 to the current date (this is supposed to be a current event). Do not use Wikipedia. Try to utilize FIU online Library for your article of choice.

3. You are expected to read and report on your article in a Three-Five (3-5) pages (Excluding title and reference pages). Assignment MUST BE typed assignment on a Microsoft Word Document. The following should be included in your assignment:

Assignment Layout

1. Introduction: Explain why you chose your article. 1 paragraph, (5-6 complete sentences)

2. Report content: Provide Summary of article and Explain how your article relates to Health Services Administration (HSA) and or any chapters within the course required textbook. If you choose a topic that we have not discussed in this course then you will need to do some extra reading and research. 1 paragraph, (5-6 complete sentences, each paragraph).

3. As a future Healthcare Administrator, discuss a major trend in healthcare administration for each of the following areas (Financing, Regulation and Provision). Be sure to state the trend, the effect, the reaction, and the results on healthcare providers, administrators and consumers.

4. Summary/Conclusion: Include your closing thoughts about the article and current trends in healthcare (e.g. How does this affect you as a future health administrator and/or your future patients/clients?).

• TWO references are required. Use the course textbook and or any credible resource, etc. as an additional reference for the background information in your summary. Cite your sources whenever paraphrasing or directly quoting someone else’s work. You should cite your article and at least one other source that you used for background information (in APA format).
• Provide a separate References page of the sources used for your current event summary (APA format).
• The assignment should be Three-Five (3-5) pages in length (excluding title and reference pages). This means that your article should have a sufficient amount of Health Services Administration (HSA) content in order to complete the assignment.
• The assignment must be written in complete sentences. Proper grammar, mechanics, spelling, and punctuation must be used throughout the summary.
• The assignment MUST BE typed out on a word document in APA format. Each paragraph should consist 5-6 complete sentences.  12 font size should be used, font names that should be used are Times New Roman or Cambria (not both), normal margins (no more than 1 inch), double spaced, indentation, etc.
• Include title page that consist of your name (First and Last), Panther ID number and title of the article (APA format).
• A link to your article should be submitted as a reference in proper APA format with your assignment on the day that it is due.

Runninghead: MAJOR HEALTH CARE PROBLEMS IN THE U.S. 1

Major Health Care Problems in the U.S.

Jane Doe

ID: 1212121

MAJOR HEALTH CARE PROBLEMS IN THE U.S. 2

Major Health Care Problems in the US

Problem statement: High and continuously rising cost of health care has been and still is one of

the biggest challenges affecting the Health Care system in United States.

Methods of Examining the Problem

Both qualitative and quantitative research methods should be used to fully understand the

issue of high cost of care in the US. Quantitative methods like surveys and experimentations will

aid in estimating the prevalence, magnitude and frequency of the problem in different regions.

On the other hand, qualitative methods like case studies and observation will help describe the

extent and complexity of the issue. The two approaches need to work in complementation to

obtain a clear understanding of this menace.

Surveys, as a quantitative research method, is one of the most effective in the social

research and present a more viable method of examining the cost of health in the country. They

involve asking of questions in the form of questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires are

written questions to which the response can be open ended or multiple-choice format. This

would be used to gain information about cost within determinants that are of

disagree/neutral/agree nature. An example is if patients are contented with the cost of services

they get or they deem the cost of cover worthy. Interviews, the researcher discussing issues with

the respondents, are to be used to gain more details on already known aspects of the system. This

may include gathering information to inform policies, administration and use of technology to

minimize the cost of care.

Since health cost in the US is not a new challenge and there have been studies about it,

qualitative methods like case studies would help in interrogate the multifaceted nature of the

MAJOR HEALTH CARE PROBLEMS IN THE U.S. 3

problem. This method would unearth and differentiate between perceptions and real-life

situations about the subject as they are carried out over a period of time. The method involves a

comprehensive study of the issues with the objective of finding the influencing factors and their

relationship.

Background Information

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),

the United States, compared to all the other countries, spends the most on healthcare. In the year

2002, as per Anderson, Hussey, Frogner and Waters, the US used up $5,267 per person in health

care which is $1,821 more than Switzerland which was the second highest spender on health

(2005). Research has shown that hospital stays, physician visits, and pharmaceuticals attract the

highest prices in the United States than any other country.

Although the country boasts of significant technological advancements in the treatment

of various diseases, these services are only available to those with big insurance plans. This has

resulted to hospitals shifting costs by charging those with small insurance plans more to

compensate for those uninsured and lower charges for the ones with large covers. A large

number of physicians per individual have not helped as they are unevenly distributed in both

specialty and geographically. Low-income areas especially those habited by the African

Americans have seen a continuous and consistent decrease in the number of primary care office-

based physicians.

Incentives in the form of finance have encouraged high-cost diagnosis, specialization,

and treatment. The ripple effect of this has been reduced primary health care (Cooper & Taylor,

1994). Care plans have also restricted the rights of a patient to choose their physicians and

MAJOR HEALTH CARE PROBLEMS IN THE U.S. 4

doctors to choose specialties, and the location and how to practice. This has resulted in

incentives, which encourage the development of new expensive drugs and high-tech methods of

treatment.

A high administrative overhead of 19 to 24 percent of all the other health costs is a

contributing factor to the high health care cost. As per the account of Cooper and Taylor,

marketing jobs and administrative jobs rose to 71 and 20 percent respectively between 1983 and

1989 while the clinical human capital rose negligibly (1994). This cost is attributable to the need

by the insurers and service providers to market themselves and staff to handle the huge

paperwork.

Rising cost of care has been fueled by the use of technologies like Electronic Health

Record (EHR) and Health Information Exchange (HIE). As much as these innovations have

bettered the quality of health care, they have also increased cost through their management in the

sense of data security and updating systems. Use of robotic surgical equipment has been adopted

rapidly in the country. Robotic technology has increased cost in that it is much more expensive

than manual surgical procedures.

The high cost of premiums and pre-existing conditions have seen many denied insurance

policies. The cost of premiums in the country rose by 5% in the year 2008. This can be attributed

to the great consolidation of the pharmaceutical and insurance industry. Sweeney says that in one

out of seven of the more than 300 U.S. markets within the metropolitan areas a single insurance

company (2012) covers 70% of the patients. This introduces partial monopoly, which affects the

prices of products and services negatively. Even though lifestyle disease like high blood pressure

and diabetes have been linked to the largest number of deaths in the country per year, health care

MAJOR HEALTH CARE PROBLEMS IN THE U.S. 5

delivery is more focused on medicine rather than dietary and lifestyle interventions (Sweeney,

2012). He adds that more than a third of illnesses in the country are due to smoking, poor

lifestyle practices and poor diet. This approach of medicinal care is more expensive compared to

preventive care.

Controversies of the Problem

As evident as the challenges of health care in the country are, controversies and

conflicting interests by parties have stood in the way of solving the problem. On one hand, there

are those who need care; they crave for more while on the other hand, there is the healthy

taxpayer who agitates for containment of the rising care cost. All the medics, leaders, and

professionals agree on the need for not only quantity, but also the quality of the care and high

remunerations. However, they cannot seem to agree on the best way to accomplish this. Care

provider employers and regulating bodies are also geared to slowing the rising cost, increase

accessibility and quality, but still diverge on the best approach to these issues. The insurance and

pharmaceutical companies are also fighting to increase their profit margins by selling more

(Kovner, Knickman & Jonas, 2011).

Impact of Affordable Care Act of 2010

The Affordable Care Act 2010 has gone a long way in improving quality, affordability

and access to health care. The insurance marketplace has seen a strong enrollment with more the

10 million American having an active cover. According to Health and Human Services (HHS)

department, 16.4 million of previously uninsured Americans have acquired plans through the

Medicaid growth, youths staying under parents’ plans up to 26 years old and the marketplace.

MAJOR HEALTH CARE PROBLEMS IN THE U.S. 6

This coverage has also been noticed in all the groupings with a 9.2 percent and 12.3 percent

decline in the rates of uninsured among the African Americans and Latinos respectively.

More than 10.2 million consumers had their premiums paid which is an indication of

affordable coverage. More insurers have joined the marketplace providing an increased number

of plans, and this competition and options are associated with premiums that are more modest.

Patient harms have reduced by 17 percent, which the HHS estimates, to savings of up to $12

(Affairs, 2015). Establishment of Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) has established that

one out of every fourteen Americans receive better care by creating better outcomes.

Solutions

Simplifying the health sector may go a long way in ensuring that the system is responsive

to the current problems and future challenges. For example, the government pays to care for the

uninsured through systems like Medicare, the Military, the Veterans Administration, Medicaid,

and others. All these plans have different criterions for eligibility, reimbursement, and benefits

making the system quite complicated (Sweeney, 2012). Instead of working to achieve the best

health care in the world, the professionals and leaders should refocus their attention to examining

and investigating the underlying aspects of training and system performance. The performance

indicators should be geared towards improving accessibility, quality, and quantity of care.

Portability of the coverage will also be vital in ensuring that citizens maintain their benefits

wherever they move. This calls for the examination of the employment-based insurance plans,

which are persistent in the country vis-a-vis the single payer system.

A universal system, which provides similar benefits to all citizens, may help solve the

high and rising cost of health in the US. Medicare plan is majorly designed for the elderly while

MAJOR HEALTH CARE PROBLEMS IN THE U.S. 7

Medicaid is focused on the children of the low-income earners. This disparity in programs

creates high overhead cost concerning administration and advertisement.

Recommendations

To understand the problem better more research needs to be carried out. We should focus

more on the management of chronic disease, which apparently accounts for more than two thirds

of all the health care cost in the country. The dictation of medics and nurses to treat clients as per

their insurance policies should be shifted to doctor’s best judgment. This will go a long way in

improving the quality and cost of care

MAJOR HEALTH CARE PROBLEMS IN THE U.S. 8

References

Anderson, G. F., Hussey, P. S., Frogner, B. K., & Waters, H. R. (2005). Health Spending In The

United States And The Rest Of The Industrialized World. Health Affairs , 24 (4), 903-

914, doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.24.4.903.

Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (2015, June 24). The Affordable Care Act is Working.

Retrieved October 2, 2013, from Health Care. U.S. Department of Health & Human

Services: http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts-and-features/fact-sheets/aca-is-

working/index.html

Cooper, E., & Taylor, L. (1994). Comparing Health Care Systems. God Medicine , 39, 35.

Kovner, A. R., Knickman, J. R., & Jonas, S. (2011). Jonas and Kovner’s Health Care Delivery in

the United States (10th ed.). New York: Springer Publishing Company.

Sweeney, S. (2012, May 29). 8 Major Problems of the U.S. Healthcare System. Retrieved

October 2, 2016, from Benefit Babble: http://www.benefitsbabble.com/8-major-

problems-healthcare-system/