Question
Using the readings, discuss the impact of Federal and State legal trends on our healthcare system. What is the impact of these same legal trends for you as a consumer of healthcare?
Solution
Impacts of Federal and State legal Trends on Health Care System
- Using the readings, discuss the impact of Federal and State legal trends on our healthcare system.
The trends in the statutory laws have a significant effect on the health care industry. It sets a framework where issues occurring in the health care industry can be corrected. The three current trends of the health care system in federal and states legal policies are: CMS regulatory initiatives, health care reform, and deficit-reduction strategies. The policies are meant to lower health care costs for the consumers, enhance quality and innovation in the health care system, as well as bolster both personal health care and public health infrastructure and workforce.
President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law in the spring of 2010. The main focus of the Act was to offer affordable health care to all Americans, as well as reduce the ever-escalating cost of healthcare while promoting quality of care delivery, increasing access, and improving health care efficiency of fragmented and complex patient-care effort (Mayer et al., 2018). The health care reform provides the stakeholders with a wide range of opportunities in the future, although there exist some challenges in their current business model. The ACA-mandate initiative offers clinicians and pharmacists an opportunity to broaden their scope of practice and their roles in health care teams.
- What is the impact of these same legal trends for you as a consumer of healthcare?
The CMS regulatory initiatives enacted changes meant to improve Medicaid. The requests reduced spending for both the elderly and the indigent. The reductions focus on prescription reimbursements, various ancillary services, and restricts the admission to LTC facilities. As a consumer, I have found the Center for Medicare & Medical Innovation (CMMI) to encourage collaborative initiatives with various stakeholders in healthcare to achieve improved health outcomes, better health care at a lower cost. Therefore, the legal trends such as deficit-reduction strategies, health care reforms, and CMS regulatory initiatives continue to affect the consumer’s payment plans since I am required to pay more to cater for out-of-pocket expenses, as well as a premium.
Reference
Mayer, M., Kenter, R. C., Morris, J. C., & Lucero, L. (2018). State implementation of the affordable care act: four case studies. Politics & Policy, 46(2), 295-319. https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12245