Research Paper Healthcare Services And The Affordable
Furthermore, we will discuss the impact of this act has on he American society as a whole. The current paper is based on the research and analysis of the effects of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on a healthcare organization. It is the most comprehensive reform Of the U. S. Medical system in at least 45 years as its supports view it. It has a lot of impact on several demographic sections of the society. Apart from other legislations, the act has the ruling to extend the reach of the current health care insurance policy beneficiaries including bringing down the age limit.
Such legislation can have different effects on both employers and the employees. The paper tries to look into the matter from both secondary and primary research in an organization to find out how an organization is affected by the act and up to what extent. Introduction The Affordable Care Act is implemented with an objective of increasing the rate of health insurance coverage and the affordability of insurance by the residents of America. This had led to reduce the costs of health care for individuals, as well as, the government.
The Act offers many mechanisms, like mandates, subsidies and tax credits to both employers and individuals in order to increase the rate of insurance coverage and affordability. Under this Act, insurance companies are liable to cover all applicants within new minimum standards, and offer the same rates irrespective of any pre-existing conditions or gender. The recent legislative changes aim to provide an improved healthcare to the society. The act will certainly have some consequences to the healthcare services providing organizations in the industry.
Therefore, the further sections of the paper will try to find out and analyze the effects of the act on the health care organizations (U. S. Department of Health & Human Sciences, 2013). Background of the Affordable Care Act The current paper belongs to the healthcare cost containment as it is seen in EGG. The latest phase of reforms was brought by the Bipartisan Policy Centers Health Care Cost Containment Initiative, which was led by former Senate Majority Leaders, Tom Daschle and Bill First. The report addressed a number of health care related issues through its health system reforms.
The report talks about some new initiatives and reforms including a federal reinsurance mechanism. It brings into highlight the core issues and proposes certain recommendations based upon four key points. These are: structural Medicare reform, tax and regulatory reform, proportioning quality, prevention, and wellness and perusing delivery from the states’ end (Salaam, 2013). On the basis of this report, the government can plan to bring certain policy initiatives and certain legislative moves to implement the planned reforms in the health care sector.
The primary view is to make the health care sector more accountable and to curb the inflation in the sector. There have been certain legislative moves, such as Affordable Care Act and others that are in place to govern the health care practices. These require employers in the sector to comply with certain standards and requirements. This will certainly have an impact over the manner in which health care operations take place (Patrick, 2013). With this view, the current research paper tries to find out the impact which the legislation will have on organizations.
To look at how an individual organization will be affected from the legislation, the research study is conducted in a selected organization. Above we have talked about the Affordable Care Act, and its objectives and the effects of the Affordable Care Act on various departments of the country. A larger part of the country will fall under insurance coverage as a result of the recent legislative changes related to health. On this basis, now discussion on the health benefits that Americans will get with the implementation of this Act will be discussed under this section.
The Affordable Care Act Under the regulations of the act, the scholarships and loan repayment programs are funded by the Act with an objective of increasing the number of primary care physicians, nurses, physician assistants, mental health providers, and dentists in those areas Of the country that require them the cost. The Act aims to fight the shortage of nursing by using a comprehensive approach that focuses on the retention and enhanced educational opportunities. The Act, through new incentives and recruitment, would lead to an increased supply of public health professionals to prepare the United States for health emergencies.
The Act also offers flexibility to state and local government to come up with health workforce recruitment strategies. This has helped in expanding crucial and timely access to care by funding the expansion, construction, and operation of community health centers all cross the nation (U. S. Department of Health & Human Sciences, 2013). The Act will help to encourage wellness and public health at large by providing an exceptional funding commitment to the required areas. There will be a creation of national prevention and health promotion strategies that will incorporate the most effective and achievable methods.
The families will be empowered by providing them the tools to look for the best science-based nutrition information. This would make prevention and screenings a priority by waiving co-payments for American seniors on Medicare. Thus, the American health status will improve by reducing the occurrence of favorable illness and disability in the US (Medicaid, 2013). The citizens of the country with no insurance coverage will have the choice to select insurance coverage that works best for them in the fresh and competitive market.
The insurance exchange will empower Americans and offer them new affordable choices of private insurance plans that have to fight for their business based on the cost and quality. Though the choice of insurance coverage through this exchange will not be available to the small business owners, they will receive a new tax reedit to help making up for the cost incurred by covering employees (Medicaid, 2013). The Act would also ensure that there are no insurance industry abuses by ascertaining honest functioning of insurance companies.
The Act outlaws insurance company by refusing insurance coverage on the basis of pre-existing medical conditions of people. This gives consumers more power to appeal insurance companies’ decisions. We have discussed so far the positive aspects of the Act that will be favorable to American society. However, there is also a negative side of this Act that is being talked about. Critics have commented that the Act may lead to business uncertainty in the nation. Now, we will discuss the extent to which this Act impacts small and large businesses and employers of the country.
The act will bring a larger population under the coverage of health care policies. On the other hand, the Affordable Care Act (CA) has been characterized as a threat to the American business and to the survival of employer-based health insurance. It is criticized that the recent law requirements lead to the business uncertainty and delayed economic recovery. On the other hand, the objective analysis of he impact of the Act on coverage and costs show the opposite. It reveals that the Act’s requirements have an insignificant impact on the total employer- sponsored coverage and its costs (Plumber, Buttress, Feeder & Holman, 2012).
The law may somehow prove to be a burden for small businesses. According to this Act, employers with less than fifty workers are exempted from all kinds of penalties associated with offering the insurance coverage. In contrast to this, with effect from 2014, employers with 25 or lesser employees and average pay of 550,000 or less are eligible for two years, for tax credits award premiums for coverage if they desire. The employers with less than ten employees and an average wage of $25,000 or less are eligible for the full credit (Plumber, Buttress, Feeder & Holman, 2012).
It has been criticized that the credit may not be favorable for many small employers. However, the credit is aimed at those employers, who have been unlikely to offer coverage and whose coverage offerings have excluded the most in the recent past. In order to conduct any research, it is important that the correct methods are selected for fulfilling the objectives of the topic under study. The following section will describe various methods, tools, approaches, etc. That have been used in this research paper. Also, the importance and reasons for the chosen methods be justified.
Research Methodology The section of methodology is a blueprint Of all the research methods and tools that have been used for the investigation and inquiry of the topic under study. It is important to select appropriate research methods for any topic to make it reliable and valid (Goddard & Melville 2004). The effect of the recent governmental legislation, its impact, and the resultant employees’ benefits as been analyzed using an appropriate methodology. There are two chief kinds of research approaches: deductive and inductive.
The inductive approach is based on a specific idea for the generalization of the situation according to the research topic while on the other hand; deductive research is based on the general idea to reach a specific conclusion. Thus, the above recent changes in the governmental legislation and their effects on the organization’s Strategy have been investigated using the inductive approach. Moreover, inductive approach is flexible in nature and requires no pre- determined theory to collect data and information.
Also, the approach favors higher accuracy, reliability and validity of the research (Gill and Phil 2010). With the help of this approach, the effects of legislative changes on health environment have been evaluated. The research designs are broadly divided into three categories: exploratory, descriptive and diagnostic research design. The exploratory research design is chosen over descriptive research when the problem is less structured. Exploratory research offers a better understanding of the situation. With the help of the exploratory research, hypotheses are produced about the given situation.
The most popular methods of research are: in-depth interviews, questionnaires, observations, documentation reviews, business analyses, and data collection. Thus, exploratory research has been used for the current paper as it is more flexible in nature and includes qualitative research techniques (Sigmund and Fabian 2007). The main focus of the paper is to investigate various changes in the recent governmental legislation and its consequential effects on the organization and employees. This paper has been thoroughly examined using the exploratory research.
Collection of Data Collection of data plays a significant role in any study or research as it decides the accuracy and validity of the study. The following discussion will be about the methods of the data collection used in the project of Healthcare Cost Containment in context of Environmental Working Group. It will also give the justification for the selected data collection method to enhance your knowledge. There are two methods for collecting a wide range of data: primary and secondary data collection. In order to collect the required information, both secondary, as well as, primary data collection have been one.
A larger portion of this research has been formed by using secondary data. Though the secondary data has a lesser validity, it still has a great importance. In situations, when obtaining primary data is difficult, the research topic makes the use of the secondary data. Sometimes, the topic is confined to the secondary data only when the primary data does not exist. The topic has been researched and investigated by making use of the available information about EGG in various journals, its own website, other online websites, etc.
Ewe’s different functions, key roles and objectives, main issues, future proposals and the past trend of working have been thoroughly investigated to prepare the research paper. Primary There is also a primary collection of data for qualitative analysis of the situation. Primary data is considered to be more reliable, authentic and objective as it has not been published yet. It also has a greater validity because primary data is unaltered and unchanged by human beings. Primary data makes the research more trustworthy and scientific as it adds to the validity of the study.
For the purpose of collection the primary information, the Environment Working Group (EGG) has been selected to conduct the duty. The Environmental Working Group has its presence in a wide array of products and services of consumer usage. It serves its customers in consumer durables, energy, farming, water, food and toxic. With all these, it tries to address the key environmental health issues of the country. All the people in the health care organization, whether from the top management or the nursing staff, play vital roles in the growth of the organization.
Similarly, the individuals and organizational practices are also affected from the new legislation or a change in the existing legislation. To learn about the possible manner in which the new legislation can affect the medical practices in a service organization working in the healthcare industry, two administrative officers from EGG were interviewed. They were asked about their opinions regarding the changes in the healthcare legislation. A list of questions was prepared beforehand and therefore, it was a structured interview method.
Administrative staff has been primarily chosen for the study because they are responsible for the whole administrative work and they understand the impact of legislation on their organizational strategies (Goddard & Melville, 004). Additionally, they possess a good amount of knowledge about the demographic changes in the workforce of their organization. So, they can better explain the consequences of the proposal of providing continued healthcare benefits to employees of the organization.
Thus, the use of both primary, as well as, secondary data has helped in better authenticity of the data obtained for the desired purpose. While conducting the research, ethical issues are considered. The information used from secondary sources has not been copied directly to avoid plagiarism in any form, though there is an accurate credit given to the related sources. The selection of the sample of two administrative officers has been done without any personal biasness. Also, the personal information of employees is kept anonymous while analyzing the data (Miller, Birch, Mouthier and Aesop 2012).
There has been no use of force to get responses from the administrative staff. Moving towards, this section will emphasis on the Environmental Working Group, the mission of the organization and its key objectives. This is because health has been one of the most important concerns in the contemporary world. Secondary The federal government of the United States spends the biggest share of its GAP on health care as compared to many other developed countries. Still, there are millions of Americans, who face uncoordinated and costly medical care.
Given the downturn in the economy and other developments in the industry, the health care spending is expected to continue in the near future. This is to cover up the fiscal deficit of the government. These recent developments have raised the health care cost inflation. The health care cost containment and medical innovation have been the needs that have been long overdue in the country. The federal government has taken several factors into consideration that include both the demand factors and the supply factors.
Since the last two decades, the government has initiated several reforms in the healthcare sector and the latest phase of reforms was launched in August, 2012. The Environmental Working Group The Environmental Working Group is one of the fastest ruling environmental health research and advocacy organizations. The organization aims to act as a supervisor to ensure that Americans benefit from the healthier environment by providing them with the correct facts and information regarding the health issues. Thus, EGG focuses on creating a forward-looking research and advocacy that transform governmental policies and the market.
This helps in the conversation of land and water, production and use of energy in a responsible manner, and ensuring that food and consumer products do not contain any unsafe chemicals. The organization inspects the government subsidies that promote inefficient practices, and supports policies that encourage the management of the land and natural resources (Environmental Working Group, 2013). The objective of the organization is to create a healthier and cleaner environment for the next generation and ended with the help of people at large and with the help of the partnered organizations.
Once a year, EGG publishes its “Dirty Dozen” wherein there is a list of foods given that have the highest pesticide residue. The EGG also publishes the “Clean 1 5” that lists the foods with minimum pesticide residue. It is recommended by the EGG that consumers search for organically produced varieties of the products. The three main policy or issue areas on which EGG works are: toxic chemicals and human health; farming and agricultural subsidies; and public lands and natural resources. The largest Ochs of EGG is the reform of Toxic Substances Control Act (ATSC).
There were around 62,000 chemicals that were declared safe when the Act was passed. However, there was little data to support this policy. Since then, though there is no data to ensure the safety, many chemicals have been used into commercial circulation in the US. In order to assure that infants, kids, and other vulnerable groups are safe, EGG has been endeavoring to pass the Kid- Safe Chemical Act (Environmental Working Group, 2013). This would make it necessary for industrial chemicals to be safe for the afore-mentioned groups.
A majority of funding to the organization is contributed by foundations and the remaining comes from individuals, small sales, consulting for other organizations, etc. The next section brings out the information gathered from the primary study. It is significant as the primary sources are believed to be more reliable. For primary study, the officials from EGG were interviewed and they shared their experiences and viewpoints on how the CA will be going to affect them. Primary Survey For primary survey, two of the officials were interviewed regarding the viewpoint of their organization on the proposed legislation I. The Affordable Care Act. They shared their experiences regarding their association with the organization, the functioning of daily operations in the organization and how to cope up with the requirements of the Act. As the Act requires certain standards and procedures to be followed by the employers, the officials discussed their work under the new norms. Below are the details of questions asked and their responses from the associated official of EGG. Questions and Answers Q 1. How do you think the new Act will be going to affect the access to the health care? NAS.
The primary objective of our organization I. E. EGG is to provide the patients with an increased access to healthcare, which is affordable and of enhanced quality relating to the objective of the healthcare reform. As the federal administration suggests, the new Act will ensure an increased access of healthcare to a larger population than earlier. However, it has certain mandatory requirements for employers like us and therefore, it will put additional burden on them. Q 2. Does the new affordable Act under the healthcare reform include provisions for education or medical training?
NAS. The health care reform bill targets the education, especially the nursing education heavily. It also includes various grants given by the federal government that are targeted at associate, baccalaureate and advanced education in healthcare. Q 3. What are your issues regarding the Act brought by the government? NAS. As it is known to all, the Affordable Care Act governs the coverage of healthcare policies by various employers. It expands the reach of coverage to those not having any easy access to them.
While the move is forward looking from the government’s point of view, it seems that it is in a hurry to bring it in place. This will affect the employers as they will not eave enough time to update their health care coverage systems. Any technical complexity may result in non-compliance with the requirements and the employer may face arbitrary punishment. Q 4. Are you satisfied with the delay declared by the government to imply the Act? NAS. Yes, the administration has taken a positive step in shifting away the date from where the provisions mentioned in the Act will come into existence.
As the date is shifted to somewhere in 2014, this will help employers to make the necessary updates and other arrangements to function according to the provisions of he Act. Q 5. What according to you are the causes of concern in the Act? NAS. The government has widened the area covered by the health care insurance and in several plans; it has included the relatives of the targeted insured person. The Act also includes children and youth under 26 to be a part of the coverage policy. However, it does not explain much on what should be the mechanism for employers covering their employees or customers to save losses.
The next section is about finding and analysis. Each set of data or information gathered from various sources whether primary or secondary rings out certain findings. This will help in completing the relevance of the research and assist the researcher in making any recommendations or other decisions. Findings from the collection Of information and data The Affordable Care Act has been brought primarily to uplift the status of coverage of the healthcare insurance policies for the section, which finds it hard to access them.
It requires employers to comply with certain legislative demands. As it was already assumed, the Act has faced more criticism than complements because of being harsh on employers. There are both porters and opponents of the Act. The supporters applauded the Act and the administration for the mandate to provide coverage to the actual needy people, who need access to the quality health care. They say that the Act has the requirement for certain businesses to provide healthcare coverage to the full time employees.
However, there are opponents of the Act, who view it as much of a regressive Act rather than a reformist. Their arguments are regarding the interests of employers, who find the Act as a barrier for both existing and new entries in the industry. Many employers may plan to shut own and leave the industry. A larger section among those opposing the Act includes the health insurance or other employers in the related industry. Their view is that the government wants to put additional burden on them as they have to bear costs of including more people in their health policies.
Everyone accepts the fact that there is a critical need in the country to bring the real healthcare reforms. The reforms should be as such to improve access to affordable health care services and health insurance to those, who have not utilized it so far comfortably. The real reform should protect individuals ND families from the risk of catastrophic health care expenses. But the problem occurs when there is conflict of interests, where the community of health care businesses feels that the government’s move to initiate such Act as CA is only one sided.
All those from business class feel that this will put extra load on them and they will have to fight a lot to strive in the market. On the other hand, there are those who criticize the policy for not being in favor of the real reforms. As Paul Howard (201 1) has highlighted, the job of the reformist policies by the government is to bring down the unsustainable rate f health care cost, providing health care opportunities to all and creating better incentives for those providing the healthcare services.
According to Paul, the incidences, such as job lock can be reduced by creating truly portable individual health insurance policies. It can also encourage entrepreneurship and allow employees to change jobs without the fear of the loss of valuable health insurance (Howard, 2011). The employers can also be helpful in shifting scarce capital to other resources or business operations that are critical through slowing down the rate of the insurance premium Roth. These operations include job creation or compensation for employees.
Until there is a significant health care reform, rising employer health insurance premiums will hit the business capital and profits hard and bring down the take home salary of employees. There are others, like Grubber (2011 who feel in the same manner. According to them, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act do not provide the complete solution to the country’s current health care situation. This is so as the Act nearly doubles down on certain key aspects of the healthcare industry and the economy. It ads pressures and problems that serve as added economic challenges (Grubber, 2011).
