Healthcare Programs - Article Example

The Commission provided recommendations that these differences in the healthcare costs should be reduced by creating policies which would employ the same amount of payment for utilization of healthcare services in the hospital as well as in the private offices of the doctors (Pear 2013). The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is comprised of 17 members who reached to a consensus that alterations should be made to the current Medicare payment plans. This was in line with the fact that costs that have to be currently paid by Medicare to a doctor in his office for a visit of minutes is fifty dollars whereas this cost is increased to almost ninety nine dollars in the hospital outpatient department.

Not only this, the price that has to be paid by the patient also increases from fourteen and a half dollars in the doctor’s office to approximately twenty five dollars in the outpatient department. This is also true of medical tests for which Medicare as well as the patient has to pay higher costs in the hospitals in comparison to the physicians’ offices. . The article also explains that the Medicare Program has promoted the combined working of the hospitals and private offices of doctors for cutting down the costs.

It is also indicated that this decision is not being welcomed by hospitals. Joanna Kim who is the vice president of the American Hospital Association has expressed her opinion by saying that these decisions would affect the functioning of the hospitals as they are already paid less by Medicare and such stands would affect the operations of the hospitals. Despite of this, the committee recommends that measures should be taken to reduce the burden on the healthcare programs for the betterment of the government as well as the common man.

The article provides suggestions of reforms for the healthcare sector and it explains of ways in which the total expenditure that is provided by the healthcare programs for the people is reduced for cost affectivity. This saved money can be employed for other benefits for the customers and used for providing better healthcare services and options rather than paying a greater sum of money for services which can be availed at lower costs. The article sheds light on the fact that laws should be implemented for regulating the costs that are paid to the hospitals for the improvement of the healthcare sector.

The business community should learn from such recommendations provided by experts and employers should opt for the best insurance policies for their employees which are cost effective. Healthcare programs which mainly provide cover for visits to doctors in private offices and tests in these setups should be opted for. This is because these would prove to be cheaper in terms of cost. The