Awareness of Healthcare Financing Issues - Essay Example

"Awareness of Healthcare Financing Issues" is a brilliant example of a paper on the health system. Healthcare systems all over the world have been a significant part of the different world economies, which in most countries it's allocated quite a substantial amount of funding to ensure quality and affordable healthcare is available to everyone. The changes or developments in the healthcare system not only impact and affects the patients but also the medical caregivers who include, hospitals, clinics, doctors, and nurses. In the current and future, the health care systems have witnessed a lot of changes, especially in the health financing segment. The health care systems are financed through different channels depending on the various methods of different states or countries. Some countries adopt the insurance mode of payments, government payments and subsidies, or the investments from the private sector and also personal cash payments. Thus, nurses should know and be aware of the necessary information and knowledge about healthcare financing because its effects on the health care agencies will influence the decision-making and their welfare processes. The changes that entail reimbursements could significantly change the healthcare delivery and viability from what it is currently. There has been a need for nurses to have foundational knowledge and understand the economics, policy, and financing in the health care systems.

The following are suggestions that nurses should consider to be aware of the financial health care issues in their places of work.
Reimbursement is currently based on performance. In the past, the health care system was majorly based on the payment for service model. This involved paying for the health service after it has been given on a cash basis. The current model on reimbursement is focusing on the payment for performance model, which concentrates on rewarding the health care providers, hospitals, which have excellent outcomes and penalize the underperforming (Jameson, 2015). Therefore, nurses should be conversant with these changes that will affect their financial status.

The care delivery that is focusing on keeping patients out of the hospital. In the new passed Affordable Healthcare Act, the hospitals and providers of healthcare could be penalized if the patients treated are readmitted again within thirty days. This modern trend will affect reimbursement and could overall change healthcare from how we currently know it. This may affect the nurse’s employment and finance since most hospitals buy or hire nurses for their services. But due to this change, there will be a reduction in hospital capacities as healthcare will be shifted to community care due to the reimbursements.

The cost of healthcare is highly rising. Between the years 1999 and 2011, the healthcare expense rose to 76%, while in the current times the cost in the United States health exceeds other countries by a higher margin. One of the reasons being the health safety net. This is because many American citizens are unable to afford health insurance. They live with no preventive health care. Their safety net for many individuals is limited to emergency, high-cost care protected by the government regardless of their ability to pay.
The hospitals and providers of health receive more than half of the health payments. The hospital care for health is the single highest spending segment at 31%, while the clinical and providers stand at 21% (Sherman, 2012). Amazingly, when slashes are proposed, these significant segments of the society are focused on first.

Thus, these are significant contemporary issues that nurses should be aware of. However, the positive and most promising part is that the future is promising for them. Considering the health reforms and reimbursement changes, there will be new nursing opportunities and roles, especially as the focus is changed to holistic community-based care from acute care.