- 01/01/2013
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
Today, the problem of saving costs in the health care system and cutting health care costs for patients and health care system is one of the major challenges to the national healthcare system. In actuality, health care costs are skyrocketing that makes health care services unavailable for a considerable part of the population. In such a situation, even the insurance does not always work because it fails to cover the rising health care costs or, to put it more precisely, patients simply cannot afford insurance when health care costs are rising constantly and at a high pace. Therefore, the need to cut health care costs is obvious and, in this regard, it is possible to focus on three solutions, including making health a community effort, getting patients to take their medicine, and to use insurance to manage chronic disease, which are effective ways to cut health care costs without affecting the quality of health care services and even improving it.
First of all, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that the modern health care system is ineffective because of the lack of the community support. At the same time, the lack of cooperation between health care professionals and local communities increase health care costs consistently. Therefore, making health a community effort will help to reduce health care costs consistently. What is meant here is the fact that the modern health care system focuses on the treatment of health problems in patients but it fails to prevent the development of health problems in patients. The prevention of the development of health care problems in patients can reduce substantially costs of health care services because the treatment of a disease is consistently higher than prevention. In such a situation, the health care system or health care professionals alone cannot prevent the development of various health problems in patients. Instead, they need the assistance from the part of community. The health care organization I am currently working in develops close relationships with communities through organizing conferences and special events when community members can listen to reports of our health care professionals on widely-spread health problems and ways of their prevention. In addition, our health care professionals are involved in community activities as they go to the community and provide basic health care services, such as measuring blood pressure to all people who are willing to do it.
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In this respect, the community should pay more attention to the improvement of the public health. For instance, the community should focus on the minimization of the negative impact of the environment on community members health that may occur through strict community control over the environmental situation and development of environmentally friendly policies within the community. Health care professionals, in their turn, should promote the concept of the healthy lifestyle and convince their patients to take care of their health. At this point, the community should help health care professionals through the organization of training courses or educational programs for community members. Health care organizations should develop their public relations and stimulate health care professionals to develop positive relationships with local communities. As a result, the public health will improve, people will be more aware of risks to their health, and they will lead a healthier lifestyle than they do today that will lead to the overall reduction of health problems and, thus, to the drop of health care costs.
At the same time, the minimization of health care costs is possible not only at the stage of the prevention of health problems but also at the stage of treatment of health problems as well. In this regard, the cooperation between health care professionals and communities is still important but what is more important is the close interaction between health care professionals and patients. Health care professionals should get patients to take their medicine properly that can reduce health care costs substantially. At this point, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that many patients tend to take medicines without prescription and, even when they get a prescription, they do not always get their medicines properly. In such a situation, several risks arise. In this regard, our health care organization spread leaflets among our patients, where they get detailed information on importance of consultations with their doctors, when they are going to take any medicine.
First, the effectiveness of treatment decreases and patients need to spend more time and money on the treatment of the disease. Second, new risks to the health of patients emerge because mistreatment and inappropriate use of medicines threatens to the health of patients. As a result, patients may need additional treatment or, what is more, patients can get new health problems in the result of the inappropriate use of medicines. In such a situation, the close interaction between health care professionals and patients is crucial. Health care professionals should provide patients with accurate and detailed information on the treatment and use of medicines. Patients should be aware of possible risks of inappropriate use of medicines and they should get the supervision from the part of health care professionals, who can consult patients and provide them any information they need. In this regard, health care organizations should develop their information and telecommunication systems to provide patients with the possibility to contact their physicians any time they need their assistance, whereas health care professionals should get the opportunity to monitor and control the treatment and the current conditions of patients’ health. In such a way, health care organizations can cut costs of health care services through the improvement of the quality of health care services and patients’ treatment.
Furthermore, the use insurance to manage chronic diseases can be another effective tool to save health care costs and reduce spending of patients on their health care services. In actuality, many health care organizations are not willing to provide their patients with insurance to manage chronic diseases, whereas some insurance agencies provide patients with such a possibility but such health insurance is extremely costly and a few patients can afford it. Therefore, today, policy makers and the health care system should stimulate insurance agencies to introduce insurance to manage chronic diseases. In this respect, the state can cover a part of health care costs spent by health care organizations on the treatment of chronic diseases of patients. The state can use direct financial aid, such as funding of the treatment of patients with chronic diseases in health care organizations, and indirect financial aid, through easing the fiscal pressure on insurance agencies offering clients insurance to manage chronic diseases. In such a way, health care costs will decrease because the treatment of chronic diseases will be more effective and patients will be able to afford management and treatment of their chronic diseases. Our health care organization recommends our patients to have insurance because insurance covers health care costs and makes health care services available to patients. We remind patients that if they cannot afford insurance they can use Medicaid or Medicare programs.
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that the reduction of health care costs is crucial for the improvement of the modern health care system. Moreover, the reduction of health care costs is essential for the provision of patients with equal and sufficient access to health care services and to get the proper treatment. In this regard, the community involvement in the health care system, close interaction between patients and health care professionals to make patients taking medicine properly, and the use of insurance to manage chronic diseases are some of the most effective ways to cut health care costs.
References
Deprez, E.E. et al. Business Week
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