Nurse Leader as Economist
Research current healthcare financing concerns prevalent in the United States.
Reflect on these or any other healthcare financing concerns that you have observed and/or that your healthcare organization currently experiences.
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Consider how these concerns relate to fundamental issues of economics, such as “price,” “supply vs. demand,” “scarcity of resources,” or “needs and wants.”
Consider how these concerns relate to the healthcare product or service solution you have proposed for your organization. Nurse Leader as Economist.
Post an explanation of what you believe to be the three most important healthcare financing concerns in the United States today. Be specific and provide examples. Then, explain how these three concerns relate to fundamental economic issues, such as “price,” “supply vs. demand,” etc. Explain how any of these concerns relate to the healthcare product or service solution you have proposed for your healthcare organization in Module 1. Nurse Leader as Economist
Healthcare Financing Issues from the Viewpoint of the Nurse Leader: An Economic Perspective
Like in other countries, the United States also experiences issues to do with healthcare financing. This is in contrast with what many may believe since the United States is considered superior in terms of its gross domestic product (GDP). Three of these healthcare financing issues include the return on investment (ROI) of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the cost of retraining healthcare employees in terms of scarcity of resources, and healthcare product pricing given the location of a healthcare organization (Nunn et al., 2020) Nurse Leader as Economist.
When the ACA was signed into law it expressly sought to shift the focus of universal healthcare from quantity to quality. This was to be achieved through a set of measures and regulations in the law. Several years down the line, the return on investment of this policy decision is evident as more Americans are benefiting from the coverage by getting quality care (Cai et al., 2020).
Retraining of healthcare employees is an expense that many healthcare organizations find hard to avoid. However, this is a necessity now with the emergence of novel healthcare technologies that require nurses and other healthcare staff to upskill. In all organizations, financial resources are scarce. This means that budgeting for such an expense is normally not an easy task, even though the ROI is desirable (MedCognition, 2019). Nurse Leader as Economist
Lastly, healthcare organizations just like hotels make a choice about location based on the purchasing power of the expected clientele in its locality. This is a pricing strategy that is tied to the calibre of services the institution expects to offer. The strategy also factors in the matter of demand and supply through the carrying out market research to establish demand (Dawson, 2019).
As a solution to the cost of upskilling staff, for instance, organizations should incorporate a training fund into its strategic plan as a policy directive. Nurse Leader as Economist. This would remove the fiscal difficulty of always trying to look for areas of surplus to get funding.
References
Cai, C., Runte, J., Ostrer, I., Berry, K., Ponce, N., Rodriguez, M…. & Hahn, J.G. (2020). Projected costs of single-payer healthcare financing in the United States: A systematic review of economic analyses. PLoS Med 17(1): e1003013. https://doi.org/ 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003013
Corney, M. (2009). Funding upskilling and reskilling in the 21st century: From personal pension accounts to personal skill accounts. Retrieved 12 March 2020 from https://www.educationdevelopmenttrust.com/EducationDevelopmentTrust/files/b9/b94f7c82-d2c2-427d-badc-fde4612a2aa0.pdf
Dawson, T. (April 1, 2019). What can we learn from healthcare pricing strategies? Price Intelligently. Retrieved 12 March 22 from https://www.priceintelligently.com/blog/bid/184103/3-Pricing-Strategy-Takeaways-From-Consumer-Driven-Healthcare
MedCognition (October 23, 2019). Healthcare employee training: What’s it really costing us? Retrieved 12 March 2020 from https://www.medcognition.com/blog/healthcare-employee-training-whats-it-really-costing-us
Nunn, R., Parsons, J. & Shambaugh, J. (March 10, 2020). A dozen facts about the economics of the US healthcare system. Retrieved 12 March 2020 from https://www.brookings.edu/research/a-dozen-facts-about-the-economics-of-the-u-s-health-care-system/ Nurse Leader as Economist