The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act require that hospitals stabilize and treat patients in the emergency department regardless the patient’s ability to pay or their insurance status. The Act’s main intent was to prevent the dumping of uninsured patients to public hospital without offering any care. According to the Act, a hospital should provide emergency care to a patient and only transfer the patient to another hospital once the patient is stable. In the situation, the friend had a serious medical emergency; therefore, the hospital was supposed to provide emergency services even in the absence of an insurance card. The hospitals decision to transfer the patient was a violation of the EMTALA. Before any transfer, the hospital should have provided emergency treatment; therefore, stabilizing the patient (American College of Emergency Physicians). Such a violation from the hospital may result in fines against physicians and the hospital as well as litigation.
Discussion Questions
What is the Flexner Report? How did it affect health care in the United States?
The twentieth century saw the greatest change in medical education; therefore resulting in modern medical education. A major reason behind these changes was a report published by Abraham Flexner in 1910. The report referred to as the Flexner report criticized medical education schools in North America as a business that aimed at making profits other than delivering education. The report also provided suggestions including implementing a more practical curriculum. The report resulted in the changing of the medical curriculum as well as the closure of several medical schools. Because of the curriculum changes the quality of medical education improved to a more practical approach; therefore, an overall improvement of the health care in the United States.
What are the Healthy People report initiative? Describe three current initiatives.
The Healthy People Initiative is an all-inclusive set of objectives and goals aimed at promoting health care as well as eliminating disparities within health care over a period of ten years (FDA). The current generation of the initiative is the Healthy People 2020 and contains initiatives meant to improve health care between 2010 and 2020. One of the initiatives in the latest generation of the report is the improvement of adolescents and young adults’ health safety and well-being. The initiative aims at reducing issues of suicide, motor vehicle accidents due to issues of drunk driving, smoking, among other health issues. Another initiative aims at preventing, and reducing any infections that may result from medical procedures including surgery and blood transfusion. Another initiative is the prevention of illnesses and disabilities that may result from blood disorders. This initiative involves the implementation of blood safety strategies to ensure zero percent infections.
Why was health insurance developed? What was Kaiser’s role in this?
. The improvement in health care resulted in increased cost of medical care, which in turn resulted in people only visiting hospitals in case of life-threatening illnesses. The need to increase the number of people visiting hospitals resulted in the establishment of a system in which people would pay a certain amount once a month. In the case of any medical issue, the company to which the payments were made would cater for the hospital bill. During the great depression, various healthcare organizations were established with the aim of treating individuals in different professions. One such organization was the Kaiser Permanente and aimed at treating injured and sick workers. Issues of payment resulted in the establishment of a prepayment system; where insurance companies made early payments to the doctor. The prepayment system resulted in more individuals going to the hospital; therefore, the birth of health insurance.
Describe how the Iron Triangle can be used to assess health care.
The Iron Triangle provides a mechanism for assessing and evaluating any health care system. The iron triangle assesses health care from three main elements, which are quality, cost, and access. According to the triangle, any health care system is only able to achieve two of the three elements. Through the triangle, one can understand that provision of high quality and accessible health care involves high cost. In assessing health care, one considers the impact of the three elements on each other, and in turn on health care.
What is the Patient Bill of Rights? Why was it developed? Where is the Patient Bill of Rights posted?
The Patient Bill of Rights in documents that inform patients on what to expect when visiting the hospital. Development of the patient bill of rights came with the aim of meeting three major goals, which were 1. Promote confidence in the US health care system, 2. Build strong relationships with patients and health care providers, and 3. Stress on the patient's role in staying healthy. The patients’ bill of rights is posted in hospitals and health care facilities.
American Health Benefit Exchange: The American Health Benefit Exchange are entities in every state that aim at creating an organized and competitive health insurance market through the establishment of common rules and offering of health plan choices.
Community First Choice: Community first Choice is a federal program that enables states to provide community and home-based services to recipients of Medicaid, who have disabilities. To ensure delivery of these services, the federal government offers a six percent increase in Medicaid funds.
Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan: A consumer operated and oriented plan is a program established by the Affordable Care Act and aims at promoting the creation of nonprofit qualified health insurance provider to provide competitive health care plans to small groups and individual markets.
Elder Justice Act: The Elder Justice Act is a law established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The law aims at protecting elderly patients from any abuse, exploitation or neglect. Through the Act, the government has established awareness programs meant in ensuring senior citizens understand their rights.
Independent Payment Advisory Board: The independent payment advisory board is a fifteen-member committee that extends Medicare affluence as well as ensure a reduced spending by introducing spending targets.
National Health Care Workforce Commission: The National Health Care Workforce Commission is a fifteen-member committee established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The main role of the commission is to identify any barriers that may limit the production of the health care workforce; therefore, proposing interventions meant to promote increased productivity.
Nursing Home Compare website: The Nursing Home Compare Website is a Medicare program, which allows individuals to get a comparison of the quality of services provided by different nursing homes. The website however only covers Medicare and Medicaid certified homes.
Physician Compare website: The physician compare website is a Medicare and Medicaid initiative aimed at allowing consumers to compare health services provided through Medicare; therefore, make informed choices in regards to health care.
Primary Care Extension Program: The Primary care Extension Program is an initiative aimed at providing assistance and support to primary care providers. The program aims at educating care providers on the several issues that are likely to affect care provision.
Reinsurance Program: The Reinsurance program is an initiative by the Affordable Care Act and aims at helping in the stabilizing of premiums for individual markets. The program requires that all health insurance companies make payments to an individual market issuer who cover high-cost medical issues.
Activity Response
The health care reforms taking place in the United States have resulted in major changes within the insurance industry. One of the major changes from the reforms is the elimination of a preexisting condition, in which one cannot be denied medical coverage due, or charged more because of their health status. The elimination of a pre-existing condition requirement will ensure that patients with chronic diseases receive insurance cover without being charged more. In the scenario, I would advise the mother not to worry, as she will receive the same insurance cover as that received in the previous state. However, the mother will have to register using an open enrollment to prevent any instance of discrimination.
Discussion Questions
Which of the OECD statistics surprised you about the United States?
In the OECD tables and statistics, data on issues of obesity and overweight surprised me the most. According to the data, the US ranks second regarding the percentage of individuals with obesity. The data reported that 68% of the US population was either obese or overweight. This data is surprising due to the high rate of obese individuals, which may be translated as a depiction of an unhealthy nation.
Identify three stakeholders and their role in the healthcare industry.
Different stakeholders characterize the health care industry. Some of the stakeholders include care providers, employers, patients, and payers. Each of these stakeholders plays a different role in the promotion of health care. The care providers mainly aim at providing quality care, through accurate diagnosis and treatments; therefore quality health care. The payers, who are mainly the insurance company mainly, aim at ensuring cost effective care. The focus of the payers is the achievement of quality care at effective prices. The patient role in health care is to receive care. Patients mainly want skill and compassion from care providers.
Do you feel the United States should have a universal healthcare system?
I believe the United States should have a Universal health care system. A universal health system would result in American citizen receiving quality medical care free. Approximately 40 million people in the United States lack medical insurance. The lack of medical insurance results in these individuals not being able to access quality health care in hospitals. A universal health care system would ensure that every individual has access to healthcare, no matter his or her financial situation
Norway ranks among the highest-performing countries on the OECD index. Some of the areas where Norway has performed better than the United States are statistics on health. Alcohol consumption is one of the highest factors affecting health. Norway ranked among the third lowest country in alcohol consumption. The alcohol consumption rates are 6.2 liters per capita, indicating low levels. Another statistics is that of average smokers. Norway ranked as the seventh least nation regarding tobacco smokers, with only 15% of the population being smokers. Another statistic is that of health spending. Norway ranks as the third highest spender regarding health with an overall spending of $ 5.862 million dollars per capita.
Review the alcohol and tobacco statistics for the United Stated and comment on their rankings among other countries
One of the objectives of the healthy people 2020 is reducing the amount of alcohol intake as well as the number of tobacco users in the US. In the most recent rankings, the United States ranked among the least countries in alcohol consumption with the average consumption being 8.8 liters per capita. The United States also ranked among the countries with the least number of smokers. Only 13.7 % of the population were reported as tobacco users.
Study Activity
Duty to Treat: The duty to treat is part of the physicians’ ethical code and states that a physician cannot refuse to treat a patient characterized as highly infectious. Physicians can only refuse to treat patients if they lack the skill to provide treatment.
Infant mortality rate: The infant mortality rate is a statistics that explains the number of infants who die per every one thousand words.
Life expectancy rates: Life expectancy rates provide statistics on the number of years an individual is expected to live as long as all environmental conditions are right.
Charitable care or bad debt: Charitable care is health care that is provided at a reduced or free price to patients from low-income households.
Complementary and alternative medicine: Complementary medicine refers to health therapies not part of the Western medicine. Some examples of complementary medicine include acupuncture.
Outpatient care centers: Outpatient services are health care services provided to patients not admitted to hospitals. These services include consultation and rehabilitative services.
Professional associations: Professional associations are organizations that seek to ensure the improvement of professional standards within any given profession.
Residential care facilities: Residential care facilities are health care organizations that serve individuals at the age of 60 years and more.
Works cited
American College of Emergency Physicians. EMTLA. 2014. Web. 25 January 2016. <http://www.acep.org/News-Media-top-banner/EMTALA/>.
FDA. Healthy People Initiative. 01 Feb 2015. Web. Jan 2016. <http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodScienceResearch/HealthyPeopleInitiative/default.htm>.
