Regulation at all federal levels plays a vital role in healthcare and health insurance coverage. Overall, different regulatory available aim at protecting members of the public from health-related risks. They also offer numerous programs through which local, state and federal agencies adhere to health and welfare related activities. Currently, many of these agencies develop and implement regulations that target only federal but also private organizations (Field, 2008).
Therefore, regulation is necessary to ensure health promotion and compliance as well as offer safe services to consumers. The relevant agencies achieve this through facility monitoring, safety promotion, and information provision activities. Some of the available regulatory agencies and their activities are as follows. First, the AHRQ is a federal regulatory agency that operates under the HHS. This agency conducts surveys for the improvement of healthcare quality, cost reduction, and improvement of patient safety at facility level (American Nurses Association, 2016).
Second, the CDC is an Atlanta-based federal agency that examines and protests against any possible health dangers from infectious diseases. The agency monitors various health conditions such as disabilities, birth defects, emergency response, genomics, and vaccines among others. Third, the CMS is a federal agency that regulates Medicare, CHIP, and Medicaid programs. These programs are facility-based government and state subsidized insurance initiatives that target special populations. The populations include children, the elderly, the disabled, and people from poor economic backgrounds. CMS also concentrates in regulating and ensuring facility-based compliance to HIPAA (American Nurses Association, 2016).
In essence, the government subjects all areas under health care to regulation and compliance. The targeted organizations and individuals include pharmaceutical organizations, health care facilities, HIM companies, medical directors, and physicians. It is vital that each of these agents recognize regulations that apply to them as well as seek clarification for adequate compliance (Saltman, 2012).
References
American Nurses Association. (2016). Agencies & Regulations. Retrieved from American Nurses Association: http://www.nursingworld.org/Agencies-RegulatoryAffairs
Field, R. I. (2008). Why Is Health Care Regulation So Complex? Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 33 (10), 607–608.
Saltman, R. (2012). The role of regulation in healthcare. The BMJ 2012;344:e821, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.e821.
