Background to study
Various factors contribute to increased health care costs, which include inefficient use of medical advancement, improper payment system, the high cost of health care services, and failure to align the health care objectives of the facilities with those of national government. The rationale behind improving the sector is that it provides diverse opportunities for everyone to engage in healthy lifestyles. Scholars such as Frank-Lightfoot & Davis (2016) have linked effective control of the health care costs with better health outcomes. For instance, in the U.S, the health care spending has increased rapidly over the past century, yet the quality of care offered is still low. The issue has attracted concerns from different scholars, leading to the development of various policy issues such as the Affordable Care Act to manage the high costs. Various studies attribute the rise in the cost of the demographic changes among other significant issues. The health spending is increasing at a higher rate than the economy can sustain, which if not adequately managed will harm the economy (Venkataraman, 2015).
Productivity growth in the sector can be achieved through enhancing the quality of care offered at the facilities. The process will include the introduction of new procedures and practices which impact positively towards increased rate of survival, low morbidity, reduced pain among other significant contributions (Cox et al., 2015). Therefore, the desired productivity growth will take account of both cost and health outcomes. According to Coddington & Moore (2012), management of the health care costs will contribute towards efficient utilization of the limited healthcare resources in the most equitable way possible. Therefore, the policy planner should consider managing both cost and quality of healthcare that is provided at the respective facilities. Conducting more research in the study area will help stakeholders to come up with practical strategies for controlling the escalating costs as well as managing quality care at the facilities. Having exhausted on the background to study topic, the paper now focuses more on the problem statement.
References
Coddington, D. C., & Moore, K. D. (2012). Reducing healthcare costs through better chronic disease management: these days, one often hears healthcare organizations speak of their commitment to improving quality of care and" bending the cost curve." But there's more than a little irony involved if the organization that's talking this line is not focusing attention on improving care for patients with chronic disease. Healthcare Financial Management, 66(8), 126-129.
Cox, J. C., Sadiraj, V., Schnier, K. E., & Sweeney, J. F. (2015). Higher quality and lower cost from improving hospital discharge decision making. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.
Frank-Lightfoot, L., & Davis, A. (2016).Creating a hospital-based community health worker program using college students: Reducing costs and improving quality.Nurse Leader, 14(2), 120–124.
Venkataraman, S. (2015). Cost-Quality Tradeoff in Healthcare: Does it Affect Patient Experience?.The Quality Management Journal, 22(3), 38-45.
