Health Care after Introduction of Affordable Care

Troy, T.D. and Wilson, D.M. (2015). The Affordability of Employer Sponsored Care and the ACA Exchange Health Care Plans. American Health Policy Institute. The article raises an important problem of the effective development of the contemporary health care after the introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The authors develop the critical perspective on the impact of the health care reform under the ACA and, more specifically, the authors conduct the detailed analysis of how the ACA has changed the health care coverage by employers and under the ACA and the impact of such changes on the accessibility of the health care services to Americans.  T.D. Troy and D.M. Wilson (2015) argue that the introduction of the ACA has changed the health care funding landscape and discouraged employers from covering health care costs of many employees and their families. In such a situation, the main issue that emerges it the problem of the decrease of the employer-covered health care plan and the increase of the state-sponsored health care plans. However, this is not just the matter of changes of the source of funding of health care plans but it is the matter of accessibility of health care services because employees, who have lost employer coverage of health care plans may confront the problem of the considerable reduction of health care services available to them. Employers could offer attractive health care coverage plans to attract employees, to retain them and motivate them to work better. Instead, government-sponsored health care plans are standardized and they do not intend to make health care plans more attractive to people, but they just offer them the coverage of their basic health care costs to make health care services affordable. Health Care after Introduction of Affordable Care

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Changes identified by Troy and Wilson concerning the health care coverage and the availability of health care services to Americans may raise a problem of the affordability and delivery of health care services patients may need in health care organizations. To put it more precisely, a health care organization may face a problem of the lack of funding of health care services, which used to be covered by employers, who funded health insurance plans for their employees. These health care services may not be included in health care plans covered by the government under the ACA. As a result, Americans, who have lost the employer coverage of their health care services will experience the problem of the lack of access to health care services they are accustomed to and they may need at the moment. The health care organization in its turn should also find the solution of delivering of health care services to patients, when the coverage of health care costs has changed.

To put it more precisely, the analysis of health care costs reveals that often patients have to pay more for their health care services because they undergo unnecessary procedures and services. The optimization of services and procedures prescribed to patients can help to reduce costs and make those health care services more affordable to them without the reduction of the quality of health care services delivered to patients. Therefore, the health care organization should focus on the reduction of health care costs through the optimization of services and procedures patients undergo in the course of examination and treatment. In this regard, the focus of health care organization on specific needs of patients and accurate diagnosis is particularly important. In addition, the health care organization should introduce new technologies which may increase the accuracy of information sharing, diagnosis and effectiveness of treatment of patients. For example, the better information processing reduces the time health care professionals spend on the treatment or work with each patient. Hence, the reduction of the time spent by health care professionals allows saving costs because the health care professional can deliver health care services to a larger number of patients within the same time as they do now.Health Care after Introduction of Affordable Care

The development and the implementation of the new policy to address the problem of changes in the health care coverage and availability of required health care services to all Americans through the reduction of health care costs requires considerable changes and resources that the health care organization will use to achieve its goals. In this regard, resources needed are twofold. On the one hand, there are non-material changes, including the optimization of examination, diagnosis and treatment procedures to refuse from unnecessary procedures or services which overlap or even duplicate each other. The refusal from such services and procedures will reduce costs of health care services available to customers. On the other hand, the organization will need to develop and introduce new technologies, software and equipment to improve the information processing and sharing within the organization and to improve the quality of diagnosis and treatment of patients. The use of these technologies, software and equipment is essential to reduce the time doctors need to spend on every patient.Health Care after Introduction of Affordable Care As a result, the reduction of the time doctors spend on each patient will increase the number of patients, who receive services, and increase the effectiveness of health care services along with the reduction of their costs. In addition, the health care organization needs to create the project team that will complete the change in the organization. The project team should consist of the project manager, human resource manager, who works with the staff and communicates the change to employees of the organization, the IT manager, responsible for the optimization of health care services and information system of the organization, the finance manager of the organization to conduct financial planning and funding of the project effectively and assistants, who will help them to perform their functions in terms of the project until the change is complete. Also the organization should involve doctors and the nursing staff into the change because they will be affected by the change. This is why their position is important for the successful accomplishment of the change. Otherwise, the staff may resist to the change that will put under a threat the successful accomplishment of the change in the organization. The project team should maintain the permanent and effective communication between team members and the staff of the health care organization to receive the feedback from employees and to implement the change with respect to needs and expectations of employees. Such approach will make the completion of the change in the health care organization successful.Health Care after Introduction of Affordable Care

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The project team works on the change that the health care organization should introduce to address the problem of the proper coverage of health care costs has to elaborate the project plan and implement it step by step. The project team should define the goals of the project, which are the reduction of health care costs and optimization of health care services and procedures delivered to patients. The project team should distribute functions to make each team member responsible for the specific aspect of the project. The project team should collaborate with employees, including doctors and the nursing staff. Therefore, the project team should collaborate with physician and nursing professional associations in the health care organization. However, the communication is probably the most important aspect of the project implementation and the determinant factor of its success. The project team should communicate the essence and purpose of the change to all stakeholders through interpersonal communication and regular meetings. The communication decreases the risk of the staff resistance to the change. The project team should clarify benefits of the change to employees and patients. In addition, the health care organization should appoint the control officer to monitor the impact of the change on the organizational performance.Health Care after Introduction of Affordable Care