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Cost containment in health care, research
Cost containment efforts in the US healthcare delivery system
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With these types of organizations they have different methods of payments and reimbursements. They have guidelines through the government that they will have to abide by. The government sponsored payers are Medicaid and Medicare. The majority of patients that are treated are on Medicare or Medicaid. With patients not insured each type of organization handles reimbursement differently. For- Profit hospitals it is bad debt, which is when charges of patient are written off. With not –for –profit organizations it is considered charity care. This type of care has to be documented and reported on tax status. The private insurers are patients with other insurances. Under Medicare and Medicaid, services that are provided by the hospitals are paid by a prospective reimbursement. Prospective reimbursement is established before the services are provided. They have a defined dollar amount per day and per diagnosis. They also use a fee scheduled by CPT code or procedure code which is usually used for physicians. Since these types of insured patients only are billed a certain amount, most procedures are not fully reimbursed. Retrospective reimbursement is determined after the services have been delivered. This is one of the reasons organizations are struggling. Along with less reimbursement, the CPT codes or procedure codes have to be correct according to the procedure ordered. “If an organization wants to get paid, its better off taking the time to make sure all its codes are accurate, timely , and meet all payers’ requirements ”(Kapsambelis, 2004, p. 3). When good claims go bad, “ beneficiaries who aren’t covered; services that payers say aren’t reasonable and necessary; provided services that weren’t covered; duplicate bills ... ... middle of paper ... ...ations to be successful they must keep up with the new technology. Works Cited Bigalke, J. T. (2009, February). Healthcare Financial Management [Managing Uncertainty to succeed in the new health economy]. , (), . doi: Retrieved from Buchbinder, S. B., & Shanks, N. A. (2007). Managing Costs and Revenues. In (Ed.), Introduction to Healthcare Management ( ed., p. pp. -). : . []. doi: Retrieved from CBO Projects Total Healthcare Spending to Hit 26 Percent of GDP by 2035 [Healthcare Financial Management Association]. (2010, August). , 9. Retrieved from Journal of Healthcare Finance. (2008). A Framework for Cost Mnanagment and Decision Support Across Health Care Organizations of Varying Size and Scope. Journal of Healthcare Finance, 63-75. Kapsambelis, N. (2004, October). Getting Paid In Behavioral Healthcare [Team spirit]. , 9(10), 1-4. Retrieved from
Flinker S., Ward D., Calabrese T., (2013). Accounting Fundamentals for Health Care Management, 2nd edition.
The purpose of financial measurement in healthcare is to provide the community with the services it needs, at a clinically acceptable level of quality, at a publicly responsive level of amenity, at the least possible cost. This is done by providing healthcare finance managers with accounting and finance information to help accomplish the purpose of the organization (Nowicki, 2015). When making accounting decisions about budgeting and inventory control, an understanding of economics, statistics, and operations research is needed. Major Financial Measures
Baker, J. J. & Baker, R. W. (2014). Health care finance Basic tools for nonfinancial managers (4th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning
Pay-for-performance (P4P) is the compensation representation that compensates healthcare contributors for accomplishing pre-authorized objectives for the delivery of quality health care assistance by economic incentives. P4P is increasingly put into practice in the healthcare structure to support quality enhancements in healthcare systems. Thus, pay-for-performance can be seen as a means of attaching financial incentives to the main objectives of clinical care. However, reimbursement is a managed care payment by a third party to a beneficiary, hospital or other health care providers for services rendered to an insured or beneficiary. This paper discusses how reimbursement can be affected by the pay-for-performance approach and how system cost reductions impact the quality and efficiency of healthcare. In addition, it also addresses how pay-for-performance affects different healthcare providers and their customers. Finally, there will also be a discussion on the effects pay-for-performance will have on the future of healthcare.
When one examines managed health care and the hospitals that provide the care, a degree of variation is found in the treatment and care of their patients. This variation can be between hospitals or even between physicians within a health care network. For managed care companies the variation may be beneficial. This may provide them with opportunities to save money when it comes to paying for their policy holder’s care, however this large variation may also be detrimental to the insurance company. This would fall into the category of management of utilization, if hospitals and managed care organizations can control treatment utilization, they can control premium costs for both themselves and their customers (Rodwin 1996). If health care organizations can implement prevention as a way to warrant good health with their consumers, insurance companies can also illuminate unnecessary health care. These are just a few examples of how the health care industry can help benefit their patients, but that does not mean every issue involving physician over utilization or quality of care is erased because there is a management mechanism set in place.
There are several factors that contribute to the complexity of the revenue cycle. Frequent changes in contracts with payers, legislative mandates, and managed care are just a few examples of reasons why revenue cycle in the healthcare industry is so complex. Furthermore, the problems that arise in the steps of the revenue cycle further complicate the whole process. For example, going through the steps of the revenue cycle efficiently is extremely difficult when it is managed by poorly trained personnel. Furthermore, if a healthcare provider does not have the proper information system to track patient records and billing, receiving reimbursement can become difficult. In addition, one of the main factors that delay payments is denial from the insurance companies. The reason for Denial includes incorrect coding, the certain sequence of care and medical necessity or even delay in submitting claims. Lastly, inefficient patient correspondence can not only hinder the process of revenue cycle but also result in many patient complaints (Wolper, 2004).
Llewellyn, S. (1993) Linking costs with quality in health and social care: new challenge for management accounting, Financial Accountability and Management, Vol 9 No 3, Aug 1993
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Varying in size, these companies act as a middleman between the patient and the medical facility finance office. All having slight variations, the abundance of insurers can cause confusion and often times incorrect billing. Insurance companies unlike individuals are able to negotiate a discounted payment with the hospital, but at a steep price. Of the considerable amount of money the United States put into the health industry, 35% of it went to paying for administration cost of both the insurer and the hospital (Brill,Steven, pg.34-43, Time). It should be no surprise then that the United States leads the world in every category of health care cost, often times charging twice more than the second most expensive country.
According to Buchbinder, Shanks & Thompson (2010) the definition of is the process with technical and social activities and functions, occurring within organisations for the purpose of completing predetermined objectives through humans and other resources. More specifically, financial management is the subset of management that focuses on creating financial information that can be used to enhance decision making (Calabrese et al. 2013). With this definition, healthcare managers should be responsible to organisational tasks to maximize the best possible way to reach organisational goals and the proper resources with financial and human resources, considering the reason of organisation for existence in supporting the organisation through decision making processes (Buchbinder, Shanks & Thompson 2010; Daft & Marcic 2013). This essay, thus, the importance of proper understanding of management in achieving financial target will be discussed with the understanding of quality and safety concepts within healthcare organisations.
The health care system in the United States is one of the most complex forms of healthcare system. What makes the system complex is that there are multiple factors involved. For example, there are multiple players and payers involved in the system. This includes physicians, administrator of health services institutions, insurance companies, large employers and lastly the Government Shi & Singh, 2012). Each of these players and payers are involved to protect their own economic interest. Hospitals for instances, wants to maximize reimbursement from both private and public insurers. Insurance companies and managed care organizations are concerned with how they can maintain their share of the health care insurance market, while physicians seek to maximize their income and have minimal interference with the way they practice medicine (Shi & Singh, 2012). It is obvious that there is no centrality of the health care system. In other words, there is no one department or in particular government body that is unilaterally in charge of the administration of the health care system as it is in the other developed nations where they have a single payer system, which is the government. Instead, the U. S. has health system that is financed by private sectors. According to Shi and Singh,(2012), 54% of total health care expenditures is privately financed through employers , while the remaining 46% is financed by the government. Lack of centrality in monitoring the total expenditures through global budgets or control over the availability and utilization of services coupled with most hospitals and clinics now been privately owned may potential...
Health care expenditures is an increasing proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries as its share in GDP increased by an average of nearly 2 percent annually in last 40 years. Health care expenditures in the US increased 6.2 on average annually between 1991 and 2011. Health care spending consisted 17.9 percent of GDP in the US in 2011.
Blum,J.,(2011). Improving quality, lowering cost: The role of health care delivery system: U. S Department of health and human services.
Detsky, A. (2012). How to control health care costs. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 27(9), 1095-1096.
Porter, M. E., & Lee, T. H. (2013). The Strategy That Will Fix Health Care. Harvard Business Review,