Health care system in the United States is considered as one of the poorly organized and managed worldwide. The system is more of interest based rather than policy based with most of it being controlled by the market forces. The distribution of health insurance within the US is considered discriminative since it is only given to few people. Some section of the population experiences worse health care coverage as compared to those in developing countries (Kovner et al, 2008).
How current and future efforts contain costs, affect quality and access
Overall efforts call for delivery of high quality health care on patients. The issuance of health insurance to both citizens and non-citizens is an initiative that covers large percentage of the population. This facilitates provision of patient’s full medical report through the modern electronic health record system which ensures easy access to patient’s information at the point of need. This process provides relevant information at the required time both to patients and providers.
It ensures that good clinical decisions are reached for the purposes of managing patient population. Easy access has been ensured through efficient care coordination amongst health care providers. This reduces the level of frustrations amongst patients since medical care processes are managed in a dynamic way. The coordination systems have a way of improving health results by reducing costs for patients in critical conditions (Shih et al, 2008).
How measures of ensuring provision of high-quality care, influences cost and accessibility
There are several drivers that have been considered for the improvement of overall health care system. The relevant information concerning patients is made available to all health care providers through the available electronic recording system. This is important especially at the time when patients present themselves for treatment. There’s need for accountability amongst the health care providers, this is necessary for the provision of high quality services.
These are achieved through reformation within the payment system. The payment on the side of providers should be reviewed since it offers incentive for greater performance. The usual instant payment of fee at the time of delivery has proved ineffective, therefore bundled payment system is considered more rewarding since it encourages quality regulations that lead to provision of high quality care. The high performing health care system is considered to be the result of re-organization of the practices within the local and private health care systems (Shih et al, 2008).
How could efforts to promote universal access to care impact cost and quality?
The use of market forces drives people to purchase medical coverage based on the information given concerning quality level. This leads to some kind of drive within the health care market. The quality of services offered is held by the public through different opinions, meaning that quality care can only be esteemed when its publicity is high. The power of those purchasing medical cover can sometimes be manipulated by health care providers, this is because of the limitations placed on accessing health plan or physicians (Kovner et al, 2008).
How can the structure and organization of the US health care delivery system bring about or impact cost, quality, and access to health care?
United States of America has focused on how to expand what they refer to as managed care. This is aimed at upgrading health care system by improving on quality of health, control costs and is done through creation of health plans to cater for the medical needs of individuals and groups within the American society based on prepayment or taxes. The structures within the health plan include methods that influences the decisions made by both recipients and providers of medical care services. This ensures that quality services are provided at affordable costs based on wise decisions made.
Ways of contracting independent health care providers can sometimes bring complications in cases where the patients are allowed to refuse paying for sub-standard medical services. The use of managed care looks not only unto the costs but also on the quality of services provided (Shih et al, 2008).
References
Kovner, A. R., Knickman, J., & Jonas, S. (Eds.). (2008). Jonas and Kovner’s health Care delivery in the United States (9th ed.). New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Shih, A., Davis, K., Schoenbaum, S., Gauthier, A., Nuzum, R., & McCathy, D., (2008). Organizing the U.S. health care delivery system for high performance. Web.