NURS 6050 Week 3 Discussion: Financing of Health Care Paper

NURS 6050 Week 3 Discussion: Financing of Health Care Paper

NURS 6050 Week 3 Discussion: Financing of Health Care Paper

Discussion: Financing of Health Care

With coinciding concerns about health care costs and the imperative to improve quality of care, health care providers and others face difficult decisions in the effort to achieve an appropriate balance. Such decisions often are addressed in the policy arena. How do policymakers evaluate which health care services should be financed through government programs? How do ethics-related questions and other considerations play into this evaluation process? Is it possible to contain costs and provide accessible, high-quality care to all, or is the tension between cost and care inherent in the U.S. health care delivery system? These questions are central to health care financing decisions in the United States.

For this NURS 6050 Week 3 Discussion: Financing of Health Care Paper, you will focus on the policy decision-making process that determines what types of care are covered by public and private insurers and the ethical aspects of such financial decisions.

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To prepare for NURS 6050 Week 3 Discussion: Financing of Health Care Paper:

Read the following case study, “Hard Economic and Finance Choices in US Healthcare” (Milstead):

Case Study 1: Hard Economic and Finance Choices in US Healthcare

Applied economics is all about managing scarce resources. Economics is an amoral field of study: it is neither moral nor immoral. Morality and values are determined by individuals at the personal level and by group consensus or majority opinion at the national level. State and federal governments determine the ‘will of the people’ about how to use scarce resources for the good of a nation. 

The U.S. health care system is an exemplar of scarcity: primary care physicians, substance abuse treatment centers, trauma centers, registered nurses, and the money to pay for goods and services. Finance is all about how to pay for goods and services. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is appointed by the Executive branch of the federal government to make decisions about what the Medicare program will and will not pay for. In this role, MedPAC makes decisions about medications, procedures and treatments. Examples of MedPAC decisions include coverage for left ventricular assistive devices as a destination therapy, coverage for bariatric surgery, and in 2010, coverage of the drug Provenge™. By law, MedPAC is not allowed to use price or cost of any treatment in its decision-making processes.

Review the information in the Washington Post article “Review of Prostate Cancer Drugs Provenge Renews Medical Cost-Benefit Debate” in the Learning Resources.

Consider how policy decisions currently are made about what will and will not be paid for and what changes, if any, could improve the process.

Reflect on how the Washington Post example illustrates the tension between cost and care.

By Day 3 of NURS 6050 Week 3 Discussion: Financing of Health Care Paper

  • Post your analysis and assessment of the ethical and economic challenges related to policy decisions such as those presented in the Washington Post article. How does this type of situation contribute to the tension between cost and care? Substantiate your response with at least two outside resources. 

By Day 6 of NURS 6050 Week 3 Discussion: Financing of Health Care Paper

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:

  • Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
  • Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives. 
  • Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
  • Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
  • Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
  • Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.

NURS 6050 Weekly Essay Discussions and Assignments – Discussion: Financing of Health Care References:

National Health Expenditures 2010 Highlights, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cms.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/highlights.pdf.

Milstead, J. A. (2013). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

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NURS 6050 Weekly Essay Discussions and Assignments – Week 9 Discussion: Legal and Ethical Conduct

As emphasized in this week’s media presentation, all nurses need to be familiar with the laws and regulations that govern their practice: their state’s Nurse Practice Act, ANA’s Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, specialty group standards of practice, etc. In addition, basic ethical principles guide nurses’ decision-making process every day. ANA’s Code of Ethics and ANA’s Social Policy Statement are two important documents that outline nurses’ ethical responsibilities to their patients, themselves, and their profession.  This said, there is a dilemma: The laws are not always compatible with the ethical positions nurses sometimes take. This week’s Discussion focuses on such a dilemma.

To prepare:

Review this week’s Learning Resources, focusing on the information in the media presentation about the relationship between the law and ethics.

Consider the ethical responsibility of nurses in ensuring patient autonomy, beneficence, non-malfeasance, and justice.

Read the following scenario:

Lena is a community health care nurse who works exclusively with HIV-positive and AIDS patients. As a part of her job, she evaluates new cases and reviews confidential information about these patients. In the course of one of these reviews, Lena learns that her sister’s boyfriend has tested HIV positive. Lena would like to protect her sister from harm and begins to consider how her sister can find out about her boyfriend’s health status.

Consult at least two resources to help you establish Lena’s legal and ethical position. These resources might include your state’s Nurse Practice Act, the ANA’s Code of Ethics, ANA’s Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, and internal or external standards of care.

Consider what action you would take if you were Lena and why.

Determine whether the law and the ANA’s standards support or conflict with that action.

By Day 3

Post a description of the actions you would take in this situation, and why. Justify these actions by referencing appropriate laws, ethical standards, and professional guidelines.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.

By Day 6

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:

  • Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
  • Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives. 
  • Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.
  • Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
  • Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
  • Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence..
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NURS 6050 Weekly Essay Discussions and Assignments – Week 4 Discussion

Discussion: Key Health Determinants

  • Did you know that the United States has a higher rate of infant mortality than Japan (CIA, n.d.)? Or, as Dr. Beilenson states in this week’s media presentation, that “your zip code that you live in makes more difference in your health and well-being than the genetic code that you’re born with?” What causes these differences in health outcomes?
  • To effectively develop policies and programs to improve population health, it is useful to use a framework to guide the process. Different organizations and governmental agencies (for example, Healthy People 2020) have created a variety of such frameworks, which establish measures for assessing population health. These measures frequently are derived from the examination of epidemiologic data, which include key measures of population health such as mortality, morbidity, life expectancy, etc. Within each measure are a variety of progress indicators that use epidemiologic data to assess improvement or change.

For this NURS 6050 Week 5 Discussion: Key Health Determinants assignment, you will apply a framework developed by Kindig, Asada, and Booske (2008) to a population health issue of interest to you. This framework includes five key health determinants that should be considered when developing policies and programs to improve population health: access to health care, individual behavior, social environment, physical environment, and genetics.

To prepare for Discussion: Key Health Determinants:

  • Review the article “A Population Health Framework for Setting National and State Health Goals,” focusing on population health determinants.
  • Review the information in the blog post “What Is Population Health?”
  • With this information in mind, elect a population health issue that is of interest to you.
  • Using this week’s Learning Resources, the Walden Library, and other relevant resources, conduct a search to locate current data on your population health issues.
  • Consider how epidemiologic data has been used to design population health measures and policy initiatives in addressing this issue.

By Day 3

  • Post a summary of how the five population health determinants (access to health care, individual behavior, social environment, physical environment, and genetics) affect your selected health issue, and which determinants you think are most impactful for that particular issue and why. Explain how epidemiologic data supports the significance of your issue, and explain how this data has been used in designing population health measures and policy initiatives.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.

By Day 6

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:

  • Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
  • Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
  • Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library. 
  • Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
  • Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
  • Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.

NURS 6050 Weekly Essay Discussions and Assignments – Discussion: Key Health Determinants References:

Central Intelligence Agency. (n.d.) The world factbook. Retrieved from

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html

Kindig, D., Asada, Y., & Booske, B. (2008). A population health framework for setting national and state health goals. JAMA, 299(17), 2081–2083. doi: 10.1001/jama.299.17.2081

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NURS 6050 Week 5 Discussion

Addressing Behavioral Risk Factors Assignment

“It is unreasonable to expect that people will change their behavior easily when so many forces in the social, cultural, and physical environment conspire against such change” (Kovner and Knickman, p. 139).

When seeking to lessen behavioral risk factors in different populations, one of the greatest challenges is addressing the systemic issues within the population that enable the risky behavior to occur in the first place. Consider the health risks of school-age children not being immunized or drug users sharing needles. As Dr. Beilenson discussed in the Week 4 media program, these risky behaviors led to increases in individual and population health problems. Thus, when planning health prevention programs, it is important to consider how to effectively address risky behaviors at both the individual and the population level.

The NURS 6050 Week 5 Discussion: Addressing Behavioral Risk Factors Assignment Discussion this week focuses on the use of the Population-Based Intervention Model outlined in the course text Health Care Delivery in the United States, as well as how this model can be applied to strengthen advocacy programs.

To prepare for Addressing Behavioral Risk Factors Assignment:

  • Select one of the behavioral risk factors from the Healthy Population 2010 Objectives (listed in Table 7.1 on p. 128 of the course text) that is of interest to you.
  • Using the Walden Library and other credible websites, research how this risk factor is affecting your community or state.
  • With your selected risk factor in mind, review the information on the Population-Based Intervention Model on pp. 136–140 in the course text, Health Care Delivery in the United States. In particular, focus on the concept of downstream, midstream, and upstream interventions. Consider at least one intervention that could be put into place at each stage.

By Day 3

  • Post a description of the behavioral risk factor you selected and how this factor is impacting your community or state. Using the Population-Based Intervention Model, suggest at least one intervention that could be put into place at each stage (downstream, midstream, and upstream) to ensure that a health prevention program addressing the behavioral risk factor would have a greater chance at succeeding. Justify why each intervention you identified would be effective. 

Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.

By Day 6

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:

  • Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.
  • Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.
  • Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library. 
  • Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.
  • Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.
  • Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.

Addressing Behavioral Risk Factors Assignment References:

Kovner, A. R., & Knickman, J. R. (Eds.). (2011). Health care delivery in the United States (10th ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing.

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NURS 6050 Weekly Essay Discussions and Assignments – Week 6 Discussion: Improving Quality

Improving the quality of health care delivery and patient safety continues to be a political concern and has been at the heart of reform issues for many years. The American Nurses Association (ANA) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) have increased awareness of health care quality and safety issues, as well as advocated for health care reform. The documents featured at the ANA and IOM websites listed in this week’s Learning Resources focus on many of the current issues surrounding quality and safety in the health care industry.

To prepare:

Review this week’s Learning Resources, focusing on the Six Aims for Improvement presented in the landmark report “Crossing the Quality Chasm: The IOM Health Care Quality Initiative.”

Consider these six aims with regard to your current organization, or one with which you are familiar. In what areas have you seen improvement? What areas still present challenges? As a nurse leader, how can you contribute to improving the organization’s achievement of these aims?

Select one specific quality or safety issue that is presenting a challenge in the organization. Consider at least one quality improvement strategy that could be used to address the issue, as well as which of the six aims for improvement would then be addressed.

Reflect on your professional practice and your experiences with inter-professional collaboration to improve quality and safety. How has inter-professional collaboration contributed to your organization’s efforts to realize the IOM’s six aims for improving health care? Where has inter-professional collaboration been lacking?

By Day 3

Post a description of the quality or safety issue you selected and a brief summary of the impact that this issue has on health care delivery. Describe at least one quality improvement strategy used to address this issue. Then explain which of the six “aims for improvement” are addressed by the strategy. Finally, explain how inter-professional collaboration helps improve quality in this area.

Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses.

By Day 6

Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways:

Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format.

Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives.

Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library.

Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research.

Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings.

Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence.

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