Provision of health care is essential to all people worldwide. The United States have a unique health care system that almost all citizens are entitled. Most developed countries have national health insurance programs. America, which is one of the most developed countries, has the national health insurance programs. However, not all citizens are covered with the insurance. It can be difficult to describe health care systems in the United States.
In America, a large number of individuals and organizations participate in health delivery. These organizations differ from academic institutions, research institutions, medical suppliers, insurers, and many others. Most of those who deliver health care concentrate on acute, sub acute, primary, auxiliary, and rehabilitative care. The United States’ government works extremely hard to finance health care systems in order for it to motivate them in delivering health care (Houle, & Fleece, 2011). In other words, America’s government participates fully in delivering health care to its citizens in the best way possible. Comparing to other nations, the U.S economy is the largest; thus the consumption of health care services is at a great rate. Therefore, this credits the system with providing quality medical care in the world (Califano, 1994). On the other hand, it becomes exceedingly difficult for the government to ensure that all citizens receive the best health care. In short, it is unable to provide quality health services to all American services.
Advocacy policy change in relation to reimbursement for acute care, in America
Advocacy involves activities related to things that physicians practice. These various activities include; reimbursement issues, policies of an insurance company, and offering education to health care providers on the ways of managing acute care health systems. There are some conditions that have persisted in the United States. All these are problems that affect people with obesity. Some years back, health problems related to obesity did not have a variety of treatments for adults and children. In efforts to prevent obesity and overweight in children and adults, organizations and individuals have initiated creating environments with healthy eating and physical exercises (Unger, 2010). As time goes, the United States government supports health care systems for them to reach all citizens in the nation. In so doing, health providers are able to attend a vast number of America’s citizens (Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Unger, 2010). For example, they offer lifestyle-change counseling to their clients, and this has helped them lose weight. On the contrary, health care systems discourage the health care providers from offering lifestyle change counseling. This is due to lack of in-insurance coverage to visit physicians, nurses, dietitians, and other health care providers to prevent obesity.
All this is caused by lack of enough resources, time, and obesity prevention services to their patients. Another barrier to prevention of obesity is the exposure of children to environments with low- cost foods, high calorie food from fast food outlets.
A huge number of hospitals in the United States work to their level best to discourage unhealthy eating habits. However, this has made the eradication of obesity very hard. This is because hospital patients, visitors, and staff have a high opportunity to purchase the in-expensive food staffs found in the outlets. Besides, this environment offers low opportunities for physical exercises. In other words, such an environment undermines the efforts of health care providers to prevent obesity. People in the society trust health care providers more than any other leaders. This gives them an opportunity to promote healthy eating and physical activities policies. Most of the health care providers are not prone to adequate insurance for their obesity prevention services. In order to improve coverage for acute care like obesity preventive measures, insurers require being educated more about the epidemic obesity.
Improvement in acute care in America
The America’s government must come up with new methods to improve the delivery of acute care amongst all citizens. Also, health care providers get support from their institutions in the form of education on how to provide acute care to their patients. Providers of health care are supported through policies that help in improving acute care provision. These policies are related to various areas like creating community awareness on obesity, follow-up visits, and providing evident information on the effects of obesity. The government also supports providers through offering training services on advocacy.
Reimbursement
Insurance companies are a requirement for health centers or hospitals to operate effectively. This helps patients make little payments to services that are rendered to them by the health providers. Speech language pathology is one of the disorders that can be solved in an acute setting. However, it cannot be directly reimbursed like the other acute services. Unlike other acute care services, hospitals that deal with the speech language services in America are given a lump sum of money (Laffer & Moore, 2010). This only helps in dealing with a certain diagnosis. However, a rise in the population of patients in the hospital does not lead to an increment in the reimbursement. Instead, it increases the hospital’s chances to lose money. For the health care practitioners to receive an appropriate reimbursement, they should have documents which are up to date, have latest information on health records, and the necessary tools for Medicare. Therefore, the government should intervene so that it can offer enough reimbursement to acute care health systems. This will help them to provide quality service to their patients with acute disorders. Moreover, they will attend more patients since their ratio to their patients will be higher. This is because if they are insured, they will have a lot of funds to increase the number of health care providers.
Surveys
A large number of surveys have been held in order to get the right information on the progress of health care services offered in the United States.
Factors influencing acute care
Increased lifespan
According to the demographics in the United States, the number of patients who have speech language disorder has been changing with time. Speech language pathologists report that patients with this disorder have an increased lifespan as a result of availability of medical advances and technology, together with other issues that are considered.
Acuity
People living with acute disorders like speech language illnesses are able to live longer so due to enough knowledge and technology in health systems. Advances in medicine and technology help in reduced sequelae after the first trauma. Among other health care options, acute care is the most expensive one. However, national reforms have come up with policies that help in reducing costs for everyone to afford it.
Speech language disorder, which is one of the health problems that America encounters, is consulted in the acute care medical setting. This acute care medical setting has been extraordinarily expensive for all American citizens to afford. This is a barrier that led to lack of development for a number of years in America. A lot of citizens in the United States have not been able to receive the best acute care to prevent conditions like obesity and speech language disorder. Surveyors have reported that since acute care is the most expensive health systems, it has been dragging the economy in America behind. The government involved has a great duty to support acute care delivery in the United States so that the economy can start rising with time.
Practice apparatus
Rheumatology is one of the organizations that offer acute care health systems with academic tools to train physicians and pediatricians. During training, the acute health care providers are educated more about certain diseases. This organization also offers patients with education pieces that contain additional information on acute health issues. They are printed and made available to patients in the clinics.
Individuals who deliver acute health care to the public are encouraged to network with their colleagues. This will help to get tuned to clinical issues and thus provide quality health care services. Also, it will help the health care providers know which regions of America require their services. Therefore, networking profoundly influences advocacy policy change in the United States.
In order to improve acute health care in America, the government has started undertaking activities that have been pending and proposed legislation. They are believed to have an effect on the public especially the patients. To influence the outcome of the legislation, the government has provided legislative alerts, ensured close visits between its key leaders, held receptions, and started letter writing campaigns (Rutkauskas, 1994).
Delivering health care to patients with stroke
Stroke is another acute illness in America. All along, stroke has been killing people in the United States. This has been caused by the shortage of qualified physicians ready and willing to handle patients with stroke. Hence, government has realized that there is the urgency to improve acute health care for stroke illness. The government has established new models of treating stroke: that reduce cost, improve its quality, and make them accessible to patients. These new models include new technologies that help in changing and improving health care for acute stroke. Moreover, the government has also tried to make these new technologies accessible in the remote areas (Shi & Singh, 2004). This is because most of the stroke patients in the remote areas do not have enough money to reach physicians in the urban areas. Also, most of them do not have enough funds to pay for acute services provided to them.
There are some organizations that have been established in the United States in order to improve the treatment of stroke. These organizations include; The American Stroke Association, Brain Attack Coalition, and the stroke community. They have developed networks that have improved the provision of acute stroke care. Telemedicine has helped in improving networks for acute stroke and hence, the delivery of healthcare services has been made easier (McKenzie, Pinger, & Kotecki, 2008). The organizations also provide physicians and staff with education programs on stroke awareness. Tele-stroke networks have been well established in both the rural and urban areas of America.
Insurance companies policy changes
When insurance companies change their operations, they affect those health systems that they have insured. Therefore, acute health care systems require an insurance company that has policy change now and then. This helps them provide quality care to their patients since they are able to treat them using the new model and technologies (Holtz, 2008). This is another way in which advocacy policy changes in relation to reimbursement for acute care.
Acute illnesses associated with insecticides for bed bugs
In the rural areas, the American citizens are faced with high infestation of bed bugs in their homes. Bed bugs cause discomfort, anxiety, and sleeplessness. This is the reason as to why they must be controlled. The only treatment for bed bugs is insecticides. The insecticides have a number of side effects. Acute illnesses are one of them. Most people in the rural areas just buy insecticides and use them without following label directions. Others use the insecticides excessively due to the resistance of the bed bugs to the insecticides. This exposes them to the toxic chemicals that are present in the insecticides. All this happens due to lack of knowledge or ignorance. According to case studies conducted in various states of America, seven were identified with one hundred and eleven acute illnesses associated with bed bug insecticides. The main causes were; excessive use, failure to change the bedding with insecticides, and lack of knowledge on how to use insecticides. To stop this issue of acute illnesses caused by bed bug insecticides, the government is encouraging the manufacturers of insecticides to provide education on how to use them. Also, it has started supporting the manufacturers financially so that they can provide their customers with the adequate prevention measures.
Acute respiratory diseases
These are experienced by a large number of people in America. The reason to that; they are viral, and they are highly infectious. Most of these respiratory diseases are caused by dangerous viruses, bacteria and occur mostly at the beginning of the cold seasons. The acute respiratory illnesses include common cold and pneumonia. These diseases are experienced throughout since there is a large number of viruses that spread them.
It is terribly hard to control these acute respiratory diseases. The U.S government has the duty to provide health systems with efficient facilities required for their treatments.
Asthma prevalence
Asthma has persisted to human beings over the years in America and worldwide. Asthma has become a pandemic in the United States. For children, it hinders them from attending school effectively; it also deprives the adults of attending to their work. This has decreased the productivity of the United States. However, there are several barriers to asthma treatment. They include; cost of asthma drugs, lack of insurance, low literacy level, cultural issues, data limitations, and insufficient funding. Also, lack of enough staffs in the acute health care systems is another barrier.
Though asthma has been a severe public health burden, it is more serious to few people with low social economic conditions. According to report on the research held, in 2006, asthma prevalence was higher in African Americans than the whites. The main cause for hospitalization among children under the age of 15 in America from 2001 to 2003 was asthma prevalence. The results have portrayed that asthma patients who are insured are able to afford medicine prescribed to them which is contrary to the uninsured. Asthma prevalence is also brought about by racial, low social economic status, and different geographical settings.
Factors that accelerate asthma prevalence
Some factors that contribute to signs of asthma are; viral infections, allergens like dust mites, and irritants. Other factors that lead to asthma prevalence are illegal activities like prostitution, drug abuse, and dumping of trash. These are activities that greatly affect the health of residents.
Programs such The Accountable Communities Health Together Asthma (ACHT-A) have the intention of reducing the adverse health effects related to childhood asthma together with addressing the educational, medical, and environmental activities that deal with prevention of asthma and its symptoms. Moreover, the ACHT-T program aims the children with asthma and those who are responsible for taking care of them, that is, parents, doctors, nurses, and school teachers. This program takes part in educating both the parent and child on how to manage asthma. The ACHT-A program has several objectives; improve self-management of asthma among children, improve the quality of acute health care services for children who are asthmatic, and create awareness among children with asthma, their care givers, and the public ( Monsivais, & Prevost, 2011).
In the management and prevention of asthma prevalence, the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program is involved. It offers guidelines to physicians on how to diagnose and manage asthma. The guidelines include use of a peak flow meter that is used for self-monitoring to assess the level of asthma control and signs worsening its conditions (Skolnik, 2007). Self-monitoring through the peak flow meter helps those patients who are not able to perceive the asthmatic signs. The main objective of asthma management is to boost the lives of those who suffer from asthma. There are different ways of managing asthma. They include; school educational programs, medical home based programs, and community educational programs.
Reports on a research held on asthma recommendations have come up with four components for managing asthma. These components are; assessing and monitoring of asthma, delivering self-management education, together with others. Patients with asthma are educated on how to use the prescribed medicines.
There is also a purpose statement that helps in offering policy guidance to the public health providers, stakeholders, and managers who focus on reducing the burden of asthma in America. The statement purpose helps in research on the reimbursement to inform policy in Georgia, in America. Particularly, this capstone addresses the duty of insurance and community health providers in management of asthma. The most effective way of managing asthma is the combination of individual efforts, organizational, community, and public policies. In order to change policy advocacy, it is necessary to address all factors that are related to asthma at all levels.
The purpose of reimbursement
Acute health care is very expensive. Therefore, it requires reimbursement that depends on insurances which might be private, state or local. Health insurance is widely spread all over the American state. It was first established during the Second World War and has been still continuing. Reimbursement helps change policy advocacy for acute health care. This is because if a patient is insured, he or she can afford medicines prescribed to them by the health providers (Rolde, 1992). This helps in improving the economy of America. This is because there is full attendance to work by all workers and students learn without any failure. It also helps health care institutions or systems which are insured to provide all types of services at all levels.
References
Califano, J. A. (1994). Radical surgery: what’s next for America’s health care. New York: Times Books.
Holtz, C. (2008). Global health care: issues and policies. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Houle, D., & Fleece, J. (2011). New health age the future of health care in America. Naperville: Sourcebooks.
Laffer, A. B., & Moore, S. (2010). Return to prosperity: how America can regain its economic superpower status. New York: Threshold Editions.
McKenzie, J. F., Pinger, R. R., & Kotecki, J. E. (2008). An introduction to community health (6th ed.). Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Monsivais, D. B., & Prevost, S. S. (2011). Culturally competent care. Philadelphia, Pa.: Saunders.
Rolde, N. (1992). Your money or your health: America’s cruel, bureaucratic, and horrendously expensive health care system: how it got that way and what to do a about it. New York: Paragon House.
Rutkauskas, J. S. (1994). Practical considerations in special patient care. Philadelphia: Saunders.
Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (1998). Instructor’s manual for delivering health care in America: a systems approach. Gaithersburg, Md.: Aspen Publishers.
Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2004). Delivering health care in America: a systems approach (3rd ed.). Boston: Jones and Bartlett.
Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2010). Essentials of the U.S. health care system (2nd ed.). Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Unger, J. (2010). International health and aid policies the need for alternatives. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Skolnik, N. S. (2007). Essential practice guidelines in primary care. Totowa, N.J.: Humana Press.
Unger, J. (2010). International health and aid policies the need for alternatives. New York: Cambridge University Press.
