Ethics in Health Care-Health Care Policy-and Health Care Delivery Systems

Perkins

2 months ago

Ethics in Health Care-Health Care Policy-and Health Care Delivery Systems

Current federal healthcare policies and standards are designed to offer guidance to health organizations to ensure the quality of care among vulnerable populations

Affordable Care Act (ACA) is one of the federal healthcare policies and standards designed to guide healthcare organizations in providing quality care among the vulnerable in the country. ACA is a federal reform aimed at ensuring that all people, especially those with low incomes, have access to quality care. The Act aimed to eliminate inequalities and discrimination in access to quality care based on income levels and other factors like race (Griffith, Evans & Bor, 2017). ACA intended to increase access to health insurance, ensure that patients, especially the poor, are protected, ensure wellness and prevention strategies, and improve the quality of healthcare systems (Griffith, Evans & Bor, 2017). ACA also intended to increase the workforce in healthcare systems and reduce the rising cost of health care.

The provisions of ACA targeted health care organizations, insurance companies, and the people to meet its objectives. To expand insurance policy, the Act requires that all employees, including the small employees, should have health insurance. ACA requires that temporary high-risk pools be created for people who have preexisting medical conditions and cannot buy private insurance (Sommers et al., 2017). The Act prohibits discrimination based on health status and exclusion of people with preexisting health conditions from accessing health services and health insurance. Vulnerable populations such as children are protected where it is prohibited to exclude children having preexisting medical conditions from health coverage (Sommers et al., 2017). ACA ensures quality care for the vulnerable by increasing funds for healthcare organizations for Medicaid and Medicare programs. ACA facilitates research studies and project demonstrations to reduce medical errors, which improves the quality of care. Investing in health information and allowing states to establish health homes to provide care to the vulnerable increase the quality of care. ACA is a federal health policy that ensures all people have access to quality healthcare services.

Current healthcare policies and standards in my State are designed to offer guidance to health organizations to ensure the quality of care among vulnerable populations

The State of Illinois has various healthcare policies and standards that guide health organizations to ensure quality care is given to vulnerable populations. One of the laws of the State of Illinois that ensures quality care is provided to vulnerable populations is the Illinois Health Policy Center Act (Dresden et al., 2017). The State of Illinois acknowledged that people in the State have a lot of health challenges, including the high cost of healthcare and poor quality of healthcare services. The State, therefore, had to find the best healthcare policies and standards to deal with the challenges (Dresden et al., 2017). High education centers would help solve the problems, and therefore, the state came up with the Illinois Health Policy Center Act, which created a health center to help improve the healthcare outcomes of people in Illinois.

The Illinois Health Policy Center Act allowed the creation of the University of Illinois. The Act allowed the participation of other universities where education was used to ensure quality care to the vulnerable in the State. The Illinois Health Policy Center Act intended or aimed to support the government and the legislators in establishing and implementing regulations to address critical health issues. The policy also intended to come up with the best health practices in the State of Illinois to ensure quality care is given to the people of Illinois at an affordable cost. Illinois Health Policy Center Act health organizations offer quality healthcare services to the people in the State by ensuring there is research and comparison with policies in other states (Dresden et al., 2017). The policy also ensures that healthcare organizations adhere to federal programs such as the ACA, Medicaid, and Medicare (Dresden et al., 2017). Other policies implemented in Illinois that ensure quality care is delivered to vulnerable populations are Medicaid, Medicare, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Strategies that healthcare organizations can implement to foster ethical decision-making among employees

Ethical decision-making is important in all health organizations, and therefore, organizations should find ways of fostering it among employees. An organization should make ethical decision-making part of its culture to improve the quality of health care services offered. One way in which an organization can foster ethical decision-making is through continuous education and training of the employees on ethics and ethical decision-making. Organizations should schedule specific days of the week to educate and train employees (Auchter et al., 2018). Education and training remind employees of what they are supposed to do in case a situation requires an ethical decision to be made. Education and training through CMEs also add to the knowledge and skills of the employees in dealing with issues regarding ethics.

The other way to foster ethical decision-making in the organization is to make ethical practices part of the organization’s rules, standards, or principles. Everyone observes an organization’s rules, and therefore, making work ethics part of the rules will improve the employee’s ethical decision-making skills (Auchter et al., 2018). Employees should also be allowed to contribute their opinions through meetings and discussions where they share the best ways of making ethical decisions. Taking employees to conferences and allowing them to advance in their studies also improves their ethical decision-making skills and knowledge.

References

Auchter, A. M., Mejia, M. H., Heyser, C. J., Shilling, P. D., Jernigan, T. L., Brown, S. A., … & Dowling, G. J. (2018). A description of the ABCD organizational structure and communication framework. Developmental cognitive neuroscience, 32, 8-15.

Dresden, S. M., Powell, E. S., Kang, R., McHugh, M., Cooper, A. J., & Feinglass, J. (2017). Increased emergency department use in Illinois after implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Annals of Emergency Medicine, 69(2), 172-180.

Griffith, K., Evans, L., & Bor, J. (2017). The Affordable Care Act reduced socioeconomic disparities in healthcare access. Health Affairs, 36(8), 1503-1510. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0083

Iwelunmor, J., Newsome, V., & Airhihenbuwa, C. O. (2014). Framing the impact of culture on health: A systematic review of the PEN-3 cultural model and its application in public health research and interventions. Ethnicity & Health, 19(1), 20-46. https://doi.org/10.1080/13557858.2013.857768

Purcell, N., & Cutchen, L. (2013). Diabetes self-management education for African Americans: Using the PEN-3 model to assess needs. American Journal of Health Education, 44(4), 203. doi:10.1080/19325037.2013.798212

Sommers, B. D., Maylone, B., Blendon, R. J., Orav, E. J., & Epstein, A. M. (2017). Three-year impacts of the Affordable Care Act: improved medical care and health among low-income adults. Health Affairs, 36(6), 1119-1128. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2017.0293

World Health Organization. (2017). WHO guidelines on ethical issues in public health surveillance.

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