The 5 Critical Priorities for the U.S. Health Care System piece is written in light of the COVID 19 pandemic and what the health care should do to prevent further pandemic issues that my arise in the future. The first priority of the article is to focus on improving the health of all citizens in the nation, not just those that already have serious illnesses. This important because the pandemic should the country that those with chronic illnesses like type II diabetes, coronary heart disease, and obesity were the most likely to be hospitalized with COVID 19 and die. Those that were in good health could catch the virus but were less likely to be placed in the ICU. I think this is one of the most important things that the U.S. should focus because right now the focus is all on those that are sick, and most health care departments are not trying to prevent the healthy from getting sick. If the focus was on keeping healthy people healthy the cost of health care would drop significantly due to less need for invasive heart surgery, tons of pharmaceutical prescription, and those in critical care for their late-stage diseases. If focus was on preventing diseases, then hospitals would have more time to treat a focus on those with disease because the more prevented the less stretched the providers would be and be able to focus on their patients with better care.
The second priority of the paper is to tackle racial disparities which has been greatly highlighted since 2020 and COVID 19. African Americans, Hispanic, and Asian population had great rates of hospitalization per 10,000 of 24.6, 30.4, and 15.9 for the respectively group compared to whites having 7.4. Health care provided needs to use data to find where the disparities are occurring and help eliminate these disparities to provide better quality of care to these minority groups. I believe that yes health care should do their part in eliminated disparity between races but these disparities are much bigger than the health care system and are seen in most major systems such as even buying a home where African American are given higher interest rates compared to white people. Yes, the health care system can do their part but to really lower these disparities seen every business and industry must do their part.
The third priority is expanding telehealth and In-home hospital services which saw a huge increase in use with the pandemic going up to over 40% of Medicare primary care visits completed with telehealth verses the less than 1% February 2020. The benefits of telehealth appointments are that I remove travel for the patient and the providers. This can remove the barriers of inadequate transport or lack of time to leave work and go back after a visit. This also allows specialists to communicate with patients in rural areas that have small hospitals with limited specialists. In home hospital care is also a benefit because there was lots of talk of hospital beds meeting the maximum but with in home hospital care this would free up beds for those that must be in the hospital for 24-hour care. In home hospital care is 19% less expensive than conventional and has an equivalent outcome. Both of these I believe are beneficial and helpful to both the patient and the providers, but I know with telehealth there are limitations such as technology which elderly are able to use easily and then lack of measurement for weight or height and lab values. These are all important health evaluation markers that providers need to address health concerns.
The fourth priority is building integrated systems to improve care between hospitals but also improve insurance interaction. This allows the office to move patients to faculties to get proper care without having to make a form and get already existing information. It will save money for insurance and patients data could be easily transferred so redoing lab tests and scans would not be needed after they have been done before. Also, insurance companies could have access to data to be able to approve the medical needs without waits to allow for patients to get treatments faster and saving further money of delaying and causing more health problems. I believe this an easier on compared to others because technology has progressed significantly and small systems like this are already in place. The barrier may be making sure these do not violate any HIPPA guidelines.
The last priority is to adopt value-based care which would mean doctors, hospital, and providers get bonus on patient outcomes compared to current system where the bonus is for volume of patients. This ties into a lot of the other priorities like focusing on proving health because there is most incentive to make sure their clients stay healthy verses now where companies wait till sick and then treat them. The goal would reduce the cost of checkups and get people to attend more check ups to make preventive health care the priority. Preventive care will reduce costs at the backend due to less people having serious illnesses and more time for those with these illnesses. Value-based care can make this more realistic because the health care facility will incentivize quality of care compared quantity of care. This I believe is important and should become the focus of all health care facilities but there will be high initial cost and a drop in profit at the start which to me will make it less likely for these facilities to take this approach.
Overall, I think that all of these priorities are important and would improve the U.S. health care system. The problem is for most of these is profits because businesses do not like to cut in profit for changes, they may not be as profitable in the future. These all benefit the consumer which in health one would think is the goal, but the U.S. system is profit driven.
Bibliography
Harrison, M. (2021, December 15). 5 critical priorities for the U.S. Health Care System. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved February 4, 2023, from https://hbr.org/2021/12/5-critical-priorities-for-the-u-s-health-care-system