Assignment 1ha 299 Health Policy Assignments

Assignment 1ha 299 Health Policy Assignments

The questions provided in these two assignments are designed to enable you to show that you have a solid grasp of the most significant issues regarding health policy in the health services system. If you are able to respond to all the questions satisfactorily, you have demonstrated that you have a solid high level grasp of health policy issues in the health services system. In answering the assignment questions, provide approximately 2 pages of material to cover each question. Therefore, each assignment should be about 6 pages in length. Use 12-point font and single spaced spacing.

For each assignment you will be directed to the assigned textbook to a series of case studies and proceeding questions associated with the case studies. Page numbers for each case study will be given for easy referral to the text.

Case Study 1: Read the Case 3-1 at the bottom of page 76 through page 85 of the assigned text for this course Health Policy Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Approach. At the end of the case study on page 86, there are five questions. Answer these five questions completely and thoroughly.

Provide as much detail in your answers as necessary to convey your understanding of the material. Remember, each of your answers to the questions should be approximately 2 pages of material for a thoughtful analysis.

1. In most of these countries, does universal coverage provide the gold standard of care?
2. Does rationing occur in these countries and how is that different from rationing in the United States?
3. Do revenues used to pay for health care tend to come from a single source or many?
4. What steps do these countries take to assure that payments required of individuals do not become a barrier to access?
5. What other patterns of similarities and differences do you notice?

Case Study 2: Read the Case 4-1 (National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS)) at the bottom of page 98 through page 101 of the assigned text for this course Health Policy Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Approach. At the end of the case study on page 102, there are four questions. Answer these four questions completely and thoroughly.

Provide as much detail in your answers as necessary to convey your understanding of the material. Remember, each answer should be approximately 2 pages for thoughtful analysis.

1. Some standards are mandatory, and some are not. Try to explain the differences in these requirements.
2. A number of newspaper articles indicate that health care organizations (HCOs) are having trouble meeting the letter and the spirit of these requirements, especially in office-based practices where the cost of interpretation may exceed the revenue per visit. What can be done about this?
3. Which are the most important standards as far as you are concerned and why? What are least important and why?
4. What would you change about these regulations if you were in charge at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services?

Case Study 3: Read the Case 6-1 (Global Medical Coverage) on pages 171 through 175 of the assigned text for this course Health Policy Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Approach. At the end of the case study on pages 175 and 176, there are five questions. Answer these questions completely and thoroughly.

Provide as much detail in your answers as necessary to convey your understanding of the material. Each answer should be approximately 2 pages of material for a thoughtful analysis.

1. What difference did it probably make that BRPP is an ESOP owned by the union members or that the union nationally is busy recruiting health care workers as members?
2. What are the ethical implications of rewarding up to $10,000 for employees to go to India for major procedures?
3. If you were a hospital administrator, how would you react when patients and companies began to ask to bargain about prices, including presenting quotations from companies like IndUShealth?
4. What would be the difference in the bargaining position of an academic medical center and a large tertiary community hospital system?
5. How might state and national governments respond to this expanding phenomenon?

Case Study 4: Read the Case 7-1 (Small Area Variations) on pages 193 through 194 of the assigned text for this course Health Policy Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Approach. At the end of the case study on page 194, there are three questions. Answer these questions completely and thoroughly.

Provide as much detail in your answers as necessary to convey your understanding of the material. Each answer should be approximately 2 pages of material for a thoughtful analysis.

1. What do you think using small area studies based on large Medicare databases to identify outliers like cardiology treatment in Elyria, Ohio?
2. Salaried cardiologists at Kaiser Permanente in northern Ohio tended to use drugs more and cardiac procedures at a rate slightly below the national average. Analyze the role that differing financial incentives might be playing here.
3. If you were Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Ohio, what studies would you conduct to attempt to explain or deal with these striking local differences in treatments and costs?

Case Study 5: Read the Case 10-1 (The Folic Acid Fortification Decision: Before and After) on pages 308 through 319 of the assigned text for this course Health Policy Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Approach. At the end of the case study on page 320, there are three questions. Answer these questions completely and thoroughly.

Provide as much detail in your answers as necessary to convey your understanding of the material. Each answer should be approximately 2 pages for a thoughtful analysis.

1. Describe the authorizing environment for folic acid fortification in the United States.
2. Why would a decision based on strong British studies influence the U.S. decision to fortify cereal products but yield a delayed response in the United Kingdom?
3. Contrast and compare the variables and their values used in the before and after cost-benefit analyses (CBA). What conclusions would you draw about that approach in this case and in general?

Case Study 6: Read the Case 11-1 (The 100K Lives Campaign: A Voluntary Code in Action) on pages 338 through 348 of the assigned text for this course Health Policy Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Approach. At the end of the case study on page 348, there are four questions. Answer these four questions completely and thoroughly.

Provide as much detail in your answers as necessary to convey your understanding of the material. Each answer should be approximately 2 pages of material for a thoughtful analysis.

1. Purchase (2004) argued that industry groups develop voluntary codes to enhance their commercial interests, typically: a. To gain consumer confidence and trust, b. To forestall collective actions by consumers, c. To forestall adverse political interventions, d. To promote desire of political interventions, e. To restrain trade. How does the 100,000 Lives Campaign fit with those constructs?
2. What does the experience of Virginia Mason Medical Center say about the implementation of voluntary codes in health care?
3. If you wanted to conduct future policy research based on the experiences of the 100,000 Lives Campaign hospitals, what would you measure and why?
4. What are other examples of voluntary codes used in the health care environment? Why are they so prevalent in this industry? What seems to determine the mix of voluntary and government regulations in health care settings?

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