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Forward On
Posted by: Cynthia Gentilini | Posted on: November 7th, 2012 | 0 Comments
November 6, 2012 was a great day for the people of our nation who were fighting to keep The Affordable Care Act (ACA) alive. With the re-election of President Obama we as a nation can now fine-tune and adjust the parts of the ACA to make it work for all people in our nation.
Now it is time to understand what the ACA is all about and how it can help the sick of our country who need health care. I have always asked the question of how you can have a nation that is the leader of the free world, but yet their people do not have adequate health care, they are sick and dying due to lack of health care. I have never gotten an acceptable answer.
Now it is time to move forward, to understand our health care laws that will help heal the sick of our nation. The ACA will not let any person suffer again from lack of health care. We will not have to worry because we have sent our children off to college without health insurance. We will no longer have to worry about pre-existing conditions or what happens when we reach our cap and there is no way to pay the catastrophic medical bills. We will be able to get preventative care instead of waiting until we can’t breathe to get medical help. Families will no longer have to try and decide who is the sickest, who gets to go get treatment. No child will have to grow up without a parent because they cannot afford to pay the medical bills, and much needed surgeries will no long have to be put on the back burner.
This election is proof the culture of the United States is changing and subjects like health care are much more important to our citizens. The war is ending, our economy is slowly improving, and our nation is starting to move forward. It is now time to for” we the people” and our government to concentrate on moving forward, healing our sick and making our nation whole again,
Value-Based Purchsing Equals Accountibility
Posted by: Cynthia Gentilini | Posted on: October 9th, 2012 | 3 Comments
On October 1st, 2012 an important part of the Affordable Care Act was implemented “Valued-Based Purchasing”.
According to the Affordable Care Act Starting in October 2012, Medicare will reward hospitals that provide high quality care for their patients through the new Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program. This program marks the beginning of an historic change in how Medicare pays health care providers and facilities—for the first time, hospitals across the country will be paid for inpatient acute care services based on care quality, not just the quantity of the services they provide.
The largest portion of Medicare spending is on hospital services. As stated on Healthcare . gov in 2009, more than 7 million Medicare beneficiaries experienced more than 12.4 million inpatient hospitalizations. One in seven Medicare patients will experience some “adverse” event such as a preventable illness or injury while in the hospital. One in three Medicare beneficiaries who leave the hospital today will be back in the hospital within a month. Every year, as many as 98,000 Americans die from errors in hospital care.
What does this all mean? This means that quality of healthcare not the quantity has become the critical factor. The hospitals now must focus on the form of treatment and how well the hospital helps enrich the patients care and experience. It is no longer how many patients are treated and discharged in a day. It’s the quality of healthcare that is received.
As patient outcomes improve, so will the incentives to the hospital. This will stop patients from being released too early. Medicare will save approximately $26 billion when patients are no longer being readmitted to the hospital from too early of a release. Another $4 billion will be saved patients because patients will receive higher quality care and see better outcomes stopping hospital acquired infections and injuries. “This form of payment holds health care providers accountable for both the cost and quality of care they provide” (Newsroom-Fact Sheet, 2012). By helping patients heal without complication, this can improve the health of many Americans and in the long run reduce healthcare costs.
