Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the major health promotion agencies in the United States. The agency started to operate in Atlanta as a relatively small office. Its opening was on the 1st of July 1946 and its main purpose was to fight malaria and prevent it from spreading around the country.
Today CDC works twenty four hours a day without days off. The agency’s mission is to promote health of the nation and to identify and fight security and safety threats of foreign and domestic origins (Mission, Role and Pledge, 2014). CDC is focused on saving lives and protecting the people of the United States of America.
CDC is determined not only to stop the existing diseases from spreading on the territory of USA, but also preventing them from penetrating the country. CDC improves health of the nation addressing threats that may cause disabilities and morbidity, promoting healthy behaviors and nutrition, utilizing scientific innovations and technologies in the process of research and coping with the health issues.
CDC also trains and prepares healthcare leaders and professionals to take care of the health pulse of the American people in the future. The website of CDC provides a lot of information for various topics. CDC is integrated into the business, cultural, social and scientific life of the country.
CDC posts news about the latest and most advanced research, informs about job opportunities and trainings, grants, finding and contracts. Besides, the website provides detailed information about the diseases and infections that is available through the search option. This way CDC is useful for patients, healthcare students and professionals.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are younger than CDC; they started functioning on the 30th of July of 1965. CMS represents two programs called Medicare and Medicaid. CMS is mainly orientated at the providing of health insurance to its clients.
The agency covers over a hundred million people in total. Medicaid program is focused on covering children, their caretakers, and parents. Medicaid works with low-income families as well; it provides health insurance to non-elderly caretakers with disabilities and pregnant women.
The threshold of Medicaid minimum guidelines are established by the federal government, the coverage also can be expanded by the states based on their individual solutions (By Population, n. d.). Medicare program focuses on covering elderly citizens. Medicare targets individuals older than sixty five years, people with disabilities and patients with End-Stage Renal Disease (Medicare Program – General Information, n. d.).
The website for CMS has more convenient layout than the one for CDC, the users not familiar with the site easily find the information they need. The services provided by Medicare and Medicaid are described in details and each of the covered categories of citizens has its own page.
Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) describes its mission as focused on the establishment of affordable healthcare and building equal opportunities for all groups of the society in the United States. One more goal of HRSA is to strengthen the medical workforce and address the human resources issues of the present days.
Programs developed by HRSA target the most vulnerable categories of citizens, such as geographically isolated individuals, financially limited families, people living with HIV and AIDS. Besides, one of the main focuses of HRSA is to prevent healthcare mistakes, medical errors, and fraud.
Historically, the first Health Resources Services Administration was founded in 1982 in Maryland as a merger of Health Resources Administration (HRA) and Health Services Administration (HAS) agencies (About HRSA, n. d.). These preceding agencies were focused on providing health opportunities for the needy groups of people.
The layout of the website for HRSA is very convenient and rather clear. It is not overloaded with colors or advertisements. The information gathered on the website is easy to access. The website provides resources for the individuals looking for the assessment of HRSA as well as the healthcare professionals, employees and researchers.
To compare the three agencies, all of them focus on providing healthcare services for different categories of vulnerable citizens. Centers of Disease Control and Preventions have rather wide focus and target a huge variety of health issues and patients.
CDC works to improve the health security of the nation in general and addresses problems of global character affecting the Americans as well as smaller domestic problems. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are oriented at developing programs providing insurance to elderly people, disabled individuals and children, including the ones from low-income families.
This is a more specific approach compared to the one practiced by CDC. CMS targets the groups of individual unable to address their own issues and in need for help from the government. Such approach helps improve public health and decrease the overall mortality rates. Finally, HRSA provides care for some other groups of individuals with economic issues and serious health problems.
The joined efforts of all of these agencies allow the federal government to provide advanced medical care for the American population and make sure that all of the citizens, including vulnerable groups of people, have equal opportunities to be professionally treated and covered in case of health problems.
Reference List
About HRSA. (n. d.). HRSA. Web.
By Population. (n. d.). Medicaid. Web.
Medicare Program – General Information. (n. d.). CMS. Web.
Mission, Role and Pledge. (2014). CDC. Web.