Introduction
Over the last 30 years, the state budget expenditures on healthcare have increased significantly, though objective reasons for improving the level of services have not existed, and the insurance cost per one employee has raised too. This way, American medicine appears to be unaffordable for most of the population and unavailable for citizens with low incomes.
For these reasons, in 2010, the United States Congress established the healthcare reform, which implied introducing obligatory medical insurance for the entire U.S. citizenry, providing special conditions for the indigent people. Patients with severe illnesses are supposed to have special discounts too. Moreover, the reform was aimed to improve the current conditions for people, who had already purchased a medical insurance policy.
The Affordable Care Act has contributed to spreading of the medical insurance coverage among the population, which, consequently, has a considerable impact on nursing practice (Heim et al., 2015; Eguia et al., 2018). As more clients have had recourse to hospitals and clinics, the healthcare organizations encounter the necessity to adjust to the law. This way, the purpose of the paper is to outline the essential measures for reorganizing the medical services.
The Impact on the Organization
The organization, which I have been employed for the past five years, Trinity Health Services, has undergone the influence of the Affordable Care Act too. It is notable that the emergency department is attended by clients more rarely than it has been before, while acuity tends to increase. Another significant consequence of the Affordable Care Act is improving the ambulatory offerings in the organization, so the process of shifting to urgent care facilities and major care services has become more comfortable.
In addition, obtaining the medical insurance policies comprehensively has contributed to addressing health care offerings in order to receive a fundamental treatment more often, as compared with the situation before passing the Affordable Care Act. This way, the cases of invoking the emergency department for the reason mentioned above have become less common. In summary, the general outcome of the reform has had a positive influence on Trinity Health Services.
Implementation strategies
All healthcare organizations have had to adjust to new conditions in various fields of medicine, take into consideration new hardships and elaborate on particular implementation strategies. In the article Public health laboratories and the Affordable Care Act: What the new healthcare system means for public health preparedness, Malcarney, Seiler and Horton introduce an example of such an adjustment. Devoted to Ebola breakout, the paper contains a meaningful piece of information about the Affordable Care Act (Malcarney et al., 2015). As the article regards the infectious disease spreading, the suggestions, which are advanced by the authors, may stay relevant to the current situation.
The researchers address two significant issues regarding the topic, which are sufficient funding and managing a vast group of people. These ideas were prompted by the expansion of healthcare insurance caused by the Affordable Care Act and the necessity to test a great number of people. The authors suggest two options for overcoming hardships with finances. The first item implies “ensuring that all PHLs are capable of billing insurers for covered services”, while the second one includes ensuring “that all PHLs are capable of billing at competitive rates” (Malcarney et al., 2015, p. 544).
The second step, which is proposed by the researchers, is network inclusion of PHLs to test different forms (Malcarney et al., 2015). The authors are convinced that, otherwise, PHLs would not receive enough funding and capacity, so this strategy is worth taking into consideration.
In addition, there are other reflections on the adjustment to the new law. An informative article regarding the Affordable Care Act is Tuberculosis elimination efforts in the United States in the era of insurance expansion and the Affordable Care Act. The object of exploration of this article is tuberculosis and the influence of the insurance expansion on the treatment process (Balaban et al., 2015). As tuberculosis appears to be a socially dangerous disease, bringing more people into the healthcare system is a matter of extreme importance. In this context, the comprehensive insurance coverage among the U. S. population appears to be sufficient in the fight with this disease, as the number of medical analyses will definitely increase.
However, the adjustment to the Affordable Care Act may be effortful. This article addresses the funding problem too, and also claims that the additional legislation should be advanced in order to provide appropriate treatment (Balaban et al., 2015). As the number of patients tends to increase, it is essential to supply the clinics with additional material and human resources. The greater number of people obtain insurance, the more laboratory services, researches, clinical consultations, and other parts of the treatment process should be conducted. In this context, employing more professionals and installing additional equipment present a matter of great significance.
These strategies address not only the aforementioned the treatment changes, but also the healthcare organizations in general. All the clinics and hospitals, including Trinity Health Services, have to adjust to the increased human density and high demand. According to Coombs (2020), “the rate of Americans without insurance held steady at a historic low of 8.8 percent in the first year of President Donald Trump’s administration” (para. 1).
Therefore, the majority of the healthcare organizations have encountered insufficient funding for purchasing new equipment and conducted a significant number of medical analysis and laboratory services. This way, it is crucial to mark this pressing concern. Moreover, the management of the treatment process requires the network inclusion of PHLs. In addition, clinics and hospitals need to employ additional personnel in order to provide medical services for as many people as possible. For these reasons, nurses are required to work in the conditions of rapid changing of demand and overcome the lack of equipment and spare places.
Conclusion
The Affordable Care Act is intended to provide as great number of the U.S. population as possible with medical services of high quality. The long-term perspective of this law is to improve the average level of health among the citizenry. In addition, one of the primary aims of the act is supplying people with low incomes with qualified medical and affordable help. Despite the beneficial for American society goals, the program needs to be improved.
All healthcare organizations should receive additional funding in order to be capable of servicing such a considerable number of clients. Furthermore, the comprehensive insurance coverage implies installing extra equipment, expansion of hospitals and building new clinics. This way, the necessity of taking further steps for improving health care should not be underestimated, and this problem should be drawn attention urgently.
References
Balaban, V., Marks, S., Etkind, S., Katz, D., Higashi, J., Flood, J., Cronin, A., Ho, C., Khan, A., & Chorba, T. (2015). Tuberculosis elimination efforts in the United States in the era of insurance expansion and the Affordable Care Act. Public Health Reports, 130(4), 349-354.
Coombs, B. (2020). Rates of uninsured in U.S. hold steady at historic low 8.8 percent. CNBC. Web.
Eguia, E., Cobb, A. N., Kothari, A. N., Molefe, A., Afshar, M., Aranha, G. V., & Kuo, P. C. (2018). Impact of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid Expansion on Cancer Admissions and Surgeries. Annals of Ssurgery, 268(4), 584–590. Web.
Heim, B., Lurie I. & Simon, K. (2015). The impact of the Affordable Care Act young adult provisionon labor market outcomes: Evidence from Tax data. Tax Policy and the Economy. 29(1). Web.
Malcarney, M., Seiler, N., & Horton, K. (2015). Public health laboratories and the Affordable Care Act: What the new healthcare system means for public health preparedness. Public Health Reports,130(5), 543-546.