Specialty Hospitals and Community Hospitals

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As the costs of health care are rising and the private sector is taking advantage of the rising cost, a number of amendments had to be done in order to ensure that common citizens get quality health care at affordable rates. The moratorium on payments to specialty hospitals passed in 2003, provided basic steps to be adopted. In the beginning of 2006, a Medicare part D was introduced, which enabled individuals to be eligible for drug’s prescriptions through subsidiary procedures. Beneficiaries of the plans could obtain drugs through two ways, one was through private plans that is they could join a Prescription drug plan that offers coverage on drugs or join a Medicare Advantage plan which offers coverage on both prescriptions drugs and medical services.

There were a number of amendments that had taken place since the debate ended. (Mclaughlin, Mclaughlin, 2008). The notable change that has taken place is the establishment of Comparative cost adjustment Program, which aims at reducing the cost of prescription drugs to low-income earners. As a result of a well-established polices to subsidence the cost of Medicare a number of specialty hospitals have been constructed in order to cope with the rising demand for the services.

It is noted that the Medicare cost is rising day after day and a suitable police needs to be implemented in order to assist the low-income earners to afford the medical care. Government must come out with a directive measures to subsidence the cost of receiving medical care form specialist physicians. It is noted that various specialist physicians owning private hospital charge different costs in treating cardiac, orthopedic, and surgical areas depending on the geographical area and the seriousness of the case; those cases that are less delicate and less complicated are charged more in private hospital, while more complicated cases are charged less. Therefore, the community hospitals are unable to create extra income that is supposed to be generated to other sectors that do not charge any money for the services rendered. All citizens should be given equal treatment either in community hospital or in specialist physician owned hospital. Patients of high-income visiting community hospitals should be treated in the same way as patients of low-income visiting community hospital rather than being referred to the specialized hospital, where they can pay an extra cost for the service (Mclaughlin, Mclaughlin, 2008).

In order to have uniformity of services offered by the specialized physicians, Government together with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) should ensure that Medicare Prescription Drug are affordable and have a controlled price throughout the regions.

The number of specialized physicians should be increased in a community hospital to ensure that all patients are treated in accordance and they can be able to handle more emergency cases that are being referred to specialist physicians owned by hospital where patients are charged much, but are given the same quality of Medicare similar to that offered in a community hospital. Most of the specialist physicians deal with cases that are more profitable, but less complicated as compared to the community hospital. They are unable to subsidence other areas that are non-profitable. Therefore, government under the ministry of health should find alternative ways of improving the income generated in community healthy hospital by increasing the budget allocation in order to subsidence the cost of Medicare in these hospitals and ensure that the hospital runs normally without any hiccups.

According to Steinwald (2008) the number of specialist hospital was increased by forty. This means that forty new specialist hospitals were open within one year. By the end of year 2000, the numbers of specialists owned hospitals were about eleven in about twelve communities. Since then a dramatic rise in a number of these hospitals has been evidenced; it is estimated that about fifty or more hospitals were opened by the end of the year 2006 and many more are now under construction.

A number of factors have contributed to this rise; according to Greenwald, et al (2006) the specialist physicians’ desire to improve or increase their monthly earnings and also the wish of some physicians to have management control over decision making affecting the quality and productivity of these hospitals. Another issue that contributed to a steady rise in specialized hospitals is due to an increase of population; the increased number of patients seeking special treatment for various diseases such as cardiac, orthopedic, and surgical, require special attentions. The subsidized paying police enacted by the Government have enabled a large number of patients to seek treatment in both private and public specialized hospital (Shi, Singh 2011).

Through a subsidence process of payment for the patients who do not have prescription-drug coverage via an act enacted in the year 2004 and 2005, which provides a Medicare prescription drug discount card program and Transitional Assistance Program, allows the low-income earners to seek quality and specialized treatment. This has led to a significant growth and increase in the number of specialty hospitals (Steinwald, 2008).

Being given the chance to make decisions concerning specialist hospital and community hospital regarding the affordability and balancing of the quality of Medicare provided to the patient all over the regions, first I will ensure that all polices made are patient friendly (Shi, Singh 2011). Another thing that I will ensure is the order of staffing specialist physicians as some of the physician have retired and some have quit the community healthy sector to venture in their own specialist hospital. In order to make sure that these services reach every single citizen, as a legislative officer, I will ensure that in every community hospital, there is a department specializing in diagnostic categories or diagnosis-related groups.

The hospital should be well equipped in order to make sure that patients receive all the necessary treatment without being referred to a private hospital for better services (Greenwald, et al 2006). It should be mandated that Hospital should take proper care of both high-income and low-income earners as equal and should be given some type of treatment. Physicians owning the private hospitals should never refer patients to their private hospital, whatsoever; this will reduce the competition and the conflict of interest among various physicians who are still working in the public sectors.

The premiums being paid by the Government for citizens who are categorized as low-income earners should be increased by fifty percent in order to ensure that they receive medical attention in both private and community specialized hospitals without having to add anything on top of what hospital charges in other areas (Shi, Singh 2010).

References list

Greenwald, L., Cromwell, J., Adamache, W., Bernard, S., Drozd, E., Root, E and Devers, K. (2006). Specialty Versus Community Hospitals: Referrals, Quality, And Community Benefits. Health Affairs, Vol 25 (1) Pp.106-118

Mclaughlin, C. P. & Mclaughlin, C. D. (2008). Health policy analysis: An interdisciplinary approach. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.print.

Shi, L., Singh D., A. (2010) Delivering Health Care in America. 5^th Ed. New York. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Print.

Shi, L., Singh D., A. (2011).The Nation’s Health: Nation’s Health (PT of J&b Ser in Health Sci) Nation’s Healt. 8^th Ed. New York. Jones & Bartlett Learning. Print.

Steinwald, B., (2008). General Hospitals: Operational and Clinical Changes Largely Unaffected by Presence of Competing Specialty Hospitals. New York. Diane Publishing. Print.

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Specialty Hospitals and Community Hospitals

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