Analyze a Contemporary Health Care Issue PDF

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Analyze a Contemporary Health Care Issue April Stewart GCU: HCA-240 Dr. York September 20, 2020

There are so many issues with health care, however the one the sticks out is the challenges with implementing the use of the Electronic Health Record System (EHR). As stated in the text Essentials of Health Care Finance (5th Edition), “with the dramatic growth of hospital revenues came an escalation in both the number and functions delegated to the hospital accountant. Hospital finance had become much more than just billing patients and paying invoices. Hospitals were becoming big businesses with complex and varied financial functions.” As of today, the health care industry as been faced with some of the biggest issues in health care. Especially when it comes to costs, analytics, delivery system transformations, and consumer experience. I will be discussing the issues and challenges faced with implementation of the EHR system. Challenges that have been identified are the different software used for data entry, and alerting for security of the health information systems. Technology has become such a huge part of our daily lives that the use of mobile devices leaves a business open to medical theft because of the large anticipation of exchange with data between all the different organizations, as well as patients and providers. The EHR was developed with the idea that it’s purpose is to help and benefit patients by improving every aspect of patient care. Which includes safety of the practice, communication between provider’s and patient’s and effective care that is centered around the patient and care received. Having an EHR is to help keep an organization on track with giving providers a better understanding of what is needed to be done during a patients visit to their office or to a medical facility. Every user that accesses any patients EHR as well as any third party access have different roles and privileges depending on the user and what their job functions are. If a third party company is granted access to a patients EHR they might have more access than any local clinic

or hospital. If this is the case, there is always an agreement in place before hand giving the third party permission to access any records. This agreement must always outline the process for granting this permission for access to each user. With every agreement there is always a financial decision that needs to be put into place as well with the appropriate personnel such as an accountant or a practice manager. It has to fit into the budget of the practice to make sure it’s affordable. There are some users in each entity that might not need access because there isn’t a need for them to have it. Many roles such as an analyst will not be granted access to the patients records because it might night pertain to their job duties. Providers offices use EHR especially if it is linked to a hospital or out patient clinic so that the provider can track where a patient has been since their last visit to the provider’s office. It is very well-known how many issues there are and are still arising in the health care system. Many of these issues have to do with providers that face daily changes with the increased cost of care provided, updates to computer programs as well as medical processes, billing and coding updates, broken technology, and security issues. Broken technology is one of those consistent issues faces, especially within the EHR systems being used. The digital health and medical records is mandated by healthit.gov, they follow many different regulations that are established within the health records with the laws of ONC and the safety of the system with the United States Department of Health and Humana Services authority. With these programs and assistance, there are many safe guards set into place to keep patients privacy and health records as safe as possible. Planning an effective operation with the assistance of professionals and practitioners who are interested in studying and learning about general financial operations of care practices as well as managing financial aspect of the health care responsibilities is a major role. Organizing and

managing the money of the practices help to achieve those goals financially, as well as understanding each risk that’s taken and how to make sure the operations are followed properly. Without having someone who is knowledgeable in the financial aspect of things, there will be no way a business will stay open because there will be no money made. There are budgets to be followed and compensation evaluations to be completed, which include analysis and reviews of contracts (Connor, 2015). Accountants help to make the decisions when it comes to the financial elements of a practice. There has to be planning done, as well as someone has to control the spending and the income decisions to help increase the operation efficiency with long term investments. Office managers and billing staff have to work closely to make sure that every single patient that is seen by a provider has proper documentation when submitting bills and claims to insurance companies otherwise those bills will not get reimbursed, therefore there will be no money coming into the practice. One piece of the puzzle, that is a huge piece when it comes to reimbursement with certain insurance companies is that of patient satisfaction. The needs of a patient have to be put first with the providers, or they run the risk of non payment, especially with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) (Gapenski, 1999). Medical staff that is not considered financial staff has to follow the needs of the leadership, as they are in no position to offer advice, decision-making or anything having to deal with the financial aspects of the company. There is a fine line drawn between the needs of the patient and the needs of the practice. It is the accountants job, as they are paid to do, to help make decisions that will benefit the patient’s as well as the practice. As the hospital industry continues to grow so do all of the insurance companies and smaller business that have to do with medical care. The health care industry is a forever changing world, the EHR systems that are

used will always be changing with it. So provider’s have to be ready to deal with these changes as they come.

References: Connor, E. (2015). Peterson, Mary A. Healthcare Finance and Financial Management: Essentials for Advanced Practice Nurses and Interdisciplinary Care Teams. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 2, 111. Https://doi-org.lopes.edm.oclc.org/10.3163/15365050.103.2.015 Gapenski, L.C. (1999). Healthcare Finance: An Introduction to Accounting and Financial Management. Health Administration Press. Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2019). Essentials of the U.S. Health Care System (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett. Retrieved from: https://www.gcumedia.com/digitalresources/jones-and-bartlett/2018/essentials-of-the-us-health-care-system_5e.php...