Healthcare policy and procedures help standardize daily operational activities in every organization. Health policy enhances clarity in dealing with critical issues of health and safety, regulatory requirements, and legal formalities. Even though the role of health policy cannot be disputed, how it is managed justifies the quality of care. As a health administrator, one should develop robust solutions for managing policy to improve efficiency and productivity in the facility and prevent a possible breach of regulations. A plan of action is established in healthcare to guide the desired outcomes and decision-making by implementing policies (Wilensky & Teitelbaum, 2019). The health administrator also communicates to employees the organizational goals and their responsibilities based on policy. All health policies should set the foundation for delivering safe and cost-effective quality care. With the rise of new regulations and requirements in healthcare, the existing policies are continuously improved to promote health outcomes. This paper explores how Medicaid impacts the performance of a healthcare organization.
Medicaid is an allocative health policy that concerns the collection of taxes from the public and redistributing it by providing free health insurance to people who cannot afford it. It was formed at various extensions and revisions to multiple laws and requirements within the legal confines of the US healthcare system. Medicaid has been modified to ensure mandatory coverage of medication-assisted treatment, which constitutes a near-universal guarantee from birth to retirement (CMMS, 2020). Medicaid required every US citizen should apply for health insurance coverage. Through Medicaid, welfare and social insurance programs have been created for reviewing and comparing health insurance plans (Brodie et al., 2020). Such comparison has helped enhance patients’ care and safety. As an administrator, healthcare professionals will have better opportunities for efficient delivery of services if patients are covered. The health facility will offer affordable and quality services to the growing patient population. In such consideration, administrators need to work to achieve such experience in relevant workplaces. Update of the policy will reduce the number of uninsured Americans and improve enrolment in the program.
Medicaid will facilitate a series of health insurance coverage reforms to increase patients’ access to care services. However, new rules need to be established in the health insurance industry and new markets to accelerate insurance purchases. Since the policy is a legal expectation of citizens, health facilities will strengthen the existing forms of health insurance coverage. Such a process builds an affordable insurance market for a person with no employer coverage (CMMS, 2020). By extending the policy to cover all US taxpayers, the private health industry has eliminated possible prices and covered discrimination to evade adverse selection. The Medicaid policy is a symbol of efforts to revise the economic relationships between the Americas and the healthcare system to address the current health insurance crisis involving people, healthcare, and the federal budget. Such reinvention links between Americans and health insurance lie at the core of the legal battle over the constitutionality of Medicaid (Brodie et al., 2020). For instance, all citizens use or need care, but the issue emerges from paying for it. Therefore, universal coverage is virtually impossible without Medicaid since it stabilizes the national healthcare system’s insurance foundation.
Medicaid policy has been significant in setting standards for health insurers providing products to individuals and employer-sponsored health benefit plans. The adjustments will expand on the functions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 (CMMS, 2019). Under Medicaid, the insurance departments are required to implement and reinforce laws as part of their legal oversight powers. The implementation of federal insurance regulations is voluntary because states cannot be forced to adopt them. However, the functions of the federal standards within Medicaid are to ban discrimination against patients, exclusions from preexisting conditions, and extended waiting periods in accessing care (CMMC, 2020). Medicaid has also been improved to accommodate wellness activities within the workplace. In addition to regulating insurance and health plan markets and subsidizing coverage, Medicaid allows exchanges between individuals and businesses. Such consideration simplifies and eases insurance purchasing by creating a one-stop shopping market that satisfies federal and state standards.
Overall, as a health administrator, Medicaid is a significant health policy associated with the allocation of resources to enhance care through in-patient and out-patient services. Medicaid is vital in realigning the healthcare systems for long-term effects on quality, practice, and transparency of information. Reviews in Medicare and Medicaid influence changes in insurance coverage, such as medication-assisted treatment. Underserved populations have increased accessibility to primary care through ACA since insurance coverage will be near-universal. Medicaid directs public resources to expand the community health centers, which increases the number of patients served. For health professionals, Medicaid will facilitate new investments in training for improved service delivery. Medicaid has fundamental impacts on public health policy, such as funding opportunities vital to enhancing the American healthcare system. Therefore, as a health administrator, I perceive Medicaid as a transformational tool in the healthcare system that should be revised to address the allocation of health funds.
References
Brodie, J. M., Pastore, C., Rosser, E., & Selbin, J. (2020). Poverty law, policy, and practice. Aspen Publishers.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2018). Medicare & you 2019: The official U.S. government Medicare handbook. Independently Published.
Wilensky, S. E., & Teitelbaum, J. B. (2019). Essentials of health policy and law. Jones & Bartlett Learning.