Impact of Health Care Policy and Determinants
Part 1
Research health care policy and health care determinants.
- Explain the importance of health care policy and its impact on health care determinants.
The importance of healthcare policy is to offer standardization in the daily operational activities of the healthcare providers. Healthcare policies are crucial because they provide clarity to the medical practitioners when they deal with activities and issues which are critical to the safety and health, regulatory requirements, as well as legal liabilities. The importance of healthcare policy is to set a plan of action that guides the desired outcome that helps to make decisions (Longest, 2002). Healthcare policy also helps to communicate to the employees concerning the desired result of the organization and thus will make employees strive towards attaining the organizational goal (Stadhouders et al. 2019). Healthcare policy affects the cost that the citizens will pay, their accessibility to care as well as the care that they will get, which will, in turn, influence their general health (Longest, 2002). Health care policies also help to find out the different health care determinants, and the health care professionals will be able to ascertain whether the services they offer to their patients are quality or not.
Part 2
Complete the following chart. Use the weekly textbook readings and other resources you have researched to support your answers:
| Identify the four different forms of health care policy. | Identify an example of each form identified. | Classify the form identified into one of the two categories of the health care policy. | Describe why the health care form identified fits in the category identified (15 to 45 words). |
| 1. Insurance policy | A good example of insurance policy is when people pay premiums to insurance that in turn caters for their medical expenses when they fall ill (Longest, 2002). | Allocative healthcare policy whereby in case someone falls ill, the insurance has to pay up for the expenses incurred as long as the person paid premiums (Longest, 2002). | Insurance policy fits into this category because money will have to be taken from the insurance and pay up for the expenses incurred (Longest, 2002). |
| 2. Healthcare service provider policy | Patient care policy is an excellent example as it points out how the medical practitioners are expected to take care of the patients that are under them. | Regulatory healthcare policy since there are regulations that will have to be followed. | The policies that are put in place help to standardize and control the medical practitioners in the sense that they have to handle the patients uniformly (Longest, 2002). The regulations depend on the medical facilities or the healthcare providers where the medical practitioners work. |
| 3. Pharmaceutical policy | An excellent example of a pharmaceutical policy is the safety of the medication to ensure that they are kept in safe places and that the patients get the right dose for the medicines that they are supposed to get from the medical facility (Longest, 2002). | It is a regulatory healthcare policy because the medical facility in general, and the pharmacists, in particular, should ensure that they observe the laid down guidelines for the safety of the patients in general (Longest, 2002). | This healthcare form fits in this category because pharmacists have a duty of care. They are expected to take care of all the medicines in the pharmacy and ensure that they replace the ones that go bad (Longest, 2002). Besides, the pharmacists should also make sure that they give the right medications to the patients, and their prescriptions should also align with the doctor’s recommendations. |
| 4. Policies are related to public health. | Policies related to public health ensure that public health professionals carry out their duties as expected (Longest, 2002). They should be in opposition to offer their services to the general public by their code of ethics, and the guidelines that define their profession. | It is a regulatory healthcare policy because the public health officials are expected to work in a particular way as defined by their code of ethics (Longest, 2002). They should offer their services to the members of the general public in such a way that these people will be satisfied, and observe the measures that are put in place to deal with particular challenges that they may face. | This healthcare form fits in the identified category because the public health professionals have to act in their power to ensure that they send the right message to the members of the public (Longest, 2002). It is the responsibility of these professionals to make sure that they have all the necessary knowledge and resources to educate the members of the general public on how they will manage to deal with some of the challenges that they face. |
Part 3
- Describe how the different forms of health care policy can be used to shape future policies.
The different forms of healthcare policy can be used to shape future policies in the sense that the various medics and healthcare service providers will know what is expected of them. The healthcare field is extensive, and the policies depend on the type of field that one is in; therefore people will have to act according to the roles that they play (Stadhouders et al. 2019). Besides, the policies also help the medical practitioners to observe their code of conduct (Longest, 2002). They will be able to act according to their professional ethics as they observe the policies that are put in place in the healthcare facilities where they work. In most cases, the policies of these facilities and the professional code of ethics of these medical practitioners often align one another (Longest, 2002). These policies will help to shape the future as long as there is a standard operating procedure that these professionals observe. If there is a standard in these procedures, the patients will be able to get quality care, and they will be satisfied with the services that they get from the healthcare facilities.
Reference
Longest, B. B. (2002). Health policymaking in the United States.
Stadhouders, N., Kruse, F., Tanke, M., Koolman, X., & Jeurissen, P. (2019). Effective healthcare cost-containment policies: a systematic review. Health Policy, 123(1), 71-79.