Providing Cost Effective Care without Limiting Access
Introduction
Providing affordable care is a professional characteristic of (APN) Advanced Nurse
Practitioner’s responsibility when taking care of clients. Diagnostic procedures in most of the
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time assist in making therapeutic decision-making. However, these procedures can contribute
substantially to the expenditure of medical attention. Testing is crucial in medication, but if
used improperly, it can bring considerable expenditure and not lend much for diagnostic
accuracy. Therefore, the following discussion will indulge in discussing the importance of
enhancing care that is cost-effective without restraining access. In addition, paper will discuss
how care can be made more affordable. The paper concludes by suggesting ways on how to
maintain cost effectiveness in the provision of cost-effective care without ordering
unnecessary diagnostic exams.
Discussion
Providing care that is cost-effective without restraining access has a number of
considerable benefits. Considering that the cost of health care services in the U.S. is
increasing every year, government and other health stakeholders are looking for ways on how
to health care affordable. One importance noticed by Greene (2015) is that cost-effective care
will automatically relieve the heavy burden carried by health providers. For instance, health
organizations can fight turnover costs of their nurses. This is because saved costs are usually
used in motivating and retaining nurses. Persad (2015) argues that this will save the health
organization the costs of advertising, and the overall costs employed to market nursing
positions in the effort to recruit and employ nurses to take the turnover vacancies. This
importance leads to another importance of increased productivity, which is one of the main
agendas for the existence of a health organization as a business. Another importance
regarding providing cost-effective care without limiting access is an improvement in
providing quality healthcare. This is because cost effective care ensures that there is enough
money saved to revolutionize medication administration, communication improvement,
facilitate intensified and extensive follow-up, as well as client engagement (Greene, 2015).
Considerably, affordable care without limited access facilitates coordination of patient care to
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decrease unneeded assessment and processes. Besides, a health facility can work effectively
with other health providers such as case managers to ensure that there is safe and well-timed
hospital discharge. Finally, transparency is witnessed when there is cost effective care
(Persad, 2015). When cost effective care is put on the ground, nurses and medical
practitioners do not find it necessary to direct a client to unnecessary diagnosis or procedures.
Rather, the practitioners inform the patients all matters in black and white and involve other
professionals in it.
Health care expenditures remain a key challenge to most Americans in accessing
quality health care in the U.S. Greene (2015) argues that although such Act as the Affordable
Care Act strives to make every American get affordable care, there has been limitation in
accessing the health care services. One method to get affordable health care, Greene (2015),
for instance, is by patients avoiding scheduling non-medically illustrated labor instructions
before thirty-nine weeks. This is meant to reduce the use of unnecessary imaging
assessments, for example, early utilization of MRI or CT for mild complaints that will
automatically disappear on their own. Dana (2011) continued to assert that most unnecessary
tests and procedures expose a patient to radiation and unwanted surgery.
Ann (2011) who added that the inaccessibility to affordable care is because of the
complexity of health care echoes Dana’s argument. Ann (2011), an endocrinologist at
Maryland Medical Center, argues that the only affordable care that can be made available to
Americans is patient-centered care. In other words, Ann (2011) calls for an absolute
simplification of the processes involved in mediation in the interest of the patients. Ann
(2011) continued to assert that many patients give up in the quest for affordable health due to
inconveniences of bureaucratic procedures in accessing health care. However, Joe (2011), a
cardiologist at John Hopkins Bayview, appears on the realm of this discussion about
affordable health care by attesting that the reason behind inaccessibility to affordable health
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care is the continued rising costs of health care. Greene (2015) echoes this statement by
arguing that patients have to be assisted financially to access health care.
Another alternative to making care affordable is by empowering non-physician
providers. This empowerment will ensure that non-physicians such as advanced-practice
nurses practice entirety of their training (Persad, 2015). Progressively, these providers will
expand the workforce, which will necessarily lower prices to make health care affordable.
Making medical insurance cover cheaper will also aim at making health care affordable.
Health insurance exchange plans are reasons behind unaffordable health care (Greene, 2015).
These costs make makes it hard to make health care affordable.
By fostering efficient communication between health care providers and patients, cost
effectiveness can be maintained, and make doctors acquire the required data for a diagnosis
without ordering pointless diagnostic assessments. Contributing in the Choosing Wisely, Ann
(2011) argued that poor communication between the two parties hinders accessibility for
affordable health care. When there is coherent communication between providers and patient,
Greene (2015), there is a better discussion about tests and procedures, and the patient will be
able to make the decision about his or her condition. For instance, when a man is suffering
from prostate cancer is fed with information regarding the treatment of the disease he might
not seek medication. Persad (2015) argues that this is because the condition is unlikely to
affect him before he dies due to other causes. Therefore, the patient will not go for testing and
scanning, as they become unnecessary. Although health care resources are abundant, they are
however utilized improperly. Dana (2011) who argued that nurse practitioners do not know
the costs of health are procedures gave this statement. He also added that many billions of
money is wasted each year through unnecessary services such as fraud and excessive
administrative expenditures. Therefore, Persad (2015), the physician ends up recommending
unnecessary diagnostic procedures. Thus, there is need to educate the physician about the
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cost of the health care procedure, which they will be using to reevaluate their decisions before
prescribing unwanted medical procedures and tests. In addition, nurse practitioners need to be
supplied with comprehensive copies of the cost of each test. According to Dana (2011), this
will assist them in getting back to the list and evaluate whether it is effective to carry out a
diagnostic test.
Summary
In conclusion, it can be deducted from the above discussion that nurse practitioners
can unintentionally result in unnecessary medical testing and procedure. This leads to misuse
of resources leading to cost-ineffectiveness. However, this can be averted if there is
established good communication between providers and patients to reduce the numbers of
unnecessary procedures and tests. Altogether, affordable care will be made available to the
patients if medical insurance premiums are made affordable and the workforce of nurse
practitioners expanded.
References
Ann, M. (18 Aug, 2011). Choosing Wisely. The Need to Simplify Health Care. [You Tube].
Dana, F. (18 Aug, 2011). Choosing Wisely: Knowing the Costs of Heath Care. [You Tube]
Retrieved on 10 July, 2015 from:
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Greene, S. (2015). A survey of emergency medicine residents’ perceptive of the choosing
wisely campaign. American journal of Emergency Medicine, (6),
853.
Joe, M. (18 Aug, 2011). Choosing Wisely: The Impact of Rising Costs on Health Care. [You
Tube].
