Reforms undertaken within the health care system within the United States have had notable impacts towards improving on overall capacity to deliver on best possible care services to individual patients. The federal government has been on the forefront in the implementation of legislations that would help towards creating effective frameworks that would capitalize on the use of technology. However, this has created a major challenge touching on the vulnerability of such data while considering the type of technologies used as part of health service delivery. The federal government has also been involved in the enactment of legislations that govern the aspect of privacy and security focusing on the data collected from patients. The legislations seek to compel health care facilities towards taking accountability for the technologies that they adopt while ensuring that they report any issues of data breaches.
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has had a great influence towards promoting continuous insurance coverage for workers in the event that they lose or change their jobs. That means that a worker is guaranteed of insurance coverage regardless of the change in employment status. Additionally, HIPAA has also been of great value towards reducing administrative costs of health care taking into account that it creates the need for health facilities to adopt standardized electronic transmission for both administrative and financial transactions (Wendler, 2006). The impact of the legislation can be seen with regard to dealing with cases of abuse, fraud, and waste within the health care system as a way of ensuring that health care facilities are able to deliver on the best possible care for their patients.
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American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was stimulus package that was adopted by the federal government with the aim of ensuring that the country would be able to respond to the Great Recession of 2008. The adoption of the legislation was seen as key towards countering the fact that the country was facing a key challenge in terms of job losses resulting from the recession. In health care, ARRA was seen as being essential towards increasing overall government spending in different areas of health. The total spending in health care as a result of the act was $155.1 billion. Out of this amount, $86.8 billion was directed towards covering the additional Medicare costs associated with the recession (Wilson, 2012). Additionally, the government invested $25.9 billion on health information technology and incentive payments as a way of ensuring that the sector would maintain its capacity to deliver best possible care services.
Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act is a legislation that was enacted under Title XIII of ARRA, which specifically focused on the investment in health information technology. The act sought to ensure that the United States Department of Health and Human Services would spend $25.9 billion with the focus being towards promoting and expanding the adoption of different health information technologies. The main impact of the act was that it led to the aggressive adoption of the use of electronic health records (EHR) with the goal being towards improving on quality and safety standards (Buntin, Jain, & Blumenthal, 2010). The act also paved the way for enhanced efficiencies in the use of technology as part of the health care service delivery platform to help in improving care for the population.
Health Goals Achieved
From an analysis of the three legislations, what is clear is that they have all been of great value towards ensuring that the health care sector is able to move towards specific goals and objectives. The first major health goal that has been achieved relates to the fact that health care facilities have been able to adopt ‘meaningful use’ of health information technologies, including the use of EHRs (Blumenthal, 2011). The impact that this has had on the quality of care is that it has helped towards creating a new standard through which health facilities are able to maximize on their abilities to deliver the best possible care to their patients. The technologies adopted have helped improve care coordination as a way of enhancing overall capacity to deliver best possible care outcomes in health care settings.
The second health goal that has been achieved relates to notable improvements on matters of privacy and security, especially in trying to reduce instances where health facilities would face data breaches. The adoption of the legislations was seen as one of the key steps towards ensuring that health care facilities actually maximize on their capacities towards improving on data security as one of the key ways to maintain their accountability. The enactment of the HIPAA was seen as one of the safeguards that would seek to ensure that health facilities would report any data breaches that they experience (Menachemi & Collum, 2011). From that view, it is clear that indeed health institutions have been able to create effective standards that allow them to protect patient data and privacy.
The third health goal that has been achieved through the adoption of the legislations relates to the fact that a higher number of people have been able to access long-term care services. Improved access to health care services has been considered as one of the notable milestones achieved as part of health care reforms within the United States considering that this has allowed more people to receive quality and affordable care. The legislations have paved the way for compliance with regard to setting out policy frameworks on what would be expected in trying to improve on care. In overall, this has had a significant impact on the health care sector towards changing the way the industry is structured as a way of maximizing on the possibility of having to improve on national standards.
Future Legislation
A legislation that would help control costs and improve the security of health information would involve adoption of a policy that would aid in the protection of the patient as one of the key expectations in promoting data security. In this legislation, health care facilities would be expected to focus much of their attention towards protection of the patients while considering that data security is one of these expectations. Another key legislation that would be of value in controlling costs would involve adoption of a policy that would cap costs of health care services. The policy would seek to provide a range for the costs of health care services offered, which would be essential in maintaining affordability of different health services. The impact that the legislation would have on the health care sector is that it would help in reducing the possibility of exploitation by health care institutions and pharmaceutical companies that only focus on their profits.
References
Blumenthal, D. (2011). Implementation of the federal health information technology initiative. New England Journal of Medicine , 365 (25), 2426-2431.
Buntin, M. B., Jain, S. H., & Blumenthal, D. (2010). Health information technology: laying the infrastructure for national health reform. Health Affairs , 29 (6), 1214-1219.
Menachemi, N., & Collum, T. H. (2011). Benefits and drawbacks of electronic health record systems. Risk management and healthcare policy , 4 , 47.
Wendler, D. (2006). One-time general consent for research on biological samples: is it compatible with the health insurance portability and accountability act?. Archives of internal medicine , 166 (14), 1449-1452.
Wilson, D. J. (2012). Fiscal spending jobs multipliers: Evidence from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy , 4 (3), 251-82.
