The Affordable Care act changed the way hospitals render their services to their patients immensely. It introduced a more patient driven system of healthcare where the healthcare providers are paid based on positive patient outcomes (Buehler et al., 2014). This was a shift from the traditional system where entities would pay the providers based on the number of patients treated, tests conducted, and all manner of services that charged a fee. The doctors were also put on renewable contracts to ensure they delivered quality, not just the usual treatment of as many patients as possible. Positive outcomes are reflected by the overall improved health status and frequent visits and test by patients.
The implications of these were overall focus on improved health status including mortality rates and general functionality regarding the cycle of care. The cycle of care involves the recovery time, complications that occurred and the pursuit for further treatment (Holt, 2014). The hospitals needed to ensure proper customer satisfaction levels in order to keep the funding for the hospital flowing. Another was the boost to the general nature of care and recovery. This would be quantified with the number of readmissions and the amount of time it took the patient to resume to normal activities. The measure would help increase the levels of patient satisfaction and positive reviews of the health service provider. The sustainability of the health service provider by ensuring affordable health care was also another implication of this act (Kirkland et al., 2018). This is especially important as the patients can report quality services made affordable to them and therefore sustainable.
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The main goal of this act was to provide healthcare that was centered more to the patient and not the health care provider. The assessment of this is usually done through Patient-Reported Outcomes(PROs) which was introduced to assess the providers and determine the funds disbursed to these entities. This changed the mentality of healthcare to a patient-focused one and ensuring there was value provided for their money. The financial budgets also had to be adjusted to fit the new system of funding that is anchored on the quality of service.
References
Buehler, H., Fischer, H. J., Fitzgerald, T., Merkx, D., Larson, E., & Ogle, B. (2014). U.S. Patent
No. 8,676,597 . Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Holt, N. F. (2014). Trends in healthcare and the role of the anesthesiologist in the perioperative
surgical home–the US perspective. Current Opinion in Anesthesiology , 27 (3), 371-376.
Kirkland, E. B., Heincelman, M., Bishu, K. G., Schumann, S. O., Schreiner, A., Axon, R. N., ...
& Moran, W. P. (2018). Trends in healthcare expenditures among US adults with hypertension: national estimates, 2003–2014. Journal of the American Heart Association , 7 (11), e008731.
