Balanced Budget Act of 1997 is having an impact on health care providers by making cuts in Medicare and Medicaid fees. To understand what is happening requires conducting a literature review. This will provide specific insights as to how these changes are affecting the health care system over the long-term.
The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 has reshaped the way that health care providers are interacting with stakeholders (i.e. low income families and the elderly). According to Spector (2004) the reduction in the fees has meant that many facilities will not continue to offer different services to Medicare and Medicaid recipients. This results in an increase in the costs for receiving services that are an important part of their total health care solution. When this happens, they will no longer use these programs. This hurts the quality of care that they are obtaining. (Spector, 2004)
The information from this source is useful, because it is showing the long-term impacts of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 on Medicare and Medicaid patients. This is supporting the problem and the purpose of this study by illustrating the effects of these changes. At the same time, this is also answering several different research questions in the areas of: how this impacted quality, choices and the delivery of health care services. These facts are offering insights that help to improve the accuracy of the research by looking at the patient's perspective.
At the same time, different facilities will suffer from the reduced fees provided for Medicare and Medicaid....
Shlenker (2002) found that this can have an impact on many rural and inner city hospitals. This is because the majority of their patients will use these programs to help address their needs. When there is a reduction in the total amount of fees, this will have an impact on the financial well-being of these facilities. Moreover, many patients will be forced to
travel out of their way to receive treatment. In a number of cases, this will result in them not obtaining the kind of care they require. This is when these cuts will have an impact on their health and the types of services that are readily available. (Shlenker, 2002)
The information from this source is showing the effect that the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 is having on rural and inner city health care facilities. This is directly supporting the problem statement by highlighting how there is a loss in
treatment options. The way that this is occurring is through forcing patients to pay more (which they cannot afford). In the future, this will impact when and where they are receiving these kinds of services.
At the same time, this is supporting the
purpose statement by showing how these changes are causing them to use less of these solutions. Furthermore, this is sustaining the research questions that are concentrating on: the impact to providers, the types of services that are offered and the way patients receive them. These elements are showing how the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 is hurting health care facilities that are working with some of the most
vulnerable.
Moreover, Bazzoli (2004) found that Balanced Budget Act of 1997 had a negative impact on all health care facilities. This is because the cuts were coming…
