Costs and Delivery Healthcare System

Introduction
The delivery health care system takes into account the assimilation of physicians, healthcare facilities, together with other medical services with plan to facilitate the provision of the total continuum of medical care for its consumers. In a whole incorporated system, the three fundamental components including physicians, medical facilities and the membership to health plans are counterpoised in terms of equating medical resources with the necessities of patients and purchasers (Coddington, Moore, and Fischer., 1994). One of the key concerns in the present delivery of healthcare is cost. Increasing costs of healthcare has been a major worry in the past number of years, making the United States to have one of the most expensive systems of healthcare. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the different costs linked to healthcare delivery system, and delineate the manner in which these costs impact different populations and how it also affects health care delivery.
Analyze the different costs associated with the healthcare delivery system
The health care sector comprises of a range of clinicians, hospitals, together with other health care organizations, insurance plans together with buyers of health care services, all functioning in different configurations of groups, networks, in addition to independent practices. In its entirety, this is what is referred to as the health care delivery system. Imperatively, numerous costs are incurred in rendering healthcare. The costs associated with the healthcare delivery system can be quantified into direct costs and indirect costs. On the one hand, direct costs more often than not signify the costs linked with the utilization of medical resources. In essence, direct costs are largely delineated as the expenditures that that can be traced back to a particular healthcare visit or practice. Imperatively, direct costs take into account all of the costs that are associated to hand-on or practical patient care and those that can be directly apportioned to a certain kind of medical visitation or surgical case (Finkler and Ward, 1999). There is no overriding foundation for apportioning costs for the reason that they can be directly linked back to the delivery of particular patient healthcare services. For instance, the direct costs associated to outpatient healthcare delivery comprise of medication, medical supplies, special ancillary testing, labor time for physicians and nurses, anesthesia, and special equipment (Finkler and Ward, 1999). As outlined by Boccuzzi (2003), more often than not, direct costs signify the costs linked with medical resource utilizing, which comprise of in-patient and out-patient consumption, and pharmaceutical services that are encompassed within the health care delivery system.
On the other hand, indirect costs are fundamental constituents of the costing framework or model. Different from direct costs, indirect costs are the ones that do not have any direct contribution to the production of one particular service. It is imperative to note that they cannot be assessed or measured based on one procedure to another. Rather, indirect costs are sustained to provide support and backing to all patient care activities. A fitting instance of an indirect cost is a surgery table purchased or procured by an ambulatory surgery center (Finkler and Ward, 1999).
Describe how the costs affect different populations and how this affects healthcare delivery
Costs incurred in healthcare delivery have an impact not only on different populations but also on the carrying out of such healthcare delivery. According to Cunningham (2009), the increasing costs of medical care poses a major threat to the efficacious delivery of medical care, which is that it impacts patient trust towards physicians and continuity of care. Notably, with patient populations being more exposed to higher medical costs could give rise to increase skepticism in addition to diminished trust of the decision making of physicians and thereby leading to healthcare delivery being less efficacious. Another significant and notable impact of increasing healthcare costs is the fear of medical bills by populations. The impact of this is that progressively more patient populations are opting to skip medical visits. In accordance to Gillies (2018), recent surveys have indicated that 44 percent of patient populations in the United States have reported that they shoes not to go to the doctor or physician when injured or sick owing to the reason that they were apprehensive of the financial encumbrances that would result from it. Furthermore, statistics also indicated that 40 percent pointed out that they avoided a recommended medical treatment or medical visitation.
According to Fairbanks and Candelaria (1998) increasing healthcare costs have an impact on both public and private financing systems. It is imperative to note that resources are limited and restricted and therefore when the costs of healthcare increase and take up a greater proportion of the budget, decreased amount of funds are available for other healthcare coverage programs. Notably, providers of primary care function as gatekeepers, by controlling the accessibility of the patients to the specialty services provided by institutions and also medical procedures and tests, and also restrict the hospital stays for the patients. The downside to this is the limitation to patients in terms of accessing quality and sufficient medical care.
An additional impact of the high healthcare costs takes into account decreased accessibility to medical services and also poor healthcare quality. Research has demonstrated that there is a correlation between increasing patient cost encumbrance and utilization of health services, pointing toward the conclusion that when patients incur higher healthcare costs they are less likely to gain accessibility to treatment. Consequently, when patients fail to capitalize on essential healthcare services, their general health suffers. Based on surveys undertaken this year, statistics indicate that 19 percent of patients attempt to diminish costs by gaining access to medical care at outwardly less pricey medical facilities, for instance, clinics or urgent care centers. Nonetheless, these patients are usually relocated to emergency departments regardless. What is more, the patients that opt to lengthen or protract their visits to the emergency department when concerning healthcare concerns emanate can substantially damage their health in the longstanding period. For instance, patients suffering from chest patients might chose to disregard their medical symptoms as being indigestion owing to the fear of paying high medical costs when actually they might be suffering from a cardiac problem. In such instances, devoid of early and immediate intervention the patient end up experiencing worsened health conditions (Heath, 2017).
Discuss how the costs of healthcare impact different patient populations
The costs of healthcare have a significant impact on different patient populations. One of the population of the patients that is largely affected by increases in health care costs are those that are uninsured. It is imperative to note that there is a greater likelihood that uninsured adults will delay to obtain health care services or completely go without healthcare owing to the high costs. For instance, statistics indicate that more than 27 percent of adults in the United States that are insured delayed obtaining health care or even completely went without such needed medical care owing to the reasons that the cost was high (Cox and Sawyer, 2018). Another patient population that is largely affected by the increase in health care costs is patients with worse health conditions. Patients suffering from chronic conditions such as cancer experience high costs of care due to the high costs for the medical procedures needed and also the medical procedures. Imperatively, adults suffering from chronic conditions and also those in worse health are more likely than others to experience challenges in gaining accessibility to medical care owing to the high costs to be incurred. In accordance to Cox and Sawyer (2018), adults in worse health have extensively reported more cost-associated access issues in comparison to those in better health. Statistics indicate that approximately one in every three adults who pointed out being in worse conditions, critical care or suffering from chronic conditions also reported challenges and issues in paying costs four routine healthcare procedures in addition to facing problems in paying off medical bills in the course of time.
The aging patient population is another one that is largely affected by the increasing health care costs. Majority of the population in the United States pay for their medical expenses through Medicare and Medicaid. With the healthcare costs increasing and with the aging population of those retired and those nearing retiring becoming higher, it implies that there will be decreased funds for coverage. The effect of this is that the aging patient population will be forced to cover a great deal of their individual healthcare costs. The downside to this is that a higher number of people will be unable to afford the superior level of healthcare that usually comes about with aging. Furthermore, it is imperative to note that roughly 64 percent of Medicaid is spent on patient populations that comprise of the elderly and the disabled. However, with the costs of healthcare increasing, it implies that these recipients will either be obligated to move out of nursing homes into the care of their households or families, or opt to gain access to medical care to poorer healthcare facilities where the care rendered is usually questionable (Lewis, 2018).
Based on an article by Remak (2015), the increased healthcare costs impact baby boomers that live with chronic conditions, for instance diabetes, multiple sclerosis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and hepatisis C. Notably, these increased costs of healthcare are forcing these patient populations to either choose to pay for their medication or paying for basic necessities such as food, clothing, and rent for themselves and their families. A number of health insurers, for instance, have started increasing the costs of patients’ important medications, which is positioning the cost of treatment past the grasp of several patients. Instead of paying a predetermined, expected copayment, several patients are at the present moment being forced to pay for a percentage of the total costs of the medication. The impact of this is that the patients end up failing to afford their medications, and as a result they either undertreat their medical conditions or cease obtaining medical treatment altogether (Remak, 2015).
Conclusion
The high costs of health impact the quality of care rendered and also force patients to evade seeking medical treatments and going for medical visits owing to the fear of high costs. The costs of healthcare impact different patient populations. The uninsured patient population are bound to delay obtaining medical care or choose not to go for such care entirely owing to the high out-of-pocket costs they are bound to pay for healthcare. Chronically ill patients are another patient population that is significantly affected by high costs. Medical care required by this patient population necessitates several and intense medical procedures that are costly. The aging patient population is another one that is largely affected by the increasing health care costs. The aging patient population will be enforced to cover a great deal of their individual healthcare costs. The shortcoming to this is that a higher number of people will be incapable of having enough money the superior level of healthcare that usually comes about with aging.



References
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