Physician accountability and structural factors in the healthcare crisis

Healthcare Crisis

Health insurance has gone up over the past two years as a result of a nationwide increase .insurance companies have the tendency of settling only a percentage of a patient's bill. The truth of the matter is patients are not the only people who suffer due to this crisis the doctors too fall victims as mots of them opt to close down since they are underpaid by the insurance companies as well as being forced to pay the yearly premiums for malpractice .physicians are taken as the ones who are at fault for the ongoing healthcare crisis. This is true to some extent but they are not the bones to blame entirely as there are many parties involved in this issue. First of all when we look at the money involved we can say that this crisis is the fault of insurance companies since they are out there with the aim of making money (Lipthrott, 2004). Secondly lawyers are to blame since there are many lawsuits that are filed on amendments which are costly and these costs trickle down to patients and escalate the insurance costs. Physicians are at fault when they try making up for loses through growing carelessness and overscheduling or even failing to communicate to a patient on insurance issues. Patients are also to blame when they get an outcome that is less than perfect and end up suing physicians when in the first place they did not get proper education on their health and treatment plans. Therefore we can not say that physicians are at fault for the healthcare crisis but not fully since there also other people who have an impact on this crisis (Lipthrott, 2004).

Medicare and Medicaid are two programs by the government which provide medical and services health related to particular groups within the United States. These two programs have certainly been a step forward in advancing healthcare in the U.S. The Medicaid program provides services to the citizens such as inpatient and outpatient hospital services, prenatal care, children vaccines, laboratory and x-ray services. Nurse-midwife services, rural healthcare clinics and so on. This program focusses on those people with low incomes but other factors are considered when determining the eligibility of an individual such as their age, disability status, pregnancy status and citizenship. Medicaid therefore ensures that those people who can not afford healthcare are able to get it through the program (Sharfstein, Fontanarosa,. & Bauchner,2010).

Medicare is an insurance program which pays for hospital and medical care for the disabled and elderly people in the United States. This program is efficient since it has successfully removed financial barriers which initially prevented the older people from seeking medical care at the same time narrowing the therapeutic alternatives that can be offered to them. Therefore these two programs are truly a step in advancement of healthcare in the U.S. since they target the vulnerable in the society; low income earners, elderly and disabled (Sharfstein, Fontanarosa & Bauchner, 2010).

All people who work in healthcare delivery systems have to understand how the healthcare e organizations are governed, managed and held accountable. Decisions and behaviors of board of directors and managers affect the amount and quality of the resources that stakeholders contribute to such organizations. Therefore those working in these healthcare organizations have to ensure that the systems are well run and managed. Owners and managers of healthcare organizations are held accountable by certain forces which are supposed to be satisfied.one of these forces is client satisfaction this is a very strong force since it is what pulls the owners and managers into ensuring that the healthcare organizations they are managing or heading are delivering the best and quality service to its clients. Another force is funding received for these organizations. Funding for running these organizations is received from various sources and has to be accounted for. Therefore owners and managers have to ensure that there is proper management of these funds since they are the ones to be held accountable incase of any issue that comes up.