Finance and Reimbursement Has Been

¶ … finance and reimbursement has been increasingly brought to the forefront for a number of providers. Part of the reason for this, is because health care costs have been rising exponentially. Evidence of this can be seen by looking no further than a study that was conducted by the Kaiser Foundation. They found that in 2010, health insurance premiums increased by an average of 14% nationwide. The reason why, is because the industry has been experiencing large increases in the costs of delivering a variety of services.

("Costs of Your Health Plan," 2010) This is problematic, because it can have an adverse impact on health organizations, as they are forced to pass these costs on to patients. Once this takes place, it means that many hospitals will begin to see declining profit margins from a reduction in the number of services that are being provided. At the same time, many government programs are paying similar reimbursements, despite the sharp increases.

If left unchecked, these two issues can cause a number of health facilities to face the possibility of bankruptcy or closure over the long-term. In the case of California Hospital Medical Center, they have been dealing with similar issues. A few of the most notable include: there are limited sources of income and a lack of outside financial support for the facility. This is troubling, because these problems could cause the hospital to face severe financial challenges down the road.

To prevent this, requires examining various tools that will be utilized to effectively address these issues. This will be accomplished by: studying the resources that will be needed and determining how the effectiveness of the plan will be measured. Once this occurs, it will provide the greatest insights as to the underlying challenges that are facing the hospital and how they can effectively be mitigated in the future.

What will you need in terms of resources to make this plan work? To address the different challenges, California Hospital Medical Center will need to use a number of resources to include: the latest technology, effective leadership at the departmental / team level and greater amounts of coordination. Using the latest technology means, that we will be implementing various procedures and policies that are considered to be effective (i.e. electronic medical records).

As we will be utilizing this technology to: improve our ability to control costs and increase the quality of care that is being provided. This will help the hospital to be able to remain competitive against the other facilities in the area. (McLaughlin, 2006, pp. 600 -- 610) Effective leadership at the departmental / team level will help everyone to: be aware of these issues and what specific actions they can take to deal with these challenges. This will improve the ability of different departments to control costs.

While at the same time, it is helping them to efficiently utilize those resources that are in demand (which will prevent wasteful spending on materials that are unnecessary). (McLaughlin, 2006, pp. 600 -- 610) Greater amounts of coordination, is when you are working on: improving relations with the community and outside donors. This will allow the hospital to be able to have increased access to additional sources of funding (i.e. foundations and wealthy individuals).

They could help to: refocus the kinds of treatment options that are delivered at the facility and the culture inside the organization itself. Once this occurs, it means that the overall quality of care that patients are receiving will increase dramatically. If these different resources can be used as a part of the financing and reimbursement strategy; this will help to address the long-term challenges facing the facility. (McLaughlin, 2006, pp.

600 -- 610) How will the effectiveness (success) of your plan be measured? The effectiveness of our plan will be measured using two different types of tools to include: surveys and outside consultants. The use of surveys will be provided to staff members and patients. The basic idea is to see what areas they think could be improved upon, when it comes to reducing costs and increasing the quality of care.

("Patient Satisfaction Surveys," 2011) While consultants, could be used to monitor various factors that are affecting the costs and profit margins of the hospital. They could then, make specific recommendations about how these issues can be effectively addressed in the future. If these two tools can be utilized, it will help to ensure that California Hospital Medical Center is able to adjust and effectively monitor these changes in real time. We can then corroborate these findings, with the improvements in the bottom line results.

This will make the hospital more responsive to the challenges it.