ECON 472 : Healthcare Economics : Innovation Site Award and its Progr

The Health Care Innovation Awards is responsible for granting funds to eligible award applicants from the healthcare sector who strive to ensure implementation of novice ideas for delivering better healthcare services. The underlying aim is to lower the costs of healthcare for individuals enrolling in Medicare, Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Among the different awards given out, the “Avera Virtual Care Centre: Improving Care & Reducing Costs for the Vulnerable Elderly Population" project award encompasses the geographic reach of Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota with a funding of $8,827,573. The project aims to test the virtual wrapping of a distinct set of resident-centered comprehensive geriatric-care services in relation to long term care population. The main three driving factors of this project are provision of long term care facilities for residents marked by early and easy entrée to goal-directed care, enhancement of ability of care providers to assess long term care needs, and improvement of care transition managements.

A Virtual Care team is supposed to engage in hosting INTERACT II training sessions apart from setting up workshops on skill building addressing needs of long term care staff. This would facilitate extensive implementation of INTERACT II tools along with distinct treatment algorithms for supporting adequate and early identification and assessment of urgent care needs. The implementation would be supported and guided by optimal quality training and resources for promotion of resident care objectives.  For addressing the care access gap, the team is to offer assessments and visits in a regular manner. The services would be provided from a telemedicine hub that would be centrally located. For maximizing care continuity and safety across the points of care, the team would be promoting use of standardized processes and tools (innovation.cms.gov, 2018).

2. Impact of Affordable Care Act on hospital mergers

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) would surely make a distinct and far reaching impact on the healthcare industry in different ways. Research indicates that hospital mergers and acquisitions in the country are notable. Elements of the ACA would encourage such consolidations as mergers hold the potential to bring in a positive impact in relation to promotion of best care practices. Further, better quality initiatives can also be supported when a competitive marketplace in prevalent (Wendel, Serratt & O'Donohue, 2017). Nevertheless, mergers also have the ability to lead to monopolies that might lead to fewer choices and higher prices for patients. This might also come up as the reason for increase in health insurance deductibles and taxes for supporting Medicaid and Medicare. As a result, patients might access care services with lower costs, especially in the area of diagnostic and routine tests (Gaffney & McCormick, 2017).

References:

Gaffney, A., & McCormick, D. (2017). The Affordable Care Act: implications for health-care equity. The Lancet, 389(10077), 1442-1452.

Health Care Innovation Awards Round Two | Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation. (2018). Retrieved from https://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/Health-Care-Innovation-Awards/Round-2.html

Wendel, J., Serratt, T. D., & O'Donohue, W. (2017). Understanding healthcare economics: Managing your career in an evolving healthcare system. Productivity Press.