In the recent past, the United States healthcare system has undergone sporadic changes aimed at reforming and restructuring it. These changes have been majorly driven by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) OF 2010. Various regulations have been introduced in this law, and several standards aim to improve access to healthcare, reduce healthcare costs, and improve the quality of care. Nurses have therefore been tasked or presented with new roles and responsibilities, which are vital in prompt response to the changes that the act has brought about. This paper seeks to examine the various changes that have been introduced to reform and restructure healthcare in the U.S healthcare delivery system, discuss the impacts of these changes on nursing practice and the role of nurses in implementing these changes, discuss nursing professional leadership and management roles and also give a prediction of two ways in which nursing practice and nursing roles will grow and transform within the next five years in response to upcoming trends and predicted issues in healthcare.
One of the most significant reforms and changes in the U.S. healthcare system in the past years is the introduction of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010. This law was formed with the central aim of reforming and restructuring the healthcare system through expanding the number of people covered by insurance, healthcare quality improvement, and healthcare cost reduction. Specifically, the introduction of ACA has led to the adoption of various rules, regulations, and standards for quality healthcare delivery. This has also included establishing changes in health insurance, Medicaid eligibility expansion, reintroduction of quality measures, and pay-for-performance initiatives. This act has also enabled the establishment of various health insurance marketplaces. It established a federal and state health insurance marketplace known as exchanges that would make it easier for families and individuals to be in a better position to compare and purchase health insurance plans with an informed decision. Moreover, the act has helped in the prohibition of discriminatory acts based on some preexisting conditions; this means that ACA has illegalized denial of coverage by health insurance companies or the insurance companies charging higher payments in the form of premiums as a result of existing medical conditions.
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