Government policies have a significant effect on care coordination. One of the effects is that it influences the financing for care coordination. The government develops schemes and guidelines used in reimbursing healthcare providers involved in the care coordination process. An example of the ways in which the government regulates financing for care coordination is seen in policies such as the Affordable Care Act that establishes the models used in reimbursing healthcare providers. Government policies also affect care coordination by regulating resources utilized in the process. The government develops policies that strengthen equity in access to and utilization of resources in the patient care process. Healthcare providers have to abide with the developed guidelines for utilizing resources in the care process. The government also develops policies for care coordination. For example, it implemented HIPAA act to ensure the safe and efficient utilization of healthcare technologies in the care coordination process. Through the above roles, government contributes to quality, safety, and efficiency in care coordination by setting standards for use by healthcare providers. The standards assure optimum health to the patients involved in the care model (Gray et al., 2020).
Several policies affect care coordination in nursing homes. One of them is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). HIPAA is a policy that was implemented in the USA to ensure the safe use of health information technologies. The policy ensures organizational accountability in the promotion of data integrity. The policy holds nursing homes accountable for integrity of their patients’ data. As a result, they have to ensure privacy and confidentiality of the data of their patients. The Affordable Care Act is the other policy that affect care coordination in nursing homes. The Affordable Care Act was adopted in the USA with the aim of enhancing patient access to high quality, affordability, and availability of care. The act aims at ensuring equity in the access and utilization of healthcare services by the majority of the Americans. The act expanded the American population with health insurance coverage. The adoption of the ACA has enhanced care coordination in nursing homes by eliminating barriers to care such as cost and availability of healthcare providers to offer patients high quality care. Medicaid and Medicare are the other policies that affect care coordination in nursing homes. The policies influence the financing of healthcare organizations involved in the coordination of care. Medicare is one of the largest insurance provider to most than 40 million people in America. Medicare an Medicaid improve coordination of care by enhancing the affordability and access to care by the population irrespective of their backgrounds. They also minimize disease burden and eliminate barriers to access to healthcare due to influence of aspects such as cost and availability of care. Therefore, Medicare and Medicaid enhance care coordination by increasing the affordability of care given by the multidisciplinary teams (Dang & Dearholt, 2018).
Some national, state, and local policies raise ethical questions for care coordination. One of them is HIPAA provisions. As noted initially, HIPAA was established to ensure data integrity in healthcare. It safeguards the confidentiality and privacy of patient data. HIPAA provisions however raise ethical questions related to data integrity in the care coordination process. Healthcare providers involved in care coordination share patient data to make sound decisions on the care needed. The sharing of patient data raises concerns about its privacy and confidentiality. Patients should be assured that the sharing of private and confidential data will not be accessed by unauthorized parties in the care process. The other policy that raises ethical questions for care coordination is the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act was adopted with the main aim of increasing the proportion of the American population with medical insurance coverage. The increase in the population with medical insurance was anticipated to result in enhanced access to healthcare, including care coordination. Through it, the act could have address barriers to healthcare attributed to affordability and availability of healthcare services. The act has however undergone changes that have increased the requirements to be met by the majority of the poor population in America. The revisions in the act continually make it difficult for the poor to benefit from its provisions. The other issue that raises ethical questions for care coordination is healthcare access by ethnic minority populations in the USA. Accordingly, significant disparities in
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