Lecture 1/Chapter 1 & 2 Flashcards
Access to healthcare
- is access equitable (fair)
- who has access
- if we increase access to healthcare cost goes up
- ways to restrict access to healthcare: referrals and copays
cost of healthcare
-if we limit cost of healthcare we lower quality and restrict access to healthcare
quality of healthcare
- how do we maintain quality
- no one wants low quality healthcare
- quality is going to depend on access and cost of healthcare
- if we increase a
- we always want to maintain quality
American health care
- not everyone is automatically covered by health insurance
- no real health care “system”
- financing, insurance, delivery and payment
- not coherent
- no cooperation
organizations and individuals involved in american health care
- educational and research institutions
- medical suppliers
- insurers
- payers
- claims processors to health care providers
MCO’s
managed care organizations
government programs
- finance and insure health care for select groups of people who meet programs prescribed criteria for eligibility
- sometimes deliver certain health care services directly to certain recipients like veterans and military, native americans, some uninsured
- finances public insurance through medicare, medicaid and childrens health insurance program (CHIP)
- government doesnt oversee the whole “system”
employers
- purchase health insurance for employees through private sources
- employees receive health care from private sectors
public insurance
- medicaid
- medicare
- children health insurance program (CHIP)
- provide insurance low income, elderly, disabled, government employees, and pediatrics
- insurance arrangements for many publicly insured people are made through private entities like health maintenance organizations (HMO) -> blends private and public
- tax revenue is used
HMOs
health maintenance organizations
characteristics of US health care “system”
as a result of the mix of public and private:
- multiplicity of financial arrangements for health care services
- numerous insurance agencies or MCOs that have various mechanisms for insuring against risk
- multiple payers that make their own determinations regarding how much to pay for each type of service
- diverse setting where medical services are delivered
- numerous consulting firms offering expertise in planning, cost containment, electronic systems, quality and structuring of resources
US consumes more health care services than any other country
- no one is in control of the “system”
- capitalistic health care
- represents a greater proportion of the countrys total economic output
- not cost efficient service but some of the best
- not everyone has access
ideal health care system
- two primary objectives:
- enable all citizens to obtain needed care
- ensure that services are cost effective and meet certain established standards of quality
- US doesnt provide to all citizens and does not have cost effective services, but there is quality
quad function model
- health care delivery system incorporates 4 components
- financing
- insurance
- delivery
- payment
- degree of overlap varies between private and government run systems
financing
- necessary for obtaining health insurance or to pay for health care services
- employers mostly finance health care for employees (can extend to family)
- government finances in public programs
insurance
- protects the insured against financial catastrophe by providing expensive health care services when needed
- determines the package of health services that the insured person is entitled to receive
- specifies how and where health care may be received
- MCO or insurance company also functions as a claims processor and manages disbursement of funds to health care providers
delivery
-provision of health care services by various providers
provider
- refers to any entity that delivers health care services and either independently bills for those services or is supported through tax revenue
- physicians
- dentists
- optometrists
- therapists
- hospitals
- diagnostics
- imaging clinics
- suppliers of medical equipment
payment
- deals with reimbursement to providers for services delivered
- insurer determines how much is paid
- funds for actual disbursement come from the premiums paid to the MCO or insurance company
- at time of service pt usually pays copay
- remainder is covered by MCO or insurance company
- in medicare and medicaid tax revenues are used to pay providers
medicare
- for elderly and certain disabled individuals
- public insurance
- administered by federal government
medicaid
- for the indigent
- administered by federal and state government
Childrens health insurance program (CHIP)
- for children from low income families
- administered by state and federal government
problems with employee insurance
- some small businesses cant get group insurance at affordable rates
- in some places, participation in health insurance programs is voluntary -> some people dont join bc health insurance premiums are too expensive
- employers dont pay 100% of the insurance premiums
- self employed need to find their own insurance -> individual rates are higher
premium cost sharing
-when the employee offers health insurance premium and requires the employees to pay for a portion of it (its expensive)