Question

1. What are some of the reasons for increased healthcare expenditures attributable to providers and specifically physicians themselves? What influences their behavior? What are some remedies to help curb “defensive medicine”? How can patients as consumers be part of the solution?

2. What is the Donabedian model for defining and measuring quality in healthcare organizations? What elements of structure, process, and outcomes are most dependent upon the provider? the patient? the payor? the policymakers?

3. In your opinion and based on what you have learned about the Affordable Care Act, which facet of Donabedian’s model did the Affordable Care Act seek first and foremost to address? What were the expectations for how the other two facets would be impacted?

4. The Institutes of Medicine define QUALITY as “the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge. How do you think healthcare quality should be defined? How should it be measured under your definition?

Answer 1

Answer 1: There are several reasons for increased healthcare expenditures attributable to providers and specifically physicians themselves. Some of the factors which influences the healthcare expenditures are such as the continous growth in the population. The another most important reason is the aging. The population of ageing people has been increasing day by day. This also leads to directly increase in the chronic or long term diseases. The utilitzation of the medical services directly influences the cost.

The remedies to curb defensive medicine includes the various efforts that could be implemented. The minimization in the Medical errors, increasing the quality of care, enhancing the time spent with the patient as well as supporting the healthcare professionals can reduce the defensive medicine. This involves both the patient as well as the healthcare professionals. The increase quality of care provided to the patients/ consumers reduces the chances of poor health outcomes.