Essay Example: Implementing Policies in the Healthcare Delivery System

The principal purpose of policies in healthcare is to effectively communicate to healthcare practitioners on the desired outcomes of the entire facility. In particular, strategies enhance the delivery of cost-effective and safe quality care. Ideally, healthcare policies and regulations play a prominent role in offering effective standardization of the operational activities daily (Levinson & Levy, 2020). Policy in healthcare is an integral aspect as it provides the basis of the guideline to assist in decision-making (Sharpe, 2019). Therefore, with the swiftly increasing new requirements and regulations, for example, the Affordable Care Act, which includes services from Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the HIPAA, there is a meaningful need to set significant policies and communicate the procedures effectively to the healthcare providers. Healthcare compliance is vitally the process of following laws and regulations that govern healthcare practices (Mattie et al., 2019). A lot of healthcare compliance issues primarily arise from sectors such the billing practices, patient safety, and patient information privacy. Mattie et al. ( 2019) note that the primary aim of compliance in healthcare is thus to enhance organizational adherence to the private-payer healthcare requirements and the appropriate federal and state laws. Effective policies can, therefore, circumvent practices like waste, fraud, and abuse.

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Healthcare compliance policies impact every healthcare provider and organization. Factors such as quality and cost concerns, along with paying for and caring for the patient's treatments, contribute to the greatest urgency for policy changes (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). There are regularly changing provisions within the Medicare and Medicaid Services, state law and regulations, and other federal healthcare requirements. As a result, for every new rule or regulation, the policies must be updated, created, and disseminated to healthcare providers. However, the task of ensuring that the new policies and regulations are effectively communicated throughout the organization can, at times, be tough and time-consuming. Therefore effective communication strategies through the use of modern technologies and education can significantly help in providing a controlled framework for disseminating and communicating policies within the healthcare facility (Mattie et al., 2019). A significant comprehensive communication strategy that I would propose would include the development, implementation, and distribution of written new policies and regulations that would ensure effective health compliance among the employees (Bowen et al., 2015). The strategies should also include practical training and education programs to the care providers and maintain efficient communication lines that enable the reporting of compliance reports.

References

Bowen, R. K., Chestler, A., Coomes, D., Dooling, J. A., Fuller, B., Grijalva, C., Stewart, E. (2015). Policy and Procedure Considerations for Health Information Exchange Organizations. Journal of AHIMA, 86(8), 36-39.

Levinson, A. T., & Levy, M. M. (2020). Protocols, Policies, and Procedures: Tools for Quality Improvement in Critical Care. In Critical Care Administration (pp. 127-136). Springer, Cham.

Mattie, A. S., Charlier, S. D., West, S., & Runyan, J. D. (2019). Educating healthcare compliance professionals: Identification of competencies. Journal of Education for Business, 1-8.

Salmond, S. W., & Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare transformation and changing roles for nursing. Orthopedic nursing, 36(1), 12.

Sharpe, L. (2019). Policy implementation. And PolitiCs A Nurse's Guide, 101.