The Health Care Scene: Contemporary Trends

The Health Care Scene: Contemporary Trends

Arianna Scott

HCA459: Senior Project

Prof. Kimberly Dixon-Lawson

July 8, 2013

The Health Care Scene: Contemporary Trends

The Health Care Reform, also known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, was signed by the Obama Administration in 2011. This act has several components in mind, which include access, fairness, sustainability, quality, and an individual’s right to health care. It has been a topic of priority within the government and other affiliations and is designed with the American citizens in mind. The Health Care Reform, as we know it, will progress over a period of years until it has fully been implemented. Since its induction, the Health Care Reform has instigated many trends and challenges for many health care organizations; decrease in reimbursement and increase in regulation (Halley, 2010).

The purpose of this paper is to outline the trends and challenges major and minor health care organizations may face today. Changes in governmental policies have played parts in those changes and have caused mandates on health care organizations that may cause strain within the organization itself. Organizations strive to uphold the policies and procedures. Organizations who do struggle must find ways to make positive strides to helping individuals receive all that the Reform has to offer.

United Health Care, one of the largest insurance companies within the health care industry, is one of those organizations who took what many may have thought to be a negative change and made it a positive one. The organization has become one of the model organizations within the industry in that it has completely revamped its practices. According to Jeff Alter, United Health Care’s acting CEO, “United Health Care is committed to delivering a simpler, more personal experience while providing access to quality care” (United for Reform Resource Center, n.d.). Health care administrators within the...