Question

provide your perspective as an informatician: Do you agree or disagree with the approach of government mandates to enact healthcare reforms such as:  Implementing EHRs, ICD-10, MACRA?  What are key factors that support government providing a “helping hand” to implement new technology?  What are the factors that support a free market approach being more successful?  Support your claims with evidence or examples.

Answer 1

Reforms are necessary for any field, and the health care industry is not different. It also needs upgrades and updates and makes improvements in how it functions. It is the duty of the government to discuss, enact and implement new policies and laws in a democratic society. Generally, governmental reforms are supported by contemporary research and guided by an expert committee. I strongly agree with the governmental approach in implementations of EHRs, ICD-10, and MACRA. MACRA is designed to eliminate a fee-for-service system, replacing it with a system that rewards high-value patient care and efficiency. MACRA made many changes to how Medicare pays providers. The law repealed the Sustainable Growth Rate formula that determined Medicare payments for providers' services. Participating providers are now paid based on the quality and effectiveness of care given. On the ICD-10 code system, it offers accurate and up-to-date procedure codes to improve health care costs and ensure fair reimbursement policies. The current codes specifically help healthcare providers to identify patients in need of immediate disease management and to tailor effective disease management programs.EHRs are proven to be improving the quality of care given to patients. It enhances the communication between healthcare professionals easy and error-free, studies have proven that the implementation of EHR significantly reduced prescription errors in hospital pharmacies. Recently a research study(PubMed id  30786302) concluded that "Our findings suggest that adoption of a comprehensive EHR is associated with more positive usability ratings and higher quality of care. We also found that-independent of EHR adoption level-the hospital work environment plays a significant role in how nurses evaluate EHR usability and whether EHRs have their intended effects on improving quality and safety of care."

The government should provide a helping hand in the implementation of previously mentioned reforms. The government shall regulate the process and can provide uniform methodology and style and functionality to these reforms. It shall provide a framework to the private players and based on this framework the stakeholders can move on. The government shall also provide financial help to the institutions that have the initiative but lack the funds in for implementation of EHR.  As an adaptation of new technology is proven to improve health care quality, and overall patient satisfaction,.it will also enhance public health so, the government has a moral responsibility to lend a helping hand to health care stakeholders.

The free-market approach will bring competition, more choices for consumers and innovations. People opposing free-market health care may argue that health care is not like any other sector or industry and it should serve. But, in my opinion, health care is no fundamentally different from other sectors. As it also involves a demand, a look for service, purchase decision and finally a transaction. An article published by  Robert E. Moffit, ( “Expanding Choice through Defined Contributions: Overcoming a Non-Participatory Health Care Economy,” Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics ) proven that market-based approaches rely on defined contribution systems to support insurance purchases by consumers, which have far more potential to control costs.