Order ID | 53563633773 |
Type | Essay |
Writer Level | Masters |
Style | APA |
Sources/References | 4 |
Perfect Number of Pages to Order | 5-10 Pages |
AUA Patients Discussion Case Study Essay
If more people became “E-Patients” Would it Affect the Healthcare Market? Would it Call for the Market to be More Transparent as far as the Financial Aspect is Concerned?
In the assigned video “An American Sickness” Terry Gross has Elisabeth Rosenthal, the author of the book “An American Sickness”, come on her show. The two discuss the business side of the healthcare industry. They talk about how ambiguous the market has come. Rosenthal sheds light on the fact that a surgical procedure may cost less at an outpatient surgical clinic than it would at a hospital.
She explains that hospitals do not clearly share this information with patients. Another example she uses is medication. Early on in the video she points out that a name brand medication may have ten generic versions that are cheaper, but the price of the name brand one stays relatively the same. Patients are not often given the option of one of the generic brands. This video led me to wonder if patients are more involved with their healthcare; what effects would it have on the healthcare market.
This makes me think of my struggles with hypertension. Six years ago at the age of twenty-two I was diagnosed with hypertension. It took months of trial and error to find the right medication. Eventually Dr. J prescribed me two medications. With insurance, these medications typically cost 100+ dollars a month. Thankfully Dr. J is a close friend of mine; he educated me on the generic brands. Choosing the generic options for my medications cost me only twenty-three dollars a month.
When I found out I had hypertension I began to educate myself on my health and health care options. I developed health anxiety, which is not always a bad thing. I became so educated about my health that Dr. J would prank NP students that were shadowing him by making them do my check-ups. They would ask questions and I would have answers to their questions. Not only would I have answers, but I would explain to them why they asked me the question and the importance of it. One student asked me if I was in med-school. I told her no, that I just took my health seriously. She said that it was a good thing and was amazed at all that I knew. With myself being this way, it makes me think of myself as a perfect example of an e-patient.
This is important to healthcare marketing, because it speaks on e-patients and the healthcare market. Tom Ferguson developed the term e-patient. Ferguson believed that there should be a partnership between patients and all parts of the healthcare system. This would call for the healthcare market to be more transparent. Equipped, enabled, empowered, and engaged are all words to describe an e-patient. Take those words and apply them to a patient in regards to healthcare and you get an e-patient. An e-patient makes it much more difficult for the healthcare providers and healthcare market to be non-transparent. These patients have other means of obtaining the information needed to make decisions. How many patients are e-patients?
To support this discussion, I will refer to the article “The Engaged E-Patient Population” written by Susannah Fox. The article was written in 2008 and informs readers that e-patients are more common now due to the internet and phones. Patients can now resort to the internet in order to find information not only about their health, but also about their healthcare decisions. According to the article, ” between 75% and 80% of internet users have looked online for health information.” With the article being written fourteen years ago, one can assume that the numbers have grown nearer to the 90%+ mark.
With the e-patient population growing, healthcare providers must be cautious in how they portray information. Information not portrayed in the correct manner could lead to a loss in patient trust. A loss in patient trust could then result in the loss of a patient. The market itself must now also be far more transparent than ever before!
That was the first discussion you are supposed to respond to and also include a heading title that oversees the whole response such as the one listed above in bold
Is there a need for more transparency regarding the pricing of services in the health care market? If so, how can more transparency be achieved?
In the assigned video Terry Gross interviews Elisabeth Rosenthal and discusses how complicated the price of health care has become. Elisabeth goes in-depth discussing the confusion around the pricing of health care and why the system is the way that it is. She also gives tips to consumers on how to take control of the cost of their health care and ways they can save money. The health care market is something that we all must deal with, yet it seems so vague and complicated for everyone involved. I get stressed every time I go to a doctor because I am unsure how much it will cost or how much my insurance will cover. Through the use of health care marketing, there must be a better way to offer upfront pricing and help set better prices for consumers.
Based on this information in the video I began to consider whether or not the pricing of health care is fair. After all, everyone on Earth needs access to medical care at some point in their lives. It is mind-boggling to think we have an entire health care market where there is no transparency when it comes to how much everything will cost. I recently read about how billionaire Mark Cuban opened an online pharmacy that will offer basic medicines at a very small markup price. This is just one example of how healthcare can be offered at upfront and affordable costs. There is so much more that can be done to offer affordable health care services to everyone who needs them.
It is important to health care marketing because there needs to be a better system in place to provide more transparency and help people to understand what they are paying for. Unlike most industries, it is very hard to market health care services at certain prices because there are so many factors to consider. Although there are so many more factors to consider, I believe health care marketing can be done in a way that helps patients know what they are paying. If health care marketing gave consumers upfront pricing, it would allow them to make more informed decisions. Right now many consumers cannot make adequate decisions on where to go to get medical care because they do not know how much each place will cost. If health care marketing was geared towards competitive pricing it would help the market start to become more balanced and have equilibrium pricing.
An additional resource that supports my discussion is an article from the New York Times. This article dives into the issues with medical billing and why it is so difficult to understand the pricing of services. It also goes into depth describing how hospitals and doctors are trying to bill patients for as much as possible. It states, “Hospital coders teach doctors — and doctors pay to take courses — to learn how they can “upcode” their charts to a more lucrative level with minimal effort.” I believe this shows how broken the billing system actually is. Basic health care and medical necessities are being billed at outrageous prices and without good insurance, many people go into large debt because of this. There needs to be more accountability in the health care market to provide fair pricing to those who need it
.That was the second discussion you are supposed to respond to and also include a heading title that oversees the whole response such as the one listed above in bold and I will send the third discussion
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