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One key challenge in the healthcare system today is the continuously increasing cost of services that makes it difficult to provide care to the population and especially the vulnerable communities. The healthcare system has to balance the quality of services and the healthcare costs, which increase exponentially. According to Case and Deaton (2020), there is also harmful to peoples lives from its extraordinary and unnecessary costs, and in 2017, the citizens spent 17% of their income on healthcare, when compared to 5% in the 1960s. This paper will present three strategies that healthcare institutions can use to address the vast healthcare costs.
The three strategies for members of the hospital governing body to assist the establishment with this issue include layering, shared governance, and price-setting regulation. Layering is a strategy where new institutions are added on top of or alongside existing ones (van de Bovenkamp et al., 2016, p. 45). The benefit of layering is in the cooperation that is created, as the new institutions establish ties with the existing ones. Next, Hess and Bonamer (2020) discuss shared governing as a way of addressing the complexity of modern-day healthcare institutions. Through shared decision-making, these facilities can enhance their efficiency. Both layering and shared governance allow engaging as many stakeholders as possible when developing a strategy for an institution, which is essential when addressing complex questions such as healthcare costs. Although these strategies do not allow to lower the costs directly, the engagement of stakeholders allows to raise this issue during the discussion and, therefore, help find ways of reducing the financial burden for the citizens.
Leadership and management play an essential role in the process of resolving this issue because leaders choose the direction of development for the organization. For example, one element of organizational governance that is executed by leaders and managers is the engagement of the right stakeholders (Hackett, 2021). Moreover, governance requires the formation of the leadership team and the development of the call for action. Price setting and regulation are discussed by Compass One Healthcare (n.d.), WHO (2020), and Hackett (2021), and the authors argue that organizational structures that support standardization, as one example, will allow reducing the overall cost of the services.
Organizational structure also played a role in this since the strategies of layering and shared decision-making requires one to create new and more developed organizational structures. In this case, policies and processes are developed to support this shared decision-making approach. Technology and interactions are elements of organizational management because the healthcare reform has led to the increasing use of telehealth and related technologies to help provide services to more people and simplify the cooperation between providers and patients.
This approach should help address the issue of cost as telehealth is considered to be less expensive in terms of service provision when compared to standard on-site visits to a provider. However, the leadership and governance organizations of healthcare facilities have to be prepared to implement these services and create an infrastructure to support the implementation of telehealth in their facilities. In summary, in this paper, the issue of healthcare services cost has been discussed as one of the major problems impacting the providers and patients in the United States. The three strategies for governance bodies at healthcare facilities to address this problem include layering, shared governance, and setting prices and regulations strategies.
References
Case, A. & Deaton, A. (2020). How healthcare costs hurt American workers and benefit the wealthy. Time. Web.
Compass One. (n.d.). Cost reduction strategies for health systems. Web.
Hackett, M. (2021). Hospital price-setting would have the most impact in reducing healthcare spending. Web.
Hess, R., Bonamer, J., Swihart, D., & Brull, S. (2020). Measuring council health to transform shared governance processes and practice. JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 50(2), 104-108.
van de Bovenkamp, H., Stoopendaal, A., & Bal, R. (2016). Working with layers: The governance and regulation of healthcare quality in an institutionally layered system. Public Policy And Administration, 32(1), 45-65.
WHO. (2020). Price setting and price regulation in health care. Web.
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