Healthcare Budget Analysis

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This paper will give insight to how budgeting affects healthcare in the hospital setting. Budget and Healthcare: What’s money got to do with it? Money has everything to do with it. Money affects the quality of care some individuals receive. Over the last few years healthcare coverage has declined. For example, back in 2011, since the recession 1 in 7 citizens in the state of Washington had no health care coverage due to a lost job or unable to afford private insurance due to the slow economy recovery. The recession has caused more people to turn to public health support through Medicaid. (Cuts on the Rise, Health on Decline, 2011) At the same time change in payment rates under Medicare are expected to bring new pressures on hospital operating …show more content…
Through the budget cuts people with low incomes have lost entire treatments. Seniors and disabled people have had their care reduced and cost raised. Preventive mental health services are disappearing and many low income working adults who do not qualify for traditional insurance are unable to afford private insurance. Additionally, preventative coverage and restorative dental care, eye glasses, hearing devices, podiatry services for adults have been stopped. This creates a download spiral if the person does not have access to obtaining these assistive devices, then they can lose their jobs because they were unable to perform a given task. Eliminating preventive services and access to assistive devices force more individuals to turn to the emergency room for care and that is more expensive. An average ER visit is $300. (Cuts on the Rise, Health on Decline, …show more content…
Obese Medicare beneficiaries cost more to care for than those who are not obese, because of the higher hospitalization rate that accompanies their disease. (Bisognano and Litvak, 2011). They may require additional equipment or depending how large they may require a bariatric bed or specialty mattress. Specialty mattress are an additional charge for rental. Length-of-stay is an issue because Medicare will only pay for a set amount of days. For example, the average length-of-stay in Medicare patient with heart failure declined from 8.81 days in 1993 to 6.63 days in 2006. (Bisognano and Litvak, 2011). This is a step in the right direction to reduce additional charges associated with length-of-stay. With proper treatment and quicker diagnosis, patient can be discharged earlier. With overcrowding and understaffing issues, stress on hospital personnel may increase, resulting in more medical errors. Proper management can dramatically improve hospital patient flow and quality of care provided. Palmetto Richland Hospital in Columbia has improved patient flow and generated substantial effectiveness. They did so by scheduling emergency and non-emergent surgeries in different operating rooms. They cut the patient’s waiting weekday times by 38% and increase surgical volume. Furthermore, causing an increase of $8 million to the profit margin and also improving services to patients. (Bisognano and Litvak,

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