Assignment: Advocate for Health Care Policy

Assignment: Advocate for Health Care Policy
Assignment: Advocate for Health Care Policy
This assignment has two parts, numbered below. Write each question as a new topic area, then follow with a paragraph or two to answer the question. You may find it necessary to search for answers to the questions outside of the assigned reading. Be sure to use APA guidelines for writing style, spelling and grammar, and citation of sources.
Tasks:
1. Imagine that you are going to make a visit to your representative in Congress. Develop a one-page document that supports your position on the AHCA that you would leave with your representative or his or her aide when you make your visit. This one-pager, also called a “leave behind,” should state your position clearly in bullet points and give your reasons why your position is preferred. This “leave behind” should have 1 inch margins and utilize 14-point font throughout. If you were making this visit in person, you would present your “leave behind” to the person with whom you speak during your visit. Include a second page that describes your rationale for the position in your “leave behind” page supported by at least two journal articles.
2. Write a two-page brief to describe the scenario surrounding your legislative visit. Understanding the political affiliation of your representative, include answers to the following:
· Was your member in support or in opposition to the AHCA?
· State three points that you would cover in support or opposition to your representative’s position.
· How does your nursing experience influence the advocacy position that you take on the AHCA?
Submission Details:
· Submit your response in a 4-page Microsoft Word document.
The complicated healthcare system of today is becoming increasingly fragmented.
Patients who consult many experts find it difficult to maintain track of their treatment plans.
Even the most informed patients have obstacles when it comes to medical costs and insurance coverage.
Patients can benefit from healthcare advocacy by reducing the stress they face while navigating the healthcare system.
Issues that Healthcare Advocacy Can Help With
Managing health care can be difficult even when things are going well.
Navigating one’s own health care might be difficult for older folks with cognitive impairment or people suffering from weariness.
What’s the end result?
Patients put off seeking treatment or do not seek treatment at all.
Patients and their caregivers may spend a significant amount of time pouring over insurance forms or other documentation written in jargon they don’t understand.
They have a tendency to misinterpret diagnosis and treatment options.
As a result of such misunderstandings, medical services may be used ineffectively.
Patients may, for example, have many diagnostic tests, miss appointments, or take the incorrect medicine dosage.
Patients who have difficult-to-understand health insurance coverage may not take full advantage of what is offered to them.
Patients may also pay incorrect medical bills that contain errors or expenses that are really covered by their health insurance programs.
While the national discussion on health care has been on how to solve these issues, many people want personalized assistance.
Advocates for healthcare can assist.
What Does It Mean to Be a Healthcare Advocate?
Healthcare advocates provide direct, personalized assistance to patients and their families as they navigate the healthcare system.
The following are the responsibilities of a healthcare advocate:
assisting individuals in obtaining health care
Patients must be educated in order to make well-informed healthcare decisions.
Patients’ medical care, insurance questions, and administrative and legal chores are all handled by me.
What is the relationship between patients and healthcare advocates?
Patients and their families may hire private health advocates or advocates employed by advocacy organizations.
Patients may be assigned health advocates by their employers, insurance companies, or hospitals.
The Different Types of Healthcare Advocacy
The multiple layers of the healthcare system have necessitated the use of several sorts of healthcare advocacy.
In fact, according to a Harvard Business Review study, 52 percent of patients in the United States are unable to navigate the healthcare system on their own.
Health advocates provide a variety of services, including supporting people who are concerned about an ambiguous diagnosis or clarifying complex medical charges:
Navigating Medical Care
The following are examples of medical care navigation services:
Getting in touch with medical professionals
Appointment scheduling, coordination, and attendance
Defending the rights of patients
Identifying and referring to health resources
Explicitly explaining medical jargon
Getting to the bottom of diagnosis and conditions
Care coordination between specialists
Navigating Medical Billing
The following are examples of services that can assist patients with medical billing:
Examining medical invoices to ensure accuracy
Negotiating with providers on bills
Correcting billing mistakes
Health Care Coverage
The following resources may be useful in negotiating health insurance:
Identifying the insurance coverage, Medicare benefits, and veteran benefits that are available
Patients should be informed about copays and coinsurance.
Examining the benefits of both in-network and out-of-network providers
assisting patients in the selection of health insurance plans and policies
Additional possible benefits, such as long-term care insurance, are being investigated.
Patients are being informed about wellness benefits such as preventive care and telehealth.
The following are some of the Placement Navigation Services that can assist patients in finding placements:
Assisting patients with admission to and discharge from hospitals.
Transferring patients to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, or rehabilitation centers
Using Services for Older Adults
Assisting older adults with navigation of services includes:
Transportation Meals Housing Legal Navigating at Home
The following are examples of legal navigation services:
Providing legal assistance to patients with legal concerns and challenges
Advocating on behalf of patients who have received substandard treatment at a medical facility.
Assisting patients with disability applications
What Is the Importance of Advocacy in Health Care?
It’s simple to see why advocacy is vital in health care when you look at healthcare policy and patient support jobs.
Advocacy on a large scale aims to change the system, whereas advocacy on a smaller scale aims to speak for the patient.
Large-Scale Healthcare Advocacy
Large-scale healthcare lobbying informs lawmakers and leaders who shape healthcare policy.
It encourages well-informed decision-making about programs that affect:
Providers of healthcare
Patients
Health-care settings
Broad healthcare advocacy fosters improvements that put the most recent research into practice and foster stronger healthcare collaborations.
It also works to promote health policies that take into account variables like poverty and other social and economic circumstances that have an impact on people’s health.
When healthcare lobbying has a positive impact on public policy, it promotes individual and community health, reducing health inequities.
Advocacy like this helps to set health policy goals, pass priority legislation, and obtain the money needed to implement new policies.
With the commencement of COVID-19, for example, healthcare public policy advocates rushed into action.
They tried to educate legislators on how to best benefit patients and save lives by addressing care coordination, using telemedicine, and managing privacy concerns.
Health reform attempts in the past and present have had an impact on medical research and teaching.
In the wake of the AIDS crisis, activist group ACT UP, for example, was essential in securing funding for AIDS research.
This eventually led to the invention of antiretroviral drugs, which are now used to keep millions of people alive.
Advocacy groups such as White Coats for Black Lives are working for programs to diversify healthcare faculty in an effort to combat systemic racism in the field.
One effort is pushing for discriminatory practices and implicit prejudices to be addressed in medical education.