The article United States Health Care Reform Progress to Date and Next Steps was able to impact change in practice in the healthcare sector by confronting the grand challenges facing the health sector in the United States. Long-standing challenges in the United States health care system, such as affordability, access to care, and quality of care, are related to the Great Recession (Obama, 2016). Due to these challenges, the citizens were experiencing financial insecurities, poor health, obstacles to care, and possible deaths.
According to (George, 2011), a grand challenge can be tacked by pursuing bold ideas and adopting approaches that are less convenient to tackle the great unresolved issues. The article presents the bold moves made in order to tackle the existing problems in the healthcare system. One of these steps was an extension of the health insurance program for children and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Xue, 2016). These acts improved the system by supporting Medicaid coverage, prevention, information technology, and health research. Others are the Tobacco Control Act, which has significantly contributed to the reduction of rates of smoking among young people and adults.
The unconventional or new paradigm often opens a way forward for the scholarly dialogue (Kathryn Oliver, 2014). The major idea which opened room for debate concerning the healthcare system is the Affordable Care Act of 2010. This act could progress the nation’s healthcare system through the expansion of care coverage, reducing the costs of healthcare, and improving quality (Xue, 2016). Hence, by building on previous work, the conceptualization of the ACA engineered a discussion that was useful to the economy of the nation.
Novel Direction
The novelty of a study is its ability to change the conversation in the literature concerning the issue (George, 2011). The ACA not only added to the momentum of the existing conversations but also made a total change in the conversation. By adding affordability to the health care act, the conversation shifted towards the affordable part of the care needed in the healthcare system, which was by then an unexplored phenomenon (Obama, 2016). Hence, this care would be cost-effective, accessible, and of quality. These conversations were carried out amidst efforts to implement the act, court, and congress actions, and they also paved new opportunities, including the passage of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
Curiosity Catching And Maintenance
Therefore, based on insights from (George, 2011), the article managed to catch the attention and curiosity of the public or readers through the presentation of the reforms in the health care system. It asserts that the payment system in the health sector was fee-for-service before the introduction of the ACA. It goes further to give proof of the manner in which the ACA has changed the system for the better. First, the system transformed into a value-based payment system as the rates for paying the medicare providers were aligned to the actual cost of the service provided. These changes help in decreasing the prices of medicare in the private sector of the system. In addition, the article further illustrates how the transformation has helped improve transparency by minimizing fraud in the healthcare system by increasing scrutiny for the entities wishing to enrol in the system, imposing stronger penalties for these crimes, and increasing funding for antifraud endeavours. The article also discussed the alternative model of payment, the trends in quality, and the cost of health care in the health care system to maintain the attention and curiosity of the readers.
Scope
A scope can be defined as the level of sampling the mechanism, relevant constructs, and perspectives of a study (George, 2011). The topic chosen should be sampled adequately by being ambitious in scope and investigating deeper into the gaps and mysteries of the existing literature. (Obama, 2016) reviewed the factors which play a greater part in influencing the decision to adopt health reforms, gave the effects of the adopted laws, gave recommendations for improvement of the health care system, and identified the overall lessons learned from the ACA to the public policy. Therefore, the study covered all perspectives of the reforms in the health care system.
Actionability
An article should be actionable and provide insights into organizational and managerial practice. Thus, (Obama, 2016) demonstrated its actionability by Providing counterintuitive insights into the existing healthcare system and offering to provide reforms to the system. Also, the article did not forget to highlight the effects of the ACA on the healthcare system and show the consequences and inconsistencies of the ACA. The inconsistencies presented were the existence of special interest and partisanship opposition. Moreover, the article uses economic theory to explain the current situation in the healthcare system further. Hence, the Council for Economic Advisors found strong evidence that the ACA reforms were helpful in slowing the growth of the cost of health care and pushed for improvements in care quality (Xue, 2016). Further, the article was able to identify the reforms in the health care system, which opened new areas of practice and inquiry. Hence, the insights generated by the article help practitioners in the health care system and the government to understand the realities of the system.
Bibliography
George, J. A. C. a. G., 2011. Publishing in AMJ—Part 1: Topic Choice. The Academy of Management Journal, pp. 432-435.
Kathryn Oliver, T. L. S. I., 2014. New directions in evidence-based policy research: a critical analysis of the literature. Health Res Policy Syst., p. 34.
Obama, B., 2016. United States Health Care Reform Progress to Date and Next Steps. JAMA, pp. 525-532.
Xue, Y. L. H., 2016. Review of “United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps” by Obama B in JAMA 316:525–532, 2016. Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, pp. 2199-2200.
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