Health Policy and Management

Introduction

Privately owned as well as public health care provision organizations are constantly seeking to device health policy and management systems that offer comprehensive, timely and universal healthcare services. Towards this end, health care policies and management systems are assessing critical feature of access to healthcare. These features include socioeconomic equity, geographical accessibility, organizational challenges, patient’s assistance seeking behaviors and ways for evaluating access. This paper seeks to present an annotated bibliography on health policy and management systems.

Dimick, J. B. & Ryan, A. M. (2014). Methods for Evaluating Changes in Health Care Policy: The Difference-in-Differences Approach. JAMA. 312(22):2401-2402.

In the past, observational studies have been employed in an effort to make evaluations on changes in results related to the implementation of healthcare policy. However, a significant drawback with observational studies relative to this framework is the requirement to manage for backdrop changes in observed results that occur as time progresses. An example of such backdrop changes is secular trends and their impact on outcomes. In this article, the authors employ a different approach referred to as the difference in difference approach to cater for the drawback associated with observational studies. Information contained in this article will be critical towards appraising the outcome of my project.

Koh, H. K., Berwick, D. M., Clancy, C. M., Baur, C., Brach, C., Harris, L. M., & Zerhusen, E. G. (2012). New federal policy initiatives to boost health literacy can help the nation move beyond the cycle of costly ‘crisis care’. Health Affairs, 10-1377.

As this article provides, inadequate health literacy has presented the American healthcare provision apparatus with significant challenges relative to the provision of high quality healthcare. As such, the American government has sought to put across novel federal health policies aimed at appraising the health and accessibility to healthcare services for all of its citizens. These initiatives include passing of the Plain Writing Act in 2010 and the National Action Plan formulated by the Health and Human Services department aimed at improving the country’s overall literacy levels on diverse health issues. This article will be of great importance in my work as it will assist in setting a basis for comparing how private and public organizations in the US health care sector are working towards appraising health literacy.

Hibbard, J. H., & Greene, J. (2013). What the evidence shows about patient activation: better health outcomes and care experiences; fewer data on costs. Health affairs, 32(2), 207-214.

As the US looks to overhaul its healthcare system towards a healthier society, one strategy that has been considered to be of noteworthy importance to its goals is concerned with patient engagement. The two authors of this particular article have sought to employ an evidence based approach towards assessing how patient activation can be incorporated into health policy and management towards improved care experiences and health outcomes. The article provides that patient activation involves equipping patients with confidence and skills towards ensuring they are dynamically involved in their own health care. However, the authors seek to investigate the impact that costs have on the realization of optimized patient activation. This article will be of significant contribution to my work as it looks to evidence based practice to assess the intermediate outcomes of healthcare provision arising from identified health policy and management interventions.

References

Dimick, J. B. & Ryan, A. M. (2014). Methods for Evaluating Changes in Health Care Policy: The Difference-in-Differences Approach. JAMA. 312(22):2401-2402.

Hibbard, J. H., & Greene, J. (2013). What the evidence shows about patient activation: better health outcomes and care experiences; fewer data on costs. Health affairs, 32(2), 207-214.

Koh, H. K., Berwick, D. M., Clancy, C. M., Baur, C., Brach, C., Harris, L. M., & Zerhusen, E. G. (2012). New federal policy initiatives to boost health literacy can help the nation move beyond the cycle of costly ‘crisis care’. Health Affairs, 10-1377.