Health care cuts

[NursGiGi]

Hello everyone. My name is Virginia and I am a Registered Nurse practicing in Gulfport, MS. I am currently enrolled in the RN to BSN tract at the University of South Alabama. I am nearing the end of my studies. As a requirement for the Practicum class I have been instructed to discuss current issues facing my area of practice with nurses in other regions via the internet. I am completing my practicum in the wound care department at a Gulf Coast hospital. The major issue facing this department is health care cut backs. The manager is forced to find ways to decrease spending in order to keep the department open. Does anyone have any input on this issue? Thank you for your time.

[linearthinker, DNP, RN]

Im sure if you search pubmed you will find reliable data.

[NursGiGi]

Thanks linearthinker. Actually, I have to research reliable data. But, my instructor specified that this assignment has to incorporate a discussion that I have with a perfect stranger that is also a nurse. Crazy assignment I know.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

welcome to an. i've moved your thread to our social & health care coverage activism forum...take a look around to the numerous posts and legislation links.

medicare just cut homecare reimbursement for 2011 by 4.89 % nationally. as part of the affordable care act. added the requirment that a paitient have face to face encounter with pcp within 90 days prior to start of homeecare or within 30 days after admission....or home health agency won't get paid! this is partially a quality of care issue but more a fraud and abuse from having a figure head doc sign for homecare without ever having seen the patient. however it hurts bed/chair/sofa bound patients who can't leave home without ambulance transport yet their pcp does not make house calls nor have a np/cns/pa who could perform such an encounter.

regs:

www.ofr.gov/ofrupload/ofrdata/2010-27778_pi.pdf

add to the the 21% cut mc payment cuts to physicians. very difficult to balance budget in any healthcare setting these days.

[elprup, BSN, RN]

Not sure if this is info that you need. For the next two months (until my new job's medical benefits to kick in) I will have zero medical insurance for my children and myself. This is becasue my COBRA monthly payment skyrocketed this past month from $1200/mo up to over $3000/month for three people! No freakin way can I do that.......so now I have no medical/dental insurance. And of course, my son is terribly sick with strep throat (I think). So tomorrow we are going to the local clinic and see what I can do financial wise. Totally sucks! But grateful to have found a job!

[OC_An Khe]

There are two broad category of heath care cuts. The first is decreased reimbursements from the government and insurance companies. The second is employing institution, cuts made by employers to increase profits/ retained earnings even when they haven't experienced decrease revenues. Each category leads to a different discussion, though they do have common threads. But at the risk of oversimplifying, the common thread is that costs are income. For example, the reimbursements to the hospital from medicare is income to the hospital but a cost to government. My compensation from the hospital is income to me and a cost to the hospital. Society as a whole will determine if it wants government costs to decrease or it prefers the services those government costs represents. As for the employers cost cutting it is subject to market forces. Though most health-care facilities and insurance companies act as monopolies/oligopolies and market forces are slow to work, if they work at all, to these types of institutions.