M1-PR-340

In your response posts to your peers, discuss how your healthcare background relates to theirs. Also, identify another reason the topic they wrote about is important to healthcare. Identify additional information related to the topic that you find relevant, or that you have researched further. Also consider how the topic relates to your specific degree program or professional career.

PEER 1-SR

Aloha! My name is Sandy and I'm a Healthcare Administration major. I've worked in healthcare for the past 12 years - 1 year as a Medical Assistant for two Internal Medicine doctors and the past 11 years has been in hospital emergency and outpatient registration and scheduling. I've changed interests and majors three times now and they say third time is a charm! The pandemic changed my views on a long-term career that will give me and my family the financial stability we need.

I chose the article "Ground Ambulance Rides and Potential for Surprise Billing". I’ve had my fair share of billing inquiries in my line of work. Although, hospitals are not responsible for ambulance charges, the patients search for answers from the first group of people they encounter (aside from the paramedics) who provided care in their time of need. Medical insurances are not respoonsible for the entire cost of the ambulance ride especially if they've concluded that it was not medically necessary. The patient with insurance coverage will be responsible for an X amount of out of pocket cost to cover the ambulance ride charges. The "No Suprises Act" has been decided by U.S. Congress that it will not include ground ambulance rides costs. This law prevents a patient from paying out of pocket or out of network charges for their care and if for some reason there has been undisclosed healthcare charges, their medical insurance will be held liable to pay the provider directly. Healthcare billing and insurances are confusing enough, and when patients aren’t aware of what to expect, it creates more confusion, which can lead to frustration. The article didn’t mention this, but from what I’ve come to learn in my years in healthcare, there are so many things that happen behind the scenes that sometimes it’s hard to explain everything verbatim but I think when it comes to healthcare and especially if someone’s life depends on it, it’s worth taking the time to explain. At my hospital, we’ve adapted the acronym AIDET in our daily tasks and routines – it stands for Acknowledge, Introduce, Duration, Explain and Thank. These five words help to ensure that the patient is aware of what’s going on, who’s providing the service or care to them, how long it will take, explain what will happen, and for the staff to thank the patients and their loved ones for choosing our hospital for their care. These are simple words easily spoken, but when meaning, purpose, and intent have been attached to them it can create a new perspective.

PEER2-SS

My name is Shanika and I am a new student majoring in Public health. I first started my healthcare career in 2015, when I was offered a job as a Patient Case Coordinator for AmerisourceBergen. Then I was offered a position with Wake Forest Baptist health as a Patient Access Specialist in 2017 and now I am a Community Health Worker with a company called Kepro, processing referrals for assistance with household bills for people who have experienced hardship due to the Covid-19 pandemic. I have always known that the clinical aspect of healthcare was not for me, but I definitely knew that I have a genuine love for people and that healthcare was the right field for me. Becoming a CHW kind of helped me decide that I want to pursue a degree in Public Health. I am interested in learning about all aspects of the US healthcare system so that I can be as productive as possible in my new career. I am interested in two Public Health careers such as: Public health advisor and Public health data analyst, but I am a little more interested in becoming a Public Health Data Analyst.

During this assignment, I read an article about Cost and Savings under Federal Policy Approaches to Address Medicaid Prescription Drug Spending written by Rachel Garfield, Rachel Dolan and Elizabeth Williams. In this article, it speaks about how the government has recently proposed new policies to come up with solutions to the cost of prescription drugs and how to save money by raising the Medicaid rebate cap will save billions in federal spending. When reading this article, all I could think about is how precise and detail-oriented the data had to be to come up with the numbers and to guide the proposals for new policies. Collection of data and maintaining quality of data could make the difference between saving money or losing money in healthcare for the communities and the government. Data quality and collection is a very important part of healthcare but the numbers do not lie and in order to make changes for the better, the data collected has to be accurate, supportive to the cause and well presented.