Week 7 Discussion Post 19 Document

Guidelines and protocols created by professional societies are common in American

hospitals and health plans use these guidelines for quality improvement and cost

management (Woolf, et al., 1999). I do believe that government should be in a position to

issue physician practice guidelines based on cost efficiency, however, with several

stipulations.

First, the guidelines by the government should be created by expert physicians from

the specific field that the guidelines are being created for. Additionally, the guidelines

should be just that, guidelines…and not set in stone. “Clinicians, policy makers, and

payers see guidelines as a tool for making care more consistent and efficient and for

also offer benefits to patients, as the consumer versions are accessible to the public and

patients will be more informed about what their providers should be doing (Woolf, et al.,

1999). Additionally, guidelines can help call attention to certain health problems that are

not as common and offer preventative interventions to underserved patient populations and

high-risk patients (Woolf, et al., 1999).

Pay for performance is an approach that Medicare is seeking for various care

settings including hospitals and nursing homes (Shi & Singh, 2019). This essentially

means that Medicare will pay more based on quality of care versus fee -for-service (Shi &

Singh, 2019). Based on this and the factors indicated above, if the government has the

best interest of the patients in mind, then there should be some say on guidelines.

Woolf, S. H., Grol, R., Hutchinson, A., Eccles, M., & Grimshaw, J. (1999). Clinical