discussions
dsmwnewng
hmgt_435_week_1_peer_response.docxHMGT 435 week 1 peer response
· Opportunity cost
Lauren Mack posted Jun 1, 2016 10:49 PM
Opportunity cost is not just the cost of something, but also the cost of other opportunities to invest or spend money that are given up when a choice is made to spend or invest the money on one particular opportunity. For example, since the implementation of the ACA, the focus of care has been shifted from profiting from the patient to providing the care the patient needs to thrive, with an emphasis on patients having access to preventative care. This creates an opportunity cost situation because hospitals are seeing fewer patients in emergency rooms, and physicians are seeing an increase in patient volume. The opportunity cost to the emergency room is the decrease in patient volume, because they have to analyze how much revenue is being lost because patients are able to receive preventative care.
Meisel, Z. )., VonHoltz, L. )., & Merchant, R. ). (2016). Crowdsourcing healthcare costs: Opportunities and challenges for patient centered price transparency. Healthcare, 4(1), 3-5. doi:10.1016/j.hjdsi.2015.06.004
Jennifer Ashu posted Jun 1, 2016 12:06 AM
The term opportunity cost is when you have to give up something to get something else. Economics is mostly about supply and demand so healthcare economist try to figure out how much money would be gained or lost depending on where they decide to put their money. Also how effective the money would be on what is it was planned for. Difficulties would be in the outcome if the ideas are not applied correctly.
An example of opportunity cost and its relationship to health care economics is when the Bay County Community Health came up with an improvement plan in 2012 to improve their health care. They joined with their health care partners as they all work together to improve the local community. They came up with a MAPP which stands for Mobilizing for Action through Planning and Partnership. Instead of using their money and time for something else, they decided to use it for this improvement plan because they wanted to improve their health of the people in the community.
