Implementing Health Policy Within Healthcare Organizations

Implementing Health Policy Within Healthcare Organizations
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When it comes to the health and well-being of a people, health policy is the sum of the choices and activities taken. Scientific facts, ethical principles, social, economic, political, and environmental factors may all play a role. Because they must balance the needs and priorities of state and federal agencies, employees, patients, and the public, healthcare administrators may find it difficult to implement health policy in their organizations (Sorensen et al., 2013). This essay discusses some of the challenges administrators may face when trying to incorporate state or federal policy into a healthcare institution’s internal policy and offers solutions for overcoming those difficulties.
One difficulty that administrators can encounter is when the policies of the state or federal government are at odds with the beliefs and priorities of their own organizations. Millions of Americans, for instance, were either uninsured or underinsured before the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which attempts to increase their access to health insurance and healthcare services. This idea may be opposed by some in the healthcare industry who worry that reduced reimbursement rates or more competition from other providers would cut into their income and profits. Administrators may overcome this obstacle by demonstrating how their organization will benefit from state or federal legislation and by aligning their company's vision and goal with those policies (ACHE, 2020). To guarantee that their organization's voice and interests are reflected in the policymaking process, administrators should also participate in advocacy or lobbying efforts.
Staff employees who disagree with or fail to see the point of state or federal rules provide a potential challenge for administrators. For instance, the Medicare Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) assigns financial penalties to hospitals with unacceptably high readmission rates for certain diseases (Boccuti & Casillas, 2015). The goal of this strategy is to enhance the flow of treatment across different providers and decrease the number of avoidable hospitalizations. In hospitals that treat low-income or high-risk patients, whose needs are often more complex and who face more challenges in receiving care, this policy may be seen as unjust or unreasonable by certain staff mem...