Health Care Delivery Systems Essay

Similarities and Differences between Different Health Care Delivery Systems
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There are major two types of different health care delivery systems in United States. Fee-for-service (FFS) is one type of health care delivery system while Managed care system like HMO (health maintenance organizations) is also another type. In certain cases, alterative delivery system is a term that is utilized to describe all types of health care delivery systems, apart from traditional fee-for-services (FFS), private practices like IPAS, PPO, HMOs, including other systems of offering health care that are classified under the managed care system (Pina, 2015). A health care delivery system refers to a mechanism of offering services to meet the needs of people’s health-related issues. Health care delivery system in America is currently facing dramatic change. Health care providers are looking for cost-effective methods of delivering services to consumers. Health care institutions, which flourished sometimes back, are now looking for survival tactics while consumers want more accessibility to affordable and quality health care services. This paper aims to describe different types of health care delivery systems, explain the philosophies or goals of the different types of delivery systems, and justify my mission or philosophy statement and why I chose it.
Fee-for-service is a traditional method of delivering healthcare services to consumers. Under this approach, hospitals and doctors get paid for every service they give each patient. The manner in which treatment decisions are made has no limits. In this way, hospitals and doctors can order several tests they feel vital. David, Lucy and Scott (2010) view that hospitals and doctors use this method to enrich themselves and make a lot of profits since they are the ones who decide the prices they feel should be charged for each visit. Nevertheless, patients are not benefiting since their insurance firms would mostly pay a part of the fees that is charged for healthcare services. For instance, if a health physician charged $120 for a checkup, though the insurance firm felt that $90 is the recommended price, then the patient would have to pay additional $30 until the fees is settled.
There are various types of fee-for-service, which include reimbursement plans and indemnity plans. The insurer determines the amount of money which will pay for a particular medical service under an indemnity plan. Under a reimbursement plan, the patient has to pay all fees charged and then present the fees to be reimbursed or settled by the insurer (Mohammed, et al, 2014). Nowadays, fee-for-service health care is not widely used since most people prefer using the managed care insurance.
Managed care is another type of health care delivery system. Managed health care plan refers to an arrangement which combines management and financing with delivery of care services to registered members (David, Lucy and Scott, 2010). Managed care health care delivery system focuses on quality of delivery care and payment, and has an influential role of assessing the way care services are used (Mohammed, et al, 2014). Managed care applies management techniques created to pr...