Healthcare Cost and Quality Health

Healthcare cost and quality
Name
Institution
Date
Quality is linked to achieving the greatest possible benefits of medical care and lowest risks during and after providing care. Poor quality survives increase health care costs as there is a higher risk of medical errors and preventable hospital-acquired infections. Accessible and quality care meets the health care needs of many people without increasing the cost per patient, and there is more emphasis on improving efficiency in the healthcare sector (Zhu et al., 2018). When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was adapted there was an emphasis on providing high-quality care and cost containment, and even as more people were insured, high costs remain a problem and health care improvement efforts are important to improve quality of care. Health care outcomes are an indicator of the quality and analytics have been utilized to find inefficiencies to improve quality care and reduce costs.
The Joint Commission is an independent, private, not for profit organization, tasked with accreditation standards in hospitals and determining the quality parameters. In quality control assessment, there is a focus on evaluating the quality and safety of health services offered in hospitals. Certifications and accreditations mostly meet the quality of care specifications when institutions accredited prioritize service delivery and even make an alliance with other institutions to ensure there is the implementation of quality control. This is associated with a greater focus on efficiency, which reduces costs without compromising quality (Epstein et al., 2014). In accreditation, the organization looks for different factors like patient safety and continuous search for quality services, which has been crucial to reducing medical errors and health care costs associated with misdiagnosis and medical mishaps.
The Joint Commission is a transparent and independent organization, which has guaranteed high standards not only in the US but also in other countries. This has been possible through partnerships and alliances with other institutions and agencies, which generates confidence that the Commission officials are keen to target accreditation of services consistent with the improvement and continuous optimization of health care delivery. As such, there is international recognition for accreditation the organization has been at the forefront of supporting quality improvement initiatives to implement practices that reduce the healthcare costs.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) tasked with implementing quality initiatives targeting Medicare and Medicaid. The agency also disseminates research findings on the effectiveness of interventions that improve the quality of care and reduce health care costs....