Changing Landscape Of Health Care

Changing Landscape of Healthcare

The landscape of health care has changed incredibly over the past several years. There have been many changes from everything regarding medical procedures to medications to major changes involving health insurance. There has also been a shift in the very health care model as well as medical records due to being a now paperless society. Health care has been slow to adapt and still has a long way to go to catch up with the new century. They have recently made changes and implemented them so quickly that people still do not understand them. The biggest change happening today is the change in health care insurance. Today we have the affordable care act. This really changed the way health insurance
It also includes amendments to other laws like the
Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act and the Health and Public Services Act.” (Affordable Care Act
Summary, n.d). This means that there it is not just changing the way health insurance is handled but sweeping change to the system. This also means that now Americans are forced to get insurance coverage or pay a penalty on their taxes every year. This is a growing area of concern for the American people as many still do not understand what this means or what is required of them. There is definitely a need for education on what this all means for us. Over recent years there has also been change involving surgical procedures. It used to be that in the past you would have a very involved invasive procedure and be in the hospital over night if not days. In today’s medical world patients now have minimally invasive procedures, recover in a recovery room and are sent home the same day. Some procedures require no
As referenced in the previous paragraph people are just not staying in hospitals near as long. Another reason for the rise in the long term care industry is that baby boomers are starting to reach that age and are living healthier lives. This in turn means they are living longer. Then there is just the sheer number of baby boomers in our country, it is a very large population. The last big change in health care that I wanted to touch on is electronic health records
(EHR’s). Today we live in a largely paperless world where all types of information is being kept and stored on networks. Health records are no different as now everyone in the health care industry is slowly making the change to electronic health records. There will be a lot of catching up to do for many providers as well as patients but this is the wave of the future. One of the big positives for this transition is now data will be easily accessible by those who need patient information in a timely manner. This should mean easier and better communication between everyone from a patient’s primary care to any specialty care they receive. This should result