Eugene Bloom Interview

Interview with Doctor Eugene Bloom
Jennifer Albert
HCM300 – Healthcare Principles and Practices
Colorado State University – Global Campus
Dr. Evelynn Shinn
December 19th, 2014

Interview with Doctor Eugene Bloom
Healthcare has drastically changed over the course of many years. Many of the changes our country has seen in healthcare have been beneficial, and others have not. In fact, most people seem to be unhappy with the rising costs, and lack of quality care. To gain perspective into something, it is always best to turn to a person who has had personal experience with a particular topic. In the case of changes in healthcare, we can look to healthcare professionals, past or present, and ask them about the changes that they have seen, and
Not surprisingly, his first response was in regards to the Affordable Care Act. Dr. Bloom began to explain to me that although the number of uninsured people was getting very high, the Affordable Care Act allows for more people to become insured. Before the Affordable Care Act came about, students had the opportunity to be covered under insurance by their parents until they graduated college at an average age of twenty-two. Now, insurance companies are required to allow parents to keep their children on their insurance until the age of twenty-six. However, this does not mean that the parents are required to continue paying for their children’s insurance. In addition, anyone who had a preexisting condition before the Affordable Care Act, such as cancer, may not have been able to change insurance companies without it costing a fortune. If they were to switch insurance companies, they may not have been covered for any medications they would need toward the condition they had. However, this policy has changed, and anyone who has a preexisting condition can get coverage for it. From my interview with Dr. Bloom, my overall conclusion is that in the past five years more people have been able to gain access to healthcare insurance. Although the insurance does cost money, this is a drastic transformation that has
Bloom and I discussed was how the healthcare industry has changed in the past ten years. Dr. Bloom explained that over the course of the past ten years physicians have been more willing to consolidate and give up their practices to work in small or larger groups. By consolidating, physicians can gain a better contract for reimbursement and economic power. Another benefit to the physician is that they would be able to maintain a better lifestyle. For example, if a physician were to have multiple partners in their practice, there is more opportunity for coverage if they want to take a vacation with their family. Along with working in larger practices, physicians have also become more inclined to become hospital employees because it gives them a greater amount of security. According to Sultz and Young (2014), the American Hospital Association reported in 2012 that the number of physicians employed by hospitals has grown by 32% since 2000. In my interview with Dr. Bloom, he also explained to me that hospitals offer better benefits to physicians. Hospital employment has become more desirable due to factors such as flat reimbursement rates, complex insurance and health information technology requirements, high malpractice premiums, and a desire for greater work-life balance (Sultz & Young,