Health Care Delivery System

The Health Care Delivery System: A Blueprint to Reform Meredith King Ledford Jeanne M. Lambrew David J. Rothman John D. Podesta Abstract This paper explores a published book of concern with the American health care systems and top three health care issues. It shows an overview and recommendations of our health care delivery systems and an overall blueprint for reform. Ledford and Lambrew offer recommendations to promote quality, efficiency, patient-centeredness, and other salient characteristics of a high performing health system.

The blueprint is a vision of how different parts of the system should be structured and how they should function ( (Meredith King Ledford, Jeanne M. Lambrew, David J. Rothman, & John D. Podesta, 2008) The Health Care Delivery System: A Blueprint to Reform Medicare is one of a governments program that shows one of America’s biggest issues. An estimated 2. 3 trillion was spent on health care in the United States in 2007, and the cost of health care continues to grow at an astromical rate. (Ranawat) Growing concern about the rate of health care spending has forced policymakers to evaluate new cost control solutions.

Increasing spending on Medicare has focused policymakers’ efforts to help control expenditures but it doesn’t help the underlying fundamental flaws. Decreasing reimbursements will likely prompt many physicians to reconsider their participation in the Medicare program (Ranawat). (Meredith King Ledford, Jeanne M. Lambrew, David J. Rothman, & John D. Podesta, 2008) Included some insights on provider payment incentives, one incentive would be to revamp the process for updating the relative value scale used in Medicare’s physician fee schedule so that the relative values more accurately reflect relative costs.

Medicaid is a federal and state program that is funded by taxpayers’ income tax payments to the government’s general revenue. Medicaid is one of the largest items in the federal budget, and its cost is growing at a rapid and unsustainable rate. The federal costs of expansion in Medicaid will be about 100 billion annually by 2020. (Edwards, 2010) Federal debt is spiraling out of control, and federal health programs are one of the main reasons why. The cost of Medicaid has grown explosively.

Researchers have shown that spending jumped from $118 billion in 2000 to $275 billion by 2010 (Budget of the U. S. Government, Fiscal year 2011 Washington Printing Office 2010. The Health Care Delivery System: A Blueprint to Reform Conclusion and Future Study In order to gain a complete understanding of the government payment programs and different issues we face in the United States, it would be necessary to conduct a study that examines all aspects of Medicare and Medicaid. This would include The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) www. ms. hhs. gov, U. S. Census Bureau or The Official U. S. Government Web Site for people with Medicare (www. medicare. gov). References Works Cited Edwards, C. (2010). Medicaid Reforms. Meredith King Ledford, M. , Jeanne M. Lambrew, P. , David J. Rothman, P. , & John D. Podesta, J. (2008). Government Payment Programs and Issues. In M. K. Ledford, & J. M. Lambrew, The Health Care Delivery System: A Blueprint for Reform (pp. 1-128). Center For American Progress. Ranawat, A. (n. d. ). Medicare. Issues of America.