Answers to lectures 5, 7, 8

Answer to Lecture 5 Health Plan Op sequencetionsIn the condition released by Healthc atomic number 18 Price, Cost and employment Benchmarks entitled Study Reveals Best Pr processice In Plan Administrations, it was express how Sherlock Company conducted a very innovative study on much than 1,700 statistical data of finance and operations (Study bring outs best execute in end administration, 2006, p.214). From the given article, if I were to pick only three roughly operating metrics, which I would use in supervise a wellness care plan, I would choose the following metricsMembership yield regularize This is very important, since it betters the naughtyest rate of membership growth, which is right a air connected to the hail marketplace and commission costs. Going over the advertising & promotion, the average theme size, the natural marketing, and the commissions would make way for lower advertising costs, which would deliver great privileges of producing higher prof its and income.Total Costs of merchandise This is similarly very important, since it reveals the boilersuit cost of marketing, from advertising costs to product development and marketing research. It would reveal the customer satisfaction rate, and would be linked to membership growth rate and group growth rate. Higher costs mean growth for the product.Local Market Share This smokenot be aband hotshotd as well, especially that it shows the rates of marketing and members, wherein great rates mean fewer opportunities for brokers. Market share would reveal the approximate number of employees, as revealed in the study (Study reveals best practice, 2006, p.214). This influences the arrive cost of marketing, which would directly influence savings and profit.The membership growth rate, the total costs of market, and the local market share are three of the to the highest degree(prenominal) important metrics that can be used in monitoring health care plans. They are directly linked to one another, and producing one without the other would be almost useless. The whole picture is drawn by comparing the three most basic metrics as a whole.Answer to Lecture 7 Public Sector Managed CareIn the article released by Managed health care Executive, and written by Jill Wechsler (2007), it revealed how the Congress pushed through its ordinance to entail the Health and Human Services or HHS to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies on prices for medications covered by the Medicare do drugs benefit (Wechsler, 2007). The non-interference act of the Medicare Modernization Act or MMA was replaced with the HR 4, with a requirement for the governing body to negotiate prices of drug manufacturers on prescription drug plans and the Medicare Advantage drug plans.From what it have the appearance _or_ semblances, the federal governments act of negotiating drug prices on behalf of Medicare beneficiaries is a good and sensible act. Medicare is a government health care proj ect. It concerns health check privileges that are to be scattered among its legal citizens, and would, in that locationfore, need proper work of prices, products, and the market. A failure in this aspect would not only sham the citizens of the present era solely also those that would avail it in the future. As spoken by Sen. Baucus, the act would also produce better prices for seniors (Wechsler, 2007), so that it reflects a good and sensible act, so long as there is a rightful cause and target for each of the projects and legislations involved.Certain monopoly drugs need greater attention and supervision by the government, which Wechsler proposes as the certain unique drugs where the market fails to provide seniors with affordable medicines (2007). A targeted legislation will do no harmeven to the ongoing market competitionif the pharmaceutical companies are treated evenly and fairly, not as an interference to the marketing environment, but as a way to manage the environment mor e efficaciously without the use of tricks. However, this would also mean that what Wechsler (2007) indicated as a limited poking would have to be improved for greater liberty on the emplacement of the pharmaceutical companies. Limiting their capacity should give rise to other opportunities that can be made available, other than their freedom to negotiate prices.Answer to Lecture 8 Trends and Current IssuesIn the article released by the HealthLeaders Magazine entitled 5 Intersections, Jim Molpus revealed that Healthcare is approaching a hopeful turning point in 2006 the crossbreeding of extreme cost pressures with improving technology (2006). He described the high cost and poor quality of the healthcare industry, saying that optimism would make way for future influences and development that build some propitious intersections and what Molpus called a navigable healthcare system (2006).There are five trends that would most probably maturate in terms of healthcare management firs t is the explosion of P4P or pay for performance, which is improving nowadays, as stated by the CMS second is the expediency of quality of healthcare service, especially since only 55% of the total descend of patients in U.S.A. receives recommended care service (Molpus, 2006) third is the decline of what he called the mess-information era, where the dispense of healthcare information will center more on consumer needs fourth is the growing force of the uninsured, wherein the middle class is also being swept down among the list of the uninsured fifth and final exam trend is that the stakeholders will start in becoming more self-interested, unneurotic with the growth of the P4P programs (Molpus, 2006).If I were to choose mainly one of the five trends that appear to be the most important for the country at the present era, it would by all odds be the fourth trend, which speaks of the growing force and number of the uninsured. This appears to be the most significant among the five listed under trend because it is the most powerful attest that is available, which would prove that the healthcare industry is in critical need for some quality improvement, some redesigning and reinvention. It is the most powerful force that would influence the explosion of P4P, the improvement of quality, the decline of the mess-information, as well as the booming of more self-interested stakeholders. There are 45.8 Americans that are without adequate health insurances (Molpus, 2006), and this should trigger forces among its citizens.ReferencesMolpus, J. (2006, December). 5 Intersections. Retrieved certify 30, 2008, from the HealthLeaders Media database http//www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/81594/topic/WS_HLM2_MAG/5-Intersections.html.Study reveals best practice in plan administrations. (2006). Healthcare Price, Cost and Utilization Benchmarks, 4, 214-215.Wechsler, J. (2007, February). Congress moves to curb Medicare drug spending. Retrieved March 30, 2008, from the Managed H ealthcare Executive database http//managedhealthcareexecutive.modernmedicine.com/mhe/Politics+and+Policy/Congress-moves-to-curb-Medicare-drug-spending/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/401866.