You should respond to at least two of your peers by extending, refuting/correcting, or adding additional nuance to their posts.
All replies must be constructive and use literature where possible.
Your assignment will be graded according to the grading rubric.
As decisions are made to address changes in reimbursement in your workplace, how are these changes shared with the nursing staff? What suggestions do you have that could increase nurses’ awareness of health care financing issues?
According to Harrington (2019), after an in-depth analysis of the current and the past state of activities in the healthcare sector, changes in healthcare reimbursement are still expected in the future. Several variables influence healthcare reimbursement, and some of them include the insurance payer, the hospital, and the state. To meet the requirements of universal healthcare and the demands in healthcare, some necessary changes are being made in the healthcare reimbursement. Some of these changes include the introduction and implementation of new policies such as ACO (Accountable Care Organizations) and ACA (Affordable Care Act). Accountable Care Organizations policy was adopted to lower the healthcare costs while at the same time, improving the quality of care. The Affordable Care Act was established to promote value-based reimbursement and initiative-based performance. This paper will, therefore, concentrate on how these changes are being shared with the nursing staff and provide suggestions on how to increase the nurses’ awareness of health care financing issues.
Organizations are highly concerned about the changes in reimbursement, and therefore several decisions are being made in their actions. In the healthcare setting, making effective decisions emphasizes sharing the reimbursements challenges to the core stakeholders in the organization who include the nursing staff. In my workplace, shared governance is one of the instrumental approaches being used to share the changes with the nursing staff. This approach entails involving the nursing staff, which, in the process, promotes nurses’ engagement and accountability in the implementation of new reimbursement changes. The technique of shared governance is also helping to keep the nurses informed about the financial goals of the organization.
Another technique that my workplace is using to share the new reimbursement changes with the nursing staff includes the buy-ins. The nursing staff buy-in help in supporting change through innovation, creating more opportunities, and responding to the external and internal threats (French-Bravo & Crow, 2015). My workplace is using this technique through creating awareness on the expected changes and therefore developing a sense of urgency. After this step of raising awareness, the nursing leaders are now used to communicate the nursing staff. In this case, the nursing leaders are selected based on the level of influence that they have on the nursing staff. The nurses are then expected to give their feedback, whereby their opinions are considered in the implementation of changes.
There are several suggestions on some of the ways that can be instrumental in increasing nurses’ awareness of health care financing issues. One of the suggestions is putting more emphasis on the effectiveness of healthcare budgeting. The efficiency of the healthcare budgeting can be enhanced through empowering the nurses in the health care budgeting decision making. This will significantly help in motivating the nursing staff to put more effort into the effectiveness of healthcare budgeting, which helps to prevent financial losses. Another suggestion includes the healthcare organization offering training and development to the nursing staff. This will help in providing the nurses with more skills and information associated with financial management and healthcare financing.
In conclusion, to effectively address the reimbursement changes, it calls for a requirement to share these changes with the nursing staff. They can be shared through the use of techniques like share governance and buy-ins. While these changes are being addressed, nurses are supposed to be engaged in the decision-making process. This kind of empowerment also significantly helps in addressing the financial issues in the healthcare organization. Also, to increase nurses’ awareness of health care financing issues, it is recommendable to offer training and development services to the nursing staff for them to gain instrumental skills in healthcare financing and financial management.
Reply 2
Increase Nurses’ Awareness of Health Care Financing Issues
Notable alterations in healthcare recompense are being felt to cushion the elevating healthcare challenges and attain universal healthcare. At the national position, several policies address reimbursement matters have been entrenched. One such strategy is the Affordable Care Act that prompts most healthcare agencies to adopt initiative-based achievement and value based on reimbursement policies. The incorporation of the latest changes in healthcare reimbursement is a switch from the fee-for-service set-up of compensation to the achievement-based refund. A related change in the reimbursement entails the initiation of Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) that aim at fostering care quality while decreasing the cost of care. Based on ACO, reimbursement of care occurs through fixed remission, varied upfront payment, or even varying monthly payments (Mechanic, 2016). To address the reimbursement changes, decisions are being made in my organization.
In my opinion, effective decision making necessitates sharing the changes to the vital organizational stakeholders who include the nursing staff. One of the approaches being used by the organization to share these changes is through shared governance. The shared governance offers a set of guidelines regarding nurses` involvement in making organizational decisions. The nursing staff’s engagement in shared governance has promoted accountability and nurses` participation in the implementation of the new changes about reimbursement.
Notably, shared governance has increased the level of nurses` awareness concerning organizational financial goals. This increase is well communicated through having clear financial goals that tend to guide all stakeholders in the organization. Equally, changes regarding reimbursement are being shared with the nursing staff through the development of team-based care. Perse, team-based care puts the nursing staff at the center of healthcare reimbursement to ensure that nurses offer comprehensive and cost-effective care.
Subsequently, the establishment of buy-ins is another tactic used to share changes to the nursing staff regarding healthcare reimbursement decisions. The establishment of nursing staff buy-in begins by raising awareness regarding the anticipated change and involves creating a sense of urgency. Adjustments are then communicated to the nursing staff mainly through the nursing leaders who have a high level of influence on the nursing staff. Nurses` opinions are then sought to ensure that implemented changes are based on shared decisions. Nursing leaders need to assess both emotional buy-in and intellectual buy-in among the nursing staff (Kowalski, Cherry, & Yoder-Wise, 2013).
Nurses` awareness regarding healthcare financing issues can be improved through varied approaches. First, nursing staff training and development should occur at the organizational level. Through the training, nurses would become knowledgeable regarding healthcare financing and develop essential skills in financial management. Similarly, there is a need to encourage nurses to promote quality improvement that targets offering quality and cost-effective care to their patients. Issues of innovative thinking that reward nurses for showcasing exemplary roles in ineffective financial management to cut down healthcare costs are vital. Besides, there is a need to emphasize on effective healthcare budgeting whereby nurses are empowered to make financial decisions through healthcare budgeting. This emphasis would ensure that nurses put efforts to meet the budgets to prevent financial losses.
