Week 2 – discussion forum

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, read the following:

The course textbook indicates Medicare patients make up 42% of a hospital’s typical volume and Medicaid patients make up 16%. Both types of insurance coverage pay the hospitals less than what they spend on care for the patients. For Medicare the total shortfall for hospitals nationwide was $56.8 billion in 2019. For Medicaid the total shortfall for hospitals nationwide was $19 billion. Medicare pays 87 cents for every dollar spent on care. Medicaid pays 90 cents for every dollar spent on patient care (Epstein & Schneider, 2022). In addition, hospitals provide charity care, and some patients do not to pay toward their bills, which is considered bad debt.

For this discussion,

• Evaluate why hospitals and medical organizations continue to accept patients who are covered by Medicare or Medicaid when they lose money on patient care costs.
• Discuss ways you feel medical organizations can provide quality care for all patients or groups of people regardless of their health care coverage and ability to pay for care.
  • If medical organizations discontinued providing care to patients covered by Medicare or Medicaid specific groups of people may be negatively affected. Consider the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that many health care organizations are incorporating, in your response.
• Discuss the financial implications of gross uncollectibles on the bottom line of the health care institution. Provide your rationale for your response.
• Identify at least one method a hospital can use to create new revenue streams to overcome financial losses. Provide your rationale for the method and include the target market.

Your initial post must be at least 250 words and use a minimum of two credible sources to support your discussion content. The supporting resources can be your textbook as well as the required or recommended resources provided in this course, the University of Arizona Global Campus Library, or credible websites.

The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. All referenced materials must include citations and references in APA format. Please see directions for including APA Style elements on these Writing Center pages: APA: Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) and APA: Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.).

Guided Response: Due by Day 7. Respond to two peers by the end of Day 7. In your response, compare your recommended revenue streams to your peers who recommended something different. Explain the benefits of your own method versus theirs. Each response must be at least 100 words and substantively contribute to the discussion.

Reference:

Epstein, L., & Schneider, A. (2022). Accounting for healthcare professionals (2nd ed.). Zovio.