Examining Health Care Legislation

Professional Context

Health care professionals and leaders must be attuned to current health care legislation and advocacy issues that affect reimbursement, access, costs, quality, and innovation. Federal legislation sets the tone for health care regulation and payment. State legislation regulates health care professionals and health care facilities through licensures, certifications, audits, and surveys. Health care leaders must have a substantive understanding of current legislation and awareness of advocacy needs to represent their organizations, employees, and communities effectively.

This assignment provides an opportunity for you to begin an investigation of current health care legislation that affects a population or segment of the health care industry.

By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assignment criteria:

· Competency 2: Evaluate significant federal and state legislation that affects the scope of, access to, availability of, and reimbursement for health care services.

. Describe the purpose and scope of specific health care legislation and its impact on health care services for a population or segment of the health care industry.

. Develop a research question to guide an investigation into the effects of specific legislation on health care services.

· Competency 3: Analyze the effects of values and assumptions inherent in the changing priorities in health planning and resource allocation.

. Identify the historical underpinnings, underlying assumptions, and values affecting specific health care legislation.

· Competency 4: Evaluate the combined effects of social, economic, ethical, legal, and political forces on health care.

. Explain how social, economic, ethical, legal, and political forces affect health care legislation.

· Competency 6: Communicate effectively, in an appropriate form and style, consistent with applicable organizational, professional, and scholarly standards.

. Write clearly and concisely in a logically coherent and appropriate form and style.

Scenario

In all four assignments in this course, you will assume the role of a health policy analyst working for a health care think tank. The board of directors has asked you to undertake a scholarly investigation of specific health care legislation to determine whether that legislation is achieving its aims. As a health care policy expert, the choice of legislation has been left up to you.

You have decided that your approach to this investigation will be to:

· Examine the historical context of the legislation.

· Review the available literature surrounding the legislation.

· Analyze the available literature addressing the outcomes of the legislation.

· Recommend changes to improve health policy in the area the legislation addresses.

You will complete your investigation over the course of your Unit 3, 5, 7, and 9 assignments:

· For this assignment, you will choose the legislation you will investigate, develop a research question, and write the introduction to your research paper.

· You will collect data to answer your research question from the peer-reviewed literature that you compile in Unit 5.

· Your analysis of the literature in Unit 7 will form the basis of your study.

· In Unit 9, you will consolidate the feedback from your instructor and peers on your previous work received and add your conclusions and recommendations for policy changes.

Instructions

Complete this assignment in three parts.

Part 1

To begin your investigation, choose federal or state health care legislation that affects a population or segment of the health care industry. There are numerous health care laws to consider, with various implications for delivery, access, cost, and outcomes. You are encouraged to explore current health care legislation affecting the industry segment that interests you most. This week’s discussion will help you consider potential choices and formulate your research question.

· Choose legislation that has had a meaningful impact on at least one population or segment of the health care industry.

· Be sure that this legislation has been in effect for at least one year. Do not choose proposed legislation or bills that have not been signed into law.

· Consider the effects of social, economic, ethical, legal, and political forces on your chosen health care legislation, as well as the historical underpinnings, underlying assumptions, and values that may have influenced it.

Part 2

Develop a research question as the basis for your investigation into the effects of health care legislation on the scope of, access to, availability of, and reimbursement for health care services. You will answer this question as you work through each assignment in the course.

Formulate your research question as What effect did X have on Y?, where X is the specific legislation and Y is the affected population or segment of the health care industry.

Here are a few examples to get you thinking about a suitable research question:

· For emergency departments focused on reducing hospital readmissions: What effect did value-based bundling and reimbursement changes have on reducing hospital readmissions?

· For a skilled nursing facility working on quality initiatives: What effect did the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1987 have on skilled nursing facilities?

· For mental health organizations: What effect did the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) of 2008 have on access for people with mental health problems?

· For health plans: What effect did the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010, have on Medicare beneficiaries and coverage options?

Part 3

Write the introduction to your research paper. The introduction will be developed around your research question.

Additional Requirements

Assignment Format and Length

For this assignment, create the basic framework of an APA-formatted research paper. The APA Style Paper Tutorial is provided to help you in writing and formatting your paper. Include:

· A title page.

· Introduction. Introduce your chosen legislation.

. State the problem. Identify the relevant issues with the legislation and the affected population or health care industry segment.

. State the purpose of the study.

. Present your research question.

. Provide a brief history of the legislation or policy background.

. Identify the market, economic, and/or social forces addressed in the legislation.

· A references page.

This assignment should comprise 4–5 pages of content plus title and references pages.

You will add the following sections to your research paper in subsequent assignments:

· Literature Review (Unit 5).

· Analysis (Unit 7).

· Conclusions and Recommendations (Unit 9).

Supporting Evidence

Cite at least five credible sources from peer-reviewed journals that support your investigation.

Evaluation

The following requirements correspond to the assignment scoring guide, so be sure to address each point. Read the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.

· Explain how social, economic, ethical, legal, and political forces affect health care legislation.

. What evidence supports your conclusions?

· Identify the historical underpinnings, underlying assumptions, and values affecting the health care legislation you have chosen to investigate.

. What cause-and-effect relationships among these factors and your chosen legislation can you discern?

. Which areas of uncertainty preclude you from drawing precise, defensible conclusions about how these factors have influenced the legislation?

. What evidence supports your assertions and conclusions?

· Describe the purpose and scope of the health care legislation you have chosen to investigate and its impact on health care services for a population or segment of the health care industry.

. What evidence supports your assertions and conclusions?

· Develop a research question to guide your investigation into the effects of your chosen legislation on health care services.

. Consider the salient characteristics of a good research question, such as scope, specificity, interest, and feasibility.

. Be sure to phrase your research question as What effect did X have on Y?

· Write clearly and concisely in a logically coherent and appropriate form and style.

. Write with a specific purpose and audience in mind.

. Adhere to scholarly and disciplinary writing standards and APA formatting requirements.

. Proofread your writing to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it difficult for them to focus on the substance of your introduction.