Payment Advisory Commission Assignment

Payment Advisory Commission Assignment

The U.S. health care system is an exemplar of scarcity: primary care physicians, substance abuse treatment centers, trauma centers, registered nurses, and the money to pay for goods and services. Finance is all about how to pay for goods and services. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is appointed by the Executive branch of the federal government to make decisions about what the Medicare program will and will not pay for. In this role, MedPAC makes decisions about medications, procedures and treatments. Examples of MedPAC decisions include coverage for left ventricular assistive devices as a destination therapy, coverage for bariatric surgery, and in 2010, coverage of the drug Provenge™. By law, MedPAC is not allowed to use price or cost of any treatment in its decision-making processes. Review the information in the Washington Post article “Review of Prostate Cancer Drugs Provenge Renews Medical Cost-Benefit Debate” in the Learning Resources. Consider how policy decisions currently are made about what will and will not be paid for and what changes, if any, could improve the process. Reflect on how the Washington Post example illustrates the tension between cost and care. By Day 3 Post your analysis and assessment of the ethical and economic challenges related to policy decisions such as those presented in the Washington Post article. How does this type of situation contribute to the tension between cost and care? Substantiate your response with at least two outside resources. By Day 6 Respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days in one or more of the following ways: Ask a probing question, substantiated with additional background information, evidence, or research using an in-text citation in APA format. Share an insight from having read your colleagues’ postings, synthesizing the information to provide new perspectives. Offer and support an alternative perspective using readings from the classroom or from your own research in the Walden Library. Validate an idea with your own experience and additional research. Make a suggestion based on additional evidence drawn from readings or after synthesizing multiple postings. Expand on your colleagues’ postings by providing additional insights or contrasting perspectives based on readings and evidence. References: National Health Expenditures 2010 Highlights, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cms.gov/NationalHealthExpendData/downloads/highlights.pdf. Milstead, J. A. (2013). Health policy and politics: A nurse’s guide (3rd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Click on the Reply button below to reveal the textbox for entering your message. Then click on the Submit button to post your message. Week 4 discussion Key Health Determinants Did you know that the United States has a higher rate of infant mortality than Japan (CIA, n.d.)? Or, as Dr. Beilenson states in this week’s media presentation, that “your zip code that you live in makes more difference in your health and well-being than the genetic code that you’re born with?” What causes these differences in health outcomes? To effectively develop policies and programs to improve population health, it is useful to use a framework to guide the process. Different organizations and governmental agencies (for example, Healthy People 2020) have created a variety of such frameworks, which establish measures for assessing population health. These measures frequently are derived from the examination of epidemiologic data, which include key measures of population health such as mortality, morbidity, life expectancy, etc. Within each measure are a variety of progress indicators that use epidemiologic data to assess improvement or change.