2019051113:04:48

Universal healthcare - let’s talk about healthcare for all

Published by: Steve

Universal health care is a hot topic for discussion these days, with people arguing for and against it. While proponents of the system argue that it is the right of every human being, opponents argue that it may not be economically feasible, and may harm a lot more people than it will help. The issue is much more complicated by the fact that there is no one system in the world that is adopted by all the countries that currently has universal healthcare, and therefore it becomes difficult to gauge its success across the world. Let us try to break this complex issue to gain a better understanding of the system, and form informed opinions.

Universal health care is a system that ensures all the people in a region or a country gets healthcare without affecting their financial status. According to WHO Universal health coverage (UHC) means that all people and communities can use the promotive, preventive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative health services they need, of sufficient quality to be effective, while also ensuring that the use of these services does not expose the user to financial hardship. In practice, this does not mean that everyone has insurance coverage or that all medical issues are covered by the insurance, it just means that everyone has access to healthcare.

Universal healthcare first started in Germany in 1883 with the sickness insurance law, which mandated industrial employers to provide insurance for their workers using funds made from deductions in employee wages and from employer contributions. By 1930s, almost all of western and central Europe had similar systems in place. Currently, of the 33 developed countries, all of them except the USA has universal healthcare.

Implementation strategies

Even though the definition of universal healthcare is uniform throughout the world, the implementation strategies used in different countries are very diverse and difficult to classify. Each of these systems are linked with the governing systems and the laws and regulations of that country, and therefore may even differ in different parts of a single country, as in the different provinces of Canada, where each province has reasons to determine what is considered essential, and where, how and who should provide the services.

In some cases, the government pays for healthcare from a single fund. In some countries like Canada, this would mean that the government pays private organizations which in turn provide healthcare to its public, while in countries like the United Kingdom, the government maintains a healthcare system, owning healthcare resources and employing healthcare professionals. Such systems are referred to as single-payer systems, which means that the fund for the system is managed directly by the government or a government regulated agency. In such a system, the entire population is brought together under a single health risk pool, and one set of standards for services offered, and the cost for these services. Generally, the idea is that the high healthcare costs that arise from the sicker section of the population are balanced by the low healthcare costs for the healthy section of the population.

In a multi-payer system, the medical costs are paid for by multiple entities, which may include the person or their family, their employer, and the government. Countries like Germany follow a multi-payer system, with a statutory health insurance, and private health insurance. Compared to single-payer systems, multi-payer systems provide more options to the patients, and are generally difficult for the governments to exploit, but falls below in terms of healthcare equity, risk pooling, and negotiations. Multi-payer systems are also associated with higher administrative costs.

In some countries like Switzerland and Germany, universal healthcare is enforced by legislation. In Switzerland, there are no free state-provided health services, but private health insurance is compulsory for all persons residing in Switzerland (within three months of taking up residence or being born in the country). Swiss are required to purchase basic health insurance, which covers a range of treatments detailed in the Swiss Federal Law on Health Insurance. It is therefore the same throughout the country and avoids double standards in healthcare. Insurers are required to offer this basic insurance to everyone, regardless of age or medical condition.

The advantage of universal healthcare is that everyone gets medical coverage, no matter how poor they are, and everyone gets the same standard of care. Various studies have shown that universal healthcare has lead to healthier populations, with lower infant mortality rates and improved life expectancy. Universal healthcare is also associated with improved economic well being of the population. In Thailand within ten years of the implementation of Universal Health Scheme, the catastrophic healthcare expenditure in the poorest households fell from 6.8% to 2.8%. In Mexico, impoverishment from health expenditure fell from 3.3% in 2001 to 0.8% in 2010, with the implementation of a national protection programme called Seguro Popular, funded by general taxation and modest contributions from richer households.

Implementation of universal healthcare is complicated with a lot of difficult choices. The healthy section of the population ends up paying for the sicker section of the society, the money which may well be spent on economically better ventures, which will improve the quality of life for everyone. Universal healthcare may end up crippling the economy and may even lead to poor quality of healthcare, as doctors have more incentive for treating more patients, but less for treating fewer patients with more care. People may also be less careful of their health and can lead to less healthy choices if they don’t have the incentive to stay healthy.

So the debate on whether universal healthcare is good or bad, essentially is a debate on how to achieve universal healthcare - should it be done by implementing laws and regulations specifically for universal healthcare, or should we do it improve the overall standard of living that access to healthcare is not a problem for anyone.

The success of a universal healthcare system will depend on how it is implemented, and choices have to be made based on the size of the population, the economic well-being of the population, the available funding and the fine balance between the choice similar to as mentioned above.

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Leveraging telemedicine to profitable practice helps in enhancing patient retention, increasing revenue, and delighting your office staff. The advantages can be quickly gained through the option of telemedicine.

Powerful financial incentives for the providers and intense consumer requirements for the service are the two critical things that drive the sharp spike in the field of telemedicine technology.

Both private payers and legislatures are allowing the arise of telemedicine by representing parity laws and policies in telehealth. They identify the requirements to expand access to care while leveraging healthcare resources effectively.

How do make use of telemedicine to improve profitability?

There are many reasons to list why influencing telemedicine can bring more profit to you. In this blog, let's check out a few steps that can be used for influencing telemedicine into a more profitable practice.

Hold your current patients and amuse them:

There are numerous healthcare options available than before for the patients to choose from. There are a different number of urgent care facilities, retail-based walk-in clinics, and thousands of online opportunities. These variations to in-office care are prominent with patients, especially for regular issues like flu, skin conditions, other ailments, colds, UTIs, and more as they are inexpensive, quick, and convenient. The practices which provide video visits provide the patient with the essential benefits of seeing their routine provider, with the added convenience that telemedicine brings.

Decrease No-Shows and Cancellations:

Practice profitability is hard when any of the appointments are missed. They are also bad when considering the outcomes of patient health. A good number of the reasons why people cancel or show up at the last minute are withdrawn by telemedicine. Patients need not consider taking time off work, transportation, or arranging for childcare.

Grab good patient outcomes:

It's easy for patients to follow up on the next visit through the recommendation process in telemedicine. They are an accurate tool for lifestyle coaching, post-hospitalization care, and medication management. Compliance and increased patient management system lead to smaller unnecessary complications as well as help in better case management.

Make a profit with telephone calls:

Most of the payers do not compensate for the provider's telephone but rather only follow-up calls. Few conversations like medication checks and reviewing test results will not be paid if it's done over the phone. Most of the exchanges become counterpoised by adding videos. Making use of the video also makes these relevant encounters and make them understandable to the patients.

See More patients:

In-office care is not much effective when compared with online visits using telemedicine. Practices that influence video will see several patients every day with identical providers. Most countries and states need insurers to compensate providers for visiting telehealth at an equal rate similar to in-office care. It's also recognized that most of the insurers follow this set of rules in the states that do not need it. It indicates that most of the visits are performed every day or week, and this can have a substantial impact on the profit and revenue along with the added cost.

Enjoy an excellent Life Balance/Work:

May practices that provide visits through video find that the reliability it offers has a full impact on well being of the provider. Few of them prefer to move some appointments to the weekend or work from home for a few hours. The providers are provided a chance of enjoyment to take care of their tasks during the workweek, and the patients also appreciate the prospect to get attention outside of regular hours in the business. There is no extra office expense if there are hours extended or else the visit can happen from anywhere.

Boost employee satisfaction:

Video visits are mostly preferred by medical office workers as they make the office run flexibly and smoothly. They also alleviate a few administrative works by making every patient come to their office. The waiting rooms are quieted and less crowded with fewer patients in the office, and there is not much risk of grabbing the illness from the already present patients. This extra time provides extra office staff to work on the practices and strategies at work. The team also gets an advantage when the practice is growing or gaining more profit.

Video technology can be the best game-changer in the coming years, which implementing an efficient program. Office workers, providers, and patients all win when the practice of telemedicine is thoughtfully applied with the right education and technology.

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Imagine the following scenarios:

An electrocardiogram necklace that helps the physician track the patient’s health.
A chip in a pill is used for sending data to a web portal from the body and also the capability of your doctor to check the patient’s treatment progress.
A fetal monitoring device that observes the women remotely with pregnancies of higher risks.

The above are some of the visuals which can happen in the future of Healthcare and medicine. These types of unsetting technologies are redefining the patient experience and transforming outcomes in the clinics of the healthcare industry. Different data points show this effective modification. The life expectancy has increased to 60 years from 30 years between 1800 and 2000 at 1.5 years average rate per decade. The likelihood has now expected to be 90 years by the end of 2020 and at a 15 years per decade average or 10 times faster than that and this is what we call a Patient centricity world. In this blog, we will check out patient-centricity in-depth and how technology is used to enhance them.

What is Patient Centricity?

There are three significant aspects when it comes to defining patient centricity. Let’s check them below.

Making use of patient data efficiently for better treatment, monitoring, diagnosis, and R&D. At present, the evidence in the real world is reliably becoming significant, especially in the FDA providing new drug approvals. Correspondingly, the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) is increasingly accomplishing providers to prefer measures and address outcome data via the execution of the meaningful use regime.

Patient Centricity also deals with improving patient experience and engagement to mold them into active attendants in every decision that is care-related and also enhances the excellent patient experience. The trend has now moved to human clinical trials, especially during the drug development’s advanced stages to engage patients actively.

Patient Centricity helps to enhance the outcome of the patient by shifting the focus to a population health management approach to individual encountering that targets interferences on particular cohorts and holistically at the patient risk.

Digital technologies can be influenced by Healthcare Software and Life science organization to allow patient centricity in a way that creates excellent health outcomes, transform the patient experience, and the boom line, and also boost customer loyalty.

Data encourages Customer Insights:

Enhancing the patient experience takes more time than expanding technologies and also needs data-driven insights. Data is the only fuel that powers an enterprise’s patient-centric strategies. Device data, inventory data, customer data, systems data, etc. offer a 360-degree view which forms the substratum of patient-centric decision-making, sound, and process optimization.

The ability to define more information and in-depth insight is vital for discerning the health journey of the patient and developing outstanding experiences. When you apply AI to the data wealth, Healthcare and life science organizations can expand their understanding of the expectations and experiences of the patient. With this knowledge, they can enhance app features and interfaces, offer customized and individualized experiences, and streamline the process at every point along the journey of the patient.

The combination is Key:

All the technologies and digital data in the world will do little to enhance the experience of the patient in case they do not work in concerts. There is an entirely expandable digital platform that supports the complete journey of the patient, and this is mandatory to offer an outstanding experience.

Adequate healthcare and life sciences amid digital platforms are rooted in a simple, user-friendly, and intuitive design which makes it easy for both healthcare professionals and patients to communicate, share, and access data along with various systems and also initiate actions. These management tools and platforms that include automation enable healthcare and life science enterprises to influence athletic abilities across the enterprises.

Support staff and clinicians can communicate with patients and colleagues in real-time and remotely, the people in the group can reply to the requirements, collaborate rapidly on new services and products, and enterprises can more rapidly take the opportunities advantages.

The healthcare and life science system which efficiently utilizes digital technologies and data to enhance the experience of the patient is OSF Healthcare which analyzes and expands internal and external social, financial, clinical, and operational data to improve the organization and patients. This information is daily updated, enabling OSF to execute new processes and monitor real-time bed availability.

The truth is that OSF can enhance capacity management and efficiency, decrease readmissions by offering physicians a readmission risk score of their people each day, and also gain the insight advantages coming to the system, allowing rapid discussions that focus on the patient requirements.

Bottom Line:

To achieve strong patient-centricity, Healthcare and life science need to expand digital tools and platforms in a way that enhances processes and people to deliver the best goals as per the customer requirements. The technology is required to function as the best part of this type by connecting customer knowledge, facilitating data collection, empowering responsiveness, innovation, and more. It can also play an essential role in operationalizing feedback and measuring performance to make sure the strategies in customer-centric approaches are on track and also can be adapted continually to deliver new value.

By exploring the unique customer experience and organizing processes, technology, and teams to deliver on the vision consistently, different health enterprises can lead in the present patient-driven market successfully.

To know More Visit The Complete Digital Healthcare Solution MocDoc.

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The Pharmacy Management system otherwise referred to as the pharmacy information system stores data systemizes and controls the use of the medication process within the pharmacies.

Medical Technology and Information technology are growing day by day. The system developer makes use of this golden opportunity to help the pharmacist control their stock and choose the right medicine by using the computer program.

The pharmacist makes use of the pharmacy management system to control the pharmacy reliably. Patients sometimes prefer to visit the pharmacy instead of a doctor for minor illnesses, and the system enables the pharmacist to prescribe over-the-counter drugs for these ailments

5 Major Pharmacy Management System (PMS) Features:

The prime purpose of a PMS is to assist the pharmacist in the safe and effective delivery of pharmaceutical drugs.

The pharmacies require some core capabilities and functions to perform their duties effectively. Below are some of the top 5 must-have features for a Pharmacy Management System.

Report:

Pharmacies interact with multiple patients every day, and data regarding each of these interactions are stored within the pharmacy information system. Data may be used later for improving the business strategy or it may be needed during a certification or inspection process.

The reports offer valuable insights into the operations of the pharmacy. It can be used to distinguish the patients who visit the pharmacy frequently for refills, and this can be used to stock accordingly.

E-prescription:

Prescriptions are known to be illegible and this can cause confusion among patients and is also a source of error in dispensing the right medicine. E-prescriptions provide a user-friendly option for patients and also reduce the risk of errors.

The electronic prescription feature can be used by the pharmacy to manage refills and allows doctors to send the new refills directly into the pharmacy management system, allowing rapid dispensing of the medicines. Apart from this, there will be no confusion in offering the right prescription between the physician and the patient.

SMS and Notification:

With the use of a pharmacy management system, the pharmacist can schedule text messages to be sent to patients intimating them before their prescriptions run out.

The patients can then let the pharmacist if they need a refill, simply by responding to the message. The status updates let the pharmacist keep in touch with the patients, ensuring patient satisfaction.

Multi-Store and Multi-Location Support:

The user can manage stores at multiple locations easily with a pharmacy information system.

Data about stock levels, sales, and returns from multiple stores can be viewed in a single software. Overall reports for the entire chain of stores can be generated, giving the user a complete overview of profit, loss, stock levels, etc.

User Management Module:

This feature allows restricted access to various users. Access to various features can be limited for different users, for easy management. This authentication is classified into two conditions namely

Administrator User: The user can control the buying and selling process, list the medicines, view the stock, and perform other tasks. The user will be able to view the pharmacy list and the pharmacy map easily. It plays an essential role in controlling the sales and stocks being processed every day.

Administrator Authentication User: The users who are authenticated can view all processes including selling reports, transactions, and manipulating the medicine list and the medicine stock. This feature also helps to track regular activities and generate daily accounts by utilizing the multisite software.

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