Much of the current literature suggest that there is a great deal of variation i

Question

Much of the current literature suggest that there is a great deal of variation in the practice of medicine resulting in patients being undertreated, overtreated or treated with the wrong interventions. One of the fundamental objectives of care utilization management is the reduction of that variation in practice by using resources that are cost effective and that are based on parameters to contain cost. With this concept in mind, what do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of "cost-effective care". Discuss this in the context of you or a family member having an acute (and expensive) illness.

Explanation / Answer

A. Cost effectiveness: It is used to compare the costs and outcomes of alternative policy options. Each resulting cost effectiveness ratio represents the magnitude of additional health gained per additional unit of resources spent. It is an assessment or determination of the most efficient and least expensive approaches to providing health care and preventive medicine services. One component, health education, focuses on helping people to assume some responsibility for their own health maintenance and avoid preventable illness and disability.

The main results of a cost effectiveness analysis in which the costs and outcomes of alternative policy options are compared are cost effectiveness ratios. In the field of health, a cost–effectiveness ratio usually represents the amount of additional health gained for each additional unit of resources spent. The makers of health policy initially used cost effectiveness analyses for priority setting, in their attempts to ensure that the greatest possible health benefits were achieved given the available budget.

B. Advantages of cost-effective care:

The cost-effectiveness calculation is particularly useful when relating different programs that are focue on the same disease or goal. However, it is also advantageous when looking at interventions that address differing diseases and risk factors. Cost-effective analysis can be extremely beneficial when comparing interventions with one another, in particular when researchers want to:

1. Compare different programs for the same disease

2. Compare different programs for a certain demographic sector

3. Compare different interventions for different diseases

C. Disadvantages of cost-effective care: Organizations often differ in their ways of performing the calculation. Some studies place the same value on every life regardless of age (an infant and a middle-aged adult are weighted equally), whereas other studies take into account how many years an individual has left to live. Prices also greatly influence cost estimates, which can differ substantially even within a single country. Analysis also depends on the scope of the costs and additional costs that the researcher has selected to take into account, such as dedication of time and transportation value.

D. Conclusion: Care centers can provide whatever the service or treatment needed by a patient. For this they can charge some high fees from the patients. It is because all the necessary arrangements must be created in patient's home by the service provider and should be provide the services whatever the patient is looking for. There are very limited services are designed to limited kinds of diseases by the healthcare centers. But it may not possible to design to each kind of problem to provide the healthcare services at door step. The most common type of services can be providing at the door step of the patient. Usually this kind of services will need higher payments.

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