By Professor Arthur Reynolds© Instructions:From the list of questions below, please select ANY THREE (but no more than THREE!) items and for each prepare a well-crafted, double-spaced typed reply of roughly one to one and one-half pages in length (approximately 250-300 words each). The usual rules of academic integrity and written excellence apply. This is an open-book, open-source exam but you may not confer with anyone, excluding myself, about it. Good luck! 1. Identify the principal mechanisms by which the Federal government impacts the financing, quality and/or delivery of personal health care services. What institutions and organizations are paramount? 2. Compare and contrast the principal organizational models of HMOs in the present time. How have they evolved, if at all, under managed care policies? 3. “With the advances in psychiatric medications and with the expansion of inpatient and ambulatory services and financing for mental health patients, America in the 21st Century is poised to ensure high quality and comprehensive services for its mental health clientele. Its one of the great unheralded successes of American medicine and pharmacology.” Accept or reject this statement while providing specific examples in support of your position. 4. Briefly discuss the variety and scope of ambulatory care services. How have these types of services transformed the delivery of medical care? Are certain types of care unsuitablefor such delivery modes? 5. “The aging of the American population has compelled major policy shifts to address the health care needs of this prosperous and large demographic. Entirely new markets are being served through innovative long-term care services. Pharmaceutical advances suggest that the elderly of the 21st Century can anticipate both longer life spans and a higher quality of life.” Accept or reject this statement, providing specific examples to buttress your point of view. 6. “While the hospital governing board is nominallyin charge of a facility’s policies and leadership, actualmanagement and ultimate legal accountability for the hospital rests squarely upon the CEO/administrator and his/her senior management staff.” Accept or reject this statement with specific examples in support. 7. What roles have state and local health departments played in the delivery of health care services? Are these roles, in your view, appropriate and suitable in ensuring the protection of the public’s welfare? Should they be changed? 8. “The fragmentation and segmenting of the health care workforce protects the patient and the public by ensuring that knowledgeable health care professionals “police” their own colleagues. Thus, for example, nurses regulate their fellow nurses and ensure physicians stay out of their occupation. Similarly, physician quality is regulated by their own licensing and regulatory entity, ensuring that those without specialized medical training are prevented from meddling in their internal matters.” Accept or reject this statement and provide specific example in support. 9. Briefly compare and contrast two or three proposals to significantly reform our healthcare delivery system(s). Please address specifically physician compensation, access to care/insurance, impact on employment and support for innovation, among other factors. Provide support for your favored option among the ones you selected. 10.“My so-called generous employer-sponsored health insurance plan still saddles me with significant financial costs as well as worry over the availability of services. I am fearful of changing jobs lest my coverage be impaired. From what I hear, I would be far better served in Canada or the United Kingdom/Great Britain; despite paying higher taxes, I would have less to worry about and comparably superior medical care.” Accept or reject this statement with specific examples. 11.“Thanks to greater restrictions on cross-border travel and increasing surveillance of those entering the USA since 9/11, the USA is far better protected today from global health threats and the spread of contagious diseases than was the case prior to 2001.” Accept or reject this statement with specific evidence to support your position.
