It is true that much needs to be done to reduce the costs of health care while maintaining the quality of the health care services. Much has been said about the creation of an integrated system. However, to improve and make health care provision even better, the CMS can promote the improvement of the quality of health care by different states. This can be achieved by giving contracts to states with the aim of offering support towards developing new models of health care provision. Through such contracts, cooperation and coordination is enhanced in health care, and also cost is reduced since it’s not a single body that finances health care projects and models. According to Cleverley, (2010), negotiations and such contracts will help to improve the primary care services and hence make heath care accessible to many people. This primary health care will be person-centered and coordinated thereby leading to its high performance and hence delivery of quality health.
Though hospitals budget for their resources, differences usually arise between the budgeted and the achieved amount. Hospitals take different corrective actions to achieve their budget expectations. Other than reducing the number of staff, some health care institutions will increase the fee of accessing health care. This greatly affects the quality of the health care since it might not be accessible to all people. To avoid this, hospitals should adopt a preventive approach (Cleverley, 2010). This helps to save costs and hence the hospital will not have high cases of budget variances. For example, improving on the maintenance of equipment through more supervision and quality and state inspection is essential to reduce costs. Equipment that is well maintained will remain in service for longer and hence the hospital will not have to make budgets for replacements. This reduces costs and hence less chances of variances in the budget.
References
Cleverley, W.O. (2010). Essentials of Health Care Finance. 7th Ed. USA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
