Professional Development of Nursing Professionals                 Max Points: 200   Details: Review the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report: “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health,” focusing on the following sections: Transforming Practice, Transforming Education, and Transforming Leadership. Homework help – Write a paper of 750-1,000 words about the impact on nursing of the […]

SUPPLEMENTAL CASE ­ Controlling Employee Benefit Costs   John DeCarlo is President and CEO of Quality Auto Parts, an automotive parts equipment  manufacturer and supplier in the Southwest. The company was started by DeCarlo and his father in 1968  and now employs 812 people at four different sites. Revenues and profits increased steadily from 1968  until 1992. Both were down in 1992 and 1993. During the remainder of the 1990s, both were erratic as a  result of the increased foreign competition in both the auto parts industry and the auto industry itself.  From 2000­2003, revenues have been increasing, but profitability is decreasing for a number of reasons. DeCarlo recently met with his Vice President for Finance (David Schramm) and his Vice President  for Human Resources (Harriet Poster) to determine how costs could be cut so the company could price its  products more competitively, relative to foreign competitors. At this meeting, he learned that employee  benefit costs had increased at approximately twice the rate of increase for wages alone (12 percent versus  6 percent yearly) from 1988 to 1998. In particular, the employee health insurance costs increased from  $2,184 per employee per year in 1988 to $8,316 in 2003. DeCarlo expressed frustration at these increases  and asked what could be done. Foster and Schramm invited DeCarlo to a meeting of health care providers, insurers, and employers  scheduled for the following week. At this meeting, they learned that their problem was quite common and  being experienced by most other corporations in the area. One consultant surveyed the chief human  resources executives at Fortune 500 and Fortune Service 500 corporations and found “controlling  employee benefit program costs” to be the most critical issue facing these executives. Another national  survey found that health benefit costs amounted to a whopping 26 percent of corporate earnings.  Moreover, health care costs have grown faster than overall inflation and faster than any other segment of  the economy since 1990. They also learned more about the nature and causes of this problem. Many of the speakers at the  conference cited large catastrophic­illness claims, increased use of mental health and substance abuse  services, increased use of medical services, high­technology medicine, cost­shifting from government  programs (Medicare and Medicaid) to private insurance, high physician fees, the AIDS crisis, the  demographics of employees in the auto industry (i.e., a higher percentage of older employees), and recent  premium increases by both traditional and managed­care plans attempting to recoup recent losses. One  speaker noted: “If businesses in the private sector don’t make a profit, they are not going to exist. The  continuing escalation of health care costs is threatening the very survival of some companies, particularly  small companies.  Smaller businesses increasingly bear the brunt of the spiraling costs because they have  no one else to whom they can shift their costs.” Several possible solutions were discussed, although there was no consensus regarding their  effectiveness or applicability to particular situations. Among the cost containment suggestions were self­ insurance, utilization review, managed care (i.e., health maintenance organizations and preferred provider  organizations), wellness programs, flexible benefits, cost  sharing (i.e., higher deductibles and co­ insurance), and insuring ambulatory alternatives to hospitalization. Many speakers emphasized that employers should not wait passively for the government to solve the  problem because that was unlikely to happen any time soon. In addition, health care reform raises  fundamental questions about societal priorities, and there is currently no consensus regarding these  questions. Health care reform is not currently a top priority of the public, and there is a strong anti­tax  sentiment. Consequently, there is little political will to take on such reform, particularly since the failure  of the Clinton health reform proposals in 1994. When Congress has intervened, it has usually made the  problem worse by mandates which raise costs for insurance companies and employers.The ChallengeDeCarlo came away from the conference with a greater appreciation of the complexity of the  problem and a greater determination to do something about it. However, he wasn’t sure what to do. He viewed his company as a “preferred employer” because it had always paid above the market wage rates,  and its benefits were always more liberal than those of other U.S. companies and particularly those of  foreign competitors. DeCarlo did not want to do anything to jeopardize his company’s advantage in  attracting and retaining high­quality personnel. At the same time, he realized that if no changes were  made, his health insurance premiums would be greater than his total projected earnings by the year 2008. Quality Auto Parts’s present health insurance plan (Blue Cross­Blue Shield) is a traditional  indemnity insurance plan. All employees have one plan which makes no effort to control the health care  services provided. Employees select their own physicians and the insurance company pays reimbursement  for whatever services are provided at whatever price the particular provider charges. Neither physicians  […]

Article review Article Review Instructions You will be required to submit a paper analyzing an article provided in the Reading & Study folder of Module/Week 6. The article is a collection of brief commentaries about the Stages of Change model (also known as the Transtheoretical Model). Your paper should be 2–4 pages, double spaced (not […]

Using Health Information Technology as a Source of Evidence-Based Practice Before the digital revolution, health information technology supplied very limited support for evidence-based practice. If nurses wanted to be informed about cutting-edge research, their best bet was to either subscribe to leading journals or make periodic trips to the library. With the establishment of research […]

  Research Paper: 3–5 pages  Review the case study “Death by Measles.”  Review Trevor Noah’s video on traveling from Africa during the Ebola crisis.  The purpose of this paper is to examine an emerging/current issue in health care. Potential topics are but not limited to the following:  Reemerging outbreaks such as measles or Ebola  Human […]

  PLEASE I NEED A POSITIVE COMMENT BASED IN THIS ARGUMENT. BETWEEN 150-200 WORDS   I choose the school age this age group lies between the age of six to twelve years and most children get abused and mistreated at this age group and it affects their physical, cognitive, social and emotional development. School age […]

  Post a summary of the interview and a description of the communication techniques you would use with your assigned patient. Explain why you would use these techniques. Identify the risk assessment instrument you selected, and justify why it would be applicable to the selected patient. Provide at least five targeted questions you would ask the […]

   Unintended Consequences of Health Care Reform The PPACA of 2010 fostered new provisions for health care and the structure of health care delivery. The individual mandate to obtain insurance is one provocative provision. While this provision attempts to increase access to health care, it raises questions on how the existing system could sustain the […]

  The Rise of Strategic Management In our first lecture, we provided the basic backdrop as to how and when strategic management came into being. This lecture will provide a working definition and discuss why strategic management (SM) is of critical importance to the field of healthcare. Looking ahead, week 2 will evaluate the two […]

   Assignment : Assessing Clients With Addictive Disorders Addictive disorders can be particularly challenging for clients. Not only do these disorders typically interfere with a client’s ability to function in daily life, but they also often manifest as negative and sometimes criminal behaviors. Sometime clients with addictive disorders also suffer from other mental health issues, […]