Epidemiology and Evidence-based Clinical Practice Guidelines
Providing cost effective care without limiting access
Providing cost effective care is a professional aspect of the Advance Nurse Practitioner’s role when caring for clients.

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Diagnostic testing can aid in therapeutic decision making, but contributes substantially to the cost of medical care. Testing is necessary in most cases, and if used improperly can cause significant cost and not lend much to diagnostic accuracy.
Write a 2–4 page APA formatted paper on the need to provide cost effective care without limiting access to care.
Discuss:

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•Why this is an important aspect of providing care to patients
•How care can be made more affordable without limiting access to necessary care
•How to maintain cost effectiveness and still get the needed information for a diagnosis without ordering unnecessary diagnostic exams

Assignment Requirements

The finished Assignment should be a 2-4-page descriptive and critical/evaluative essay, excluding the title page and references. The viewpoint and purpose of this Assignment should be clearly established and sustained.

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Before finalizing your work, you should:

• be sure to read the Assignment description carefully (as displayed above)
•consult the Grading Rubric (under the Course Home) to make sure you have included everything necessary;
• utilize spelling and grammar check to minimize errors; and
• review APA formatting and citation information found in the KU Writing Center, online, or elsewhere in the course.

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Your Assignment should:

•follow the conventions of Standard American English (correct grammar, punctuation, etc.);
•be well ordered, logical, and unified, as well as original and insightful;
•display superior content, organization, style, and mechanics; and
•use APA 6th edition format for organization, style, and crediting sources including:
•properly formatted header
•12-point, double-spaced, Times New Roman font
•use of in-text citations
•title page and reference page
•use of headings (if applicable)
Cost Effective Care
Since 1980 health care expenditures in the United States have increased from $256 billion to $2.6 trillion dollars in 2010. It is expected to grow faster than the national income in the near future.

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With the recession for most of this past decade resulting in high unemployment and lower incomes for many Americans, there has been attention on health care spending and affordability.

Medicare covers the elderly and people with disabilities and Medicaid provides coverage to low income families. Both of these public sector health coverage plans have seen enrollment increases due to the aging baby boomers and the recession.

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This means that total government spending has increased considerably, straining federal and state budgets and accounting for 17.9% of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Today’s policymakers are searching for ways to decrease the current levels of growth without reducing access to needed health care services or creating undue burdens for providers. In some instances, they are revisiting past strategies; in others, they are exploring new approaches that seem to hold promise. Before making decisions, today’s policymakers could gain insights by studying the outcomes of evidence-based research efforts.

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In this unit you will discuss the importance of providing cost effective care in your future practice. Practicing fiscal responsibility is not only important for your care area but for the nation’s economy. An important aspect of cost effective care is to make sure you are ordering diagnostic exams that will provide you with reliable and valid results for what you are trying to diagnose.

References:

KaiserEDU. (n.d.). US health care cost. Retrieved from http://www.kaiseredu.org/Issue-Modules/US-Health-Care-Costs/Background-Brief.aspx

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