Policy and Regulation Fact Sheet

Policy and Regulation Fact Sheet
• Medicaid is a healthcare policy in the United States that helps in reducing the cost of treatment for low-income families. It is a joint program funded by the state and federal government (Wherry & Miller, 2016). It has expanded since the Supreme Court rules in 2012 that all states should expand their eligibility status. It covers over 80 million Americans from low-income families.
• System implementation requires an elaborate storage system and expanded memory to handle the increasing number of patients. The number of low-income families in the United States is increasing (Wherry & Miller, 2016). Therefore, hospitals require an extensive system that will handle a huge number of patients. The system also needs to be secure to ensure the data is protected from possible hacking or data breach.
• The policy impacts clinical care since it ensures that low-income people access quality medical care. It increases the number of patients who are treated every day (Miller & Wherry, 2017). It also limits the patient-provider interactions since the number of patients who need to be attended to is increasing. It also increases the workflow in healthcare organizations. Therefore, the policy has caused massive changes in the healthcare sector since the number of patients has increased.
• The healthcare policy that should be in place includes the introduction of extensive and secure Electronic Health Records to handle the large population of patients (Miller & Wherry, 2017). For example, the Electronic Health Records should be safe and comprehensive. The working shift of the nurses should be friendly to avoid burnouts among nurses as they handle many patients. The policies should be in place to ensure the success of Medicaid health policy and boost the health of low-income families.
References
Miller, S., & Wherry, L. R. (2017). Health and access to care during the first 2 years of the ACA Medicaid expansions. New England Journal of Medicine, 376(10), 947-956.
Wherry, L. R., & Miller, S. (2016). Early coverage, access, utilization, and health effects of the affordable care act Medicaid expansions: A quasi-experimental study. Annals of Internal Medicine, 164(12), 795.