Competing Needs and Policy Development in Healthcare Healthcare policy creation
Competing Needs and Policy Development in Healthcare Healthcare policy creation is cumbersome and complex with an attempt to balance the needs of the workforce, the resources, and the patients, all of which are different. The workforce includes doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, and other healthcare professionals who need fair compensation, manageable workloads, and access to necessary training. Policies placed can impact their well-being and their ability to deliver quality care. When we speak of resources, it’s the business side of healthcare. Yes, the care of your health is a business, and the healthcare system must operate within budgetary constraints. Equipment, facilities, employees, training, and medication all have a cost factor, which must be weighed against potential benefits. Lastly you have the needs of the patients, which policies in place should aim to improve the patient’s health outcomes and access to care. However, patient needs can be diverse, and what benefits one group may come at the expense of another. High Prescription Cost and Competing Needs The challenges of affordability of prescription drugs are a multifaceted problem that aims to meet the needs of the patient, the workforce, and the resources. A patient’s needs are met by having affordable access to the intended prescribed medications and is vital for managing chronic conditions and maintaining the patient’s health. Patients who struggle to afford their medications due to out-of-pocket costs, insurance status, and income, have delayed initiation of care and suboptimal treatment adherence (Rachev et al., 2021). The workforce needs are also directly impacted as it consumes an exorbitant amount of provider’s time. According to Tsou et al., (2021), providers now spend 14.9 hours per week completing prior-authorization paperwork, phone calls, and other tasks to assist the patient to gain access to the needed medication. The extra time spent doesn’t always allow access and the continuous inability to treat patients has led to severe burnout. The resource side is quite controversial, but healthcare is a business and drug development, and production are not without cost. Drug development takes on average 12 years with a price tag of $3 billion, considering the high failure rate (Rajkumar, 2020). Resource needs compete to balance a fair return on investment for companies with affordability for patients remains a challenge. Policy Solutions Finding a potential policy solution necessitates addressing all of the aforementioned competing needs which to date has always left one part of the equation with a loss notably the patient. The potential solution must include empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies leading to lower costs for patients and the government. Enacting policies that incentivize the use of generic drugs as well mitigating new laws regarding the patents on new medications. Lastly, the policies must find a way to cap profits of pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and increase funding for drug development within this budget change. By carefully considering the needs of all stakeholders, policymakers can work towards a healthcare system where patients have access to affordable medications, research and development continues, and the healthcare system operates within reasonable budgetary constraints. References Rachev, B., Uyei, J., Singh, R., Kowal, S., & Johnson, C. E. (2021). Stakeholder point of view on prescription drug affordability – a systematic literature review and content analysis. Health Policy, 125(9), 1158–1165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2021.06.013 Rajkumar, S. V. (2020). The high cost of prescription drugs: Causes and solutions. Blood Cancer Journal, 10(6), 71. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41408-020-0338-x Tsou, A. Y., Graf, W. D., Russell, J. A., & Epstein, L. G. (2021). Ethical Perspectives on Costly Drugs and Health Care. Neurology, 97(14), 685–692. https://doi.org/10.1212/wnl.0000000000012571