Blue Cross Blue Shield does have a strong presence in the insurance community, whether that is in the Choices program, Medicare, or private policies. Government restrictions are a significant barrier to entry in multiple venues of healthcare. Brand loyalties and government restrictions are both barriers to entry in this situation.
Another aspect to HealthCare and Blue Cross Blue Shield that is proving to be a barrier to entry is their Medical Savings Account (MSA). My policy offers an MSA account due to the large deductible plans that are offered to participants in the plan. We are able to contribute a specified amount with a limit that can be matched by our company in order to offset the high cost of insurance and to be able to pay the
The fertility rate is an important factor when evaluating the health of the public. Despite the United States having one of the best healthcare systems in the world, approximately 13% of women between the age of 18 & 44 have trouble conceiving. Although the US has implemented the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a landmark policy, assisting millions of Americans in obtaining health insurance, unless altered, the policy could hurt the 3 out of 20 women who struggle with infertility. After evaluating the core essential benefits of the Affordable Care Act, the views of stakeholders, and the state mandates, an easy solution can be established to assist those suffering from impaired fecundity.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBS) is considered the largest and most experienced insurance company in Illinois. BCBS was founded in order to provide healthcare to teachers at a reasonable cost. It services over 7 million people. Its mission is “To promote the health and wellness of members and communities through accessible, cost-effective, quality health care” (Blue Cross Blue Shield, 2012). Blue Cross Blue Shield provides its customers with affordable health care. The parent company is Blue Cross Blue Shield Association its signature tag is “Creating Healthier Communities,” BCBS does not have any investors and the customers are considered the investors of the company and essentially who BCBS answers to. This is an important factor because they do not have to keep investors interest in the forefront of decision making, but rather they have the interest of their client in mind. (Blue Cross Blue Shield, 2012) In 2013 the Chicago based company reported profits of 684.3 million dollars. The company employees over 17,000 people. “Blue Shield of Illinois fell well below the $1 billion mark for the first time since 2009, in part because the insurance giant is setting aside money to offset expected losses from the troubled rollout of Obamacare” (Wang, 2014). Despite this setback it continues to expand over various parts of the United States. BCBS
Currently I work for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee which is one part of a complex health care system that has a lot of stakeholders. The four most visible stakeholders first would be patients, who seek medical services and advice (“The Modern Health Care Maze,” 2009).Second stakeholder would be providers of services and products, including hospitals, doctors, nurses and durable medical equipment. Third stakeholder would be payers such as private insurance companies, Medicaid and Medicare government programs and their employees. The fourth stakeholder would be employers, who purchase for their employees health insurance, then the federal government gives the employers a tax liability break allowing them to deduct this purchase on their
HCA is a healthcare provider that was established in 1968. Their main focus is on offering cliental with a number of different services to include: inpatient, intensive care, outpatient, diagnostic and emergency services. To achieve these objectives they operate a variety of facilities such as: outpatient, psychiatric, surgery centers, freestanding emergency care facilities, diagnostic / imaging centers and comprehensive rehabilitation / physical therapy centers. They are structured to create increasing earnings for its policy and shareholders. This is achieved by contracting with private doctors to deliver services to its preferred providers members. At the same time, they receive fees from these entities and they negotiate lower group rates.
The implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will propel changes that were on the horizon for pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries knew there was going to be some type of healthcare reform so they began to take the necessary precautions to prepare. The ACA had key provisions related to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry affecting Medicare and Medicaid. Legislation in the ACA will reduce cost for brand name prescriptions (Rx); this will reduce drug cost for patients, but increase rebates and discounts for pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms, therefore, imposing cost on the firms. The pharmaceutical and biotech industry was key in creating legislation for the ACA, according to CMS (2009), “despite
The Affordable Care Act includes a requirement that all citizens must have some level of health coverage. The primary method through which the mandate is attempting to create 100% coverage in health care is by instilling fear into the minds of hardworking citizens as those who ignore the rule will have to pay a hefty fine. This mandate, unconstitutional according to the law, will deteriorate the quality of health care, hamper economic growth and cause spikes in insurance premiums. The hope of universal health care may or may not arise under the mandate but new dilemmas and hardships on U.S. citizens will undoubtedly surface.
There are over 45 million people in the United States who are uninsured when it comes to healthcare. Many are uninsured due to the expensive health care costs. To combat this, the Obama Care administration created the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to provide nationalized healthcare. The Affordable Care Act is meant to expand health coverage, lower health care costs and hold insurance companies accountable. The Affordable Care Act will allow more people to be insured but the issue lies in the question, do the costs outweigh the benefits? The Affordable Care Act will be used in an attempt to lower health care coverage costs for citizens. An example can be seen from a report in the Kaiser Family Foundation. The premium is required
Four years after President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law there is still uncertainty regarding how it will affect small businesses. Because there were delays and exemptions granted by the, Obama administration and challenges that were still pending in courts. The effects on small businesses vary from state to state depending on the company size and the composition of the company's workforces. But the large corporations pay their employees medical bills and hiring insurers to administer health benefits. Most small businesses purchase group health insurance from insurers and face cost increasing regulations as they go through the annual ritual of renewing their coverage. While media has focus their attention on the state and federal health exchanges, employers are responsible for the growth in the
The Affordable Care Act expands access to health care coverage and reforms the health insurance, marketplace (Virginia Senate Finance Committee, 2012). The law gives states the choice to expand Medicaid for any individual whose income falls below 138 percent of poverty. In the state of Virginia, there are approximately 1 million uninsured residents. This is often caused by lack of insurance through employer and inability to pay the premiums if offered. According to the Kaiser family foundation, The Virginia’s Governor has included Medicaid expansion as part of his FY 2017 budget proposal. The overall cost to expand Medicaid in Virginia would likely be $220 million beginning in 2016-2018 biennial budgets not including administrator cost. The
Universal health care is not impossible to achieve, but takes lots of planning and strategy to make it work. As President Obama campaigned, he strongly emphasized the importance of universal health care. With a great team and planning, the Affordable Care Act, also know as Obama Care, was passed. The ACA should be kept because it covers health disorders, businesses with employees have to have insurance, and allows parents to add their children to their plan up to the age of 26.
Prior to the enactment of the Affordable Care Act, many Americans did not have access to health care. According to Shi and Singh, assess is an individual’s ability to obtain health services when necessary (Shi &Singh, 2010). “After implementation of the ACA, the proportion of the U.S. population that was uninsured dropped from approximately 16% to roughly 12% in 2014 (Shi & Singh, 2010, p 11). More low to middle income American are eligible for health care services through the Affordable Care Act. Advancements in health information technology have helped to improve and streamline medical services and have helped with the lower cost of health care. “Essential insurance benefits required by the ACA include preventative and wellness services,
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been the biggest milestone to date in American health care policy (Saldin, 2011). There is nothing more complex or controversial in recent history than the passing of the ACA in 2010 (Davidson, 2016). The United States Supreme Court ratified the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on June 28, 2012. With this, there were certainly challenges facing the full implementation of the provisions of this act by 2014.
It was in 1977 that the United Healthcare United Health group was founded by Richard Burke. The headquarters of the company are in Minnetonka, Minnesota. This organization works towards the betterment of people's health, it help them in living a healthy life by providing them with the kind of health care that would be best for them. The main focus of United Healthcare which is a major division of the United Health group is to provide the people with better health benefits and coverage.
The DreamWorks Pictures animation, 'The Prince of Egypt' created in 1998, is not an accurate biblical representation of the story of Moses in Exodus when examined carefully. The setting is erroneous as at the palace. Secondly, characters are altered in order to include the hero-villain scenario in the story which is ideal for the audience of the film. Then, the plot is different in many ways but is mostly similar. In other words ‘The Prince of Egypt’ is not a correct interpretation of the story of Exodus and Moses.
The industry of cell phone is one of the greatest growing industries in the globe and has internationally expanded swiftly as rising states emerge. The global industry of cell phone is greatly definite by total market share and the supported price upon the type of product. The industry can be classified in three various structures: the low end, middle end, and the high end. The ability of the industry to enlarge globally is essential as the increase of upcoming markets and the coming forth of new potential customers.