Obstacles in Healthcare: Strategies for Reducing Healthcare Costs

This assignment discusses the obstacles faced in implementation of strategies for reduction of healthcare costs. The healthcare scenario is burdened with unnecessary medical tests which puts an economical burden on the pockets of the health and support service users. The reductions in overuse of healthcare services have been challenged by a number of health beliefs. Additionally, false and incomplete information provided by the doctors can overvalue some of the services within the patient population.

Running head: OBSTACLES IN HEALTHCARE
Name of the student
University name
Author’s note

1
OBSTACLES IN HEALTHCARE
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion of the obstacles in implementing strategies in reducing healthcare costs...............2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................3
References..................................................................................................................................4

2
OBSTACLES IN HEALTHCARE
Introduction
Increased healthcare costs are a growing concern globally which hinders a vast
majority of population from using the required healthcare services. The assignment discusses
the obstacles faced in implementation of strategies for reduction of healthcare costs.
Discussion of the obstacles in implementing strategies in reducing healthcare costs
The healthcare scenario is burdened with unnecessary medical tests which puts an
economical burden on the pockets of the health and support service users. As mentioned by
Ben-Assuli (2015), a vast amount of the healthcare costs is spent after unnecessary tests
which are suggested more as a means of precaution rather than necessity. Presently within the
United States the patients visiting the chamber of the doctors are provided with a long list of
medical tests. Most of the times, the tests are suggested as mere precautionary measures
without analysing the actual medical history of the patient. As per the institute of medicine,
unnecessary services represent about 10% of all healthcare costs in healthcare, which is
nearly $ 300 billion dollars a year (Ramsey, Lord, Torrey, Marsch & Lardiere, 2016).
Therefore, in the light of the current situation the American Board of Internal Medicine
Foundation launched a ‘choosing wisely’ campaign for encouraging doctors and patients to
discuss regarding the problem of unnecessary test and treatments (Thornton et al., 2016).
Therefore, active discussion around the necessary and unnecessary healthcare tests can help
in eliminating the hindrances faced in the implementation of cost cutting.
The reductions in overuse of healthcare services have been challenged by a number of
health beliefs. The Americans have been seen to believe that provision of more healthcare
services is better than limited services. Therefore, cutting down upon the random assessment
tests have been seen by them as missing out on better health opportunities (Hiscock, Neely,

3
OBSTACLES IN HEALTHCARE
Warren, Soon & Georgiou, 2018). Some of the health beliefs are deeply imprinted within the
population and require years to change. These could be only changed through effective
counselling sessions. The overuse of antibiotics leads to 11% of unnecessary healthcare costs.
Therefore, such wrong notions could be changed with the help of public health educational
campaigns.
Additionally, false and incomplete information provided by the doctors can overvalue
some of the services within the patient population. The introductions of free-for-service
payments encourage unnecessary medical tests taking within the patient population (Ramsey
et al., 2016). Some of these could be removed through organizing campaigns and
dissemination of adequate information through online resources and health journals.
Conclusion
Therefore, maintaining transparency regarding the cost and health benefits of some of
these tests could help in removing the paradoxes within the patient population. Additionally,
support and cooperation from a number of governments and federal government channels can
help in removing the disparity.

4
OBSTACLES IN HEALTHCARE
References
Ben-Assuli, O. (2015). Electronic health records, adoption, quality of care, legal and privacy
issues and their implementation in emergency departments. Health Policy, 119(3),
287-297.
Hiscock, H., Neely, R. J., Warren, H., Soon, J., & Georgiou, A. (2018). Reducing
Unnecessary Imaging and Pathology Tests: A Systematic Review. Pediatrics, 862.
Ramsey, A., Lord, S., Torrey, J., Marsch, L., & Lardiere, M. (2016). Paving the way to
successful implementation: identifying key barriers to use of technology-based
therapeutic tools for behavioral health care. The journal of behavioral health services
& research, 43(1), 54-70.
Thornton, R. L., Glover, C. M., Cené, C. W., Glik, D. C., Henderson, J. A., & Williams, D.
R. (2016). Evaluating strategies for reducing health disparities by addressing the
social determinants of health. Health Affairs, 35(8), 1416-1423.