Advocacy Plan: Promoting Healthcare Price Transparency and Equity

This advocacy plan addresses the critical issue of healthcare price transparency, highlighting its impact on equity, access, and social justice. The report identifies the consumer challenge of lack of price transparency, particularly affecting vulnerable populations, and examines related healthcare disparities. It analyzes relevant legislation and political activities, assessing their impact and proposing evidence-based recommendations and solutions, such as implementing policies and executive orders to promote price harmonization. The plan outlines political advocacy strategies, including engaging with legislative representatives and the community, and details communication strategies such as writing letters and building coalitions. The project emphasizes the importance of advocating for patient rights and social justice, particularly for vulnerable groups facing price discrimination, and offers insights for future work in the healthcare field. The report also includes a detailed reference list of supporting sources.

Running Head: ADVOCACY PLAN 1
ADVOCACY PLAN
Name
Institutional affiliation

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Advocacy plan
1. Identification of the consumer challenge and its relationship to equity, access, affordability,
and/or social justice in health care
 Lack of transparency relating to price is one of the major problems that consumers of
healthcare face. Its relation to access is that many patients are unable to get to know
about the costs of medical procedures and services in advance. Some hospitals charge
exorbitant prices for their services which makes it unaffordable for patients who lack
enough money for treatment. Lack of price transparency hinders social justice in the
healthcare industry as patients are unable to find all information relating to price to make
an informed decision (Brown, 2017).
2. Identification of the population most affected by this problem, and whether it is a vulnerable
population
 The issue of price transparency affects nearly all people in a population. Vulnerable
people are greatly affected by this challenge due to the lack of reliable information on
prices, and therefore, they may end up being exploited (Richard et al., 2016).
3. Identification of any healthcare or health disparities related to the problem or population
 There is a disparity in the prices that various health care providers charge for similar
procedures. For instance, the cost of treating chronic diseases vary from one healthcare
provider to another (Mehrotra et al., 2017).

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4. Summary of legislation and/or political activities that relate to the identified problem
 Various politicians around the world are coming up with legislation to address the issue
of lack of price transparency in healthcare. For example, In America, the Trump
administration came up with regulations that govern price transparency in the entire
health care industry. All the players in the health industry are required to make pricing of
services broadly available to patients to protect them and also to increase innovation,
competition and value in the industry.
5. Analysis of impact of legislation
 Increasing price transparency in the health care industry is advantageous. Countries that
have adopted legislation that supports this move have experienced better price
transparency which has, in turn, resulted in uniformity in prices. Consumers can enjoy
quality health care services at fair prices.
6. Summary of the evidence-based recommendations
 It is recommendable for countries to come up with legislations that govern price
transparency in the health care industry. These legislations will play a crucial part in
promoting innovation and healthy completion in the industry resulting in overall
customer service and satisfaction. A president can issue an executive order requiring all
healthcare practitioners to publicly avail prices that they charge for all services they offer
in a manner that is consumer-friendly and easy to understand (Brownson et al., 2017).

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7. List of evidence-based solutions
 There a variety of solutions to deal with the lack of price transparency in healthcare. One
of them is to implement policies that compel health care providers to provide pricing
information publicly. Another solution is to revoke licenses for those who do not comply
with these policies. They should also be fined accordingly (Embrett and Randall, 2014).
8. Summary of political advocacy strategies that could be used to advocate for the
implementation of the evidence-based solutions
 An executive order issuable by the president promoting harmonization of prices in the
healthcare industry. Also, members of the parliament of a nation can debate and pass a
bill that advocates for better price transparency in the healthcare industry.
9. Plan for political advocacy
 Politicians can play a role in advocating for price transparency in the healthcare industry.
They can do this by holding rallies that sensitize citizens on the importance of comparing
the prices of healthcare providers before seeking any service from them. It will help them
to save on cost. They can also pass legislation that supports this move.
10. Identification of the audience you plan to address regarding this challenge. Will you speak
out to the workplace or workforce, legislative representatives, professional organizations, the
community, or a combination of these entities? Give your rationale for choosing this audience.
 The problem of the lack of price transparency in healthcare affects mostly patients who
seek health services. Some patients are more vulnerable to price exploitation than others.
For instance, the underinsured, the elderly, ethnic minorities and economically

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disadvantaged are more susceptible. I plan to address vulnerable patients on the issue of
lack of price transparency and how one can avoid being a victim. These patients are at a
high risk of experiencing price discrimination due to lack of information and also
ignorance (Berg and Kim, 2018).
 I will involve various stakeholders in my plan. For instance, I will consult legal
representatives on the issue of the legal action that a patient can take if he or she feels
violated or discriminated by a healthcare provider. I will also lobby politicians to support
my course to reach as many vulnerable patients as possible.
11. Identification and description of the strategies you will use to communicate your
recommendations. Examples include writing letters, using the media, and building coalitions.
 I will use a variety of strategies to communicate my recommendations. For
instance, I will write a letter addressing the issue of the lack of price transparency
to the health department. I will recommend different ways through which this
issue can be solved. Also, I will build lasting coalitions with all stakeholders in
both the health care industry and the political class. These individuals should
show support for my course.
12. Description of what you learned on this project and how you can apply the lessons in your
work
 This project has enlightened me on the importance of upholding social justice. My
work will, therefore, involve fighting for the rights of all patients, especially on
the subject of price transparency.

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References
Berg, N., & Kim, J. Y. (2018). Price discrimination in public healthcare. Australian Economic
Papers, 57(2), 181-192.
Brownson, R. C., Baker, E. A., Deshpande, A. D., & Gillespie, K. N. (2017). Evidence-based
public health. Oxford University Press.
Brown, Z. Y. (2017). An empirical model of price transparency and markups in health care.
Technical report, Working Paper, Columbia University.
Embrett, M. G., & Randall, G. E. (2014). Social determinants of health and health equity policy
research: exploring the use, misuse, and nonuse of policy analysis theory. Social Science
& Medicine, 108, 147-155.
Mehrotra, A., Dean, K. M., Sinaiko, A. D., & Sood, N. (2017). Americans support price
shopping for health care, but few actually seek out price information. Health Affairs,
36(8), 1392-1400.
Richard, L., Furler, J., Densley, K., Haggerty, J., Russell, G., Levesque, J. F., & Gunn, J. (2016).
Equity of access to primary healthcare for vulnerable populations: the IMPACT
international online survey of innovations. International journal for equity in health,
15(1), 64.