The American healthcare landscape has seen its own dynamic changes throughout the years. And with Obama leaving the post and Trump administration coming into picture, health care is bound to get more dramatic, with plenty of changes expected to roll out in the couple of months and years to come.
With technology getting more and more advanced, research is expected to elevate the creation of significant medical discoveries that could make a powerful impact in the health care system. Along with the creation of various laws and regulations coming from the Republic-dominated government, 2017 and beyond is seen as a pinnacle of merging science and politics to create a transitional healthcare for the American people.
Recent Updates in the American Healthcare Setting:
- Advancements in Technology: Emerging technologies in the field of robotics and virtual reality can help in minimizing the strain on health care providers as certain responsibilities can be delegated to artificial intelligence. Precision and accuracy can be implemented to help minimize the occurrence of incident-related mishaps in the medical setting.
Surgery, healthcare delivery, dispensation of prescription medications and therapy implementation are expected to improve radically in the American landscape. Also, more access to technological equipment such as prosthetics,pacemakers, hearing aids and other assistive devices are bound to increase over the upcoming years. - Advent of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention Devices: The number of individuals using tracking devices to monitor sleeping patterns, exercises, reproductive health cycles and nutrition have drastically increased over the years. Now, more and more citizens are becoming aware of their lifestyle as they strive to guard their health to prevent possible medical threats such as obesity and depression, just to name a few.
Now, more than 50 million Americans have access to software that can be linked to their smartphone devices, thereby providing better accessibility and inclination towards positive health and lifestyle changes. - ACA or Obamacare Policy Changes: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) or ACA is popularly recognized as Obamacare by a lot of people. Created to deliver a drastic reform on the benefits, protections, rights, and tao funding alongside insurance company policies of the American people, Obamacare has made huge controversies during President Barrack’s presidency.
A lot of citizens have complained about able-bodied individuals getting more advantage of the health reform compared to persons of disabilities, senior citizens and those with injuries. With an unexpected inflation rate in the government’s spending on Medicaid expansion, the newly appointed Trump administration has proposed new policies to ensure that only eligible citizens are accepted for enrollment, preventing different insurance companies from pulling out of the said program.
Stabilizing the healthcare market is of utmost importance, as mentioned by the new administration. In accordance to these changes, American citizens are expected to experience stricter rules in healthcare enrollment but better quality in terms of insurance health benefits. - Advent of the 21 st Century Cares Act: The 21 st Century Cares Act was recently approved on 2016. The legislation was meant to improve government-allocated funds for medical research and technology. It also facilitates the easy approval of drug treatment and the improvement in mental health services in the healthcare landscape. Covered in the said act are specific funding for illnesses such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as assistance to the FDA.
21st Century Cares Act gives the medical field better chances at procuring and developing various treatment alternatives to improve research and development of treatment methods directed towards long-standing chronic illnesses, which, until now, remain completely evasive and difficult. - Emergence of Telehealth Services: During the campaign period and even right until after President Donald Trump occupied office, he stated different revisions to the Obamacare reform. One of the provisions include better access to health care in the form of telehealth services. With this kind of health-related platform, citizens can connect to their doctors on a virtual level, rather than having personal appointments on clinics.
More and more companies are expected to put up telehealth posts where employees can have their vital signs checked and doctor appointments can be done online. This kind of service bridges the gap between the scarcity of medical practitioners since actual consultations can prove to be difficult, considering the busy lifestyle of those in the medical field. Also, individuals living in areas where there are scarcity of doctors can still have enough access to health care. - Increase in the Value of Healthcare: The healthcare field is just one of the main focuses of government projects, with better services aimed at providing quality of care at a low cost. These are directed towards setting up better research facilities, improving the skills of those who are in the medical profession, providing better access to medications and improving insurance policy coverage’s.
In relation to this trend, educational and medical establishments offer better training opportunities to doctors, nurses, medical technicians, pharmacists a well as those who are a part of the healthcare team. 2017 and the year ahead is about implementing guidelines, safety checks, in-facility training’s and knowledge improvement exercises to make sure that healthcare providers and those in line with the health department are capable of delivering the best services to citizens at the fraction of a cost. - Technology-driven payment methods: Virtual payments are becoming more and more accessible for those who are in need of health care services. Credit card payments can be done online in a variety of payment options to minimize the delays in health transactions.
Medical providers are set to provide better security measures to ensure that identity thefts are prevented as more and more frauds are expected to target health care systems in order to gain access to medical services and treatment at no cost. Security checks are becoming more and more stringent, with plenty of verification’s to ensure that no breech can break through various payment systems.
2017 is a year of anticipated changes in the American health care setting. As the government strives to fulfill and improve access to medical health care to all of its citizens, more and more services are expected to be made available in order to cater to the growing demands of the American people.
Author Bio:
Sathya Kumar is the Founder & CEO at Techindia Infoway Pvt Ltd., Chennai. Techindia is Asia’s largest provider of healthcare management solutions for exceptional remote healthcare diagnostics and patient monitoring, with a proven track of high performance for highly regulated healthcare industries and for the patients globally. You can also follow us on Linkedin.