Discussion: Unit 3, Due Wednesday by 11:59 pm CT
Unit Topic Discussion
Estimated time to complete: 2 hours
Please complete the following steps for your discussion post and response.
Select one of the topics covered in Unit 3. Respond to the following in your primary post:
Why did you choose this topic?
Why is it important for you to be informed about this topic?
Provide one example of how you will engage the topic in your profession (example: conversations with patients, interactions with physicians, processing insurance claims, etc.)
In approximately 250 words, summarize the topic for your classmates.
Provide five bullet points to solidify key points or takeaways.
You must include a minimum of two scholarly sources.
Please be sure to validate your opinions and ideas with citations and references in APA format.
- Please review post and response expectations. Please review the rubric to ensure that your response meets criteria.
- Cite any resources/references in APA formatting that were used in the discussion – if applicable.
- Peer Responses: Unit 3, Due Sunday by 11:59 pm CT
- Unit Topic Discussion
- Estimated time to complete: 1 hour
- Please post 2 peer responses.
In the response posts, include the following:
In approximately 150 words, evaluate your classmate’s topic summary.
Incorporate in-text citations to support your evaluation
Visit your classmate’s scholarly sources. Provide one additional bullet point as a key point/takeaway that your classmate did not already address, or provide deeper context to the point.
Jordan Perry
The topic that I chose to discuss for this week is topic number 3- Competition in healthcare. I chose this topic because competition in healthcare is a current issue in the medical community and it’s an issue that has positive and negative consequences. Competition in healthcare, in my opinion, is mostly a good thing for the medical field. Should healthcare be mostly focused on money and their competition? No. However, does competition lead to better quality treatments and procedures for patients? Yes. Competition may be motivated by money and the desire to have more patient come into their facilities, but it also allows the patients to reap the benefits by being treated better and having more and better care options.
“Competition in health care markets benefits consumers because it helps contain costs, improve quality, and encourage innovation (Federal Trade Commission, n.d.).”
Although there are other concerns to be aware of as well. Leemore Dafny and Thomas Lee (2016), stated the barriers to competition as, “limited reimbursement-based incentives, limited market share incentives, inadequate data on value, and inadequate know-how”.
These benefits and barriers to competition in healthcare create many a debate on if competition in healthcare is really worth it and if the good outweighs the bad. In my opinion, the good certainly outweighs the bad. Competition forces healthcare companies to step up their game, which can make them open their facilities to insurance and therefore, people, that weren’t previously taken there. It forces facilities to look into a purchase new equipment and conduct new procedures and treatments, which allows for more options for the patients and better treatments provided.
For an example, as a manager, I will be constantly looking to help out my facility and department so competition in healthcare will allow me the ability to see what other facilities are using in the area and how popular they are and then figure out if our facility could afford or if it will bring in more revenue for the business.
Key Points or Takeaways
- Competition in healthcare is looked at as good and bad by the community.
- The good consists of containing healthcare costs, improving quality of treatment, and encouraging innovation.
- The bad deals with values and data on each individual company being inadequate for others in order for them to properly compete.
- Many also feel like competition puts money over health in the medical field and they don’t believe that that’s right or a goo direction for the field to go in.
- Competition in healthcare requires balance between the clinical side and the administrative side of the facility and what they’re trying to achieve.
Dafny, L. Lee, T. (2016, December). Health Care Needs Real Competition. The Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from (Links to an external site.)
Federal Trade Commission. (n.d.). Competition in the Health Care Marketplace. Retrieved from (Links to an external site.)Reply
Elizabeth Sanchez Quinones
Hello Class,
The topic that interested me the most this week was the impacts and pros and cons of direct to consumer advertisement. It interested me because of how many times we sit down to watch TV and here “Talk to your Doctor and see if (insert brand medication here) is right for you”. It has become the norm to see these types of ads in every single advertising medium there is, whether it is TV, magazines, billboards etc. Like everything else there are pros and cons to direct to consumer advertisement. Mukherji and Mukherji (2017) stated that Proponents of DTC prescription drug promotions contend that these ads inform patients about diseases and possible treatments options, encourage people to seek medical advice and comply with treatment plans, help remove stigma associated with medical conditions and encourage doctor patient communication. DTC advertising educates consumers and enables them to take a more active role in interacting with health professionals. Cons include that DTC advertisements misinform patients, encourage over medication and pressurize physicians to prescribe advertised drugs and thus weaken the relationship between patients and physicians. They also contend that DTC advertising is often misleading and rarely provides sufficient information on costs, alternative treatment plans and side effects of drugs. I personally think that these advertisements should be used to create an open discussion with ones health care professional, however it should not be used as a definite solution to whatever one is being ailed with. It is important to be informed of this trend to inform my patients how to properly utilize these adds for their benefit and not their detriment. I would like to use this information and talk to physicians and their thoughts on these direct to consumer adds.
Takeaway:
– Direct to consumer advertising experienced growth, especially after 1997 when the FDA issued relaxed guidelines for direct to consumer
– every $1 spent on advertising results in an increase in retail sales of $4.20.
– encourages doctor patient communication
-The potential to misinform patients
– With the right guidance, it could be an empowering tool for patients
Reference
Mukherji, J., & Mukherji, A. (2017). Attitudes toward pharmaceutical direct-to-consumer advertising: the role of culture. Journal of Competitiveness Studies, 25(2), 114-125.
Expert Solution Preview
Introduction:
As a medical professor, it is my duty to ensure that all medical college students are well-informed about important topics in the healthcare industry. I design and conduct lectures, evaluate student performance, and provide feedback through examinations and assignments. In this assignment, students were asked to choose a topic covered in Unit 3 and provide an explanation as to why this topic was important for them to be informed about, and give an idea of how they will engage the topic in their profession. In this response, I will be evaluating Elizabeth Sanchez Quinones’ topic summary on the impacts and pros and cons of direct-to-consumer advertisement.
Evaluation:
Overall, Elizabeth provided a comprehensive summary of the impacts and pros and cons of direct-to-consumer advertisement. She discussed both the advantages and disadvantages, citing Mukherji and Mukherji’s (2017) research. Additionally, Elizabeth shared her own opinion on the topic, stating that it is important to be informed about this trend to inform patients how to properly utilize these ads for their benefit and not their detriment. She also suggested that she would like to talk to physicians about their thoughts on these direct-to-consumer ads.
One additional key point of takeaway that could be added to Elizabeth’s summary is the impact of direct-to-consumer advertising on the healthcare industry. Researchers have noted that it can lead to increased drug costs, as pharmaceutical companies may charge higher prices to recoup their advertising expenses (Kornfield et al., 2013). This could be a useful point to bring up in conversations with physicians and other healthcare professionals.
Reference:
Kornfield, R., Donohue, J., Berndt, E. R., Alexander, G., & Gross, C. (2013). Direct-to-consumer advertising and drug prices: The role of market competition, the impact of physician prescribing. Health Affairs, 32(4), 654-661.
