Final answer:
When developing policies for health records, questions need to address the balance of treatment costs, patient quality of life, and privacy. The ACA aims to reduce healthcare costs by capping administrative spending and mandating EMRs to reduce overhead. These regulations seek to improve healthcare quality while protecting patient privacy.
Step-by-step explanation:
Policy Development for Health Records
When developing policies regarding health records, there are critical questions that need to be addressed to balance various aspects of healthcare delivery. Consideration must be given to how policy can ensure the cost-effectiveness of treatments and diagnoses while maintaining high standards of patient care and safeguarding individual privacy.
Key Questions for Policy Development
- How can we develop policies that maintain an equitable balance between the costs of treatments and diagnoses, and the quality of life of patients?
- What measures can be taken to ensure that individual privacy is not compromised by the increased sharing and accessibility of electronic health records (EHRs)?
- In what ways can the sharing of digital health records among providers be regulated to both improve the quality of healthcare and reduce costs without infringing on patient privacy?
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduced regulations to help control healthcare costs, including a cap on administrative spending by healthcare providers and a mandate for the switch to electronic medical records (EMRs), which is expected to reduce administrative costs significantly.