HCA 315 Week 4 Discussion

HCA 315 Week 4 Discussion | Southwestern College

Unit 4 Discussion 1

Prompt:

Large Health Care Organizations(HCO) or Accountable-Care Organizations(ACO) can dominate a market by owning clinics, imaging centers, hospitals, and surgery centers. A health system can create a healthcare ecosystem within a community where a person can receive any type of care they need or desire from one single ‘brand’ of a healthcare provider. This can be a good plan for consumers or it can be bad.

Before participating in this discussion, please review the following organizations' sites:

Mayo Clinic; Geisinger Health System, in Danville, Pennsylvania; the Marshfield Clinic, in Marshfield, Wisconsin; Intermountain Healthcare, in Salt Lake City; Kaiser Permanente, in Northern California. 

Please discuss the following and provide support for your answers, including personal experience(s) with an HCO.  

·         Is it good for the communities where this is occurring?

·         Does it remove a competitive market for the consumer?  

·         Can it level out, decrease or increase costs to the consumer? 

·         Can it possibly create the propensity for inferior care or increased care for the consumer? 

·         Does it help to create a greater pool of diverse and well-trained employees? 

·         How could it affect negotiation and purchasing power for technology and supplies?

·         Should savings be passed on to the consumer? 

·         Identify at least one current HCO conglomerate in your discussion.

·         Please describe and discuss the role of monopolies.

o    Determine the consequences of monopoly power in the market for healthcare services.