In this week's Discussion, you will focus on practical solutions to reducing health care costs while improving quality and access. Because health care in the United States is a business, it is imperative that health care administrators understand that providing safe, quality health care services under budget is one of the single most important performance metrics that they can benchmark for success.

To Prepare for This Discussion:

Choose a health care policy issue in your workplace or community related to cost, quality, or access. You may wish to explore the literature and health care policy websites to ascertain what is working and what might work in your workplace or community.

Note: Take a look at the CMS innovation website if you are interested in looking at some innovative models currently being tested: http://innovation.cms.gov/

By Day 3

Post a cohesive response to the following:

Provide an analysis of the health care policy issue you chose, making sure to address these specific points: describe the health care policy issue you selected; provide and explain the statistics depicting the issue; and explain how this issue relates to health care costs, quality, and access.

When possible, provide examples from your professional experiences to demonstrate cost concerns in your particular field, or use personal anecdotes/stories to illustrate some of the problems that exist.

Support your response by identifying and explaining key points and/or examples presented in the Learning Resources.