Benchmark – Population Health Policy Analysis Essay NUR 550

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Benchmark – Population Health Policy Analysis Essay NUR 550 Example

Diabetes affects more than 30 million Americans and costs the country more than “$327 billion per year” (Cefalu, 2018). Diabetes has a significant impact on people’s lives, resulting in increased medical costs, lost productivity, premature deaths, and decreased quality of life. Diabetes is not going away, and the patient population has grown. Unfortunately, so has the cost of the life-saving drug insulin.

Rising insulin costs, an essential medication that has more than tripled in price, are making life difficult for diabetics. Some are even forced to choose between buying their medications and paying for other necessities, putting their health at risk in the short and long term. The question is, why has a medication that was invented in the 1920s and has seen few changes become increasingly expensive, and what can we do to help offset those costs?

Benchmark - Population Health Policy Analysis Essay NUR 550

History of Insulin

The discovery of insulin in 1922 marked a major breakthrough in medicine and therapy in patients with diabetes.  Long before the discovery of insulin, it was hypothesized that the pancreas secreted a substance that controlled carbohydrate metabolism. For years, attempts at preparing pancreatic extracts to lower blood glucose were unsuccessful due to impurities and toxicities.

It was Frederick Banting, an orthopedic surgeon, who first isolated the pancreatic islet extracts from the pancreatic duct of dogs (Quianzon, n.d.).  Relatively few changes have happened to insulin since its invention, save for the introduction of some preservatives that enabled it to act longer.  Finally, in 1982 we were able to ‘create’ a human analogue of the insulin, and there have been no real changes since (Quianzon, n.d.).

Benchmark - Population Health Policy Analysis Essay NUR 550

Improving Access

In the spring of 2017, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Board of Directors convened an ‘Insulin Access and Affordability Working Group’ (Working Group) to determine the full scope of the insulin affordability problem.  Their main goal was to recommend “strategies, and to provide high-level direction to the ADA related to this issue” (Cefalu, 2018).   One major finding of the Working Group was that the average price of insulin nearly tripled between 2002 and 2013 in the United States, yet other countries pay significantly less.

In fact, “Americans pay more than 10 times as much for insulin as Canadians do, according to a commentary published in the Nov. 7 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, despite a single vial of current analog insulin only costing around $3 to $6 to make” (Healthday, 2019).  Because of this, lawmakers in the US are trying to stop ‘price-gouging’ and regulate the costs of insulin.

Addressing the Issue

In an era when healthcare is extremely expensive, there are many opinions on how involved our federal government should be in bringing drug prices down. However, there is one particular drug-pricing crisis that many can agree needs to be addressed sooner rather than later: the insulin crisis. New legislation in Washington and Colorado cap the price of insulin at $100 per 30-day supply, and several federal bills have also been introduced.

While none of the bills specify how they make this work, they have created a law “cap[ping] the total amount that a covered person is required to pay for a covered prescription insulin drug at an amount not to exceed one hundred dollars per thirty-day supply of insulin, regardless of the amount or type of insulin needed to fill the covered person’s prescription” (Roberts et al, 2019).

Implications

If we don’t put an end to unnecessarily high insulin costs, many more people will lose the fight against diabetes, succumbing to problems associated with a lack of insulin. While these measures suggest there’s finally some attention and progress on the issue of insulin price gouging, there are several significant things to consider: Colorado and Washington are just two states, and people with diabetes live in all over the US, and these caps only apply to people who have health insurance coverage.  For people without insurance, or those living outside of the states, mentioned,  they continue to face high costs with no clear end in sight.

While much of the cost of diabetes appears to fall on insurers (especially Medicare) and employers (in the form of reduced productivity at work, missed work days, and higher employer costs for health care), in reality such costs are passed along to all of society in the form of higher insurance premiums and taxes, reduced earnings, and reduced standard of living.

Patient Advocacy

As an APRN we are responsible for ensuring that our patients receive the best care possible.   This includes providing them with the different ways they can get access to their medications.   Until there is a ‘universal’ health care and coverage program, then we have to be  ready to help patients find things like rebates, coupons, sponsorships, etc for their more expensive medications – medications like insulin.  Directing patients to the these programs can help them mitigate the costs of their disease and improve quality of life.

Conclusion

“Insulin is a flashpoint in the drug-pricing debate, and it’s still an ongoing issue. It’s a relatively unique product that will require special solutions because so many people rely on it to ensure they can live day to day,” said commentary co-author Dr. Aaron Kesselheim, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (HealthDay, 2019).

Dramatic improvements in how we treat diabetes have transformed the lives of patients, but this innovation isn’t enough if patients can’t afford their insulin and other medicines at the pharmacy.  While the bills introduced are a start, we still have a long way to go.

Benchmark – Population Health Policy Analysis Essay NUR 550 References

NUR-550 Benchmark – Diverse Population Health Policy Analysis

Description:

Choose a current or proposed health-care policy aimed at providing equitable health-care services to a diverse population. Create a 12- to 15-slide PowerPoint presentation discussing the health care policy and how it improves access to quality, cost-effective health care for a specific population. Create 100-250 word speaker notes for each slide. Add extra slides for the title and references.

Include the following in your presentation:

  1. Describe the policy
  2. Discuss the diverse population that will be affected by this
  3. Explain how the policy is designed to improve cost-effectiveness and health care equity for the diverse
  4. Discuss why the policy is financially sound and explain how the policy incorporates the nursing perspective and relevant ethical, legal, and political Provide rationale to support your explanation.
  5. Describe what state, federal, global health policies, or goals the policy is related to and explain the degree to which each helps achieve equitable health care for the diverse
  6. Discuss advocacy strategies for improving access, quality, and cost-effective health care for the diverse population
  7. Discuss the professional and moral obligation of master’s prepared nurses to respect human dignity and advance the common good through working to promote health and prevent disease among diverse populations from a Christian
  • You are required to cite eight peer-reviewed sources to complete this assignment. Sources must be published within the last 5 years and appropriate for the assignment criteria and nursing content.
  • Refer to the resource, “Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations,” located in the Student Success Center, for additional guidance on completing this assignment in the appropriate style.
  • While APA style is not required for the body of this  NUR 550 assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
  • NUR 550 assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
  • You are required to submit this Health Policy Analysis Essay NUR 550 assignment to LopesWrite. A link to the LopesWrite technical support articles is located in Class Resources if you need assistance.

Benchmark Information

This benchmark assignment assesses the following programmatic competencies:

MBA-MSN; MSN-Nursing Education; MSN Acute Care Nurse Practitioner-Adult-Gerontology; MSN Family Nurse Practitioner; MSN-Health Informatics; MSN-Health Care Quality and Patient Safety; MSN-Leadership in Health Care Systems; MSN-Public Health Nursing

  • Examine financially sound health care policy that incorporates the nursing perspective and relevant ethical, legal, and political
  • Determine advocacy strategies for improving access, quality, and cost-effective health care for diverse
  • Integrate appropriate state, federal, and global health policies and goals into the design of equitable health care for
  • Examine the professional and moral obligation of master’s-prepared nurses to respect human dignity and advance the common good through working to promote health and prevent disease among diverse populations from a Christian