please respond to this prompt individually using your opinion on what they are saying about their post ..

i will attach the sample reply for you to follow. please and thank you .. basically u have to do is response on your own though about the post

1. The Family Medical Leave act (FMLA)(1993) is a law that entitles people to take 12 - 26 weeks of unpaid protected leave for specific medical and family related issues. It was created to help employees balance their medical and family needs with work. It allows a person to take leave for reasons such as birth to a child, care for a spouse, parent, or child, serious health risk, or illness without having to worry about losing one's job. If I were to change this act I would require either the employer or the state government to provide some form of pay or compensation for the leave. The majority of Americans cannot afford to take 12-26 weeks off of work unpaid and obviously, no one chose to be sick or ill so we might as well offer some kind of subsidy for those in need just so they don't have another thing to worry about. The act is very effective with over 90% of worksites covered by the act saying that it has had a positive effect.

2. I chose to write about The Sark Law for this week's discussion.

"The Stark Law is a set of federal healthcare fraud and abuse laws that prohibits physicians from referring patients for certain designated health services paid for by Medicare to another entity with which they have a financial relationship. The Stark Law is not a criminal statute, but it does provide for significant civil penalties."

I found this law to be beneficial for the patients. It prevents physicians from profiting off of the patient by referring them to someone they are affiliated with. This is set to protect the patient because if a doctor is only referring out to someone they financially gain from, that would include some bias. Physicians should always take a nonbias approach to healthcare and send their patients to someone who will best help with their patient's issues or diseases. This law seems adequate, but after doing some research, some loopholes were found within the start law. Because of those loopholes, the Stark law has been readdressed. The new law changes were in effect as of January 1, 2022. The new changes just updated some terms that were used, such as "DHS," which refers to designated health services. The new changes were made to stop people from finding loopholes in the law. Laws are created to protect the people. Someone in the profession of serving people should not care about how much they can profit off of an individual and their disease. The main focus should be curing the disease and helping their patients heal and return to their everyday life before illness. After the new changes, I feel like the law is great how it is. I personally would not make any changes to the stark law.

3. The topic I will discuss is the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. Basically, this law established drug coverage to Medicare beneficiaries, allowing them a more carefully communicated eligibility to get access to medications. Some key features of this law consist of changes to reimbursement rates for healthcare providers allowing them to get paid for prescribing medications. This particular feature also helps regulate the prescribing of medications from physicians to reduce the chances of addiction and drug overuse. Another key feature to mention would be that patients could also enroll in Medicare Advantage, which allows the beneficiaries to enroll in private insurance plans (Vedova & Technology, 2016). To my understanding, since Medicare leaves the beneficiary responsible for the 20% that Medicare pays up to 80%, having a secondary insurance to help pay the rest of the bill is now an option. I believe this law is very effective because while working on the side of healthcare, one can really see the cost of medications out of pocket and just how much money a patient would have to come up with not only for the medication, but for the cost of the office visit, if they had to get testing done to help with their diagnosis, and so on. That , in itself, adds to just how complicated the Medicare Act can be to someone who would have a hard time understanding the insurance lingo. One particular change that would make everyone happy I believe, is to just lower the cost of these medications. Sure, the resources to make the medications can not pay for themselves, but it would surely keep less people sick and at least a little bit more healthier with full, low-cost, access to medications.

4. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, is a federal law that is enacted in 1996. The primary purpose of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is to create "national standards to protect sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient's consent or knowledge" (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022). Consequently, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued other rules in support of HIPAA.

Some elements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act include standards for the permitted use of disclosure of sensitive patient health information, such as when required by public law, health oversight activities, for use by law enforcement, and others. There is also a security rule in place that set both the standard for preserving the security of patient health information, as well as means of preserving that security such as having readiness in the workplace to combat acts that will affect HIPAA integrity.

The experience that I possess on the topic is that of myself as a patient, and my mother as a working nurse. As a patient, I have not had that concern of my patient's health information being violated as having gone through different medical institutions and being cared for through their methods of practice. This may be a result of the structure of those organizations, but all have been well executed. My mother states the same thing in her experiences, and that on the provider side that HIPAA is, "like a tight leash so people don't go putting their nose where they aren't supposed to". Since its enactment, there have been no amendments or modifications to the federal law, and I agree that up to this point, it has been very effective.

sample reply for each of them to follow ....

1. I appreciate that you brought up the topic of the Family Medical Leave Act or "FMLA" of 1993. Before reading your post, I had no information and was unaware of this family medical leave act. Now that I know that, at the time, this was legislation that had to be passed, I am glad that it was. I cannot imagine a modern working society without possessing this benefit to be at the disposal of the workers. This is great as it considers one's circumstances and creates an avenue for one to be able to handle those circumstances. However, I am with you that paid time off should be implemented. As the Professor mentioned, that is a long time off without handling a situation that could be very expensive.

2. Thank you for bringing awareness to the topic of the Sark Law! I had never heard of anything before such as the Sark Law. However, now that I am aware of it, and have a solid understanding of the Sark Law thanks to your post, I am with you on that this law is beneficial for those that are on the patient side and is a very good thing to have! I think that it is good that we have laws like this, perhaps a similar one being HIPAA, that is in the interest of protecting the patient. Patient history is valuable information, but it is for this reason that it must be taken care of so that it does not fall into the wrong hands!

3. Thank you for bringing awareness to the topic of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003! Honestly, I had no previous awareness about this legislation existing, and am glad to now be aware of it! On the provider side, it is certainly a nice bonus that can be had in the instance of prescribing medication. I also think that it is interesting that, at the same time, the payment for the prescription of medication is used as a means of maintaining control over and preventing drug overdose in those that are prescribed medication. I find that this is a helpful law that allows both the provider and patient sides to prosper!

4. I've always found it interesting that HIPAA penalizes healthcare providers that disclose medical information in a personal setting, however, it doesn't in the case of data collection. Data brokers are allowed to purchase and sell your medical data. This has positive benefits for sure. The data can be used to get a better picture of health issues that can then be used to develop a better understanding of what causes or improves those issues. However, there are some that argue that an individual's data should belong to them. If this were the case, then data brokers would be required to purchase the data from the individual as opposed to the hospital. Either way, I don't believe the hospital should have the right to sell data from a service that you are paying them for. Not without your permission anyway.