The percentage of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) devoted to healthcare expenditures has increased over the past several decades. According to 2016 statistics, the United States spent $3.3 trillion or $10,739 per person on healthcare expenditures or 17.9% of its gross domestic product. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) predicts annual healthcare costs will be $4.64 trillion by 2024, which represents nearly 20% of the U.S. GDP. The increase in healthcare spending is attributed to three causes:

1.    When prices increase in an economy overall, the cost of medical care will increase more regardless of inflation
2.    As life expectancy increases in the United States, more individuals will require more medical care for chronic diseases, which means there will be more healthcare expenses
3.    As healthcare technology and research provide for more sophisticated and more expensive procedures, there will be an increase in healthcare expenses

Consider this scenario

Your health insurance is paid for by your family. You continually hear your parents complain about "cost sharing" in their health insurance costs. You are studying this term in your healthcare management course so you can help explain it to your parents and suggest options for reducing their out of pocket expenses.  Perform research to identify credible resources on "cost sharing" in the U.S. healthcare insurance system. Define cost sharing and how cost is shared with the employer and employees like your parents. Develop a concise but informative report

 

 

The continued increases in healthcare costs and the lack of access to quality health care for certain populations has resulted has resulted in the increased use of information technology.

You were just promoted to Chief Information Officer of your small rural hospital. One of your goals is to improve the efficiencies of hospital operation. You heard that RFID is a viable option to pursue but your CEO is not tech savvy.  Perform research on RFID technology and its application to the healthcare industry. Select three specific types of RFID applications that will work for your small rural hospital and develop an email report for your CEO.  Keep in mind that your CEO still writes notes on paper so you need to define and explain RFID in detail.