Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Term Paper

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act - Term Paper Example Finally, the essay will look into the application and implantation of reforms to a healthcare institution. There are eight major elements of the Act as outlined by The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010). The first has to do with expanding access to health insurance coverage to most citizens. This is supported by the second element, which entails the provision of financial help to low-income individuals and families. With the second element, there is an automatic expansion of health insurance coverage to citizens. The third element provides for new competitive marketplaces for entities to acquire health insurance, while at the same time ensuring consumer protection in private health insurance. The fifth element looks into closing gaps in the Medicare program that have been costly. The sixth element allows for provision of preventative care, devoid of co-pays or deductibles. This is supported by the seventh element, which promotes movement towards payment systems that reward excellent care for the patient, coupled with positive outcomes, as opposed to rewarding the volume of care. Elements six and seven promote intensive care for the patient, over extensive care. Preventative care is a large component of quality care; it takes up minimal resources in comparison to care aimed at curing the ailment. The last element promotes more transparency and reporting among healthcare practitioners. This element encompasses all the rest because for the PPACA to take full effect there is need to ensure that all practitioners are playing their role towards ensuring such effectiveness. One of the key changes to operations in the hospital is the evolution of healthcare delivery systems from a mid-level care kind of delivery model to a more virtual care kind (National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, 2014). This is