United Healthcare: Growing for Global Expansion

An effective and efficient healthcare organization practices an array of activities discussed below:

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Network Growth

Growing an organization such as United Healthcare to a global giant in the next ten years requires the adaptation of an expansion plan that assesses competitors' presence in the new markets of entry. The requirements for entering new domestic markets differ from entry to international markets. However, growth could be an expensive and complicated process for United Healthcare if poorly managed. Firstly, the current nurse management in the organization should focus on the acquisition of new customers by the addition of improvements to the services and products that offer incentives for incremental purchases. The new features should address the new market's needs in the face of existing or anticipated competition.

Meeting Future Staffing Requirements

Staffing is a technique that defeats even the most experienced nurse managers because most managers focus on two aspects of an ideal employee: age and experience. However, the type of customer should dictate nurses' characteristics for retention or hire in the organization. Legal issues arise when the patient's rights become threatened by the incompetency of the nurses. Therefore, the current CEO should make ethical decisions to acquire practicing nurses who are aware of the patients' needs without compromising the organization's mission and vision. The projected outcome of staffing the organization based on the competitive and legal situation that would exist ten years from today should also guide staffing requirements.

Resource Management

The principle of scarcity guides the management of resources at all stages and processes of United Healthcare. The resource management process involves the careful allocation of financial and human resources according to the conditions that would exist ten years to come. Therefore, it is a complex process that demands careful planning in time to deliver quality service to the customers under the prevailing market conditions. Importantly, the nurse manager plays a dual role of being a supporter of the staff through mentoring and overall coaching and training of the nursing staff. The second role involves the administration of management roles in respective units, allocating finances, and designing a customer-centered care delivery system.

Patient Satisfaction Strategies

Patient satisfaction in nursing is an art that presents a competitive advantage to organizations that master the art. Firstly, exercising effective communication between the patients and the practicing nurses enhances understanding of the patient's needs. Secondly, patient satisfaction exposes the nurses to ethical decision-making dilemmas that even the most competent practicing nursed could fail. However, competent nurses should aid the patients in making ethical decisions by utilizing either the practical or justice-based frameworks to help them make informed decisions.

Comparison of Effective and Ineffective Healthcare Organizations

Suggestions that Increases Effective or Efficient Organizations

Access to Health Insurance

Access to health insurance is the main feature of the affordable care healthcare act because it was enacted to ensure that a sizable population was to gain access to medical care. Although other systems were available at the time of enactment, the increasing cost of health care remained a problem for many families, especially Americans who belonged to the lower-income classes (Sommers & Bindman, 2012). While wealthy people could purchase health insurance to foster their access to quality healthcare, many low-income families, which comprised mainly of the more significant proportion of the population, were unable to access health care. Additionally, the need to provide affordable healthcare was triggered by the fact that former health care systems like the Medicaid did not take into account the employers who had less than fifty employees on their staff. Consequently, the healthcare Act was enacted by the United States government to help people gain access to less costly healthcare delivery systems (Barr, 2016).

People can apply for medical coverage through numerous providers who compete for clients. People have a two-fold choice to gain access to affordable care through insurance. Firstly, any American citizen can have medical insurance coverage through an employer (if employed). Secondly, people can access healthcare through the purchase of insurance health coverage through a health insurance exchange program. Enrollees can access the health insurance exchange program through the state's health insurance exchange program or the federal program for states which do not have the health exchange program (Sommers & Bindman, 2012). The affordable health insurance Act has helped many Americans access healthcare, which had remained inaccessible before its enactment. The high cost of healthcare and the lack of access to affordable medical care were the main reasons such healthcare acts were enacted.

Increased Responsibility in the Health Care

The state's involvement in the healthcare system was limited before enacting the Affordable Health Act. The Act has enabled the United States government to have an active role in the organization and possible financing of the healthcare system. Nevertheless, the state's involvement raises controversies because of the question of funding requirements needed to foot the annual healthcare budget. For instance, the affordable health care Act was meant to reduce the cost of access to medical care by low-income earners through the provision of health care services that are accessible by all citizens in every state (Sommers & Bindman, 2012).

Additionally, the government's role under the affordable care act is essential because of the need to have a force that organizes the healthcare institutions to harmonize access to less costly healthcare by people, regardless of their social or economic status in society. The federal government has the mandate to change healthcare institutions' direction, and Medicaid and Medicare are typical examples of how the government has continued to get involved in the funding and organization of the health care delivery systems. Furthermore, the U.S. government's participation in the delivery of healthcare is observable through the modes of funding because either all or half of the healthcare expenditure is sourced from the federal government, the local government, or either state sources (Barr, 2016). Furthermore, some aspect of the affordable care Act has enabled the public to understand available alternatives about the healthcare delivery systems, besides increased scrutiny of the government over private health care insurance delivery systems. The government's involvement in the delivery of health care to the people of the United States has been more enhanced under the affordable health care Act. Although some healthcare delivery systems were in place before the Affordable Healthcare Act, the government's role was less active than it is today. The feature remains one of the landmarks of the affordable health care Act.

The Choice to Expand the Medicaid

The Affordable Healthcare Act advocates for the expansion of Medicaid in every state, but the states are not under compulsion to expand the program. Every state in the United States of America has the freedom to either advocate for the expansion of state-sponsored healthcare plans such as Medicaid. The states can opt-out of the expansion program without losing the Medicare benefits after the Supreme Court's ruling. The Medicare benefits include the screenings, mammograms and colonoscopy are now free and safe. This feature makes the Affordable healthcare more affordable than any other healthcare delivery system ever in the history of America (Sommers & Bindman, 2012).

Additionally, the health care participating insurance plans are under compulsion to provide transparent and understandable information consumable by enrollees-the need to provide healthcare information that is easy to understand following complaints by enrollees in the past. The health care insurance information was neither uniform nor easy to understand for both the participants and the enrollees (Barr, 2016). Therefore, provision of uniform and simple to understand information usable by both enrollees and the applicants of the health care insurance is one of the milestones attained by the U.S. government through the legislation of the Affordable Health Care Act.

Advocating for the expanded Medicaid programs in compliant states comes with additional benefits that drive healthcare costs lower than other states that do not embrace Medicaid expansion (Barr, 2016). However, the states which do not expand the Medicaid program are not legally bound to undertake the exercise because it is optional. Therefore, the states which complaint have their residents who are below 65 benefits from the reduced cost of healthcare insurance. Such states receive subsidies under the legislation of the Affordable Health Care Act. Subsidies play a significant role in reducing healthcare costs because enrollees benefit directly from subsides (Sommers & Bindman, 2012).

Consequently, the availability of the incentives from the expansion of the Medicaid programs at the state level encourages enrolments and for more people to benefit from subsidies. The health care cost has been the nagging question since the advent of the Affordable health care act because of affordability reasons. Affordability is one of the critical features of the legislation. Consequently, the states which have an expansion program for the Medicaid continue to benefit from the affordable healthcare legislation.

Factors Leading one organization to be Best and another to be Ineffective

Values of the Affordable Health Care Act

Americans received the legislation of the Affordable Health Care Act with varied opinions. Some people viewed the legislation as a means to reduce healthcare costs, while others perceived an attack on American values. Therefore, the Act was enacted amid protests and celebrations in equal measures (Barr, 2016). However, the protests were political because ideologies that differed with the ideals of the affordable health care Act were supposed to defend the interests of low-income earners. Additionally, there was no alarm to resist the legislation because the Act did not prevent wealthy Americans from purchasing healthcare programs of their own choice besides the Obamacare provisions. The values represent the trade-offs that the users were to encounter in their pursuit of a more cost-effective healthcare delivery system. Therefore, the following are the values of the affordable health care Act.

Equitable Access

The United States Society values fairness as a driving factor of equity, representing a fraction of values such as individual freedom, entrepreneurship, and individual striving. Therefore, the Affordable Care Act gives equity to all people striving to attain health well-being by guaranteeing access to health care regardless of preexisting conditions. For instance, wealth is not a condition of people's access to affordable care (McLellan & Woodworth, 2014). People have access to healthcare services based on their health needs but not the ability to pay for the medical services rendered by practitioners to individuals or groups (Barr, 2016). The value of equity demands that all people have access to the medical care irrespective of race, geographical location, religion, or wealth. People have lived experiences of their access best quality and access to healthcare services without any extreme disparities (Barbaresco et...