Financial Considerations in Nursing Discussion

Financial Considerations in Nursing Discussion

ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT: Financial Considerations in Nursing Discussion

Question Description
I’m studying for my Nursing class and need an explanation.

Step 1 Post your response to the discussion board.

Currently, nursing services are considered an expense for which healthcare organizations cannot bill separately. Respond to the following questions and, if appropriate, include personal experience as part of your answers:

Why are healthcare organizations unable to bill separately for nursing services, and what is the impact on nurse leaders?
What can the nursing profession, and specifically nursing leaders, do to change this issue?
Why are nursing services considered an expense and not an income generator?
Step 2 Read other students’ posts and respond to at least two of them by Friday at 11:59pm Mountain Time.

Ask questions of the other students that promote further thinking and discussion on the topic. Consider the changes to billing identified by the other students. Do you agree or disagree that these changes can make an impact on nursing services? Why or why not?

Use your personal experience, if it’s relevant, to support or debate other students’ posts. If differences of opinion occur, debate the issues professionally and provide examples to support opinions.

Peer Discussion (Tina)

Several healthcare organizations are unable to bill separately for nursing services which imposes a negative impact on the nurse leaders. Due to the purpose of the documentation, the coding system and other requirements related to this process, medical institutions cannot charge only for nursing services (Kennedy, Wood, & Frieden, 2017). Nurses’ working hours can be calculated, but pay more attention to patients, and therefore, they cannot be registered. This effect reduces the payment process in the nursing field.

Nursing practitioners and nursing leaders can take specific actions to change this issue. The most exciting part of looking at healthcare as a cost is an opposite of what hospitals think of other healthcare providers. Doctors and most (but not all) different therapists (respiratory, specialist, and physiotherapist) are often seen as the cost of a service that earns a hospital income. To change this problem, the nurse needs to understand the billing process. They recognize the needs and conditions of their services. Care facilities must have written documentation.

The nursing services are considered an expense and not an income generator. Nurses provide intensive care to patients and work hard for early recovery, so they are seen as an expense rather than a resource to earn an income. On the one hand, our hospitals have to bear all the costs involved, which mean combat between the cases, which often needs the right number of nurses to be responsible for each service, while maintaining a budget reasonable (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2017). Of course, if there is no nurse to organize the work of the various departments, there is always someone who says that the reason for the hospital’s primary source of income is slow closure. In the absence of suitable nurses, physicians should limit admission, surgery, and other similar procedures and avoid income-generating forms.

Financial Considerations in Nursing Discussion

Financial Considerations in Nursing Discussion

References

Kennedy, J., Wood, E. G., & Frieden, L. (2017). Disparities in insurance coverage, health services use, and access following implementation of the affordable care act: a comparison of disabled and nondisabled working-age adults. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 54, 0046958017734031. https://doi.org/10.1177/0046958017734031

Wager, K. A., Lee, F. W., & Glaser, J. P. (2017). Health care information systems: a practical approach for health care management. John Wiley & Sons. https://ir.ucc.edu.gh/jspui/bitstream/123456789/30…

Peer Discussion 2 (Patricia)

Why are healthcare organizations unable to bill separately for nursing services, and what is the impact on nurse leaders?

Nursing services are currently included in the inpatient hospital services billing and not accounted for separately (“Medicare,” 2017). Advanced Practice Nurses (APRNs) such as Nurse Practitioners (NPs), Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNSs), Certified Nurse-Midwives (CNMs), Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) and other degree-credentialed nurses are able to bill for their services but registered nurse services are paid for under “incident to” the provider categories of practice expense (“Medicare,” 2017). Nurse leaders have to become more involved in the financial aspects of patient care and remuneration (Finkelman, 2015).

What can the nursing profession, and specifically nursing leaders, do to change this issue?

In order for this status to change, nurses and nurse leaders would have to become educated and involved in the legislative, economic, and budget processes of patient care. For RNs to be able to bill for services rendered, nurse leaders will have to drive the change by using “two potential avenues to change this result: 1) seeking a change in statute or 2) convincing CMS to use its section 1115A waiver authority to study direct payment to RNs” (“Medicare,” 2017, p. 23).

Why are nursing services considered an expense and not an income generator?

In healthcare organizations, nurses’ salaries are a budget item and considered to be an expense (Finkelman, 2015, p. 430). Unless provided by APRNs (advanced practice registered nurses), nursing services are considered “incidental to physician’s services” and as such cannot be directly billed for. They are an expense, not an income-generator (“Medicare,” 2017).

References

Finkelman, A. (2015). Leadership and management for nurses: core competencies for quality care. (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781323400449/cfi/6/2[;vnd.vst.idref=cover]!

Medicare payment for registered nurse services and care coordination. (2017). American Nurses Association (ANA). https://www.nursingworld.org/~498582/globalassets/…

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.