Business Research Proposal on Factors Contributing Financial Issues in Healthcare Industry in the United States

Business Research Proposal on Factors Contributing Financial Issues in Healthcare Industry in the United States

Business Research Proposal

 1.0 Introduction

1.1Background to the Study

The healthcare cost in the United States is rising at a high rate and millions of people have been experiencing difficulties to afford it. Over the last years, administrators and financial managers of healthcare have been trying to come with new ways to reduce healthcare costs. However, handling the healthcare cost is only becoming a more serious issue to administrators since everything in healthcare systems is increasing (Sharpe, 2016). Besides, the healthcare industry has been turning to more innovation on the aspects of technology use in health organizations, hospitals, and clinics. As a result, the financial managers face various issues in reassuring adequate money to cater for the systems of technology that are required to ensure patients are getting the necessary services.

The rising cost of various things in the healthcare sector results in problems since patients must pay more money for healthcare visits and also an extra fee for the use of technology emerging in hospitals. Affordable Care Act (ACA) is one of the organizations that have been affected by the issues related to financial management in the healthcare industry (Freyer et al., 2017). However, healthcare administrators are only trying to ensure that the treatment and services offered to patients are readjusted to the current technology. Therefore, administrators in the healthcare systems across the United States have been hailing electronic keeping of the healthcare records.  Despite more investment in the healthcare system there are still issues rising due to poor services as compared to money used to purchase facilities. Many American have been raising issues that efficiency and effectiveness are still needed in the healthcare system.

Many business experts argue that the healthcare system needs a strong business model so that the effective exchange of patient’s data can be done effectively.  The coordinated solution among the parties involved in the healthcare system must be considered to ensure that patients and financial managers can handle the rising issues of the cost in the health industry. However, the technology investments in healthcare are important; there is still a need to ensure that patients and healthcare financial managers are saved from overwhelming high costs (Jones et al., 2018). This is because the patients must be encouraged to seek healthcare services and financial administrators must ensure money is available to purchase facilities of healthcare services.

1.2. Statement of Problems

Over the last years, Patients and healthcare providers have been affected by the financial issue in the organizations of healthcare systems in the United States. Administrators of healthcare have been recently experiencing problems while trying to offer affordable healthcare. Many administrators have been experiencing challenges in financial management since millions of patients who try to get healthcare services have limited budgets (Waxman, 2017). The limited funds have been raising issues among the healthcare administrators in the United States while implementing the necessary technology for quality services because they must increase the cost of treatment to utilize new technology. The primary stakeholders facing financial issues are patients, insurance companies, hospital management, federal governments, and state (DeVaney, 2016). However, there is not enough research to explain the factors influencing financial issues in healthcare organizations in the United States. Therefore, this research will be conducted to gather the information that will enable an understanding of factors contributing to financial issues in the healthcare industry United in the United States.

1.3. The rationale for the study

The study regarding factors influencing financial issues in the healthcare system is essential for the various stakeholders to understand how to minimize the cost of treatments. The research will enable the government to handle things that are leading to the high cost of healthcare services. The low cost of healthcare will enable many patients to afford the treatment with their limited budgets. The research will also enable the healthcare administrators to work with the government and various insurance companies to ensure any aspect hindering patients from affording healthcare services are handled. Finally, the research will be essential because it will allow the heath experts to establish whether all expenditures in the healthcare system are necessary.

1.4. General Purpose of the study

The main purpose of the study is to find out the factors contributing to financial issues in the healthcare system in the United States since it has been a major challenge across the country.

1.5. Specific objectives of the study

1. To find out whether the high cost of insurance premiums are influencing financial issues in the healthcare system in the United States.
2. To find out whether technological annual health expenditures are contributing to financial issues in the healthcare sector in the United States.
3. To establish whether the high pharmaceutical costs are causing financial issues in the healthcare industry.

1.6. Research Questions

1. To what extent the high cost of insurance premiums is influencing the financial issues in the Healthcare Industry?
2. To what extent the annual technological expenditures on the healthcare system are influencing financial issues in the healthcare sector?
3. To what extent the pharmaceutical costs are contributing to financial issues in the healthcare industry?

2.0. Review of Literature

2.1. Technological Annual expenditures

Various scholars have done studies regarding healthcare insurance cover and technological annual expenditures in the healthcare sector. Some scholars have argued that the high cost of technological expenditure on healthcare is putting financial managers in problems to ensure enough funds to cater for the cost of equipment required in healthcare facilities. Warsame et al. (2016) argue that expenditure on the technological system in hospitals is causing financial problems in almost all areas. In this context, healthcare practitioners are forced to implement the high cost of treatment to patients who have limited budgets. As a result, millions of the patients go to seek care without enough funds while others are afraid of seeking care services since they don’t have enough money.

Singh & Singh (2018) explain that growing demand from patients and healthcare expansion is resulting in a high cost of expenditure. Consequently, such expenditure requires more financial resources that contribute to financial issues among healthcare organizations. In this context, financial managers are faced with pressure to reduce expenditure on digital systems since they contribute to financial problems. However, healthcare administrators insist that hospitals must invest in technological systems to ensure that quality services are offered to the patients. Such technology is developing at a high pace across the United States and hospitals are struggling to identify all means they can use to implements technologies. As a result, financial managers experience significant pressures when looking for money to purchase electronic and other technological systems.

Stephens (2019) explains that most of the health facilities in the United States have started to implement robotics surgeries. Such surgeries are very expensive and they require the health facility to set excess money to invest in robotic technology. On the same, the manufacturers are taking advantage of limited technological power and innovation to increase the cost for healthcare administers who want to purchase such digital equipment. Riva et al. (2019) emphasize the high cost of these robotics surgery technologies by stating that there are very limited healthcare businesses that can afford the robotic technology. This is because other technological advancements require equally a large amount of money. Consequently, healthcare industries found themselves in financial issues since most business is directed on technology forgetting other essential healthcare services.

2.2. The high cost of health insurance cover

Waxman (2017) points out that the high cost of insurance cover is causing financial issues to millions of patients in the United States. The author elaborated that most Americans cannot afford the insurance cover due to the high cost. Most of the Americans depend on the employers to cater for the health insurance cover. In this context, those who are not employed face multiple challenges to cater to one of the expensive healthcare insurance covers in the world. On the other hand, insurance companies prefer to cover people who are in full employment hence neglecting those who are in part-time employment. Freyer et al. (2017) argue that such a situation contributes to a larger number of patients who flock to hospitals without enough money to cover for the healthcare cost. The health financial administrators found themselves in challenges on how to handle the patients who cannot afford services for healthcare.

Sharpe (2016) also describes that most of the health insurance companies opt to insure specific care services and drugs that are less expensive. At the same time the companies impose a large amount of money on patients without covering all the drugs. For instance, people suffering from, hearing, dental and vision disorders face great financial challenges when trying to get insurance cover for healthcare services. Consequently, many of the patients who try to seek such services without complete insurance cover for all drugs put the healthcare financial services to pressure on determining how they can ensure money are available to cater services for such patients.

2.3. Pharmaceutical costs

The high pharmaceutical cost is increasing at a high pace in the United States. The cost ranges from hiring the professional pharmacists to the purchasing of the required drugs in the hospital. Warsame et al. (2016) argue that the development of chronic illness and non-communicable diseases across the globe is one of the factors leading to the increased cost of drugs in healthcare facilities. For instance, the $402 billion are projected to be spent in 2020 to purchase specialty drugs (Baker et al., 2020).  Besides, the high cost of specialty drugs has been influenced by the tendency of the manufacturers to set prices of new products at a very high cost. For example, the price of new oncology agent prices has been rising at a high rate since 1990 (Riva et al., 2020). As a result, health facilities are required to purchase such drugs despite the high cost. The financial managers found themselves in great pressure when trying to allocate enough money to purchase such expensive drugs. The pressure increases further because apart from drugs other pharmaceutical products must be purchased in healthcare organizations.

Stephens (2019) explains that catering to pharmaceutical professionals is also expensive. Most of the personnel who work in healthcare pharmacies are highly educated and they require high salaries that increase pressure to financial managers when trying to allocate funds for them. Such argument is backed by other scholars who point out that the new diseases and technologies have been emerging at a high rate hence requiring the new experts in the field of pharmacy. The technology and new illnesses require specialists who have high skills in handling drugs hence many of them demanding higher salaries.  Consequently the healthcare organization management faces severe challenges to provide funds for paying such professionals. As a result, most of the healthcare administrators raise the cost of healthcare services among patients hence creating financial crisis among stakeholders.

• Methodology

This chapter will deal with data collection to identify the factors that are causing the financial crisis in the healthcare sector in the United States. The data collection will include the primary method of collecting data since the study will be conducted for a specific purpose. The primary methods of data collection also ensure extensive data are obtained (Rahi, 2017). The methods of data collection to be used in this study will be online survey questionnaires and interviews involving both healthcare providers and patients as respondents.

3.1. Research Site Description

The selected site for this study will be “Long Island community hospital” in New York City. The hospital is one of the health facilities that receive the highest number of patients across the United States. The hospital also receives diverse patients in terms of financial status. Therefore, the patients will be able to provide information regarding issues on the high cost of getting insurance cover. The Island Hospital also has been engaging in purchasing digital and technological healthcare systems (Baker et al., 2020). Therefore, the researcher will have high confidence in getting the respondents who can provide helpful information concerning factors influencing financial issues in the health sector.

3.2. Research design

The research design is a procedure or framework used by researchers when conducting a study. The research design is used by the researcher to ensure that time and money will be saved. Therefore, an appropriate structure is required to ensure an economical and efficient way of conducting the research (Gray, 2019). In this study, the survey design of collecting data will include 80 respondents who will be expected to provide helpful information through online survey questionnaires. The researcher will rely on the views, perceptions, and opinions of the respondents regarding the factors that cause healthcare financial issues. To emphasize, online survey questionnaires will be used by all the respondents in the study. Such a design will be used since it saves money and time.

3.3. Target Population

The target population refers to people who will be participating in particular research. Some scholars argue that the target population is the selected sample population in the study. In other words, the sample population is the number of individuals identified to represent the total population (Badu et al., 2019). Therefore the target population in this research will consist of respondents and other critical participants. The research will have 80 respondents, one health journalist, two health financial managers, two regional managers from Island hospital, two government health officials, and three human rights officers. Therefore, the total research participants will consist of 90 people. The mentioned participants will play a critical role in facilitating the study. For instance, regional managers will help the researcher on how to identify the respondents via the hospital website. The respondents will include 40 patients and 40 healthcare providers since all of them are crucial in providing information. However, the respondents will be identified under the permission from the hospital administrators with fully informed consent about the research.

Fig. 1: Target Population

3.4. Sampling design

Sampling design is defined as a process used by researchers to predetermine a sample number of studies from the whole population.  The sample number will be used to make statistical analyses for a specific study (Elbanna, 2019). The sampling design for this study will include patients and healthcare providers of the Long Island hospital in New York City. The sample design will include respondents of both genders since both men and women are facing financial challenges when getting insurance cover. Also, the hospital contains healthcare providers of both genders. In terms of the age difference, the respondents will vary from 25 years to 65 years since these are people who are mostly independent of catering for healthcare services. All the races will also be involved in the study since the sample will be identified randomly.

The sample size of the respondents will consist of 80 people who will be selected from a large population to represent the healthcare industry in the United States. The study will include random sampling to select the participants’ respondents with the help of other critical personnel. The random sampling technique will be used so that the researcher can select respondents without any bias. Considering that Island Hospital receives thousands of thousands of patients every day it will be appropriate to use the hospital website for the respondents to provide information.

3.5. Data Collection

The collection of data is referred to as a process to gather and measure data for a particular study. The data collection is also a way of ensuring that the researcher will find the truth on a particular issue so that he can recommend the solutions to fill the gaps (Taherdoost, 2016).

This study will include the primary method of collecting data because the information required will be used for a particular purpose. The primary data will involve qualitative and quantitative data through the use of online survey questionnaires and interviews. Therefore, the methods of collecting data in this study will include online survey questionnaires and interviews. The filling of questionnaires will take about 15 minutes for every respondent. The survey questionnaires will be sent to the website of Long Island Hospital where the selected respondents will be able to find the questionnaires. The use of the website will ensure the saving of time and money since respondents’ healthcare providers will be easier for them to participate (Taherdoost, 2016). On the other side the patients’ respondents will be assisted by the regional managers and other participants that were already mentioned in the target population. The use of online survey questionnaires is recommended because it enables the collection of extensive information from the respondents. Also, money and time are significantly saved through the use of online survey questionnaires and interviews. However, the respondents are required to be given some incentives to participate including data packages.

3.6. Research Reliability and Validity

Reliability of research refers to the ability of the methods used to provide consistent data after several measurements. Therefore, the data collection method is referred to as reliable if it provides similar data after measuring more than once (Setia, 2016). This study will use both survey questionnaires and interviews as an instrument of collecting data to ensure that the results provided will be consistent and stable. On the other hand, research validity refers to the ability of the data collection method to gather information as it supposed to be collected or measured (Setia, 2016). In this context, research validity will not only focus on reliability but also ensure data collected is valid.  This study will ensure that the data collected is valid through the use of both online survey questionnaires and interviews.

3.7. Data Analysis

The collected data will be analyzed using SPSS statistical programmer. SPSS is software that functions by using the coding system that is organized around different themes and topics (Rahi, 2017). The major subcategories and categories will be designated using a scheme of numbers. There will be automatic coding of online copies of data that were filled by the respondents. In this context, the collected data will be interpreted to come with better solutions to solve financial issues arising in the healthcare industry in the United States. The data will be presented through the use of frequency tables. There will be an integration of qualitative data with quantitative data to provide interpretations.

3.8. Ethical considerations

Ethical considerations will be given the top priority in this research. First, the researcher will ensure that there is no respondent harmed throughout the data collection. This issue will be addressed by ensuring informed consent among all the respondents (Elbanna, 2019). The respondents will be first informed of the objective of the study and that the research is done for the academic study only. In this context, every respondent will be provided with introductory letters explaining the aim of the study. Second, the confidentiality of personal data will be kept to ensure no person can use the information for dubious things (Setia, 2016). The service providers such as regional managers will be requested to provide permission to their healthcare providers who will be willing to participate.

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