Policy Analysis Paper

Policy Analysis Paper

Introduction

The demand for transparency in public policy and decision making has been gaining momentum, especially in the most recent decades. The word "transparency" has been added to the modern American lexicon, especially in government circles, to mean that information or a process, such as a decision making process, should be accessible and understandable. While the buzzword may be relatively new, the concept of open and available decision making and public reporting of information certainly is not. In the past, the public outcry for information resulted in several early laws requiring some form of public reporting of hospital data in certain states and/or Government in the Sunshine laws. More recently, policy champions for transparency have advocated for more comprehensive and sophisticated health care public reporting laws, including the display of public health care information on comparative consumer websites.

The main motive behind the study is to develop an in-depth analysis of the issue in health care. Therefore, to provide the readers a good understanding of the issue, the transparency in health care is highlighted and also the role of legislation in this sensitive matter is also important. Thus, a brief history of the issue presented in the study and the author also tried best to highlight the evidence based knowledge for the readers, so that they can connect themselves with the concepts. Secondly, proper models have been applied to the study to figure out the role of finances and data in the legislation process because in the modern health care, transparency is a sensitive issue. Whereas, from the nursing perspective, the transparency issue is an important concern because of the nature of their job and also because of pay scales that offered by the state hospitals.

Identification of the Problem

Health care decision making by consumers is difficult and complicated on its own without delving into the emotional issues that often convolute the process (Starr, 1982). Among the difficulties that consumer-patients face in making health care decisions is the lack of available, clear, simple, and reliable health care data. The United States health care system has been described as "... opaque, abstruse, variable, incredibly complex, and weirdly fragmented" (Sipkoff, 2004b, p.1). Critics state that U.S. health care system has so many problems that there may not be a single solution to resolve them all. However, many stakeholders, including "... purchasers, health plans, patients, and even some providers, are starting to ..." (Sipkoff, 2004b, p.1) promote "universal transparency" as a significant first step to addressing these issues.

"Universal transparency, "also known as transparency, refers to "... standardized performance metrics and outcomes reports that are ..." (Sipkoff, 2004b, p.1) easy to access by any interested party. In health care, some of the more frequently used performance and outcomes metrics include reports concerning "... hospital and surgical mortality and morbidity rates, physician compliance with chronic disease management, charges, and reimbursements ..." (Sipkoff, 2004b, p.1).

Transparency is a paradigm shift from an acute model to a chronic model of health care management (Sipkoff, 2004b, ...