The Health Care Reform Bill was signed into
law by President Obama on March 23, 2010. While many had hoped that this
signing would bring the debate over healthcare reform to an end, it became
readily apparent that this issue will continue for months, and probably years,
into the future. There exists a lot of uncertainty as to what the law (H.R.
4872, The Health Care & Education Affordability Reconciliation Act of 2010)
will cost and what changes will accrue to both employers and employees.
Similarly, there are additional concerns relative to mandates and the
permanence of the law; will it be overturned by judicial fiat or by subsequent
Congressional sessions.
The existence of uncertainty surrounding H.R. 4872 is unsettling,
but it should not be suffocating. Clearly, healthcare delivery will continue to
go on and policy makers will debate and push for their agendas. It is, therefore,
important that constituencies within healthcare position themselves to garner
needed resources. This will be particularly true of sectors of healthcare that
have been neglected in the past. The argument can be made that healthcare management
education is in this group.
Title Two of H.R. 4872 addresses Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions. This section speaks to adding funding to Medicare for
activities that improve the quality of care. Included in these activities are
educational programs that will increase the number of providers of care and
thereby increase access. Not written about in the content of the Law is the
education of healthcare managers. We teach that the efficiency and productivity
of healthcare delivery is linked to its proper management, and yet we
oftentimes do not make the connection on a policy basis.
The fact that healthcare management has largely been left
out of the healthcare reform conversations should alert us to the reality that
we are probably not positioning it as an integral component of healthcare
delivery. I suspect we are all making this case to our students but not much
beyond the classroom. The various provider segments within our healthcare
delivery system have been for years clamoring for additional resources. They
have been especially vocal at the Federal level and seek to have any healthcare
legislation include additional funding for them. The fact that many of them
have met with mixed results has not diminished the requests. Should leaders and
educators of healthcare management become equally as vocal for our sector? I
think yes and using the vehicle of healthcare reform legislation might be a
good place to start.