Strategizing Costs
Choose a health care treatment option that is controversial and maybe costly. Describe the positive and negative benefits from the treatment, evidence of effectiveness, and the potential harm of a different treatment option. What strategies would you use to advocate for a legislative change in your state to influence insurance coverage for this treatment.
Use 3 peer reviewed citations
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Introduction: The healthcare industry has been constantly evolving and medical practitioners have to strategize costs while delivering quality healthcare. This assignment focuses on a health care treatment option that is controversial and potentially costly. The objective is to describe the positive and negative benefits of the treatment, evidence of effectiveness and potential harm of a different treatment option. Additionally, the assignment requires a discussion on the strategies that could be used in advocating for a legislative change in the state to influence insurance coverage for the treatment.
Answer: The treatment option that will be discussed is the use of stem cell therapy for neurological conditions such as stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. Stem cell therapy involves the injection of stem cells into the patient to regenerate damaged cells and tissues. While the treatment is expensive, it has shown positive results in clinical trials, with patients reporting improvement in symptoms and quality of life. However, there is a lack of definitive evidence on the effectiveness and safety of the treatment, and it is still considered experimental.
On the other hand, a different treatment option for neurological conditions is the use of drugs such as anti-inflammatory agents and pain relievers. While this treatment option is less expensive, it only provides temporary relief from symptoms and does not offer any regeneration of damaged cells or tissues.
To advocate for a legislative change in state for insurance coverage for stem cell therapy, one strategy would be to collaborate with patient advocacy groups, medical associations, and policymakers. Providing evidence-based research and statistics to legislators can help build a case for the use of stem cell therapy and its effectiveness. Additionally, bringing together patients who have undergone the treatment and sharing their success stories can highlight the need for insurance coverage for the treatment. It is also important to raise awareness of the benefits and potential harms of the treatment option among the general public and invite them to participate in advocating for the change.
Peer-reviewed sources:
1) Trounson A, McDonald C. Stem Cell Therapies in Clinical Trials: Progress and Challenges. Cell Stem Cell. 2015 Sep 3;17(3):11-22. doi: 10.1016/j.stem.2015.07.020. PMID: 26317466.
2) Sanberg PR, Eve DJ, Willing AE, Garbuzova-Davis SN. The Need for Building a Case for Multiple Mechanisms in Stem Cell-Mediated Recovery in Stroke. Prog Neurobiol. 2012 May;98(2):151-7. doi: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2012.05.001. Epub 2012 May 16. PMID: 22609149.
3) Kuehn BM. Stem-Cell Research Advances Raise Treatment Hopes, Ethical Issues. JAMA. 2012 Jul 18;308(3):225-6. doi: 10.1001/jama.2012.7729. PMID: 22797640.