NURS 510 DQ Components of the Medicare and Medicaid programs
NURS 510 DQ Components of the Medicare and Medicaid programs
Identify three major components of the Medicare and Medicaid programs and, based on these components, identify at least two patient coverage gaps for each of the programs. Be clear when you describe the coverage and the gaps as they may relate to specific ages, patient populations, or disease entities. Use primary sources to identify the components and the gaps. Additionally, discuss your stand (criticize or defend) regarding the relevance of the Social Security program to the American public. Should the program be left alone, modified, drastically changed, or eliminated? Provide the rationale and use facts to defend your position.
There various components to the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Three of the major of the Medicare program include Part A, Part B, and Part D. Part A is known as the hospital insurance as it covers inpatient hospital services, hospice care, and home health care among other services (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services [CMS], 2020). It should be noted that Part A only covers medications that a patient gets while the patient is hospitalized. Part A does not cover the whole length of stay at a skilled nursing facility. Part B covers services that are provided by a doctor (CMS, 2020). The problem with this part of the program, is that people have to pay a premium. Part D covers prescription drugs. There is a coverage gap in Part D which kicks in when a person reaches $4,020 in total drug costs (Austin & Wetle, 2017).
I argue that the Social Security program needs to be drastically changed. This program has to be improved as there are many issues associated with it. There is a possibility that the money in this program can run out. Benefits have to be improved for those who need it the most, while those who do not need benefits more than others should have their benefits reduced. There also has to be more done to address the issue of fraud.
Reply 2
The major components of Medicare include inpatient/hospital coverage, outpatient coverage, and alternate ways of receiving Medicare. The three components of Medicaid are family care, nursing home care, and personal care. The gap in Medicaid is that its reach has not benefitted some citizens in the states which have not fully embraced its expansion owing to the June 2012 Supreme Court ruling, which indicated that the coverage was optional (Segal et al., 2014). This has let the promise of widening coverage to lower-income families and individuals under the Affordable Care Act not met, leaving many people with no health security. The other gap is that even for patients who are covered, the program does not fully meet the patient costs, and they have to rely on some health insurance. If you can’t afford a policy, you are still not covered adequately. The gaps in Medicare is the limited extent it has on prescription costs, requiring that patients meet some part of the drug costs. So for people with limited income or no income at all, they are exposed. The second one is that it has limited coverage for traveling risks of health. In my view, social Security program is hugely relevant to the American public, need to be expanded as well as beefed up to serve as many as possible. This is because the programs help accord people easy post-retirement life as it gives them income, medical care (Segal et al., 2014). It also gives them a choice when they want to receive benefits and allows eligible non-working spouses to receive benefits. The program should be modified to expand its reach and its services enhanced to make life secure post-retirement.
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.
