Healthcare policies and acts directly and indirectly affect coordinated care plans and the continuum of care (Khullar & Chokshi, 2018). The AHRQ identifies key practice and policy recommendations such as population identification, identity protection, delivering services, health care access, and cost of care as key concepts (AHRQ, 2021). The first policy that affects care is the HIPPA Act where each patient’s identity should be protected during coordinated care and privacy should be given (Holt, 2020).
The second kay policy is the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as it includes recommendations for the identified diseases or health issues and the need for Medicaid, treatment plans, and cost-effective care (Khullar & Chokshi, 2018). Further, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services management billing policy, and policy related to self-management affects the care and coordination (AHRQ, 2021). Telemedicine and telehealth policies control how a patient can access online community resources and how organizations provide services by adhering to the HIPPA Act and recent telehealth policies (Bescos & Westerteicher, 2018).
The care coordinator will include patient well-being and quality of care provided along with patient safety as key or prioritized aspects when discussing the plan with family members and patients to implement the change (Quinn et al., 2017). Also, other aspects such as medical history, culture, and patient’s wishes or consent will be critical in implementing the changes based on EBP (AHRQ, 2019).
However, cost of care, patient and family education, and empowerment should also be the top priority as the coordinator will collaborate with patients, families, and other healthcare professionals to highlight the prevalence of stroke, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. Further, the need for change should be highlighted as failing to prevent, treat, and manage will result in mortality, morbidity, and other issues (Zhao et al., 2018).