Understanding Medicare Benefits Schedule Item Statistics

Echocardiography vs. Cardiac Catheterization

Discuss about the Medicare Benefits Schedule Item Statistics.

First, direct plagiarism results in copying of a whole sentence, paragraph or entire document.  It is advisable to accurately quote the copied section and use of parenthesis on the section as Martin and Nakayama, 2013 assert to avoid word-for-word plagiarism. Secondly, self plagiarism can be prevented when a student first gets to understand what the author conveyed in his/her works then writes in his/her words though maintaining the meaning and flow of content. Again, as a student avoiding self plagiarism entails acknowledging your previous works in case you present it on another piece of work.  Thirdly, to avoid collusion, it is considered wise to start your work by giving credit to the author’s work. Then as you progress rely on your brain and experience to bring out the ideas that are accurate and original. In case you find mistakenly or intentionally borrowed words consider using synonyms as supported by Wilcox et al., 2015.  Moreover, when working as a group it is wise to develop good listening skills and later produce a unique paper.  Furthermore, to avoid accidental plagiarism directly or indirectly, it is advisable to put quotation marks around the term and mention the author’s name (Wilcox et al., 2015). After proofreading ensure that as much as the sentences are coherent, they are different from the original text. Lastly, it is of significant value for people to develop good note-taking skills so as to embrace acknowledging another person’s work. For instance, during lectures and tutorials recording important ideas by the author such as date of publication, year, the name of the author, and the name of publisher allow a student to indicate borrowed ideas in his/her writing.

Echocardiography is a noninvasive ultrasound examination (Al-Kaisey et al., 2015). The review can take place in any room as it uses simple medical equipment such as the transducer, sonogram, and a computer. The procedure has less pre and post checkups as it is considered a simple practice. Echocardiography usually lasts for approximately forty minutes. During the examination, a dye is used to allow clear vision of the heart on the echo pictures. Also, a transducer is used during the test to record the low-frequency sound waves in the heart (Williamson et al., 2017). On the other hand, cardiac catheterization examination entails the use of a catheter inserted in the wrist or the groin and then guided to the heart (Fanaroff et al., 2015). Cardiac catheterization is quite a technical exercises with both pre and post checkups to prepare the patient for the examination and to avoid the occurrence of injuries. Pre checkups practices include measuring the blood pressure while post checkups include a bedrest of approximately one hour. Echocardiography Ultrasound examination takes less time as compared to cardiac catheterization. Also, the echocardiography examination is not painful as there is no injection.

Rural vs. Urban Cardiology Clinics

The use of the gel on the heart of the patient ensures no radiation remains in the body after the examination. Moreover, cardiac catheterization rendered hazardous to pregnant women due to the radiations and the injection on the groin or the wrist (Stub et al., 2015). That said, it is, therefore, possible to discern that it is safe to stand beside a patient undergoing echocardiography examination because the process is noninvasive and does not use ionizing radiations as contradicted to cardiac catheterization which makes use of X-rays to acquire pictures of the heart. The X-rays radiations from the imaging tests during cardiac catheterization may cause short-term and long-term health problems (Heiberg et al., 2016). Short term health deformities include changing the skin color on the exposed areas while long-term health problems include cancer (Heiberg et al., 2016). To avoid the X-rays, nurses have unique clothing and stand at designated locations during the examination. Moreover, apart from being harmless, echocardiography ultrasound examination involves the regulation of light brightness to being dim so as to obtain clear pictures of the heart. However, as much cardiac catheterization has clear view captured by the use of X-rays, it is considered harmful to the nurse or doctor standing beside the patient. Again, the catheter used may result in blood clotting in the artery hence calling for an operation to be performed to remove the clot.

The greatest contrast between an urban hospital cardiology clinic and a rural cardiology clinic is the facilities and rates of admission and discharge (Falster et al., 2015). Most local cardiology hospitals such as the one in Northern Australia are small in size as compared to The Prince Charles Hospital Cardiology Unit which is a state of art cardiology unit (Falster et al., 2015). The rural cardiology clinics in Northern Australia records few Medicare discharges: approximately 1/3 of the total number as compared to a major hospital cardiology unit such as the cardiothoracic unit of the Royal Adelaide Hospital which records more than ½ of the total Medicare discharges (Falster et al., 2015). Small suburban cardiology clinics account for less than 20% of the estimated $50 billion inpatient discharges due to less stay of Medicare discharges. Major hospital cardiology units are expected to account for 46% of the $50 billion inpatient discharges due to the longer stay in inpatient cardiology units (Hart et al., 2015).

Also, small rural cardiology clinics have a higher total release charges and ancillary charges per patient as compared to an urban cardiology unit which has a slightly low total discharge fees and incidental charges due to the substantial allocation of resources by the ministry of health. Another key thing to remember is that in most rural cardiology clinics the mortality rates are high as compared to major hospital cardiology units due to the efficiency in ambulance response (Falster et al., 2015). Recent studies indicate that in most rural cardiology clinics in Australia the death rate is higher than the recorded ratio in urban cardiology units due to ambulance response in the countryside being slow (Gudes et al., 2015). A report by the WHO indicated that most rural cardiology clinics act as a referral for the primary hospital cardiology units (Gudes et al., 2015). The idea is due to lack of modern equipment necessary for performing cardiac examinations such as the echocardiography ultrasound examination and cardiac catheterization lab angiogram examination in most local cardiology units.

Medicare Levy Tax

As much as the main difference lies in the state of facilities and discharge, it is also possible to have the gap between urban and rural cardiology units regarding insurance cover. Most major hospital cardiology units in Australia are accessed through the use of public health insurance policy while rural cardiology clinics allow access to medical services through the use of private health insurance. In comparison, both the major hospital cardiology units and small suburban cardiology units have qualified health professionals with a customer-oriented attitude. Besides, it is recorded that both urban and rural cardiology hospitals work hand in hand with the state and the federal government to combat heart-related problems (Falster et al., 2015). Moreover, both main hospital cardiology units and rural cardiology clinics are managed by the federal government either under private sector or public sector. Finally, both rural cardiology clinics in the northern Australia and the central urban cardiology in Queensland have both in-patient and out-patient units.

Medicare levy is the tax collected by the federal government through the state governments (Podger, 2014). The tax applies to all Australian citizens save for those who are earning low: where seniors and pensioners earning less than $21,000 and $33,000 are exempted (Podger, 2014). Moreover, there is a phasing-in range tax which affects seniors and pensioners earning up to $26,000 and $42,000 respectively. Also, the tax is imposed differently depending on the type and state of the family: single parents have a different levy scheme as compared to a family with both parents. Due to the growing need of funding and ensuring the disabled in society, the Medicare levy was increased from 1.5%-2% in the year 2014 (Podger, 2014).Notably, Podger, 2014 asserts that a Medicare Levy Surcharge abbreviated as the MLS was introduced to target people with high incomes to take on private hospitals with the use of private health insurance while those earning less to have public health insurance relevant in public hospitals. What is more is that the move helped in decongesting the public health care system in Australia and allowed exploitation of resources in the private health industry.

Medicare benefits schedule is a draft by the federal government to allow the provision of standardized medical services (Australia, 2014). The Medicare Benefits Schedule abbreviated as the MBS provides doctors, nurses, and pharmaceuticals with a range to charge their patients fairly. Recent studies indicate that the scheme is used in public health care systems by low-income citizens (Australia, 2014). The MBS covers up to 75% of hospital charges and allows room for hospital insurance policy to cater for the remaining 25%. However, due to different health insurance policies, doctors have different costs and at times some cost more making the patient dig deep in his/her pocket to pay the bills. Therefore, the latter has seen most health insurance covers designing ‘gap cover’ to allow health professionals to charge within affordable ranges (Australia, 2014).

Medicare safety net is a refund provided by the health care system in liaison with the federal government to people who incur more than the expected medical costs (Searles et al., 2013). Medicare safety nets are of two types namely the original Medicare safety net and the extended Medicare safety net. The original Medicare safety net is a model mostly for the out-patient unit without health insurance cover, and it is increased annually (to 100%) after the standard threshold gap costs are met (Searles et al., 2013). The extended Medicare safety net is a package for health insurance for out-patients who have a refund of up to 80% after the average threshold gap costs are met (Searles et al., 2013). Interestingly, Searles et al., 2013 is of the opinion that the Australian health system amended a new Medicare safety net for the year 2015 to cover all out-of-hospital services such as private wing emergencies with a reduced Medicare of 150% less the original and extended MBS. The new Medicare safety net has a reasonable refund scheme for both native Australian and the foreigners.

References

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Amos, K. A. (2014). The ethics of scholarly publishing: exploring differences in plagiarism and duplicate publication across nations. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 102(2), 87-91.

Angélil-Carter, S. (2014). Stolen language?: Plagiarism in writing. Routledge.

Australia, M. (2014). Medicare benefits schedule (MBS) item statistics.

Falster, M. O., Jorm, L. R., Douglas, K. A., Blyth, F. M., Elliott, R. F., & Leyland, A. H. (2015). Sociodemographic and health characteristics, rather than primary care supply, are major drivers of geographic variation in preventable hospitalizations in Australia. Medical care, 53(5), 436-445.

Fanaroff, A. C., Rymer, J. A., Goldstein, S. A., Simel, D. L., & Newby, L. K. (2015). Does this patient with chest pain have the acute coronary syndrome?: The rational clinical examination systematic review. Jama, 314(18), 1955-1965.

Gudes, O., Ball, S. J., Dur, F., Burke, M., & Varhol, R. (2015). The Association between urban form and ischemic heart disease: evidence from Brisbane, Australia. Austin J Public Health Epidemiol, 2(1), 1014.

Hart, J. L., Harhay, M. O., Gabler, N. B., Ratcliffe, S. J., Quill, C. M., & Halpern, S. D. (2015). Variability among US intensive care units in managing the care of patients admitted with preexisting limits on life-sustaining therapies. JAMA internal medicine, 175(6), 1019-1026.

Heiberg, J., El?Ansary, D., Royse, C. F., Royse, A. G., Alsaddique, A. A., & Canty, D. J. (2016). Transthoracic and transoesophageal echocardiography: a systematic review of feasibility and impact on diagnosis, management, and outcome after cardiac surgery. Anaesthesia, 71(10), 1210-1221.

Martin, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2013). Experiencing Intercultural communication. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Podger, A. (2014). Making Medicare: the Politics of Universal Health Care in Australia.

Searles, A., Doran, E., Faunce, T. A., & Henry, D. (2013). The affordability of prescription medicines in Australia: are copayments and safety net thresholds too high. Australian Health Review, 37(1), 32-40.

Stub, D., Bernard, S., Pellegrino, V., Smith, K., Walker, T., Sheldrake, J., … & Cameron, P. (2015). Refractory cardiac arrest treated with mechanical CPR, hypothermia, ECMO and early reperfusion (the CHEER trial). Resuscitation, 86, 88-94.

Wilcox, D. L., Cameron, G. T., & Reber, B. H. (2015). Public Relations: Strategies and tactics. A. Dodge (Ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.

Williamson, J. P., Twaddell, S. H., Lee, Y. C., Salamonsen, M., Hew, M., Fielding, D., … & Grainge, C. (2017). Thoracic ultrasound recognition of competence: A position paper of the Thoracic Society of Australia and New Zealand. Respirology, 22(2), 405-408.