An area of concern in healthcare today is the ability of individuals to access care.  The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has developed many initiatives that tie reimbursement for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries to better quality of care and access to it. 

For your discussion board post, include the following:

• Discuss the barriers that patients experience when accessing health care resources.
• Why do barriers continue to exist when it comes to access and equal health care?
• Give an example of something a hospital could do to improve access to care for its community?

Include 2 reference sources, besides the textbook, and be sure to document your references using APA format.

Reflective Journal 

Learners are required to maintain a Reflective Journal integrating leadership and inquiry into current practice. 

In your journal, you will reflect on the personal knowledge and skills gained in the current course addressing a variable combination of the following: new practice approaches, intraprofessional collaboration, health care delivery and clinical systems, ethical considerations in health care, population health concerns, the role of technology in improving health care outcomes, health policy, leadership and economic models, and/or health disparities. Outline what you discovered about your professional practice, personal strengths and weaknesses that surfaced, what additional resources and abilities could be introduced to a given situation to influence optimal outcomes, and finally how you met the competencies aligned to this course.

In this discussion, you get to be the lawyer. You represent Melissa in Case 2 on her claim as her attorney.

· Case 2: A management position has opened up due to a recent retirement in the medical staff office at the local hospital where you work. You and your pregnant coworker Melissa are talking about it at lunch one day. Melissa is very excited because she has been told several times by different senior managers that the next management position available would be hers.

The next day, however, it is announced that a male coworker with less experience, education, and time on the job was offered the position. Melissa feels very strongly that it is because she is pregnant and going on maternity leave in two months. Melissa has an impeccable performance record throughout her employment at the hospital, and other than two weeks of doctor-ordered bed rest for gestational diabetes, she has not missed a day of work during her pregnancy. She has consulted an attorney to see what her rights are and whether there is any action that can be taken against the hospital.

1)Next, write a one-page letter to the other side arguing why your client is right. Set out the facts, the specific law or laws supporting your client’s position, and what your client wants to resolve the situation (for example, a request for a formal investigation, the offer of a promotion, or dropping the claim).

2)In your responses to your peers, reply to at least one classmate who represented the other side in your scenario, explaining why your client has the stronger case. Remember to stick to the facts as presented and to avoid making assumptions or generalizations. A strong legal argument applies the facts to the law to reach a conclusion that supports your position.

3)Your letter should use at least one scholarly or professional source other than the textbook. All sources, including course materials, must be cited according to APA style.

Please be sure to respond to at least two of your peers with one response to someone offering evidence from the opposing side.  

Please, write a response to the following discussion in one paragraph. APA format needed without cover page, one reference from peer-reviewed Nursing Journal required.

             Minorities such as the Hispanic population are having to deal with chronic conditions without the ability to access healthcare. They lack healthcare access because they are unable to afford a healthcare plan nor are they able to pay for doctor visits. In addition, they are unable to afford their daily medications that are needed to help control their health conditions. Many of the low-income Hispanics on average have an income of less than 25, 000 per year. They are financially unstable and worried about their finances. Because of this low income, they are unable to afford the costs associated with their illnesses leading to a lack of follow-up visits, lack of adherence to the medication regimen and many simply do not see a doctor. For the Hispanic population, diabetes is the most common chronic health condition affecting their family (Saulsberry, Blendon, & Benson, 2016).

            A program that has helped many people in the United States to obtain healthcare coverage is the Affordable Care Act. When ACA was signed into law in 2010, it allowed for the largest number of people to obtain coverage in fifty years (Sommers, Maylone, Blendon, Orav & Epstein, 2017). Because of ACA, there have been increased primary care visits, improved blood pressure control and PAP testing rates. Under the healthcare law, healthcare companies cannot refuse to insure people with pre-existing conditions. People with pre-existing chronic conditions have the most to gain because they are covered and will not be denied care. ACA has provided medical adherence, open communication with healthcare providers and it has improved access to healthcare and services to low income Hispanic communities. I hope that ACA continues to be a law, one providing better healthcare and access to all in the United States.

One of the more common arguments I hear when discussing ethics, morals, and values is that in the United States is that they are founded in religious, primarily Christian, teachings. If this is true are we discounting the teachings of Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and the Baha’i faith? If we profess to be a moral civilization and derive our ethics from the teachings of the Christian faith are these teachings valid and reliable concepts from which ethics are derived, or are ethics relative to the religious teachings of a that religion?

Building on the previous assignment related to religion and morality, in a 2-3 page paper compare and contrast the two articles below for this assignment. Specifically, identify where you stand in regard to these two competing points of view. In addition, include an opinion of how these competing points of view might impact poverty and access to health care.

Read article 1 – 

America is not a Christian Nation

Read article 2 – 

America is a Christian Nation but does religion make us a moral nation?