Evaluation of Budget and Cumulative Report for AHRQ
AHRQ is an abbreviation of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. This agency exists among other twelve agencies that are found within a base of the Department of Health and Human Services. The organization is a health-oriented institution engaging in vigorous research initiatives meant for improving the eminence of healthcare in the United State. The mission statement of this organization is to boost the value, security, good organization, and usefulness of healthcare for all U S citizens (Owens et al., 2010). To ensure the mission statement is achieved, the agency toils by conducting and supporting services that enhance maintaining healthy standards research, both within and around the organization. In addition, the agency comprises of an extensive range of services that cuts across every aspect of healthcare. Ultimately, all these efforts are beefed up to stimulate good conditions and enhanced retaliations on the Nation’s substantial savings, as well as incorporating able individuals together, in health care
More importantly, the Agency for Healthcare and Research Quality is mandated to propagate relevant facts to ensure that the health care agencies provide quality services to all Americans, as well as to establish safer and more affordable human service delivery (Owens et al., 2010). Remarkably, there are a great number of dependents who solely relies on the services of AHRQ. The variety includes patients, federal agencies, researchers, policymakers, caregivers, and healthcare practitioners. Recently, the Agency has been allocated with three trillion dollars expenditure to ensure that America’s health system is effective and of higher value. Therefore, this paper is going to present AHRQ’s budgeting and cumulative report to evaluate the consistency and profitability of its activity .
Budget Overview
Over the years, the budget of AHRQ has significantly increased during a period from 2011 to 2017. Notably, the agency operates on three-phase activities that focus on improving the value and security, as well as efficacy of health care, for all Americans. The three fronts include the research on health care costs, quality, and outcomes collectively denoted as HCQO. The financial year budget as for the year 2017 for AHRQ is $470 millions, which marks an increment of $41 million above the budget for the financial year 2016 (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services HHS, 2017). The source of funds for the agency emanates from three types of resources; namely, Public Health Service, which funds $83 million, Evaluation Funds that contributes $280 million of budget authority, and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund, providing $106 million (HHS, 2017). Therefore, the significant increase in AHRQ’s budget has helped its key departments in providing better service delivery .
In turn , within the efforts and limits of the AHRQ, the Agency provides support for research that relates to five study bays including and Patient Safety, Health Information Technology, Value Research, Prevention/Care Management, and Patient-Centered Health Research (HHS, 2017). Additionally, the agency also provides other primary health care services relating to quality, effectiveness and efficacy of the research. Such extensive activities entail diverse research projects supporting all portfolios (Thorpe et al., 2015). The activities include data gathering, measuring of variables, disseminating and translating data, program evaluation, grant review support, and other related activities. Hence , these investments have assisted AHRQ in achie ving its mission by bettering its service delivery.
Table 1: AHRQ Budget Overview
(Dollars in millions)
Source: (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), 2017)
Costs of Health, Value, and Results
The financial budgetary costs for the year 2017 entail a program that comprises of $224 million, which means a slight increase of $27 million from the financial year 2016 (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services , 2017). The funding is meant for carrying out meaningful research to update health care supplier and policymakers on how they can act to improve the worth, efficacy, value, and results of health care services. It implements these activities via a four-research portfolio including “patient safety, healthy information technology, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, and health services research, data, and dissemination” (HHS, 2017, par. 5). Therefore, this extensive organization goes a long way in helping ensure that the budget is sustainable based on the organizational needs.
Enhancement of Patient Safety
The practice of curbing medical frauds and advancing on the safety of the patients is among the first priorities of the AHRQ. The budget for this activity comprises of 76 million for the AHRQ patient safety research portfolio (Shin et al., 2014). The subsidization is a major boost to supporting lifesaving research and projects that prevent and mitigate, as well as reduce, the level of therapeutic fraud, risks relating to security of the patient and vulnerability, and quality gap. In order to achieve equilibrium in these activities, the agency lobbies with private and public sector organizations such as CMS’s Hospital Engagement Networks, the Department of Defense patient safety program, and primary care practices (HHS, 2017). Hence, the main aim of the organization is to establish the safety of client and prevent different types of medical cheating.
Health Information Technology Research
Taking into consideration that the budget for this practice is set at $23 million (HHS, 2017), it is evide nt that the AHRQ plays an important role in the federal health information technology ecosystem. As such, the agency is mandated to provide facts based on what need to be done to improve the use of the healthy IT across the healthcare system (Owens et al., 2010). Undoubtedly, the evidence provided plays a critical role in delivering oversights and decisions from the leadership of other HHS agencies, such as the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, CMS, and HIS (HHS, 2017). Therefore, it would be appropriate to conclude that funding of $23 directly indicate a prominent role of the organization in the federal IT system of health care.
US Preventive Services Task Force
The budget for the special unit comprises of 12 million and is mandated to finance all the activities running through scientific, administrative, and dissemination support (HHS, 2017). The striking thing about this practice is that the mandate to give recommendations is assigned to the members of the panel (Shin et al., 2014). The role of the US Preventive Task Force is to present evidence to the doctors and the patients on the necessary health practices they need to take seriously to maintain their health and prevent diseases. Thus, such a high number of financing directly points to the fact that the organization is crucial scientific, administrative, and dissemination supporter withing the industry.
Advancing Health Services Research, Data, and Dissemination
In turn, a lump sum of 113 million dollars has been set aside to advance in health services research that provides reliable data for dissemination (HHS, 2017). As such, this calls for the development of strategies for organizing, managing, financing, and delivering high-quality care. The subcommittee in charge of this role is the National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Reports that permits AHRQ to carry out an analysis and create public data resources after operating on a reduced publication schedule from the previous financial year.
Budgeting Assessment
In the budgeting assessment of AHRQ, there is evidence indicating much political involvement in the running the operations of the agency. Among the major stimulants of the agency’s political influences is the development of policy reforms enacted through diversified federal government (Owens et al., 2010). Remarkably, most of the scholars dealing with the ideological nature of the Agency for Healthcare and Quality and other health-related services are making attempts to increase funding to the healthcare department. However, there is the misappropriation of funds from unscrupulous government officials who redirect funds meant for healthcare services for use into other employment or pocket the funds. Hence, the political involvement in budgeting of the organization is obvious and it has been caused by the intension of embezzlement of public funds.
Implications of the Foreign Policy on Current and Future Budgeting
The impact of foreign policy on a budget of the Agency for Healthcare and Quality has been hazardous for the past and future (Berkwits, 2015). As such, there have been efforts to understand and evaluate the impact of the fiscal policy in the United States. Consequently, an amount of tax revenue collected from legal and illegal immigrants in the nation appears to exceed the number of accruals or cost benefits that the country should get to beef up its healthcare systems. Hence , the international Immigrants policy becomes of critical evaluation before it is adopted in any country. Remarkably, most of the illegal immigrants do not have the required health insurance (Messias, McEwen & Clark, 2015). As a result, they end up squeezing themselves in benefiting from the available public health services leading to rapid depletion of the resources. Therefore, these trends of foreign policy have increased the funding for the agency.
Besides, there is a tendency to increase competition in the health sector from the immigrants since they may need more health attention in dealing with new found diseases due to weather or climate change. Arguably, the rules, which are run in many federal and social welfare programs, could be the reasons limiting the full authority of the AHRQ to restrict the amount of service and costs they incur when providing healthcare services to illegal immigrant (Messias, McEwen & Clark, 2015). However, the budget experts are strategizing on how to avoid the uncertainties that stem out of these unanticipated circumstances.
Budget Request and Recommendation
As of December 2016, AHRQ commissioned a report that is to provide an overview of key issues on medication-assisted treatment denoted by the acronym (MAT). The report also has to come up with strategies to be implemented in the primary healthcare settings inclusive of the rural areas (Shin et al., 2014). Additionally, the report is to conduct interviews which will act as the basis for evidence-base including the various models of the Medication-Assisted Treatment with its components and implementation strategies. Besides, the agency aims at increasing the amount of funding to support training and future efforts to expand the accessibility to MAT.
Above all, the Agency for Healthcare and Quality targets at improving the healthcare program in years to come and make it better and even more affordable. To accomplish this strategy, it has set out various objectives to achieve (Shin, 2014). The first goal is to craft a more safe coverage for those having health insurance with them and enlarge affordable coverage to pay for the uninsured. Within the second objective, the AHRQ intends to improve the quality of health care and promote the safety of the patient (Shin et al., 2014). Thirdly, the AHRQ focuses on primary and preventive care linked with community prevention services (HHS, 2017). Fourthly, the agency will strategize on reducing the ever increasing costs of health care while at the same time ensuring high-value and effective care. Hence, by means of accomplishing these objectives, the organization is going to enhance the overall health care program of the U S.
Analysis of Budgeting Plans and Actual Expenditures
Budgetary decisions for the current and future of the AHRQ are greatly influenced by the Office of Legislative Affairs and Budget (OLAB). Apart from influencing budgetary decisions, OLAB also plays a critical role in providing supervisory advice in analyzing AHRQ budgets and expenditures for a specific fiscal year. Besides, OLAB prepares all major AHRQ funding papers for the execution of the entire AHRQ budget (Cherney et al., 2015). Furthermore, OLAB is responsible for predicting budget according to the needs of the authority. It is also concerned with the harmonization of the development of legislative proposals, including reauthorization of program funding. Above all, OLAB also consti tutes expenditures and outlays for autonomous spending, as well as to monitoring fulfillment of the agency’s regulatory and congressional reporting commitments. With doing so, the budgetary body is capable of integrating the performance goals of the AHRQ, as well as facilitating the budgeting process.
References
Berkwits, M. (2015). The future of AHRQ’s health services research. Jama, 314(10), 979-981.
Appendix
Table 1: Interview Overview
| Area | Que ries |
| Overview of the budget | Enquire more of the major elements of appropriate budgeting for the selected agency enumerating the objectives of budgeting, revenue sources, and barriers to effective funding resulting from today’s economic downturn. |
| Political influences | Examine the political factors that catapults administration of the program. |
| Variations between projected and real budget | Implore on the major variations between the projected budget versus the real budget. |
| Prospects about the future | Explore on the prospects of the Agency. |
| Strategies | Enquire of any approaches that the agency is taking to develop key areas of budgeting. |
Questions and answers
- Is there a likelihood that the government autonomous expenditure will impact an individual’s accessibility to healthcare services? How soon can that be?
Answer: it is already in effect because the International policy on Immigration sometimes leads to high spending with the majority of the legal immigrants benefiting more than others.
- Is it true that the Agency for Healthcare and Quality is implementing policies that affect the healthcare?
Answer: there is an oversight through AHRQ that implements policies geared towards improving the quality of life and efficiency.
- Can the AHRQ reduce costs while maintaining quality?
Answer: it is always good to establish what the budget translates with regard to the actual reductions for the program by analyzing expenditures to date.
