Professional Reflection for Portfolio
Claudia Viquez
Rider University

Professional Reflection for Portfolio 1
There were 12 objectives this semester for the Healthcare Policy, Finance and Regulatory environment class. We covered all these objectives in several ways, either through board discussions, course readings and specific course assignments. I will go through each objective and describe how we reach our objective.
Objective #1: Demonstrate basic knowledge of healthcare policy, finance, and regulatory environments, including local, state, national, and global healthcare trends
We achieved our objective by an assignment on our board discussion and our course readings.
During board discussion we reached our objective by discussing a policy changed that we experienced, the main reason behind the policy change and the population to experience improved outcomes as a result of this policy. I chose to do my assignment on the recent
Veteran’s Affairs policy change.
On Tuesday, March 25, the Department of Veteran Affairs changed its 40 Mile policy due to pressure from Congress and some Veterans groups. The 40 mile rule stated that if a Veteran lived within 40 miles of a VA hospital, their benefits would not pay for them to use another private facility closer to them. The problem with the 40 miles rules is that the method used to calculate the 40 miles, did not follow roads or any kind of GPS system. The article used the term as the “crow flies” as a method of mileage or the shortest distance between two points. The change with allow veterans to use Google calculation as proof that they live outside of the 40 miles “road trip” for a VA facility.
This assignment also covered other objectives. This assignment encompassed Objective #6:
Discuss the impact of sociocultural, economic, legal and political factors influencing healthcare

Professional Reflection for Portfolio 2 delivery and practice, in that we discussed how political pressure from the Veterans groups were the driving force behind this policy change. It also addressed some of Objective #3: Compare the benefits and limitation of major forms of reimbursement on the delivery of healthcare services in that the Veterans Affairs would not cover Veteran’s treatment if it took place within a
40 mile radius of a VA facility.
Objective #2 Discuss how health care is organized and financed, including the implications of business principles, such as patient care and system cost factors and the most of Objective #3 were covered by week 2 assignment in which we read and watch a video about The Affordable
Care Act.
The video is a piece on the impact of The Affordable Care Act of 2010 through the perspective of the 18­32 year old demographic. At the beginning of the video, the narrator states that the success of Obama Care is riding on the hope that they could get 2­2.5 million Americans between the ages of 18­35 to sign up to offset the cost of the older population. This healthier younger American would contribute to support the much older, sicker Americans.
In the discussion portion of the video, a supporter of the Affordable Care Act points out that over the last decade, access to health insurance for the 18­35 demographic has declined almost 13%.
While the opposition noted that this decline and mandated insurance would be taxing to an already financial depressed demographic. The opposition also noted that this mandated insurance would just make the problem worse for most young Americans and would ultimately drive up the cost of insurance. This fact was rebutted by the proponent