For-Profit Versus and Not-for-Profit Health Care Providers, Research Paper Example

How do for-profit versus not-for-profit health care providers affect desired health outcomes?

The increase of for-profit health plans in the recent past has intensified concerns regarding quality of care. Not-for-profit health providers such as nursing homes, hospitals, and health insurance plans were meant for charitable purposes, and they were majorly established by religious leaders. But with intense increase in health care costs in the 1980s, health care providers have gradually become for-profit institutions. Arguments regarding which health care providers are most proficiently able to meet public responsibilities, needs and interests and comparisons of for-profit (FP) and not-for-profit (NFP) health care providers remain to be a pertinent issue today (Hunnicutt, 2010).

According to Stavans (2010) there has been no clear evidence to illustrate that NFP health providers as a whole are better than FP health providers. Hunnicutt (2010 however noted that NFP nursing homes offered higher quality care than do for FP homes. Moreover, Stavans (2010) argues that competition from NFPs can often generate a positive spillover effect on the performance of the FP health providers. These spillovers can be in form of better services and more information. Also, other studies suggest that FPs benefit the health care industry by enhancing health care outcomes by either making more services available or through introducing new sources of capital. By this, healthcare outcomes among the public are enhanced (Hunnicutt, 2010).

Finally, it has been established numerous studies argues that both FPs and NFPs contribute to better desired health outcomes. Different health services are more likely to be offered in these healthcare providers thus enhancing service quality. Open heart surgery for instance is more likely to be offered by FPs than to NFPs because of the decisions and constraints involved. In management FPs and NFPs plans appear to be more comparable than disparate in many areas of management, although FP plans are more likely to have less established quality management systems as compared to NFPs (Stavans, 2010).

References

Hunnicutt, S. (2010). Universal health care. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.

Stavans, I. (2010). Health care. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Greenwood.