Legal Foundations of Health Care - Essay Example

Legal foundations of health care The Department of Health and Human Services is a division in the United s cabinet. It aims at safeguarding people’s health, as part of the government’s duties to the public. I, in this paper, discuss the department’s roles, and its interactions and impacts on facilities. The general scope of the department’s roles involves formulation and implementation of measures for administering “national health and human services policy objectives” (Pozgar, 2012, p. 25). The department also advises the president on health care issues and oversees some care programs through its agencies.

One of the department’s roles, through “Administration on Aging,” is provision of social services to the elderly population. It ensures the citizens’ interests in “income, housing, health, employment, retirement, and community services” by developing and implementing relevant programs (p. 25). The department’s role also includes administration of Medicare and Medicaid programs that offer health care services to the elderly, people with special disabilities, and needy populations.

The Department of Health and Human Services, through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, also ensures affordable cost of care through initiating research on factors affecting cost of care and making appropriate decisions for regulating costs. The agency also regulates clinical activities with the aim of influencing cost and quality of offered services in care facilities. Similarly, the department plays a significant role initiating and promoting research initiatives towards affordable care and development of information for evidence based practice and clinical decisions (Pozgar, 2012, p. 25-27).Other roles of the department are illustrated through its associated agencies such as “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” “Food and Drug Administration,” and “National Institute of Health” (Pozgar, 2012, p. 27-28). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identifies the department’s role to reduce and possibly mitigate diseases.

The department also ensures, through the Food and Drug Administration, that developed medicines, food products, other health consumables, and medical equipments are safe for human use (Pozgar, 2012, p. 28). It further formulates and facilitates implementation of measures for preventing and managing drug abuse. Its partnership with other stakeholders also plays a role in identifying dangerous drugs and it offers directives against consumption of such drugs besides offering treatment services to victims of drug abuse (Harvard, n.d.; Tasmania, n.d.).

The Department of Health and Human Services interacts with facilities, as a partner and an administrator. Its partnership interactions involve supporting the facilities, through its organs such as Public Health Service, to facilitate its objectives. This, for example, has been achieved through partnership with Harvard University in research initiatives. The department also interacts with local health organizations that it empowers to implement its mandates. It therefore influences the facilities through empowering them, monitoring, and regulating their activities that relate to the partnerships.

Harvard University must for example prove its research integrity because of its interaction with the department’s agency (Harvard, n.d.). The department’s interaction with Tasmanian Health Organizations also ensures the organizations’ delivery of “high quality, efficient and integrated” care (Tasmania, n.d., p. 1). The department’s role therefore involves development of policies and implementation of such policies to ensure a healthy society. It implements its policies through its agencies and through partnerships with other organizations such as health care facilities and research institutions.

In its interactions with facilities, the department either support or supervise the facilities related activities. ReferencesHarvard. (n.d.). Research integrity. Harvard University. Retrieved from: http://vpr.harvard.edu/content/research-integrity. Pozgar,G (2012). Legal aspects of health care administration (11th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett. Tasmania. (n.d.). About us. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from: http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/about_the_department.