The most important thing to know about prevention is that in order for it to be effective, it requires a holistic approach involving public, private, and community engagement and cannot be solved by any one solution. From the things we eat to our activities during our day, our lives our filled with opportunities to promote good health and opportunities to prevent future health deterioration. According to the CDC (2014), effective prevention involves our entire lives “including where and how we live, learn, work and play. Everyone—government, businesses, educators, health care institutions, communities and every single American—has a role in creating a healthier nation”. This holistic approach recognizes that prevention is not just the job …show more content…
As funding for health care has primarily been through private insurance based on fee per service over the last few decades, prevention methods have not been as widely used as current literature would suggest is appropriate. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was designed to help address some of the historical funding issues with preventative health. Major goals of the ACA include making medical care more affordable, improving the health of the public, and making patient care services more patient-centered (Ingram, Schutchfield, & Costich, 2015). The creation of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovations (CMMI) through the ACA was in large part due to the increased focus in these three areas. The CCMI has created a few different models for changing payment systems and encouraging an increase in cooperation between public health and private health care. One model that has seen particularly expansive growth is the Accountable Care Organization (ACO). DEFINITION OF ACO. There are some key areas in which this public private partnership can build upon and provide mutually beneficial services. One of these areas is in prevention. Since ACOs are responsible for outcomes for a patient over a longer length of time and not based on fee per service schemes, ACOs have a distinct benefit of having a business plan that provides a natural incentive to preventative health measures. In terms of cost-effectiveness and improvements in quality of life, various prevention and treatment methods are more cost effective than others. For instance, vaccines, smoking cessation and weight loss promotion tend to be generally cost effective and improve lives (Woolf, 2009). However, some screening methods and aggressive prevention methods with medications have shown either mixed results or negative effects