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Regulatory Agencies Regulatory Agencies are rule-making organizations that are empowered to create and enforce rules and regulations that carry the full force of a law. Violation of these rules or regulations by individuals, businesses, and private or public organizations often results into sanctions, imprisonment, forced closure or fines undertaken by the regulatory bodies with support from government bodies (web). Rules are a part of an agency statement of general or particular applicability and future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy or describing the organization, procedure, or practice requirements of an agency (web) Regulatory bodies supervise operation of several sectors like banking, health, environment, education and energy in most economies. In the United States of America, health care regulatory agencies include; the Administrators In Medicine (AIM), Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB), Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), Medicaid and Medicare and United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), (web).
The rules implemented by these agencies are usually discussed and passed by the Congress. In other countries, it is the obligation of parliament to pass the laws by which the regulatory agencies should govern their areas of concern according to (web). This research focuses on the activities of HHS. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is United States of America's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, for them, especially the needy. The department was founded on May 4, 1980 after the separation of the US Department of Education The Cabinet-level Department of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW). The separation followed the signing of the Department of Education Organization Act in 1979.
However, this came after a series of passages of laws, conversion and expansion of several health services and units that begun in 1798 (ibid). HHS consists of more than 300 programs, with a foot in a broad range of activities. These include Medical and Social Science research, preventing outbreak of infectious disease, immunization services, medical and Medicaid, improving maternal and infant health, preventing child abuse and domestic violence among others. With an operating budget of more than $ 502 billion, HHS provides more than 60, 000 grants to its beneficiary programmes, annually. Of these, Medicare is the nation's largest health insurer handling more than 900 million claims per year. (web). HHS' works with state, local and tribal agencies activities covering all the federal states in the country.
Under its Office of the Secretary are 12 operating divisions, and a total of 65, 500 employees working within 10 staff divisions that administer the department's programmes. Its' activities are also supported by 8 agencies in the U. S. Public Health Service and 3 human services. (web) HHS' operates its daily activities through its health agencies directly delivering its services to the American people and its global beneficiaries.
Through the Social Security Administration, HHS solicits contributions from employers and employees to pay benefits to workers and their families who have retired, died or become disabled. These contributions help the agency to pay medical bills for 65 years, through a programme called Medicare. Medicaid, another of its programmes provides grants to various states to help pay the medical costs of the poor (web). HHS also administers a network of medical research facilities through the National Institutes of Health, and the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration. Other HHS agencies ensure the safety and effectiveness of the nation's food supply and drugs, work to prevent outbreaks of communicable diseases, and provide health services to the nation's American Indian and native Alaskan populations (web) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a good example of HHS' agencies that helps its carry out its work on a daily basis. With an operating budget of $ 8. 4 billion (FY 2007), CDC works with states and other partners, providing a system of health surveillance to monitor and prevent disease outbreaks, implement disease prevention strategies, and maintain national health statistics according to (web).
In addition, the programme provides for immunization services, workplace safety, and environmental disease prevention. CDC also guards against international disease transmission, with 8, 325 personnel stationed in more than 25 foreign countries to enforce its needs. (ibid) MMWR Weekly (1999), a report by CDC, highlights ten great public health achievements that America has achieved since the establishment of the Department of Health and Human Services. According to the report there has been a decline in deaths from coronary heart disease and stroke as a result. Until the 50 s, Heart disease was the leading cause of death in the U.
S. while stroke was the third leading cause since 1938. The two accounted for 40 per cent of all deaths; together they account for approximately 40 percent of all deaths. However, according to the report age-adjusted death rates for stroke have declined 70 percent, from 88. 8 percent in 1950 to 26. 5 percent in 1996 while heart diseases have decreased from a peak of 307. 4 in 1950 to 134. 6 in 1996. Overall, the decline registered was placed at 56 percent (web).
Total age-adjusted cardiovascular disease CVD death rates have also declined 60 percent since 1950, and accounted for approximately 73 percent of the decline in all causes of deaths during the same period, WWMR Weekly (1999). The department has also helped moderate age-adjusted deaths from cardiovascular disease (CVD) declining by 60 per cent since 1950. Likewise, work-related health problems, such as coal workers' pneumoconiosis (black lung), and silicosis have come under better control. Severe injuries and deaths related to mining, manufacturing, construction, and transportation have reduced approximately 40 percent since 1980. It attributes this to regulations that have created safer workplaces and working conditions have resulted in a reduction of approximately 40 percent in the rate of fatal occupational injuries. Infections such as typhoid and cholera transmitted by contaminated water, a major cause of illness and death in the early 20 th century, have been reduced dramatically through improved sanitation.
More so, the discovery of antimicrobial therapy has been critical to successful public health efforts to control infections such as tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Due to HHS regulatory activities, America has also experienced a great reduction in infant mortality and maternal mortality at 90 percent and 99 percent respectively. Healthier mothers and babies have been achieved through better hygiene and nutrition, availability of antibiotics, greater access too health care and technology advances in maternal and neonatal medicine (ibid). According to the same report, recognition of tobacco use as a health hazard and subsequent public health anti-smoking campaigns have changed peoples attitudes towards the deadly luxury and reduced its consumption and publicity. In addition, the prevalence of smoking among adults has decreased and millions of smoking-related deaths have been prevented. Through its programmes like fluoridation of drinking water, HHS has helped America reduce tooth decay (40 - 70 percent in children) and tooth loss in adults (40 - 60 percent).
This is because fluoridation safely and inexpensively benefits both children and adults by effectively preventing tooth decay, regardless of socioeconomic status or access to care. Regulatory agencies are central apparatuses of any government departments because they help governments attain goals that help improve its populations standard of living. From the Department of Health and Human Services in the U. S.
its noticeable that its creation was a blessing. Through it, a number of deadly diseases have been reduced.
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Research essay sample on Health And Human Services Department Of Health And Human
