Healthcare policy is an integral aspect of the U.S. healthcare system—one that helps shape and protect the health and well-being of our population. Health policies impact issues as fundamental as smoking prevention and improving oral health through access to fluoridated water. They involve the rules and regulations set forth by lawmakers on a local, state and national level.
As a current or future nurse, you should know what healthcare policy is, how it works and why it’s important—so you can use your expertise to help shape new health policies. Or, if you’re a health administrator, your understanding and involvement in health policy will help you optimize current policies and guide teams to follow them. We outline what you need to know about health policy, including how you can advance your career as a health advocate, manager and policymaker.
What Is Healthcare Policy?
The term “healthcare policy” refers to the decisions, goals and actions that determine how care is administered and accessed.2 For example, health policies can include legal and safety regulations by state or protocols regarding how care and medicine are delivered to patients at a specific hospital. Healthcare policy also refers to the policies set on a national level in terms of access to healthcare, coverage and cost.
Subcategories of health policy include public health, global health, healthcare services, health insurance, mental health and pharmaceuticals.
How Does Health Policy Impact Patients?
Health policy is critical because it helps establish guidelines that benefit patients, healthcare organizations and our healthcare system. Having protocols can help prevent human error and poor communication around medical decisions.
For nurses and administrators, understanding and following healthcare policies can help ensure you deliver the best patient care while using your knowledge to help inform future health policies. On a broader level, when patients take the time to understand health policy, they learn more about their rights.
To maintain quality patient care, organizations must set health policies to address different aspects of their operations.3 The following are health policy examples:
Patient Care Healthcare Policies
Health policies related to patient care cover protocols and workflow for treatment procedures, outlining how healthcare professionals should respond to specific medical situations. Healthcare policies must be tailored to the care your facility provides. For example, a cancer center would create different patient care policies than would a center for rehabilitative medicine, because their treatment protocols are different.
Employee Health Policy Examples
The health of employees is a crucial component of running an effective facility, as staff must be able to care for patients safely while maintaining their well-being.
Healthcare policy examples relating to protecting and promoting employee health include rules around the consumption of alcohol and tobacco in the workplace, wearing masks and gloves to minimize the risk of exposure to illnesses and chemicals and wellness guidelines such as time off and healthy eating.
Drug Policies and Procedures in Healthcare
Healthcare policies related to drugs outline procedures around handling and administering pharmaceuticals, whether the medication is over the counter, controlled or non-controlled. This can include protocols for recording, handling and delivering each medication.4 Drug policies also cover what to do if inventory is missing, if the medication was incorrectly administered or prescribed or if any other errors occur related to drug handling.
Security and Privacy Policies
Health policies related to security clearly outline how employees should handle situations that pose a security threat in their facility. This can include situations like abuse towards medical staff, theft and active shooters.5 If a facility has security processes, these must be outlined for all employees to follow.
Aside from physical security, data privacy and technology security policies and procedures are extremely important in any healthcare facility. The HIPAA Privacy Rule protects patient information from release to the public while permitting the exchange of this information between medical professionals and in certain other situations. Failure to comply with HIPAA can result in fines of $50,000 or higher per violation.6
The more technology becomes an integral component in how healthcare facilities operate, the greater the chance that data leaks and privacy breaches can occur. The most expensive data breaches occur in healthcare organizations. The average cost of a data breach in healthcare was $9.77M in 2024.7 This is why it’s crucial that facilities clearly specify health policies and procedures regarding the handling of data to avoid errors that can result in privacy leaks.
Healthcare Policy Issues
For many families, healthcare takes up a significant portion of their budget. There is an ongoing debate over who has access to coverage and why the costs of care are so high in the United States, which is why some policymakers are trying to find solutions to improve access to affordable and quality care for all. Below, we explore a few major health policy issues impacting Americans today.
Healthcare Coverage
In 2023, 92 percent of Americans had some form of healthcare coverage—whether employer-provided coverage, Medicare or Medicaid or private health insurance.8 Increasing the number of insured individuals has been the focus of many policymakers. The Affordable Care Act, implemented in 2010, played a major role in increasing the number of insured Americans.9
Although the percentage of uninsured individuals has decreased, policymakers have diverging viewpoints around this issue. Some policymakers are pushing for higher participation in employer-provided coverage, while others are advocating for Medicare for all.
Healthcare Costs
Even with health insurance, many individuals still face overwhelmingly high out-of-pocket healthcare costs, leading to millions of Americans experiencing healthcare debt. In fact, approximately 9% of U.S. citizens owe at least $250 in debt due to healthcare costs.10
Policymakers have discussed lowering prices without compromising the quality of the services and care provided. Some solutions include significantly reducing prescription drug prices or allowing policymakers to regulate healthcare prices. Introducing government-run, public insurance options with lower prices than private providers is another option that’s periodically on the table. The public option would make health insurance more accessible to those who can’t afford the premiums of private health insurers. Competing with the public option could pressure private insurers to lower their costs.11
Social Barriers
Health policies addressing issues related to the socio-economic conditions in America’s communities can help improve the overall health of individuals in these populations.12 Some public health clinics and nonprofits provide wellness counseling and other services to people beyond medical needs. This includes access to healthy food, affordable housing, transportation, childcare services, education, and more. A healthy population leads to better outcomes and more affordable care for all.13
Pursuing a Career in Healthcare Policy
If you’re interested in helping shape the future of our healthcare system, below are a couple of career paths you can take in health policy.
The Role of Healthcare Policy Analysts
Healthcare policy analysts play a huge part in making effective changes to our healthcare systems. They are responsible for evaluating current health policies and suggesting improvements that can impact patient care. These analysts use critical thinking skills to compile and evaluate relevant data and research, propose changes to current policies and create new policy proposals.14 Their day-to-day tasks include meeting with lawmakers, raising public awareness about healthcare policies and reporting and presenting their findings.
The Role of Nurse Practitioners
Nurse practitioners (NPs) also play an important role in health policy. As they work directly with patients, nurse practitioners offer an insider’s perspective that complements the experience of government officials and policymakers. NPs and other nurses can help identify problems within the current healthcare system, come up with solutions and suggest new policies that can positively impact the well-being and safety of their patients.
In the USAHS Doctor of Nursing Program (DNP) program, you can further your knowledge in health policy, leadership and advocacy. You can also pursue a role specialty as a nurse executive.
The Future of Policies and Procedures in Healthcare
Health policy is important on a macro and micro level. It affects our society, as well as each community and facility where care is administered. If you’re looking to make an impact on healthcare policies and want to be an advocate for change, check out USAHS’ graduate health sciences degrees to find a career path that’s right for you.
The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences (USAHS) offers a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN), a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and Post-Graduate Nursing Certificates designed for working nurses. Our degrees are offered online, with optional on-campus immersions.* Role specialties include Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP), Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP)** and Nurse Executive. The MSN and DNP have options to accelerate your time to degree completion. Earn your advanced nursing degree while keeping your work and life in balance.
*The FNP role specialty includes one required hands-on clinical intensive as part of the curriculum.
**The Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner role specialty is not available for the DNP program.
The University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences (USAHS) offers an online EdD program focused on healthcare education. Designed for working clinicians and healthcare educators, the program has two required residencies and optional on-campus immersions. Optional specializations include Nurse Educator, Athletic Training, Teaching and Learning (with a teaching internship) and Executive Leadership. Design a customized plan of study that takes advantage of our acceleration options and wide array of electives—and prepare to educate the next generation of healthcare professionals.
Sources
- “Healthy People 2030,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Sources, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (OASH), 2025, https://odphp.health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/health-policy.
- Ballotpedia, “Healthcare Policy in the United States,” Ballotpedia, 2025, https://ballotpedia.org/Healthcare_policy_in_the_United_States.
- PowerDMS, “Examples of Healthcare Policies,” PowerDMS, June 24, 2024, https://www.powerdms.com/policy-learning-center/examples-of-healthcare-policies)).
- Miller AE, Nicolas S., “Federal Regulation of Medication Dispensing,” StatPearls, June 20, 2023, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK582130/.
- “Topic Collection: Workplace Violence,” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Tracie Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Information Gateway, December 2024, https://asprtracie.hhs.gov/technical-resources/75/workplace-violence/0.
- “HIPAA violations & enforcement,” HIPAA, American Medical Association, 2025, https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/hipaa/hipaa-violations-enforcement.
- Alder, S., “Average Cost of a Data Breach Rises to $4.88M; Falls to $9.77M in Healthcare,” HIPAA Journal, July 31, 2024, https://www.hipaajournal.com/cost-healthcare-data-breach-2024/.
- Starkey, K, Bunch, Lisa, “Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2023,” United States Census Bureau, September 10, 2024, https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2024/demo/p60-284.html.
- 9. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, “What Is the Affordable Care Act?,” U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, April 20, 2023, https://www.hhs.gov/answers/affordable-care-act/what-is-the-affordable-care-act/index.html.
- “Coronavirus (COVID-19),” AHIP, 2025, https://www.ahip.org/issues/coronavirus-covid-19.
- Abdullahi Tunde Aborode, et al., “Healthcare debts in the United States: a silent fight,” Annals of Medicine and Surgery, January 21, 2025, 87(2);663–672, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11918610/.
- Ndugga N. et al., “Disparities in Health and Health Care: 5 Key Questions and Answers,” KFF, August 14, 2024, https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/issue-brief/disparities-in-health-and-health-care-5-key-question-and-answers.
- Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Fact Sheet, World Health Organization, October 5, 2023, https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/universal-health-coverage-(uhc).
- Abbas F., Abbas A., “Health Policy Analyst: Health policy analysts evaluate healthcare policies and programs to determine their effectiveness and make recommendations for improvement,” March 2023, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369417439_Health_Policy_Analyst_Health_policy_analysts_evaluate_healthcare_policies_and_programs_to_determine_their_effectiveness_and_make_recommendations_for_improvement.
