Accountable Care's in Watch Mode
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Who's not anxious to excel at cost-cutting, care coordination and quality, lest they be left out?
Reform Issues
Reducing Economic Pain
This article is posted in:The "areas in which the proper reform measures could generate savings that could pay for universal coverage" include, but are not limited to unecessary and presumably unhelpful care, fraud and from the perspective of the physician, extraneous administrative expenses. Unnecessary care is believed to be responsible for as much as 30% of health care spending,2 or up to $830 billion this year alone.
The economic imperative of health care reform
This article is posted in:Is health care reform merely cost-minimization, an opaque attempt to force economic responsibility? Simplifed, Here's the essence of health care reform and how to restore equity in access.... 1) To reform care we must manage the care a) The fact that delivery models vary or that they are evolving should not distract us from our goal to have effective care that is efficient and thereby cost-effective. At the end of the day, however, it must be about the patient!
Cost Containment's Chilling Effect
This article is posted in:A NY Times essay laments the underpayment of primary care and how that frustrates a medical practices best efforts. To set the stage for this discussion, please see: See "Eyes Bloodshot, Doctors Vent Their Discontent" by S. Jauhar, MD Pub. 6/17/08. I was referencing that in I piece I wrote for HCPLive.com, "The Chilling Effect of Cost Containment." (Published Online: Monday, June 23, 2008.)
Why Primary Care Suffers? Is There a Doctor In the House?
This article is posted in:Health care reform is required because it has not evolved by it's own merits (just doing the right thing) or because of marketplace pressures. However, don't you find it curious that reforming healthcare insurance is myopic in terms of delivery-system reforms that "will be required to improve the quality and coordination of health care and slow the growth of spending"?
Effective care trumped by less costly care
This article is posted in:Pet Peeves: antibiotics for short term, ostensibly viral diseases -- bronchitis, sinusitis, nasopharyngitis or otitis media; half of abdominal CT scans or the half of back MRIs that show bulging disks on persons sans back pain. Who's failure is it to not control costs? Ref.: Chen P. "The Doctor’s Failure to Cut Costs" NY Times March 3, 2010 (Extracts are for discussion purposes, only) In an editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr.
Profits Before Patients
This article is posted in:What kind of business are practitioners, health care (HC) organizations, or including HC insurance companies in when they are spending too little of insurance premiums on actual health care? The concept of the Medical Loss Ratio—the percentage of the premium dollars collected by the insurance company's that are actually spent on health care—helps explain how insurance companies are using you as their financial engine and what their priorities are.
What's Non-emergent?
This article is posted in:I believe there are 2 schools of thought. One is benefit limitation and the second is managing "non emergent" presentations with a triage payment for screening the patient. This LinkedIn MCO Executive's discussion was begun by Charita Harmon, MSN
Single Payer; Less Costs; More Access
This article is posted in:Two major obstacles in healthcare reorm--uninsured/under-insured and accessibility problems can be simultaneously addressed thru single-payer The author, Dr. Hsiao, summarizes this part of the health care reform debate: "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) makes great strides in addressing the former problem but offers only modest pilot efforts to address the latter.
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