December 10th, 2011 by Stanley Feld, M.D. in Health Policy, Opinion
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The primary stakeholders in the healthcare system are patients and physicians. Without patients or physicians there would not be a healthcare system.
Patients should be the drivers of the healthcare system. They are not. The primary drivers are the government and the healthcare insurance companies.
Hospital systems play the next largest role in driving up the costs of the healthcare system. Large hospital systems are constantly playing a game of chicken with the government and the healthcare care insurance industry.
Somehow, large hospital systems have been able to stay under the radar. They have been able to avoid the responsibility of the rising costs of healthcare.
Large hospital systems and large hospital chains know that insurers need them to service their network of patients. The healthcare insurance companies know that the hospital systems can hold them hostage to increased reimbursement.
When a large hospital system demands an increase in reimbursement the healthcare insurance industry simply increases premiums.
An example is the Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Repairing the Healthcare System*
June 23rd, 2010 by Richard Cooper, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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Solutions to problems are generally sought from within the problems themselves. Two recent examples are healthcare and finance. In both cases, the solutions are believed to be better-structured and regulated systems. In blogs, articles and speeches, I have stressed that — while there are myriad ways that healthcare can be improved — the real solutions to high healthcare spending lie outside of healthcare.
Poverty and its associated manifestations are at the core of the healthcare spending crisis. The high costs of caring for the poor will continue to overwhelm the system, no matter how it’s structured and improved. Rather than looking for solutions through changes in process and regulation, the major solutions to healthcare’s excessive spending reside in areas such as K-12 education, neighborhood safety, and the creation of jobs that can lift low-income families from the cycle of poverty.
Simply stated, the U.S. does not and will not have the resources to provide equitable care for those among us who confront inequitable circumstances in every other aspect of their lives. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at PHYSICIANS and HEALTH CARE REFORM Commentaries and Controversies*
March 17th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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I’ve often given doctors too little credit when it comes to business decisions.
But, in an op-ed published at Reuters, physician Ford Vox argues otherwise.
He notes that doctors, indeed, have tremendous business sense:
How can anybody say that doctors don’t have business sense, when not only do most American physicians forge their way in small private practices, but new doctors lay their cards on the table every year? The competitiveness of residencies, where doctors train to become a pediatrician or a cardiologist, correlates strongly with the field’s earnings potential. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
March 17th, 2010 by Debra Gordon in Better Health Network, Opinion
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Gather round boys and girls. Today’s lesson is on “risk pools.”
Before you pull out your iPhone to ward off the boredom you assume will come, know this: the concept of risk pools is at the heart of today’s healthcare reform debate.
To understand risk pools, you first have to understand the basic concept of insurance. Insurance is something you buy in case something happens. The more people buying the same type of insurance, the less risk the insurer faces that it will have to pay out for that aforementioned “something.” Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at A Medical Writer's Musings on Medicine and Health Care*
March 13th, 2010 by DrRob in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Humor
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AUTHOR’S NOTE: I am very frustrated with a system that increases cost dramatically and yet reduces what I get paid. The rest of the money is going somewhere, and since it is not improving the overall quality of care, it is mostly waste. We are enamored with MRI scans, stents, and expensive cancer treatments, with little to show for them except increased expenses and a lot of third parties getting rich off of this waste: drug and device manufacturers, medical imaging companies and other para-healthcare industries. This story, which originally appeared at Musings of Distractible Mind, is prompted by my frustration with waste and how it spurs unneeded health care delivery.
Once upon a time there was a land on the ocean. The people lived off of the food from the ocean and were very happy. But as they grew bigger, they had a problem: They made a lot of waste! Yuk! Nobody likes waste. What could they do about all of this that stuff that nobody needed? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
