Tell Me Again About the Definition of Insanity…
This is from Kaiser Health News:
Medicare has conducted hundreds of tests, called pilots or demonstration projects, since the mid-1970s… Most of these experiments haven’t been expanded because they failed a threshold test; they didn’t save money or improve care. Others passed the test but were derailed by objections from hospitals, doctors and other providers — or were caught up in political fights as control of Congress shifted.
So what do the reform bills in Congress promise? Much more of the same.
It’s well known that durable medical equipment (DME) is one of the areas most susceptible to fraud. According to recent Congressional testimony by Jim Frogue, there are more registered DME providers in Dade County, Florida than in all of California. Yet proposals to make DME providers win competitive bids in order to provide DME in a given region whet nowhere due to opposition. Of course DME providers that didn’t want their profit margins to suffer (or business to go away completely) from competitive bidding. That will always be the problem anytime Congress (or CMS) tries to rein in spending. The beneficiaries of the largess will always turn to their friends in Congress, who will shelter them from any cost-cutting initiatives.
The definition of insanity is thinking we are going to solve health care problems with federal pilot programs.
I agree with Ken.
There are lots of examples of low cost, high quality care. None of them is the product of a CMS pilot program.
Is anyone aware that eliminating doctors’ and hospitals right to purchase and bill for DME for profit would instantly create better healthcare and reduce costs by billions of dollars?
Right now they often make choices based on cost more than efficacy in order to maximize the profit of DME, e.g. cheap, less stable, less durable walking boots have almost completely replaced high quality boots resulting in more time in casts, longer recovery periods, more PT and later returns to work.
Remove the profit motive and docs and hospitals would never choose these cheap boots. They would choose very stable very comfortable easy to apply and remove boots that could be used instead of casts.
Manufacturers would then design for medical superiority instead of low cost resulting in better and better products not cheaper and cheaper.
Doctors in Europe are not allowed to profit from products they dispense, and doctors in the US are not allowed to profit from pharmaceuticals. Why are the allowed to profit from DME here?
How can we change this deleterious law allowing docs to profit from DME?