To Slow Health Care Spending: Double Down on Everything That Isn’t Working
There is a new report that takes all of the best ideas from the health policy orthodoxy: Bipartisan Policy Center, Brookings Institution, Center for American Progress, The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, National Coalition on Health Care, Partnership for Sustainable Health Care, Moment of Truth Project.
And the best ideas are…you guessed it…they’re all of the old ideas. Here is a sample:
The need to mo
ve from paying for the volume and intensity of health care services provided to paying for the value of those services is an area of strong consensus. Policies in this area would accelerate the transition from our current fee-for-service payment system, which largely disregards appropriateness or effectiveness, to a system that rewards better health outcomes and focuses on using resources efficiently…
All of the reports recommend establishing some type of spending target to stabilize health care spending growth. These include spending caps or targets at the federal or state level. In addition, as a way of setting limits on spending for certain high-cost or inefficient health care services, all of the reports propose increasing bundled payment approaches within hospital, post-acute care, and other services. Several organizations note that by establishing a single fee for care that involves multiple providers and provider types (often across care settings), quality and efficiency problems could be reduced.
Summary. Full Commonwealth Fund study.
These people must place a very low value on their time.
Here’s a novel idea. Let physicians refer to studies and current literature on how best to diagnose and treat patients. Leave the government and third parties out of it.
Have the physician discuss with the patient how to best proceed, and let the patients decide how best to spend their dollars. Then the patients can decide what kind of value they are getting from their doctor.
Oh, guess that won’t work with Obamacare.
“Leave the government and third parties out of it.”
The critical lesson that I hope people are currently grasping.
The government only does this when they want to wipe their hands of the industry. Most recently, defense research.
All of the reports recommend establishing some type of spending target to stabilize health care spending growth. These include spending caps or targets at the federal or state level. In addition, as a way of setting limits on spending for certain high-cost or inefficient health care services, all of the reports propose increasing bundled payment approaches within hospital, post-acute care, and other services. Several organizations note that by establishing a single fee for care that involves multiple providers and provider types (often across care settings), quality and efficiency problems could be reduced.
Can you imagine the kind of confusion that would ensue from a plan like this?
I would like to see the impact of all of this being implemented on a supply and demand curve.
Shortages here, surpluses there…
Perry makes some good points
They even have a handy comparison tool, so you can see that they all agree on almost all the issues http://www.baidesignproductions.com/cwf/matrix_cat1.html
Thanks for the link! That is a great resource
Yes! I have used it before, it is quite useful
John, if you can’t accept consumer driven health care, there isn’t anything left to do.
Obviously this system isn’t currently working.
Let’s give this idea a shot for 365 and see what happens.
Let the suppliers of healthcare (Doctors) and the demanders (‘everyone’)operate in a free market. Maybe regulate that doctors have to see X number of low income people at a reduced rate?