Money Makes the Health Care Industry Go ‘Round

“According to data from the Concierge Medicine Research Collective, trillion could buy 10 years of round-the-clock on-call medical care for more than 928 people – or for the entire population of the U.S. for 30 years.” – SmartMoney.com

Right now in the U.S., the total national public debt outstanding is .057 trillion, or just over ,000 per citizen. If you can wrap your mind around that, consider the fact that with each hour that passes that amount goes up. SmartMoney.com ran an interesting report last week examining all of the things that million can do for this country, and concierge medicine was one of the topics.

Among other things that we could do with tillion, each American could buy 9 iPhones, 68 million students could attend Yale University, 65 million families could get a new home, and clean-up in the Gulf of Mexico could happen 326 times. It’s amazing what our U.S. debt could do for our country, if only we had the money.

“If we had the money we’d….”

It’s the age-old dilemma that faces everyone, everyday. As individuals we are constantly at the mercy of the all-mighty dollar. Health care is no different. According to a recent report in the Boston Globe; “Massachusetts insurance companies pay some hospitals and doctors twice as much money as others for essentially the same patient care.”

The article goes on to say “payments were most closely tied to market leverage, with the largest hospitals and physician groups, those with brand-name recognition, and those that are geographically isolated able to demand the most money.”

This shows a scary trend towards concentrated power, where hospitals and doctors who might not be providing better care, perhaps might even be providing less care, can demand more money based on influence. However, the more money doesn’t mean better health care.

It’s always about the money, isn’t it? It’s the reason that employers are turning to wellness programs, focusing on disease management and prevention rather than shouldering the cost of sick and out-of-work employees.  Concierge doctors and boutique medicine is at the forefront of helping large and small businesses lower their costs by keeping employees healthy with on-site visits and after-hours house calls.

According to Reuters, two-thirds of the 700 companies interviewed said they planned to expand wellness programs and 63 percent already offer health risk questionnaires. However, fewer than half of those companies offer weight management programs or nutritional training.

“More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, a cause of many of the most expensive health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer.” – Reuters.

The companies that aren’t able to keep their employees healthy are actually increasing their healthcare costs and raising employee rates. The report conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP found that employers blame shifting of Medicare costs for much of the anticipated increase in their healthcare costs.

The cost of health care, much like the trillion dollar debt that the U.S. finds itself in, is all about reducing waste and money management. By making small changes here and there to health care procedures, the U.S. could reduce health care waste by 5 percent a year, adding up to .6 trillion over 10 years, according to a report by Thomson Reuters.

“Last year, we published a report concluding that the U.S. healthcare system wastes 0 billion a year,” Bob Kelley, vice president for healthcare analytics at Thomson Reuters, said in a statement.

“This new report describes a possible path for significantly reducing that waste.”

The report suggests things such as using simple checklists to avoid medical errors, reducing health care fraud, reducing fragmentation in the delivery of care with better coordination between specialists and physicians, and importing electronic records. At the top of the list of suggestions to reducing medical waste and saving .6 trillion over the next ten years is “encouraging everyone to manage their own health through personal behavior to prevent disease.”

Prevention and proactive health care is the solution to our health care crisis and medical waste, which ultimately will help us to cut back on our trillion total U.S. debt. As Americans consider their health care options and began to think in terms of prevention instead of reaction to illness, which saves everyone money, concierge medicine is looking better and better.

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