SLIDE 3 THE MONETIZATION OF HEALTH CARE
“Abandoned Babies”
This budget also cut Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention nearly $1 billion, which was, in some part, for preventive health programs including preterm birth studies. {Note: Premature births cost the country at least $26 billion a year. Every 10% reduction in the number of premature births, in addition to saving thousands of babies, would save $2.6 billion.}
ARE THERE ANY ANSWERS?
“Massachusetts”
- Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts told the
House Energy and Commerce Committee he was “indifferent” to the federal proposals to address Medicaid, as his state had already
- verhauled its health care system so that 98%
- f its residents now have health insurance.
ARE THERE ANY ANSWERS?
The Oregon Medicaid study looked at 30,000 covered enrollees against the experience of 45,000 not covered. When evaluated against the control group these enrollees were provided significantly more care - including preventive medicine, had lower hospital admissions, and their financial situation improved.
Amy Finkelstein, MIT economics professor National Bureau of Economic Research
ARE THERE ANY ANSWERS?
Reduce the 23.5% of people readmitted from
post-acute-care skilled-nursing facilities.
Reduce unnecessary hospitalizations of nursing
home residents. {Nursing homes have a financial incentive to hospitalize residents on Medicaid: a three day hospitalization may qualify them for Medicare part A payments at 3-4 times the Medicaid rate.}
Joseph G. Ouslander, M.D. NEJM 365;13 1165-66, September 29, 2011
ARE THERE ANY ANSWERS?
Diagnose Alzheimer’s disease early Earlier cognitive function testing enables:
Preparing families to cope with AD. Insuring that the patient, while still competent, has a
voice in future medical decisions.
Learning to manage memory loss & behavioral
change, thereby decreasing or delaying hospitalization.
Avoiding acute care strategies for a chronic disease.
You can minimize the chaotic and tragic things that can happen if everybody involved understands Alzheimer’s disease and knows what to do.
Susan Okie, M.D. Georgetown University School of Medicine NEJM 365;12 1169-70, September 22, 2011
ARE THERE ANY ANSWERS?
Diffuse best practices more effectively.
There are a selection of individual physicians and
health care organizations that deliver care at a cost 20% lower than average.
If the rest of the industry followed their example,
health care spending would drop from 17% GDP to 13% GDP, leaving $640 billion available to address other public and private sector needs!
The $640 Billion Question-Why Does Cost-effective Care Diffuse So Slowly? Victor Fuchs, PhD, Stanford University NEJM 364;21 1985-96, May 26, 2011
