What? We’re Paying Too Much?
When Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced recently that they are developing a new program that will provide consumers with detailed information on what hospitals charge, we weren’t sure whether to stand up and cheer or just hold our breath and wait to see what happens. The impetus behind the new program came in the form of a study that reveals that there are significant differences in consumer charges from one hospital to the next. This was no surprise to those of us who deal with healthcare issues on a daily basis and this wasn’t the first study to point out the disparity in charges and reimbursements.
The map below provides one example of the information collected from the study on the disparity in charges for a major joint replacement. We encourage you to read all of the information available from the study.
Source: Health and Human Services (click to enlarge)
Transparency is critical to improving efficiencies in our health care system and so we applaud any effort to provide information to consumers that will help them not only understand how the system works, but make the right choices. It’s just not the only solution. Our current healthcare system is layered with so many inefficiencies that there isn’t just one easy solution.
To be fair, we live in a large complex country with a large and diverse population. That doesn’t mean, however, that we can or should concede defeat on improving efficiencies. Here are a few more challenges our healthcare system faces:
- Too many middlemen – Patients should have unfettered dialogue with their physician without any middlemen (for the most part, insurance companies.)
- Got Technology? Use it – If other industries can improve their processes and customer service through improved technology (e.g. banking and travel), so can healthcare. The technology is there, deploy it.
- An Aging Population – Two problems: Baby Boomers and Retirement. Two drains on the system that haven’t been dealt with. Seventy-five percent of healthcare costs occur in the last six months of our lives and inadequate savings for healthcare in our retirement years are issues that have to be managed. We’ll address retirement issues in an upcoming blog.
- Manual Processes – Insurance companies thrive on paperwork, they actually make money because they keep your money longer because of paperwork delays. Again, got technology? Use it.
- Lack of Data Standards – Standards exist, and so do deadlines for implementation. They’re getting pushed back though. Formatting and coding changes should be a priority in healthcare. They will go a long way towards transparency in the system. They will save consumers money.
Improving efficiencies in our healthcare system depends on solving these issues. They’re big, there’s no doubt about that, but not insurmountable. The first step towards dealing with a problem is acknowledging there is one. There is a problem and the solutions are right at our fingertips. We can’t hold our breath much longer.