When America enacts Health Care Reform, we will change the way business is done in this marketplace. When a new concept enters a marketplace, it has evolved from what is called a Strategic Business Plan. The first essentials of a Strategic Business Plan are setting the Vision and Values. Based on the strategic plan, a roadmap is created which evaluates our successes and challenges in attaining our goals. By using a sound strategic planning process, we can create Health Care “Transformation.”
To take a page from history, if our founding forefathers were to embark on a national health care revolution, here is what a first draft of the US Health Care Bill of Rights might look like:
1. Access: The crux of the health care crisis in the US is some people cannot access medical care at all or their access is limited because of lack of availability and affordability.
2. Affordability: Until everyone can see a doctor, we will not be able to control the high costs of urgent-based care. Until everyone is able to access care, and we no longer have people who must choose between filling a prescription and affording food, we cannot begin to control the extraordinary costs of chronic illness.
3. Fraud, Waste and Abuse: As we embark on health care transformation, aggressively addressing fraud, abuse, and waste must be a high priority.
4. Liability: In “The Practice of Medicine,” we are tuning up bodies that are individual and therefore different. Mistakes occur. These are devastating to the person who has been affected, their family and friends. It is also devastating to the doctor. If we are to address the affordability of health care, tort reform must be a part of that equation.
5. Personal responsibility: In the United States, we have a “disease care system” rather than a “health care system.” Each and every one of us as beautiful individuals can greatly affect our own health through personal responsibility. Did you know 74% of disease states are preventable? We all have a part to play in taking charge of our health - eating better, exercising, and leading healthier lives.
6. Alignment of incentives: A successful health care system requires an alignment of incentives between each of us a “clients-patients” and each of us a “tax payers-health care system owners.” Our reformed system must reward healthy behaviors.
7. Portable Health Information Technology: Electronic records allow medical teams to work together and share information. This reduces errors, improves quality, and reduces cost. At a minimum, we must create a uniform standard for sharing information between systems. It saves lives.
8. Quality: Quality is a top issue on the mind of the consumer - especially when it comes to health care.
9. Consumer Information: In this Age of Information, we have access to an incredible amount of health care information. We also have access to a tremendous amount of misinformation. As we advocate for personal accountability and alignment of incentives, we must have a repertoire of accurate information to become educated consumers. We also need more information on “Health Care Price Tags”. Most people wouldn’t dream of purchasing food from the grocery store or clothes without reviewing the price tag. So why do we agree to hidden prices in health care?
10. Choice: We are all individuals so our health care preferences are personal.
By developing a draft of an American Health Care Bill of Rights, we can take an inventory of what our shareholders (fellow Americans) want in the Health Care System. In order to commit to developing a Strategic Health Care Business Plan based on our Vision and Values of a US Health Care Bill of Rights, we will need to reach beyond politics. We will need to reach into our hearts.
If we outline our Vision and Values of Health Care in America, we can then be supportive of our leaders as they make decisions based on this Health Care Bill of Rights. This paradigm shift leads to Health Care Transformation.
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I'm curious as to why you list tort reform so high on the list. According to the actuarial consulting firm Towers Perrin, medical malpractice tort costs were $30.4 billion in 2007, the last year for which data are available. We have a more than a $2 trillion health care system. That puts litigation costs and malpractice insurance at 1 to 1.5 percent of total medical costs. That’s a rounding error. Liability isn’t even the tail on the cost dog. It’s the hair on the end of the tail. In fact if the medical profession would police itself and take action against the very few doctors who are consistently involved over, and over again, in malpractice suits and account for 80% of all suits filed against all doctors then the problem of large settlements would vanish.
ReplyDeleteThe tort reform argument is just a re herring used by the right to protect big business and hurt the injured little guys.
Great synthesis of the problems facing the nation. What I find unbelievable is that states don't have the capacity to evaluate, investigate, and prosecute waste, fraud, and abuse beyond identification of the situation in the Medicaid recipient population. In fact, the lack of funding is driving the continued lack of operations to clean this up.
ReplyDeleteTort Reform Comment...
ReplyDeleteYour point is well taken from the legal cost of the liability side of Health Care. However, where the cost to the system overall becomes excessive includes over-treatment commonly termed as defensive medicine and loss of excellent health care candidates who decide they don't want to risk their careers to a lawsuit. Common verbiage in medical school is, "It's not if you will be sued, its when you will be sued."
In some states including Florida where I reside, many doctors have had to choose to "go bear" because the cost of insurance has outpaced the revenue practicing medicine.
Fraud, Abuse, and Waste Comment...
ReplyDeleteThere are many tools out there. It is getting high enough on the priority list of those who can adopt those tools to stop fraud, abuse, and waste.