On Friday, I had the pleasure to attend an event sponsored by Louisville's Health Enterprises Network. The occasion was the unveiling of the 2009 Family Tree of Healthcare related entities. This latest update of the family tree has 428 companies represented, up 100 from just a couple years ago. From hospitals and medical groups, to technology, research and academics, to billing firms, insurance companies and everything in between, the healthcare industry's reach is far and wide across the community.
Both the Governor and Mayor were present to share their remarks with the crowd. It was noted that of Louisville's top 25 companies, 10 of them are in within the health care sector. While we are all feeling the negative effects of the economy on our own businesses, the message was a positive reminder of the impact that health care plays in the local economy.
The question I have is whether or not this is really a good thing? While it is nice to see the local economy growing through the investment of resources in health care, Federal spending on health care continues to rise faster than inflation and contributes significantly to our national debt.
The lack of integration and information technology in health care ultimately drives up costs and decreases quality. However, rather than expending the resources to fix the root of this problem, dozens of spin off companies have been born to help us "deal" with the inefficiencies and fragmentation of the health care system. Instead of fixing problems, we have invented new band-aids to help us survive.
With health care reform being a top agenda item on the President's domestic agenda, it will be very interesting to see if we can unravel all that has been created to keep the nation's health care machine lumbering forward. While I certainly wish no ill will to the great number of people and companies that are genuinely trying to help make health care better, it would be nice to see true reform that would streamline the current bureaucracy and align all of the competing entities vying for the same health care dollars. Maybe then we could focus all of our attention and resources on providing the very best possible quality and service to the patients that depend on us.
3 comments:
What do you think that reform would look like? I wonder how much of health care costs is a function of ineffeciencies due to insufficient resources and/or integration, and how much is a function of incentives to be inefficient. For example, privatized health care drives consumers to more efficiently use their health care dollars because it comes out of their pocket. Yet, because the demand for health care is less, hospitals are incentivized to offer additional tests/treatments that might not always be necessary. If there was universal health care, hospitals are inecentivized to become more efficient to meet increased demand, but consumers spend the public's health care dollars easier.
The problems are indeed, complex ~ and the solutions not readily apparent. Deep and meaningful reform to the bone is the challenge of our times. Waste, special/self interests, inefficiency and thick bureaucracy are the road blocks. We have awesome technological abilities to do great good in healthcare. I guess we will know we are heading in the right direction when EVERYONE can access these life-enhancing medical treatments ~ and patient safety is maximized.
Well said...
Post a Comment