Obama health idea could mean better care, savings

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald-AP

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Thursday outlined a new approach to medical care that it said could mean higher quality and less risk for patients, while also saving millions of dollars for taxpayers.

The plan involves accountable care organizations, which are networks of hospitals, doctors, rehabilitation centers and other providers. They would work together to cut out duplicative tests and procedures, prevent medical errors, and focus on keeping patients healthier and out of the emergency room.
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"We need to bring the days of fragmented care to an end," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said as she announced a proposed regulation that defines how the networks would operate within Medicare.

If things work out, medical providers would share in the savings. If the experiment fails, they're likely to get stuck with part of any additional costs.


Read more: http://www.omaha.com/article/20110331/LIVEWELL03/704019927#obama-health-idea-could-mean-better-care-savings

[MichiganVote]

1. promises promises

[nolabear]

2. Excellent idea.

[ThomCat]

3. Isn't that just consolidations and mergers?

Isn't that what the health care industry has been doing on it's own for the past several decades?

Here in NYC we saw every independent hospital merge into hospital chains and networks. We saw all of them merge with providers of services to form health care networks. One major hospital still just went out of business and the rest of the network is stressed.

I don't see what's so new about this idea? :shrug:

I don't see any small, independent practices liking this at all.

[tpsbmam]

4. Actually, where I live, my independent practitioners are all linked to the

same system. That includes my hospital records. There is pretty good communication between them as well. There's always room for improvement but it's a far better and less disjointed system than I used to experience when dealing with different specialists + GP + hospital crap.

[frazzled]

5. No, it's the Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic model ...

And presumably it's going to break the mold of fee for service, where doctors will just order up as many tests as they can get away with ... in favor of consultations among all the people who are paid more like a lump sum to take care of you.

I think this is especially good for the elderly, where communication among doctors can be critical.

I can even see the benefit from an experience we had this summer when my husband was injured. He had (aside from the initial emergency room) a separate thoracic surgeon, two different orthopedic surgeons (one a shoulder specialist the other for a hematoma--though one would have been better), plus his primary care doctor and a physical therapist. If they had all gotten together to consult, he might not have landed back in the hospital with a staph infection and additional surgery several months later. Plus he had enough separately ordered CT scans to make the radiation from Fukushima look like child's play.

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Net effect----doctors will cherry pick healthy patients. The sick wont be able to get care.

This is what happened with the capitation fiasco of the 1990s.

Really bad idea.

Know how doctors and hospitals will avoid those expensive/sick patients? They wont cover minority and poor areas (people are sicker there). They wont offer dialysis/neurosurgery/high risk OB/ oncology care----all potential big time money sinks under a system that pays you $x per patient.

If this idea seems about to go anywhere, I will describe in more detail (from my own experience) exactly what will go wrong with this plan.

Man, some people never learn.

[loudsue]

7. No. This is just another ploy by the insurance companies to get a bigger handle on

people's records and to control their profit margins. The insurance companies have been pushing this, and often THROUGH Obama, ever since Obama was a candidate. This is one more layer of insurance company control over health care, and just another way to milk the system and the doctors out of more money. They will know and control every part of your health care, and every nurse, clerk, receptionist, doctor, specialist, etc. will know every hang-nail you've ever had. Ever had an abortion? The orderly in your Sunday school class will know all about it. Got a breast enhancement? Everyone will know. Herpes? Guess what. Even took a blood test to see if you had an infection? Guess who will know. Everybody from your pharmacist to the receptionist. It's already started here in North Carolina. One of the biggest gossips in the whole town works at the health department, clearing people for computer access to records.

But now the insurance companies will have all the information they will ever need to determine what they will cover and what they won't on your policy. The same insurance companies that give doctors liability insurance are the same insurance companies that have pushed for legislation that caps how much they will have to pay out on malpractice. Insurance companies in the health field. In this case, liability.

Insurance companies that are pushing for more "consolidation" are the health insurance companies, and this will add another layer of corporate bureaucracy that we all have to deal with to give someone else control over our health.

This just keeps getting more and more convoluted.

[GeorgeGist]

8. It's an old idea that socialist organizations like Mayo Clinic ...

have used for years.

[No Elephants]

9. "Obama health idea" LOL!