A Really Amazing Waste Health IT Could Help!

I am not easily shocked but if this is even 1/10 true we are on a winner!

PPI | Press Release | October 28, 2008

U.S. Health Care System Wastes $700 Billion on Unneeded Tests

Waste is enough to give $15K to all uninsured Americans New PPI Report: Next President Should Issue 'Mayo Challenge' for all Americans

For Immediate Release

WASHINGTON -- At a time of financial crisis and a soaring deficit, the amount of reckless spending in the health care system is astounding: $700 billion is wasted each year on unnecessary tests and procedures that do not improve patient outcome. That wasted money is enough to give over $15,000 towards care for every one of America's 45.7 million uninsured. Hospitals spend almost half their budgets on unnecessary treatments, and the government programs which cap the costs for medical services have created an incentive for doctors to test more--regardless of necessity. The current system offers little hope or incentive for care that is both high quality and cost-effective.

The latest in the Progressive Policy Institute's (PPI) Memos to the Next President series, "Improving Health Care -- by 'Spreading the Mayo'," calls on the next president to lead a shift from the current system of managed healthcare to an integrated system, which would cost less and deliver better care. PPI Scholar David Kendall recommend that the next president issue a 'Mayo Challenge' to strive for patient care standards as good and economical as those of the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, a successful example of the integrated health care model. You can read the whole Memo at at www.ppionline.org.

"Improving Health Care -- by 'Spreading the Mayo'" is the sixth in PPI's ongoing Memos to the Next President, a series of policy prescriptions written directly to the next occupant of the White House so that he can hit the ground running on the problems facing Americans today. PPI experts will propose solutions on issues ranging from economic growth to national security, which the next president will confront as soon as he takes office.

In his Memo, Kendall lays out several steps the government can take to follow through on the 'Mayo Challenge.' Among Kendall's suggestions:

· Lead Doctors: Provide patients with a 'lead doctor' who determines specific patient needs and is charged with coordinating care between hospitals and specialists. This eliminates gaps in care and wasteful spending while patients benefit from more customized and efficient care.

· Package Prices: Move from the current fee-for-service fee model to a "package price" for health-care services. In order to shift to a packaged-price model that would charge for sets of services rather than reward excessive testing, the federal government should create regional public-private partnership with the top 60 employer coalitions that already cover 34 million Americans as well as with state governments.

· Shared Data on Outcomes: Find the most cost-effective models, practices, and products. Set new standards for the most effective and cost-efficient treatment options by investing in comparative research of medical products, devices and practices; and encouraging regional partnerships to share patient data and weed out overpriced services.

· Leverage federal health-care spending: The government provides 57% of all of the nation¹s health-care spending and covers 44 million Americans under Medicare. The government could use this influence to support the most cost-effective outcomes, which would naturally lead integrated care to come out on top. This would encourage more patients and doctors to move toward integrated care facilities.

· More Choice: Let individuals choose their own health plans. Offer alternatives to employer-chosen care by allowing consumers access to competing plans and have states set up purchasing pools similar to the Federal Employee Health Benefits program (FEHB), the health care system used by federal employees and members of Congress.

· A Consumers Checkbook Guide to Competing Plans: Supply consumers with better information to choose health-care plans. Federal employees receive the Consumers' Checkbook guide to help choose health-care plans, and all patients should be given similar tools to determine the actual price and quality of their plans.

· A Health Fed: Create a new regulatory body modeled on the Federal Reserve Board to oversee new systems of medical payments. This "Health Fed" could set goals for national spending and if states fail to meet these goals, residents would be allowed to shop around, creating a competitive market driven by cost-efficiency and quality.

You can read the full text of "Improving Health Care -- by 'Spreading the Mayo'," along with the entire Memos to the Next President series, at at www.ppionline.org.

For questions on "Improving Health Care -- by 'Spreading the Mayo'" or for comment from author Dave Kendall, contact Alice McKeon at (202) 608-1232 or or amckeon@dlc.org

The Progressive Policy Institute's mission is to define and promote a new progressive politics for America in the 21st century. Through its research, policies, and commentary, the Institute is fashioning a new governing philosophy and an agenda for public innovation geared to the Information Age. For additional information, web users may access the Progressive Policy Institute at www.ppionline.org, or contact PPI's press office at (202) 547-0001.

The press release is found here:

http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=85&subsecID=108&contentID=254812

What the summary fails to mention, but which is obvious, is that improved Health IT needs to be a significant enabling part of the equation.

The PPI clearly understands this.

See the following from the same group.

Building a Health Information Network

By David B. Kendall

Introduction

Information technology (IT) has so pervaded our lives that we often take it for granted. Tens of billions of emails pass through cyberspace every day. Anyone with a credit card or an ATM card has access to cash 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in most countries. Thirty million U.S. workers now telecommute. These developments have made our lives more productive and more convenient.

One glaring exception, however, is the health care sector. There, IT is used only in a piecemeal fashion -- for limited tasks like scheduling appointments and accounting -- not as a means of streamlining all health care processes. Rather than sending prescriptions to pharmacists electronically, for example, most doctors continue to scribble them on paper, sometimes illegibly. Similarly, most doctors use paper medical charts instead of electronic records. Most hospitals do not mine data to find patterns of poor quality care. And health insurance plans and government programs like Medicare generate a massive flow of paper back to patients for processing routine medical claims instead of authorizing payments automatically.

Although some pioneering health care providers have launched comprehensive IT systems, patients are becoming impatient. Four of every 10 Americans have sought answers to their health care questions online instead of contacting a doctor, despite knowing that such information may not be reliable. Patients would do much more online if they could. Surveys show that most patients would like to check and refill prescriptions online, get test results, and email their doctors. As any patient who has carried X-rays from doctor to doctor knows, there has got to be a better way.

Much more here:

http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=111&subsecID=140&contentID=254315

I am just amazed at the scale of the problem and that the raw figures come from the Congressional Budget Office – who are not really prone to gross error or exaggeration.

Real food for thought – I wonder what the comparable figure for Australia would be?

David.