They were chosen by students as examples of solutions to current issues in the field of medicine. Tarek: Universal Coverage Is Not "Single Payer" Healthcare. Ryan: 18 Ideas to Reform Health Care Now. Our team interviewed dozens of experts dedicated to making America (and its health care system) healthier. Here, the best examples and how to make it happen. Photographed by Erik ButlerSteve Burd motivated his employees to practice what he preaches. Everyone agrees that we need cheaper, better, easier care for everyone. You know it. The guy heading to the White House knows it. Congress knows it. But knowing and doing aren’t necessarily neighbors in Washington, D.C. 1.
The payoff: If just 1 percent of people with these conditions were successfully treated, we could shave at least $77 billion off the health care tab. The action plan: Type 2 diabetes, in particular, is a lifestyle disease. 2. Dr. The payoff: A program like this could save lives and at least $17 billion a year. The action plan: Find out more about the Mayo Clinic’s health care reform efforts at mayoclinic.org/healthpolicycenter. 3. The girl’s father decided to try Best Doctors, a benefit offered and paid for by his employer. Alex E: Why French Kids Don't Have ADHD.
Doug: Health Care Costs And How You Could Be Overspending. There's no way around it: Health care costs a fortune. Insurance premiums, drug prices, the cost of doctor visits and hospital bills are getting bigger. Last year, Americans spent $2.6 trillion on health care, or $8,402 per person. Though it often seems we have no control over these costs, there are some things that can stanch the bleeding. Some common ways we overspend on health care: Buying the wrong health insurance plan Picking a health insurance plan just because it has the lowest monthly premium or the smallest annual deductible isn't always best. What matters is total "out-of-pocket" expense. So don't be fooled by a program with low monthly costs and a high deductible -- particularly if you know you have a major health expense (say pregnancy) on the horizon. Of course, insurance shoppers should buy the benefits they really need, says McClean.
Buying drugs you don't need And before you go ahead with surgery when it's not an emergency, find alternatives. Using brand-name drugs. Shaon: Include Licensed Naturopathic Physicians as primary care providers in the Federal Healthcare Law (Obamacare). Don: John Mackey: The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare - WSJ. Jeremy: HealthPAC » Health Care Solutions. Universal Health Care It is time to reform the health care system in the United States – time to make it affordable, portable, and accessible to all Americans. We are fortunate to live in a nation where the health care resources are abundant – we have modern hospitals, sophisticated equipment, well-equipped rural facilities, skilled and dedicated physicians and nurses, and plentiful medications.
The medical research conducted here is immense and we fund health care far more generously than any other nation. Yet, even with all the medical resources at our disposal, the present health care system is inefficient and inequitable. The solution to our health care crisis is in developing a new system of health insurance – one that is more focused on providing equitable access rather than making a profit for big business.
The belief that all citizens should have access to affordable, high-quality medical care is the defining principle of universal health care. Funding of Universal Health Care. Camara: Researchers Offer Solutions to Looming Health Care Provider Shortage. The United States faces a severe shortage of primary health care providers, due to a wave of aging baby boomers, epidemics of diabetes and obesity, and the Affordable Care Act, which aims to bring health care coverage to millions more Americans. In a series of papers published in the November 2013 issue of Health Affairs, researchers at UC San Francisco advocated a number of potential solutions to the problem.
Thomas S. Bodenheimer, In an analysis and commentary, Thomas S. Bodenheimer, MD, MPH, a UCSF professor of family and community medicine, and Mark D. “The traditional solution to a shortage of physicians has been to mint more,” said Smith. Instead, said Bodenheimer, “The gap can only be narrowed by empowering all team members to care for a large number of patients based on the team members’ training and abilities.” The authors’ recommendations include: UCSF Establishes a Health Workforce Research Center UCSF has been awarded one of three Cooperative Agreements from the U.S.
Maggie: Improving Quality and Value in the U.S. Health Care System. Executive Summary The U.S. health care system faces significant challenges that clearly indicate the urgent need for reform. Attention has rightly focused on the approximately 46 million Americans who are uninsured, and on the many insured Americans who face rapid increases in premiums and out-of-pocket costs. As Congress and the Obama administration consider ways to invest new funds to reduce the number of Americans without insurance coverage, we must simultaneously address shortfalls in the quality and efficiency of care that lead to higher costs and to poor health outcomes.
To do otherwise casts doubt on the feasibility and sustainability of coverage expansions and also ensures that our current health care system will continue to have large gaps — even for those with access to insurance coverage. There is broad evidence that Americans often do not get the care they need even though the United States spends more money per person on health care than any other nation in the world. 1. Jena: Top 10 Methods, Ideas, Techniques for Lowering Lowering Health Care Costs. Alex K: Five Imperatives for Improving Health Care. Innovation in health care treatment seems to far outpace innovation in health care business management. Just ask President Obama—two weeks ago he delayed enactment of a key provision of the new health care law for fear its requirements would swamp small-business owners. So results of a recent conference and survey from Harvard's business and medical schools may prove particularly timely.
Delivered by the Forum on Healthcare Innovation, which was formed last year with encouragement from the respective deans of the two institutions, the report makes five recommendations for how to improve quality, reduce costs, and, consequently, increase value in the American health care industry. To kick off its work, the Forum in November 2012 hosted its inaugural conference, entitled "Healing Ourselves: Addressing Healthcare Innovation Challenge," which brought together some 125 health care experts including executives, policy makers, and academics.
Other committee members include William W. Charlie: Solving The American Health Care Crisis. Solving The American Health Care Crisis * This summary was written in 2007. Contents, figures, data, and events have been updated in the published book. The fundamental premise of Solving the American Health Care Crisis is that most American decision makers are in a state of denial.
Many of them consistently claim that the United States has the greatest health care system in the world. Other wealthy nations like Japan, Australia, Canada, and rich European nations spend between 8 to 11% of their GDP on health care and enjoy superior service and universal coverage. Surprisingly, Americans, the citizens of the wealthiest country in the history of the world, have a lower life expectancy rate, higher rates of heart disease and cancer, and an infant mortality rate that is twice as high as other rich industrialized nations. Per dollar, America spends much more and gets much less in return, than other affluent Western nations do, when it comes to health care spending. Bureaucracy and paperwork. Jen T: Societal Supernova — The US Healthcare Problem: Causes and Solutions - Mark Silverman. The healthcare problem in the United States is complex, but not necessarily complicated. By that, I mean there are numerous facets to the problem, but each is straightforward to understand and is remediable.
Although discussions to date have focused nearly exclusively on the cost and availability of health insurance, that is really only a small part of more basic issues. And only when the real substance of a problem is understood can a viable solution be found. Here, then, is my perspective as a physicist and chemist on the linked issues that make healthcare complex and what can be done about it. 1. Causes 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Drug companies claim that procedures for drug research, testing, and approval are long and expensive. 8. 9. 10. 11. 2. 1.
The US government has long supported graduate education in critical areas through fellowships provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 2. 4. Justin A.: Home Health Care www.ilhomecare.org/documents/ihhcrecommendations-121010kr_000.pdf. Justin J.: A singular solution for healthcare. A single-payer healthcare system would more effectively control costs than any other plan that Congress is considering as it moves toward a reform bill. And by controlling costs, existing resources could be allocated more equitably, especially for the benefit of women. First, single-payer plans eliminate the $300 billion to $400 billion that insurance companies spend annually in administrative overhead and waste. Second, single-payer plans are best positioned to take on the enormous challenge of reducing or eliminating the financial incentives that have led to so much overtreatment and undertreatment.
Maternity care illustrates this phenomenon: We spend far more per capita than any other industrialized country and yet do worse on most birth outcome measures than most of these other countries. For example, nearly one-third of all US women deliver their babies by caesarean section, a rate that is far higher than medically necessary. A whopping 65 percent said yes to that question. Nate: How To Solve Health Care | John TorinusJohn Torinus. Any organization can take immediate steps to tame the hyperinflation of health care costs and premiums. Innovators in health care delivery in the private sector have paved the way to proven methods for cutting costs. Not surprisingly, managing costs and improving health go hand in hand. Here are the basic steps that managers can take to not just curtail costs, but to reduce them: 1.
Adopt a consumer-driven health plan (CDHP). 2. 3. 4. 5. These are the major platforms for getting a rein on health care costs. For a more complete explanation on how to get from run-away costs to sanity in your health care budget, check out my book, The Company That Solved Health Care. Alyssa: America's painful doctor shortage is threatening health care reform.
FORTUNE — The new federal budget, unveiled on Tue., March 4, trumpets a major shift in America’s policy toward one of the most vexing problems in reforming our health care system: fixing the doctor shortage. Since 1997, the number of physicians entering the workforce each year has essentially been capped, while the demand for everything from hip replacements to treatments for diabetes to angioplasties has soared with our growing and aging population. Now, the Obama administration proposes spending an additional $5.23 billion over the next decade to mint new physicians. That sounds like a lot of money, and the proposal sounds like a big deal, because it officially breaks the old bottleneck that limits the supply of manpower we desperately need. But it doesn’t go nearly far enough. The proposal is designed to swell the ranks of primary care doctors. Unfortunately, the new policy is a timid response to a looming crisis. MORE: How one hospital is thriving in the age of Obamacare.
Erica: A country doctor's proposal for health insurance reform. In the forty years since I started medical school, I have worked in socialized medicine, student health, a cash-only practice and a traditional fee for service small group practice. The bulk of my experience has been in a government-sponsored rural health clinic, working for an underserved, underinsured rural population. Today, I will make a couple of concrete suggestions, borrowing from all the places I have worked and from the latest trends among the doctors who are revolting against the insurance companies by starting concierge medicine and direct primary care practices. Because I am a primary care physician, I will mostly speak of how I think primary care physicians should be paid. I will expand on these concepts below, but here are the main points: Health insurance needs to be simple to understand and administer. Health insurance should not be deceptive. The advantage with this kind of system is that it would promote shared resource stewardship between doctors and patients.
Nico: Nake M. Kamrany: An Optimal Solution to U.S. Health Care. U.S. health care is fraught with emotional prediction of ideologues including the Supreme Court. The combination of U.S. private and public health care cost, if unchecked, will exceed the budget of the federal government by the year 2027, leaving out 50+ million Americans who have no coverage, the poor and children who receive inadequate health care and the private policy holders who can no longer afford it. The annual cost increase of private health care, which is ranging between five and eight percent, is no longer affordable by employers and private policy holders. Abstracting from ideological and constitutional constrains, it is time to redefine health care in the United States as a public good, as it is in Western European countries -- a public good like national defense, public education, public parks, public roads, etc., which are made available to all citizens.
We can also implement a U.S. Health Care program. However, U.S. medical costs are astronomical. Nake M. Tom: Health Care Reform: Common Sense Solutions - Blog | New Atlantic Ventures. Health Care Reform: Common Sense Solutions Health Care Reform is topical. But it need not cost an arm and a leg to do. Because I sit on the Board of Directors of NAV portfolio company Qliance, an innovative “Direct Practice” primary care solution that operates completely outside of the insurance system, I am often asked to comment on things that we might do to improve health care delivery in America.
The debate in Washington DC is heated and confusing. We all wish that the proposed legislation was simpler and clearer, regardless of whether or not you support it. So the purpose of this post is not to comment on the legislation before Congress – but rather to dissect the health care “issues” into their component parts and offer some low-cost, creative, perhaps controversial – yet high-impact solutions to what is being termed our country’s “Health Care Crisis.”
First, what are ways we might reduce the systemic cost of health care? I suggest that this is the most important thing to get right. Grace: Shortcut solutions to health care problems. Take the headache out of dealing with doctors and insurance companies. These time-saving strategies will get you on the fast track. The Problem: You Can’t Afford to Waste Hours in the Waiting Room Time-Saving Solutions:See an open-access doctor. Some physicians have started offering their patients same-day appointments instead of scheduling weeks or months in advance. This discourages double booking and unclogs wait time, said Davis Liu, the author of "Stay Healthy, Live Longer, Spend Wisely: Making Intelligent Choices in America’s Healthcare System" and a physician in Sacramento, California, who uses this system in his practice. Related: Are You Tired All the Time? Fill out forms beforehand. Avoid the busiest times. Call ahead. The Problem: You Have a Question for Your Doctor but Don’t Have an Appointment Time-Saving Solutions: Speak to your doctor’s nurse or the physician’s assistant.
Related: 8 Health Shortcuts That Work Ask if you can e-mail. Enlist tracking software. Be prepared. Diana: How American Health Care Killed My Father - David Goldhill. Mo: A Four-Step Healthcare Solution - Hans-Hermann Hoppe. My Trinh: Improve The Patient Experience By Consulting Models Outside of Healthcare. Danielle: End-of-Life Care in the United States. Andrew: After Shinseki: How to Cure the VA's Dysfunctional Health Care System. Jessica: How Young Surgeons Can Gain The Trust Of Their Patients | Podiatry Today. Chucky: Developing Physician Communication Skills For Patient-Centered Care. Leslie: Patient Experience Case Study - Regions Hospital - The Beryl Institute - Improving the Patient Experience. Damian: The Simple Solution to Obamacare's Employer Mandate Problems | Richard Kirsch. Nhu: America’s Health Care Problems? The Solutions Exist. A Conversation with Mark D. Smith, MD, MBA | Managed Care Magazine Online. Dia: A Physician’s Solution to Healthcare. Nyarai: Burnout among physicians.
Jen M: Talking With a Doctor May Help Trim Costs - Patient Money. Vanessa: Reducing Unnecessary Inpatient Lab Testing...ajcp.ascpjournals.org/content/126/2/200.full.pdf.