The President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2013
August 6, 2012A Look At Alternatives To Business School
August 17, 2012
The United States spends more on health care than any other developed nation. Our total healthcare
costs in the U.S. exceed $2.5 trillion. Such expenditures would perhaps make sense if we had demonstrably superior health care…but we don’t. According to the CIA World Factbook, our life expectancy ( as one measure of good health practices) ranks 50th in the world.Healthcare reform efforts must focus on cutting the total costs of healthcare, and increase quality delivery of healthcare services. Intuitively, this almost seems impossible. There are some signs, however, that US healthcare may be ready to change or evolve.
1. Physicians are increasingly deciding to be employed by large health care systems, rather than have operate their practices as independent businesses. A recent Medical Group Management Association poll found that, as of last year, 50% of physicians are now employed by large health care corporations. By 2013, it is estimated that only 33% of physicians will have their own independent practices. This represents an enormous shift in how healthcare is delivered.
2. There is going to be a larger focus on population health and preventive healthcare. Most authorities acknowledge that, to cut costs, healthcare will have to be less about hospital and doctor visits and more about preventive medicine. According to Joe Lupica, chairman at Newpoint Healthcare Advisors, “Today’s healthcare CEO is told to fill beds. I think tomorrow’s CEO will be told to empty beds. You’ll have to keep your community healthy and out of the hospital,”
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net