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What Should Be Done to Repair the Healthcare System?

What Should Be Done to Repair the Healthcare System?

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

On March 10, 2020, Obamacare will be ten years old. Obamacare has had many failures. Obamacare’s biggest failure is the resulting distortion of the healthcare delivery system. The distortion is the result of all the stakeholders adjusting to Obamacare’s new rules and regulations.

All of the stakeholders had to adjust the way they delivered or priced healthcare to their individual advantage.

Primary care physicians started moving toward the model of Concierge Medicine. In order to have a primary care physician, consumers must pay primary care physicians between $2,000.00 and $38,000.00 annually to be in their panel.  The movement toward Concierge Medicine is the result of the Obamacare regulations, the healthcare insurance company’s reimbursement cuts, and the increase in malpractice insurance premiums.

Primary care physicians found that in order to make a living and pay their increasing overhead, they must become Concierge Physicians. This is to the disadvantage of consumers since they must continue to buy healthcare insurance.

The insurance industry has adjusted to Obamacare’s regulations by lowering reimbursement to physicians and hospitals while raising premiums. Insurance companies and Medicare Advantage programs have restricted enrollees to only certain physicians in their network and restricted certain treatments and access to certain specialists and groups.

It all goes back to President Obama’s statement, “If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. If you like your hospital you can keep your hospital.” To my disappointment the AMA accepted President Obama’s obvious lie in 2010.

As the the government and the insurance industry decreased reimbursement physicians have had to increase the number of patients they see in one day in order to make up for their decreased revenue.

Malpractice claims and malpractice payments for claims have increased in most parts of the country. This resulted from a lack of tort reform by congress and the Obama administration. Physicians then increased diagnostic testing in order to cover all possible illnesses.  The increase in testing led to an increase in healthcare cost.

Obamacare has also increased the cost of insurance by requiring payment for additional coverages. The first dollar insurance coverage after deductibles are met has resulted in the overuse of the healthcare system. The government and the insurance industry are trying to decrease the overuse of the system by increasing deductibles.

In fact, some Obamacare insurance plan deductibles are so high that insurance payment never kicks in. People who buy Obamacare insurance plans cannot afford the deductibles and do not use the insurance until they are so sick, they cannot avoid being hospitalized.

It is impossible to figure out how health insurance premiums increases are calculated by the private healthcare insurance sector or the government healthcare insurance sector. It is impossible to figure out how the multimillion-dollar salaries for insurance and hospital executives are calculated. These expenses are part of why insurance premiums are rising.

It is also impossible to determine how hospital systems price their care. The government also pays hospital systems a premium for outpatient hospital care in an outpatient setting. The fees are at least 20% higher than in a free-standing private practice office.  

Hospital systems are figuring out how to manipulate their reimbursement systems to have an advantage over their competitor.  In New York City, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital System has accumulated ownership of many hospitals inside the city and its suburbs. With that ownership, they have acquired many in-patient and out-patient hospital salaried physicians. The hospital system is now demanding increased payment from healthcare insurance companies and the government in order for patients to use their system. The hospital system has hired many of the physicians’ patients desire to see. Columbia Presbyterian has gained control of the reimbursement levels in those markets.

There is an encouraging trend that was started by Keith Smith M.D. in Oklahoma City. Dr. Smith started a cash-only outpatient surgical clinic several years ago. He charges less for procedures than a patient’s deductible from some insurance companies.

This gives us some insight into how much fat is in the healthcare system expenditures.  Dr. Smith and physicians working in his outpatient clinics are happier and are making more money than they were working for local high-cost hospital systems in town. The patients are happier because there are no hidden or surprise costs.

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Dr. Smith’s clinic is drawing patients from all over the United States. He has also inspired the formation of many similar clinics in the U.S.

This is not new. Specialists such as gastroenterologists have opened freestanding centers. They charge less for colonoscopy and endoscopy than the hospital systems. Radiology clinics have done this for many years. The hospital systems have, somehow, worked out payment for their higher costs with the insurance industry and the government.

Dermatology is a specialty that does not need a hospital system. Large physician-owned

dermatology clinics have opened. They charge less than the dominant local hospital system.  

Many of these large specialty centers have sold their clinics to venture capital firms.  

How the venture capital firms are going to leverage their investment is unclear to me.   

Emergency rooms all over the country are overcrowded because primary physicians cannot see all of the patients in their offices in a timely manner. Hospital system emergency rooms are inefficient and overpriced. The ER is an unpleasant experience for many patients.

Venture capital firms have opened free-standing Urgent Care and Emergent Care centers all over the country. (Doc-In The Box). Many of these centers are covered by nurses, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. All physicians have to do is co-sign with the provider to get reimbursement by the government and the healthcare insurance industry.

This is not my idea of developing patient-physician relationships.    

If a patient has to be admitted to a hospital his primary care physician is not permitted take care of him in many hospital systems. Hospital systems have hired hospitalists to care for patients. A patient might see a different hospitalist each day of the admission.

What happened to the therapeutically valuable physician-patient relationship? This relationship is critical for curing much morbidity from chronic illness. 

 I have covered the Repair of the Healthcare System in great detail in the past.

 I have also covered the errors in the structure of Obamacare leading to the distortions in the delivery of healthcare and the increased costs of the healthcare system.

The stakeholders are physicians, patients, hospital systems, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and the government.

All patients want is to get the best medical care when they get sick. The interest in disease prevention is slowing growing events though many millions of dollars have been spent on programs that could help prevent chronic disease.

All hospital systems, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies are interested in are maximizing profits and minimizing expenses.

All physicians are interested in is delivering the best care possible.

Patients and physicians are the most important stakeholders in the system.

The government wants to spend the least amount of money possible to enable the best care at the lowest price.

There has been little attempt by congress, the bureaucracy or previous administrations to remedy the defects I have pointed out.

 I have not seen any attempt by Congress to lower the price by decreasing the bureaucratic impact on the price of healthcare. Nor have I seen the exposure of the clandestine deals hospital systems make with insurance companies or the government.

I have not seen any movement toward decreasing the malpractice crisis in America. Tort reform has been vitally necessary for the last thirty years. It has been totally ignored by government officials.

These are some of the basic reforms necessary to start repairing the healthcare system. All our politicians do is kick the can down the road to the advantage of the secondary stakeholders and not the consumers.

These are some of the main reasons the system has to convert to a consumer-driven system that I have outlined previously.

Consumers must control their health and their healthcare dollars. They must be provided with an education that will help them control costs. They must be provided with financial incentives to control costs.

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The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.



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Associations Are  Growing

Stanley Feld M.D. FACP, MACE

Any initiative President Trump and his administration presents to the public is criticized as junk as soon as it is presented. It is criticized without any evidence for the criticism because it does not fit into the Democrat’s narrative of “Medicare for All.”

When the Trump administration rolled out the plan to once again let associations sell healthcare insurance plans to its individual and small businesses Democrats charged that these plans would be worthless.

The mainstream media did not publicize the Trump administration’s initiative. The fact that Obamacare has resulted in higher premiums and deductibles for small businesses and individuals has been downplayed by the mainstream media. In fact, we occasionally see articles declaring that the people like Obamacare. Only twelve million people are insured by Obamacare.

It is not true that people like Obamacare. The fact is premiums and deductible are not affordable for many on Obamacare despite the fact that 85% of the enrollees receive federal government subsidies

The fact is that individuals without healthcare insurance and who do not qualify for Medicaid need insurance. They are stuck buying Obamacare insurance because they do not have any other option. Many have had to go uninsured because they could not afford premiums and deductibles. Many have gotten jobs in our excellent economy where the large employers pay for group healthcare insurance.

The associations’ plans were proposed to provide a less expensive alternative to Obamacare by allowing workers and small businesses to pool together to buy healthcare insurance through the association.

An association, like big corporations, has the ability to negotiate with healthcare insurance companies to lower premium prices and deductible. The tax treatment is also favorable.

The association initiative started in January 2019. Early evidence suggests that the initiative is working out — at least for now.

“The administration’s alternatives, known as “association health plans,” have been covering the same benefits that Obamacare plans do, even though they are not obligated to, according to a new analysis by the industry publication Modern Healthcare and another by AssociationHealthPlans.com.”

 

Just like Obamacare plans, the associations’ plans are paying for prevention, visits the doctor’s office and the hospital, emergency medicine, prescription drugs, maternity care, and mental healthcare.

The plans are also covering people with pre-existing conditions, such as cancer or diabetes.

 “In fact, the plans are required to cover all of the above. This is an aspect of their coverage that was not well publicized by the mainstream media, according to Kev Coleman, president of AssociationHealthPlans.com. “That’s something that was lost in the mix.”

 The requirement is part of Obamacare’s regulations. Since Obamacare has not yet been repealed by Congress the rules will remain.

“Officials in the Department of Labor announced new rules for the plans in June, with some of the plans allowed for purchase beginning in September. Since then, at least 28 plans have launched in 13 states, according to Coleman’s analysis.”

Self-employed consultants working out of their homes, plumbers, and massage therapist are joining associations to have the negotiating power of large numbers of people seeking healthcare insurance.

Chambers of commerce and small cities have been forming state trade associations and their employees are joining these rapidly forming associations and enrolling in their insurance plans.

The Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation has 59,000 farmers and ranchers in their association. The associations are similar to what Jeff Bezo,Jamie Diamond and Warren Buffett are planning to do for their 700,000 employees. They plan on selling the insurance across state lines which will reduce the price even further than the 33% reduction the associations are anticipating offering.

The Obama administration had limited the formation of associations selling healthcare insurance. Associations were selling their own plans. They were inexperienced administrating them. Some associations went bankrupt. Large healthcare insurance companies have strict criteria and oversite. Self-run associations are going to take longer than.

Associations are being formed. Outside health insurers have run a few association plans since September 2018. Associations were only allowed to begin running their own plans beginning in January 2019.

Critics complain that the healthcare insurance industry is providing teaser rates to associations now. The critics claim the healthcare insurance companies will eventually raise the premiums. It is a possibility. However, with the increase contributions allowed for Medical Savings Accounts and Health Savings Accounts, association members will have a financial incentive to become a prosumer. Consumers would have incentive to become responsible for their health and healthcare dollars.

A more recent study by the Congressional Budget Office projected that 5 million would be enrolled in the plans each year, 1 million of whom would otherwise have been uninsured. The analysis did not assess how many people on Obamacare would become uninsured.”

The Trump administration plan is truly a disruptive plan to the healthcare industry and government healthcare establishment. The Democrats are terrified because it might work much better than Obamacare and result in a total rejection of “Medicare for All.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/uninsured-rate-rises-during-trumps-first-two-years-in-office

“It’s not clear from the Gallup poll whether those who are now uninsured used to have an Obamacare plan or had one through an employer or government program. Other data, from the Department of Health and Human Services, show that the number of people in Obamacare plans has dropped only slightly since Obama left office.”

The problem is that enrollment in Obamacare has not risen while the uninsured has.

The number of people on Medicaid has risen dramatically due to some states accepting  Medicaid expansion. The federal government is due to stop paying over 90% of the bill for Medicaid and transfer the burden of payment to those states. Most of those state have large budget deficits that are only going to become larger.

“The highest increases in the uninsured rate were among women, people living in households with annual incomes of less than $48,000 a year, and adults under the age of 35. The young adults had an uninsured rate of more than 21 percent, a 4.8 percentage point increase from two years earlier. Among women, the uninsured rate increased from 8.9 percent in 2016 to 12.8 percent by the end of 2018.”

People cannot afford Obamacare premiums or deductibles. Associations might provide more affordable options. People working for large organizations presently have healthcare coverage.

Consumers understand how inefficient government-run programs have been. It is appropriate to let the free market give it a try. The formation of associations with appropriate regulations is certainly a free market step as opposed to the Democrats’ Obamacare that has failed. It is clear that government control of medical care is financially unsustainable.

We will see how associations and consumers responsible for healthcare dollars works out.

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.



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The Expansion Of Personalized Healthcare Insurance Benefits.  

 Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

The Senate rejected the  slimmed-down Obamacare Repeal bill as Senator John McCain was the deciding no vote July 27,2017.

“When Senator John McCain of Arizona returned to Washington with a fresh scar from brain surgery, it was widely seen as a dramatic effort to help Republicans overturn Obamacare.

 Little did Mr. Trump know that the Arizona senator would help drive the stake through legislation that sought to realize the Republicans’ seven-year dream of finally dismantling Obamacare.”

 John McCain’s vote was a surprise to everyone. Mitch McConnell then put healthcare reform on hold. Senator McConnell decided to let Obamacare die on its own.

However, the Senate rejection did not deter President Trump from pursuing healthcare reform .

He has already approved the development of purchasing associations through an executive order. The associations will sell health Insurance coverage. The rules will go into effect January 1, 2019.

He has also has attacked the drug industry with his blue print on drugs. The regulations from this will decrease the costs of drugs by decreasing the number of middlemen in the manufacture to sales process.

On October 2017 President Trump issued an executive order to promote healthcare choice and competition in the country.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/presidential-executive-order-promoting-healthcare-choice-competition-across-united-states/

In the executive order President Trump said his goal was to ‘Expanded Availability and Permitted Use of Health Reimbursement Arrangements.

 The Secretaries of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services shall consider proposing regulations or revising guidance, to the extent permitted by law and supported by sound policy, to increase the usability of HRAs, to expand employers’ ability to offer HRAs to their employees, and to allow HRAs to be used in conjunction with nongroup coverage.

The Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services proposed regulations in October 2018 that would significantly expand personalized health benefits to consumers and would offer increasing price pressure to lower insurance prices tor U.S. businesses. Most U.S. businesses want to continue to provide medical coverage for their employees. However they need affordable prices.

The proposals, issued Tuesday, October 23, 2018 by Treasury ,Labor and HHS were a response to the October 2017  executive order from President Donald Trump.

 “That order instructed the Departments to increase the availability and usability of health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs)—especially those offered in conjunction with non-group insurance.”

The proposal is well thought out. I have a problem with some of the upcoming regulations but they are an excellent step in the right direction.

The regulations do not utilize a most important element in my ideal medical savings accounts. It does not provide financial incentives for consumers to become informed consumers of healthcare or motivated to save healthcare dollars.

Consumers of healthcare have to be incentivized to become savvy purchasers of their own healthcare and healthcare insurance coverage.

“If enacted, the regulations would create two new HRAs: something we’re calling the individual-integrated HRA, and the smaller, excepted benefit HRA.”

HRAs can be viewed as a superstructure for my ideal medical savings accounts. President Obama did everything he could to discourage the purchase of health savings accounts. His goal was to drive everyone into a single party payer system with the individual consumer’s healthcare decision are made by the government.

Despite President Obama’s attempts to discourage health savings accounts, they grew as the fastest and most popular healthcare insurance product. HSAs permitted consumers to have some   control of their healthcare spending and some of their healthcare dollars.

“In 2013, IRS Notice 2013-54 issued guidance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that seriously limited businesses’ ability to offer HRAs. The IRS said that while HRAs integrated with group health insurance satisfy key ACA provisions, HRAs integrated with individual health insurance do not.”

This is where Obamacare discouraged consumers to buy HSA as individuals. The insurance was not completely tax free to businesses or individual consumers.

“Congress provided some relief in December 2016 by creating the qualified small employer HRA (QSEHRA). The QSEHRA, a benefit specifically designed for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, allows businesses to reimburse employees tax-free for their health care costs.”

With his October 2017 executive order, President Trump sought to expand HRAs even further. In the order, he asked the Treasury, the DOL, and the HHS to reexamine past rulings and “increase the usability of HRAs, to expand employers’ ability to offer HRAs to their employees, and to allow HRAs to be used in conjunction with non-group coverage.”

The new proposed regulations are a direct response to that executive order. Unfortunately it does not solve the healthcare insurance problem. The proposal keeps the insurance industry in charge of the healthcare dollars and healthcare decisions. It is a step in the right direction. It helps small business more than it helps the individual.

  QSEHRA  “Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement”  Individual-integrated HRA
Business size restrictions Only available to businesses with fewer than 50 full-time employees. None.
Employee eligibility requirements All full-time employees are automatically eligible. Part-time employees can be included, but the HRA must be offered on the same terms. Employees can participate in the HRA without individual health insurance, but those without MEC must pay income tax on all reimbursements during the time they were uninsured. The business can set eligibility guidelines according to permitted employee classes, but the HRA must be offered on the same terms to all employees in each class. Employees without individual health insurance, including those covered by a spouse’s group policy, cannot participate in the HRA.
Allowance amount restrictions In 2018, annual allowance amounts are capped at $5,050 for self-only employees and $10,250 for employees with a family. The business can vary allowance amounts only by family status, age, and family size, but not based on employee classes. There are no caps on annual allowance amounts. The business can vary allowance amounts according to permitted employee classes, as well as age and family size.
Group policy requirements Businesses offering the HRA cannot offer a group policy. Businesses offering the HRA may offer a group policy, but it cannot offer both the group policy and the HRA to the same employee class.
Premium tax credit coordination Individuals participating in the HRA are still eligible for premium tax credits, but the amount of the credit is reduced dollar-for-dollar by the amount of the HRA allowance. Individuals participating in the HRA aren’t eligible for premium tax credits.

 

I will explain each category as well as its advantages and disadvantages in the near future. These regulations do much toward Repairing the Healthcare System.

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone.



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How Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Jamie Diamond Can Disrupt The Healthcare System

Stanley Feld M.D., FACP,MACE

Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Jamie Diamond should try this disruptive approach in their venture into healthcare reform.

All the other approaches that have been tried have not worked or have become unsustainable. Most of the approaches have been unfair to consumers and the majority of taxpaying Americans.

The only way to empower all the consumers in a healthcare system is to encourage them to become responsible for their health and healthcare dollars.

I believe it can only be accomplished by providing easily understandable financial incentives for consumers to save money for themselves.

Providing financial incentives to consumers to save money for themselves can be disruptive to the present models used to pay for medical services just as Amazon has been disruptive to retail sales.

The delivery of medical and surgical care has advanced tremendously in the last sixty years.

At the same time medical care has become unaffordable and the cost of healthcare has become unsustainable.

The incidence of obesity has risen every year. Over fifty percent of Americans are obese.

Obesity begets many chronic diseases and subsequently the complications of these diseases.

Physicians can treat these complications fairly well. However the treatment of chronic disease complications are costly.

How do you decrease the incidence of obesity in America?

Physicians must attack the core causes of obesity.

Among those causes are excess food intake, lack of daily exercise, mental depression, cultural milieu and/or a combination of all of the above.

The cure of obesity depends on the ability to eliminate these core drivers. Financial incentives can get patients involved in eliminating the core drivers of obesity.

The responsibility for obese patients’ healthcare depends on patients’ lifestyle, popular cultural milieu, and patient education.

In America, it is almost impossible to buy a meal in any level restaurant without excess calories.

How do you get people to be responsible for their health and healthcare dollars?

The one key element ignored by policy makers to decrease obesity is to give obese consumers of healthcare financial incentives to concentrate on trying to lose weight.

Obamacare went in the wrong direction. It limits personal liability for their obesity. It does not promote personal responsibility

The only incentive Obamacare provided was the incentive to overuse the healthcare system.

This was especially true for patients on Medicaid. They had zero premiums and deductibles. The only deterrent to accessing medical care was physician availability.

Physicians refused to participate in Medicaid because of low professional reimbursement. Low reimbursement by the government was necessary because of the decreases in funding and participant overuse of the system.

Obamacare planned to cure the shortage of “medical providers” by increasing the number of “valid medical providers” who could bill on their own, such as nurse practitioners and certified physician assistants.

However, the defect there is that patients were not under the supervision of physicians engaged in their care. It ignores the patient physician relationship that is so important to effective medical care.

If Jeff Bezo, Warren Buffet and Jamie Diamond (BBD group) are serious about Repairing the Healthcare System for their employees as a nonprofit organization, they should consider my Ideal Medical Savings Account.

http://stanfeld.com/?s=My+Ideal+Medical+Savings+Account

The Ideal Medical Savings Accounts (MSA) are tax-sheltered accounts used to pay for non-catastrophic medical expenses. These non catastrophic medical expenses account for the bulk of the cost of medical care.

Money left from the Medical Savings Account at the end of the year is put into a consumer’s retirement account.

The MSA provides the financial incentive to not overuse the healthcare system.

Warren Buffet understands the money making potential of re-insurance. He is heavily invested in re-insurance companies.

If one of the BBD Groups employee’s gets sick and spends of all of his MSA money, reinsurance provides first dollar coverage for the illness.

The BBD Group could teach employees how to shop for price and value. Insurance companies are supposed to shop for value. However the shopping is never to the patient’s advantage. It is to the advantage of the insurance company.

 Critics always claim this is unrealistic:

  1. The claim is that patients are not smart enough to shop for price and value. 2. Are you supposed to shop around from the back of the ambulance?

 The critics’ use the ambulance argument to eliminate the possibility of consumers using their own judgment to make price decisions.

Patients are smart enough to figure out which hospital they want to go to before they get into the ambulance.

Emergency care represents only 6% of health care expenditures.

But emergency care represents only 6% of health expenditures.”

“For privately insured adults under 65, almost 60% of spending is on elective outpatient care. “

ttps://www.wsj.com/articles/the-health-reform-that-hasnt-been-tried-1507071808

The critics argument is that consumers do not know how to shop prices. Consumers are smarter than the critics think. It would be easy to teach consumers to shop prices.”

ttp://stanfeld.com/the-failure-of-the-republican-establishment-to-repeal-and-replace-obamacare/

“My Ideal Medical Saving Account provides that financial incentive to not overuse the healthcare system. All the articles about my ideal medical saving accounts are attached to this link.

http://stanfeld.com/?s=My+ideal+Medical+Savings+Accounts

 Likewise, nearly 60% of Medicaid money goes to outpatient care.”

 Medicaid patients also overuse the healthcare system.

Most Medicaid patients can understand the MSA’s financial incentive.

“ For the top 1% of spenders—a group responsible for more than a quarter of all health expenditures—a full 45% is outpatient.”

These patients can be identified as outliers and educational vehicles can be created to decrease this overuse of the system. It would save the re-insurance company a great deal of money.

In my opinion Medical Savings Account are better than Health Savings Accounts. Medical Savings Accounts take the money out of the healthcare insurance company’s hands and deliver it to consumers retirement accounts.

Both HSA’s and MSAs have the unique advantage of providing the financial incentive to for consumers to save money for themselves.

When people have savings to protect in HSAs, the cost of care drops without harmful effects on health. 

 The financial incentives decrease the overuse of the healthcare system.

According to a 2012 study in Health Affairs if even half of Americans with employer-sponsored insurance enrolled in this kind of coverage, U.S. health expenditures would fall by an estimated $57 billion a year.”

 https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hpb20160204.950878/full/

 My ideal Medical Savings Accounts provide an even a greater financial incentive and should decrease costs even further.

“ MSAs should be available to all Americans, including seniors on Medicare. Given that seniors use the most health care, motivating them to seek value is crucial to driving prices lower.”

MSAs should also apply to Medicaid recipients. The details for Medicaid recipients can be found in my article “My Ideal Medical Savings Accounts Is Democratic. “

The maximum contribution to MSAs should be raised to $6000 or $7000 dollars. If a consumer gets sick and experiences a cost of more that $6000 he should receive 100% (first dollar) coverage through the BBD group’s provided reinsurance policy. A reinsurance policy would cost the BBD Group less than $6000 a year.

The total insurance package to BBG Group employees should cost the BBD Group $12,000 rather than the present cost of $18,000.

BBD is a self insured association. The association has elimated the multiple middlemen in the present healthcare system.

 When a person with an MSA dies, the funds should be allowed to roll over tax-free to surviving family members.

This financial incentive should be included in My Ideal Medical Savings Account.

“The information that patients require to assess value must be made more transparent. 

2014 study on magnetic resonance imaging showed that price-transparency programs reduced costs by 18.7%.”

A consumer driven system would force providers to compete for patients. Information on price could easily be provided to consumers by the government and the healthcare insurance industry.

At present healthcare prices are not transparent. Consumers are not motivated to shop prices. The BBD Groups leverage with its employees would force transparency.

“The most compelling motivation for doctors and hospitals to post rates would be knowing that they are competing for price-conscious patients empowered with control of their own money.”

 In this age of technology and rapid communication telemedicine should be promoted and paid for. One way to do it is to permit physicians to practice telemedicine across state lines. It would supply instant access to expertize at an affordable cost.

Everything possible should be done to encourage consumer responsibility and provider competition.

The present tax code does the opposite. Consumers in-group plans provided by large and small corporations receive their healthcare insurance from the corporation with tax-free dollars.

The larger the corporation the more leverage the corporation has for negotiating the premiums with the healthcare insurance companies.

The BBD Groups volume of consumers would have tremendous leverage with providers.

The younger and healthier the corporate employees are the lower the premiums.

The formation of associations with large memberships of all ages would lower the cost of healthcare. Large associations would have great leverage in negotiating price with providers. They would also spread the risk.

Self- insured associations such as the BBD Group would also spread the risk and lower the cost.

Tax deductibility must be given to these “individual” insurance policy holders and association policy holders so they are, in reality, paying for healthcare insurance with pre-tax dollars the same as the corporate group plan policy holders.

These simple changes in the law would result in an affordable healthcare system that was market driven by consumers. The changes would force providers and the healthcare insurance industry to become competitive.

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone

 All Rights Reserved © 2006 – 2018 “Repairing The Healthcare System” Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

 

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The Healthcare System Needs Disruption

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

The announcement that Amazon.com, JP Morgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway are forming a non-profit company to try to improve the American healthcare system caused some ripples in the stock market.

The mere specter of its disruptive potential was enough to send some investors scurrying away from large payer providers like UnitedHealth, Aetna and Humana.

The reason for the panic is obvious. These large insurance companies have been ripping off the healthcare system for decades. They have had their fortunes improved with Obamacare and its regulations. They are afraid they are going to lose their stronghold.

The three innovations, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet and Jamie Diamond are disruptors that might destroy UnitedHealth, Aetna, and Humana’s kingdom.

Mitch McConnell has supposedly taken Repeal of Obamacare off the agenda for 2018.

I believe Mitch McConnell doesn’t know what to do about Obamacare. He is hoping that it fails on its own. He has passed the budget that will force the government to cover the tremendous financial short falls the defectives in the structure of Obamacare is going to precipitate.

Only then will the public hear about Obamacare’s effect on America’s budget deficit.

The American taxpayer will be force to continue to fund this failed program.

Obamacare has failed because of its structure. It encourages over use of the healthcare system by sick people. It does not encourage consumers to be responsible for their health and healthcare dollars.

The Democrats and the Republican establishment have failed the American consumer again.

Bravo to three of America’s premier disruptors Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet and Jamie Diamond.

If they bother to understand the elements of medical care and the reasons for the healthcare systems dysfunction they have a chance for success.

If they follow the previous attempts to repair the healthcare system by the government, healthcare insurance industry and hospital systems they will fail miserably just as these other institutions have failed.

“The industry certainly offers plenty of opportunities for reinvention, of course. Healthcare in the United States is expensive, and its quality varies wildly.” says Christopher Rowe, managing director at Korn Ferry.

Jeff Bezos has the best shot at reducing drug price significantly. The government cannot negotiate prices. The private carriers through drug benefit plans do a little better.

The military and the VA system do 30 to 75% better than Medicare Part D and the private sector.

Jeff Bezos knows how to market via the Internet. With the large cadre of consumer employees of Jeff Bezos Warren Buffet and Jamie Diamond, Mr. Bezos can probably negotiate the drug prices down by at least 50%. I’ll bet he can negotiate drug prices almost as low as the VA system and also provide the pharmaceutical companies an increase in reimbursement for their drugs.

Mr. Bezos usually eliminates most of the middlemen. He will be able to offer the medication at a 40 or 50% lower price than Medicare Part D and the private benefit managers and still make a sizable profit while providing a better quality of service.

He knows the customer is the consumer.

When it comes to the delivery of medical care and the use of technology in the delivery of medical care, I am not sure Bezos, Buffet and Diamond know who the real customers are.

I am not sure they know how to get around the stronghold the healthcare insurance industry, the federal government and the hospital systems have over the control of healthcare.

Many other corporations have tried to break the stronghold and have failed.

I will try to tell Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet and Jamie Diamond what they have to do in my next blog.

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone

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It Is Getting Worse

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

Charles Gabe’s graph of enrollment as of 12/9/2017 was published with only six days of open enrollment left.

There are only 5,894,342 confirmed enrollees. There is no indication of how many enrollees paid the first month’s premium. The low-ball estimate was 7.2 million.

Of those enrolled only 3,604,44 were enrolled in President Obama’s Health Insurance Exchanges to buy healthcare insurance.

2,289,902 were enrolled in Medicaid. The number of illegal immigrants in that number is unknown.

December 15th is the deadline for enrollment in 42 states. Eight states have already extended the deadline.

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This is an extremely disappointing outcome for Democrats who refuse to believe Obamacare has failed. Last year the Democrats and President Obama were bragging that Obamacare provided healthcare insurance for 20 million people.

The problem was that 13 million of those 20 million were enrolled in Medicaid and of the 9 million who bought insurance through the health insurance exchange many did not complete their premium payment for the whole year.

The government subsidized eighty-five percent of those people who bought healthcare insurance through the health insurance exchanges.

Organized medicine has not provided leadership for the medical and surgical community or its patients.

In turn medical professional feel powerless. I believe the profession is about to give up on trying to influence positive change in the healthcare system for its benefit and its patients benefit.

A reader, D.F. M.D., responded to my last blog writing;

“That nothing much is happening in Washington re: healthcare reform may be one of the largest blessings our country has seen this year.”

It might be a blessing because the politicians do not have a clue as to what can be done to repair the healthcare system.

Politicians are not interested in listening to physicians or patients. The people that stand to lose the most in this dilemma are patients.

D.F., M.D. goes on,

 “ We are agreed that our congress hasn’t done much, but there are other activities afoot that will almost certainly be game changers and they are largely un-noticed when it comes to their impact on healthcare services.”

his is very true. When President Trump was running for president he kept declaring that the “government” made the worse deals for the American people with NAFTA, Iran nuclear deal, and the pacific trade deal. He essentially called President Obama and congress stupid.

Now congress is asking big business to help them out of the healthcare mess. The pending take over of medicine by big business is going to destroy medical care in America while they are claiming to save the healthcare system.

D.F. MD writes

“The CVS/Aetna merger, and today’s announcement that United Healthcare is buying DaVita, a healthcare group with over 300 sites of service to add to it’s Optum, segment, with 1,100 care sites of various sorts, not to mention US Oncology, owned by McKesson, that sees about 14-15% of patients with cancer in the US.”

The corporate take over of medical care is growing daily. Without physicians and patients there would not be a need for a healthcare system. Physicians have voluntarily given up their intellectual property and freedom to use their own clinical judgment to the will of corporations.

America is in the early stages of this phenomenon. Medical care is becoming a commodity. Physicians and patients have given up the thought of a personal relationship embodied in the physician patient relationship. Good medical care (in my opinion) is predicated on the patient physician relationship because much morbidity and negative emotional responses to treatment can vanish with an effective patient physician relationship.

Truly, corporate medicine, once outlawed in many states, (for good reason) is on track to become the biggest player in healthcare.  Add to that the report that 60% of physicians are now employed by hospitals, which is in some ways creating a body of spokespersons for healthcare that has not been seen before.”

The result is massive Medicare and Medicaid cost overruns that are not approved by congress. The Democrats are trying hard to blame the costs overruns and Obamacare’s failure on President Trump without good reason.

However, the media is the message and the media is on President Obama and the Democrats side.

D.F., MD continues,

“I have always believed that the medical profession though organized medicine has been remiss by maintaining a low profile where change is concerned, either in the development of programs or the creation and passing of legislation.”

Edward Annis M.D. a former president of the AMA was organized medicine leaders who lead the fight to outlaw corporate take over of the healthcare system and the takeover of medical practice. Dr. Annis wrote an excellent book called Code Blue in 1993.

A reviewer,  Frank J. Primich M.D. in 1994 wrote;

“Code Blue takes its name from the most common term used by hospital public address systems to signify cardiac arrest.

The announcement sends an assortment of specially trained personnel scurrying to the designated site. Modern techniques and technology, when given the timely opportunity, have been highly successful in restoring life.”

“The protagonist in Dr. Annis’s book is the private practice of medicine, which has been declared dead by some of its adversaries. Resuscitation requires an understanding of what has gone wrong, and what can be done about it.”

Dr. Annis was right on target. No one involved in organized medicine has taken this stand presently.

The reviewer goes on;

“In every field, there is an internal rating system. Ed Annis is the acknowledged superstar of those of us who have pleaded the cause of fee-for-service medical practice and maintenance of the traditional doctor-patient relationship.”

All of the healthcare policy wonks and congress people ignore the importance of the physician patient relationship. When they get sick and do not have a patient physician relationship they yearn for one.

“The same time span has seen a steady encroachment into the process from a variety of third parties, particularly government.”

“The concept of socialized medicine, discredited elsewhere in the world, has been introduced, through gradualism, to the point where we are now, in effect, semi- socialized. The current proposals for national health care threaten to push us beyond the point of no return.”

These quotes were taken from the article written in 1994 at the peak of the Hillary-care debate. Wilbur Mills started the socialized medicine debate in America in 1935.

D.F. MD note goes on to say,

“Now they are increasingly tied to large business entities one sort or another.”

 Soon, advocates for patients with no financial axe to grind may end up being only us old retired docs, some of whom have retired because of “improvements” like the electronic medical records which have managed to make their developers rich while not doing all that much to enhance patient care. Unfortunately the old docs lack organization, money, and voice.”

Organized medicine has not provided leadership to help patients understand that when large corporations take over the infrastructure of medicine medical care will be totally commoditized and the important physician patient relationship will be lost forever.

 “Then there are the CBO projections https://www.cbo.gov/publication/53090 which are sometimes wide of the mark, but which the liberal media trumpet as the gospel in projecting the effect on patient care is certain healthcare reforms are enacted and implemented.”

 “The result of all that is that almost anything that is proffered as change is shouted down by one interest group or another, often by people who don’t have much of a clue re: what they are protesting about.”

DF, MD

The only thing that can turn this trend around is patients and a consumer driven healthcare system along with some organized medicine leadership.

   

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone

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Consumers Need To Take Back Their Medical Care And Healthcare Dollars

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

A consumer driven healthcare system is the solution to the dysfunctional and unaffordable healthcare system that americans are presently experiencing.

President Trump wants to create the conditions for consumers to take responsibility for their medical care and their healthcare dollars.

The negative noise in the mainstream media should be ignored.

The Obamacare health insurance exchanges have failed. The Democrats and establishment Republicans should realize that the health insurance exchange plan was a defective system that it can not be repaired with patches and more money.

President Trump has signed an executive order to permit private associations to sell insurance. There are many associations that a person could belong too. Consumers could shop for the right association at the right price.

Democrats are behaving as if associations are a foreign enemy.

UnitedHealth has contracted with AARP (an association) to sell Medicare supplemental insurance. UnitedHealth sells this insurance across state lines.

USAA has contracted with Humana to sell Medicare supplemental insurance and Medicare Drug coverage.

There are many supplemental plans that consumers can choose from in these associations. These plans are sold across state lines and are competitive.

The government has to change the tax law to treat individual healthcare insurance plans bought through the associations to be paid for with pre-tax dollars just as the employer sponsored group plans do.

However, associations selling healthcare insurance are only the first step in empowering consumers.

A well-known retired physician (DEF M.D.) sent me his view on what consumers need to be aware of to survive any healthcare system. He calls it

“My Three Rules For Survival”

Remember my three rules for survival:

1) Stay the hell away from doctors.

They always either want to do something or prescribe something, and all too frequently do both.

A large part of this physician reflex is their need to practive defensive medicine. Physicians are afraid they might miss something and get sued.

Major tort reform is necessary in most states. Defensive medicine accounts for $250 billion to $700 billion dollars in unnecessary expenses each year.

I have outlined the steps necessary to remedy the malpractice (tort) crisis and its resulting overuse of testing and medication.

If anyone in President Trump’s administration wants to review the issue in full click on this link.

http://stanfeld.com/?s=Tort+reform

Nobody confronts the reality you mentioned , people are too fat, they drink too much and smoke, AND they don’t even think about the importance of, and benefits from, exercise.

 I started a war on obesity many years ago. Public officials and poly wonks have ignored my suggestions.

It would be worthwhile to read my post about obesity.

http://stanfeld.com/?s=war+on+obesity

The cost to all of us (including them) of all this denial of personal responsibility is huge!  We need to find ways to get people to focus on taking care of themselves, or to create cost incentives that will encourage them to do so.

While you are in this reading mood you should check out my pleas for the importance of patient responsibility.

ttp://stanfeld.com/?s=patient+responsibility

We simply cannot continue on the path we are on. I don’t recall ever seeing a patient on a “scooter”, and many in wheelchairs that are obese, and only getting fatter and fatter over time.

     2) Take as little medicine as you can.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers are continuing to drive up the cost of their products and are making enormous profits as a result.  Data is available re: the necessity of people getting medicines that they don’t really need, especially if taken long term on an ongoing basis.

To that, one can add the cost of unnecessary procedures that often leave patients worse off than they were before.  Direct to the public advertising of prescription medications creates demand that is often unaccompanied by benefit.

More and more current information regarding side effects and late effects of medications need to be provided, and not just put into the “fine print” on the package stuffers.

     3) Stay out of hospitals.

 They are dangerous places, with a high prevalence of patient injuries and deaths due to various sorts of medical errors that occur all too frequently, despite a host of quality improvement projects that are well-intended, but would be better in terms of effectiveness if they were made public on a regular basis.

 Scott Atlas makes good arguments for encouraging patients to “price shop” for services they must have.  To that information should be appended information about outcomes of what is proposed, which could, over time, become both hospital-specific and physician-specific.

I have expanded on Scott Atlas’ Wall Street Journal article in my last blog.

http://stanfeld.com/the-plan-to-empower-consumers-of-healthcare/

Most doctors and most hospitals have not much of a clue as to the outcomes of the services they provide their patients.

And, that is probably plenty for today.  DEF”

Consumers need to be educated to become aware of the many pitfalls involved in their new responsibility.

The educational process can be accomplished with online information and chat sessions. The government could provide the education necessary.

Consumers also need financial incentives to be encouraged to be responsible for their care and their healthcare dollars

This can be accomplished with my ideal medical saving accounts.

http://stanfeld.com/?s=ideal+medical+savings+accounts

Then and only then can we have a consumer driven healthcare system that will lower the cost of healthcare.

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone

 All Rights Reserved © 2006 – 2017 “Repairing The Healthcare System” Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

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The Plan To Empower Consumers Of Healthcare

 Stanley Feld M.D., FACP,MACE

The only way to empower consumers of healthcare is to allow them be responsible for their health and healthcare dollars.

The delivery of medical and surgical care has progressed markedly in the last sixty years. Life expectancy has also increased.

At the same time medical care has become unaffordable and the cost of healthcare has become unsustainable.

The incidence of obesity has risen every year. Over fifty percent of Americans are obese. The percentage is rising yearly.

Obesity begets many chronic diseases and subsequently the complications of these diseases.

Physicians can treat these complications fairly well but the treatment of these complications comes at a high cost.

How do you decrease obesity in America?

How do you get people to be responsible for their health and healthcare dollars?

One of the key elements in decreasing obesity is to give consumers financial incentives to use the healthcare system efficiently.

ObamaCare went in the wrong direction. Its regulations—including required “essential benefits”—raised prices on these plans and limited their availability.”

The only incentive Obamacare provided was the incentive to overuse the system. This was especially true for patients on Medicaid. They had zero premiums and deductibles.

A second tool for motivating patients to consider price is large liberalized health savings accounts. These tax-sheltered accounts are generally used to pay for the noncatastrophic expenses that form the bulk of medical care.

First, equip consumers to consider prices.”

 Critics always claim this is unrealistic: Are you supposed to shop around from the back of the ambulance?

 The critics use the ambulance excuse argument to eliminate the possibility of consumers using their own judgment to make price decisions.

But emergency care represents only 6% of health expenditures.”

“For privately insured adults under 65, almost 60% of spending is on elective outpatient care. “

The critics argument is that consumers do not know how to shop prices. Consumers are smarter than the critics think. It would be easy to teach consumers to shop prices.”

http://stanfeld.com/the-failure-of-the-republican-establishment-to-repeal-and-replace-obamacare/

“My ideal medical saving account provides that financial incentive to not overuse the healthcare system. The many articles about my ideal medical saving accounts are attached to this link.

Likewise, nearly 60% of Medicaid money goes to outpatient care.”

 Medicaid patients also overuse the healthcare system.

“ For the top 1% of spenders—a group responsible for more than a quarter of all health expenditures—a full 45% is outpatient.”

These patients can be identified as outliers and educational vehicles can be created to decrease this overuse of the system.

In my opinion Medical Savings Account are better than Health Savings Accounts. Medical Savings Accounts take the money out of the healthcare insurance company’s hands and delivers it to consumers.

Both HSA’s and MSAs have the unique advantage of providing and financial incentive to save.

When people have savings to protect in HSAs, the cost of care drops without harmful effects on health. 

 The financial incentive decreases the overuse of the healthcare system.

“ According to a 2012 study in Health Affairs if even half of Americans with employer-sponsored insurance enrolled in this kind of coverage, U.S. health expenditures would fall by an estimated $57 billion a year.”

My ideal Medical Savings Accounts provide an even a greater financial incentive and should decrease costs even further.

“ HSAs should be available to all Americans, including seniors on Medicare. Given that seniors use the most health care, motivating them to seek value is crucial to driving prices lower.”

Scott Atlas has publicized the obvious. This would apply to Medicaid recipient also. The details for Medicaid recipients can be found in my article “My Ideal Medical Savings Accounts Is Democratic. “

The maximum contribution to a MSAs should be raised to $6000 or $7000 dollars. If a consumer get sick and experiences a cost of $6000 he should receive 100% (first dollar) coverage through a reinsurance policy that would cost less than $6000.

There can be many variations on this theme for the consumers benefit.

 When a person with an HSA dies, the funds should be allowed to roll over tax-free to surviving family members.  

This financial incentive should be added to My ideal Medical Savings Account.

“The information that patients require to assess value must be made radically more visible. A 2014 study on magnetic resonance imaging showed that price-transparency programs reduced costs by 18.7%.”

A consumer driven system would force providers to compete for patients. Information on price could easily be provided to consumers by the government and the healthcare insurance industry.

“The most compelling motivation for doctors and hospitals to post rates would be knowing that they are competing for price-conscious patients empowered with control of their own money.”

 In his age of technology and rapid communication telemedicine should be promoted and paid for. One way to do it is to permit physicians to practice telemedicine across state lines.

It would supply instant access to expertize at an affordable cost.

Everything possible should be done to encourage consumer responsibility and provider competition.

The present tax code does the opposite. Consumers’ in-group plans provided by large and small corporations receive their healthcare insurance from the corporation with tax-free dollars.

The larger the corporation the more leverage the corporation has for negotiating the premiums with the healthcare insurance companies.

The younger and healthier the corporate employees are the lower the premiums.

This is where the formation of associations with larger memberships of all ages fits in to lowering the price of healthcare. Large associations would have great leverage in negotiating price with insurance companies. They would also spread the risk.

If financial incentive with my ideal medical saving account was added to the price the association negotiated and the consumer paid for the premium, usage would fall and the cost of insurance would decrease.

Tax deductibility must be given to these “individual” insurance policy holders and association policy holders so they are, in reality, paying for healthcare insurance with pre-tax dollars as the corporate group plan policy holders.

These simple changes in the law would result in an affordable healthcare system that was market driven by consumers. The changes would force providers and the healthcare insurance industry to become competitive.

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” are, mine and mine alone

 All Rights Reserved © 2006 – 2017 “Repairing The Healthcare System” Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

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