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Medicare is Not Cheap For Either Seniors Or The Government: Part 3: The Real Issues Needed To Be Solved To Reform The Healthcare System Reform

 

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

President Obama is pushing a healthcare reform plan that will fail. However something has to happen and he is creating a populous uprising.

The reason it will fail if his healthcare reform plan is passed is the government cannot afford to pay for Medicare coverage for all. . Expanding coverage to the entire population will create bigger unsustainable defects in addition to the present unsustainable defects for seniors.

Private corporations and small businesses cannot afford to pay for private healthcare insurance coverage either. It is looking for a way to unload their private insurance obligation. The public option will be a way to do it.

This is the dilemma. The present public debate is not discussing the real issues. Healthcare coverage should be universally available at an affordable cost and be high quality. There is no argument with President Obama’s goals. The route he is taking will increase bureaucracy, decrease efficiency of medical care, restrict access to care, decrease quality of care and increase the cost of care. It will also increase government control over healthcare delivery and decrease patient choice.

What are President Obama’s options for reducing the cost of healthcare coverage if he gets his proposal passed?

a. Reduce the medical care coverage to patients

b. Ration care

c. Increase the patient deductible costs

d. Increase patients premiums

e. Decrease payment to physicians and hospitals

f. Decrease administrative waste

g. Decrease profits of healthcare insurance companies who will be the government’s administrative service provider. .

h. Decrease unnecessary medical treatments. Who decides what is unnecessary?

Other options not on the table

i. Develop a plan for end of life ethical decisions. Politicians are not interested in discussing this issue.

I wonder what Ted Kennedy’s bill will be and who will be paying it?

j. Decrease defensive medicine practices by instituting effective tort reform. President Obama said he is not considering this and received boo’s at the AMA meeting. He believes the lawyer claim that the cost is insignificant.

k. Decrease physicians’ overhead by decreasing rent, paperwork, committee meetings and needed full time employees for the excessive administrative work.

The government should develop an ideal electronic record and charge users by the click. Upgrades and maintenance would be free. It would create a completely functional EMR. President Obama 50 billion dollar plan will make vendors rich and have little impact on electronic medical record development.

l. Decrease Healthcare insurance industry’s administrative waste. It will not occur in a non price transparent and cost transparent environment.

m. Decrease patient abuse or the healthcare system.

n. Fund effective chronic disease management program.

There is no plan for re-teaching physicians how to run chronic disease management programs. A few poorly designed studies outsourced chronic disease management to proprietary disease management companies. The failed to report improvement in outcomes because they were not extensions of the primary physicians care.

o. Define responsibilities in the therapeutic unit (physician and patient). Patient physician contracts for chronic disease.

Who is responsible for the defects in the healthcare system leading to increased costs?

I believe these are the key questions to ask. Once answered, systems can be set up to correct the defects. The easiest group to blame is physicians. They are the least organized, the least effective lobbying group and the least generous to politicians.

1. Who is responsible for obesity?

Patients become obese by overeating and under exercising. Food industry by producing cheap high caloric value processed food. Government through subsides encourages food industry and farm industry to produce these food. There is little public service campaign to discourage obesity.

2. Who is responsible for AID’s infection?

Patients by sexual habits and behavior. Government has conducted public service education campaign that has encouraged effective prevention but has not been intense enough.

3. Who is responsible for drug and alcohol addiction?

Patients are responsible for their behavior. There are no public service campaigns that discourage this behavior. Many of our entertainment icons encourage the masses misbehavior.

4. Who is responsible for smoking?

Patients are responsible for this behavior. Government has been effective in promoting a non smoking policy. The tobacco companies have gotten around government efforts. Agricultural policy has not discouraged tobacco growth.

5. Who is responsible for air pollution leading to chronic lung disease, asthma and lung cancer?

The government is with its lack of a coherent environmental policy. The bill passed by the House of Representatives does not decrease pollution. It increases the cost to pollute. It is defective in have many negative exceptions.

6. Who is responsible for the epidemic of Diabetes Mellitus, lung disease, end stage renal disease, and osteoporosis?

All the stakeholders with the government most responsible for not having a positive health policy

6. Who is responsible for the high cost of insurance?

The healthcare insurance industry with the nature of its price structure, the practice of defensive medicine by physicians, the patients with first dollar coverage, the government by not enforcing regulations.

The Obama administration is focused on the wrong reforms. It is talking about expanding a broken non functioning system. All the actions by the various stakeholders are driven by perverse incentives. All of these perverse incentives are driven by economics. The economic morass has evolved since the introduction of Medicare in 1965. Most political decisions are driven by vested interests protecting their economic interests.

In order to create an affordable and functioning healthcare system for all, President Obama and his team should be discussing how to align all the stakeholders’ vested interests so all are satisfied with the economic outcomes. The consumers are the primary stakeholder. The systems should be built to empower the consumers. President Obama should be focused on decreasing these factors and issues that stimulating our excessively expensive and dysfunctional healthcare system.

With his stimulus program for electronic medical records and his proposed healthcare plan he is throwing good money after bad. The money will be wasted and the healthcare system will not be improved. More people will be covered by healthcare insurance. The healthcare insurance coverage will be restricted by the government as a third party and not by the patients. Less medical care will be available and that will be bad.

I discuss most of these issues and the solutions in my blog http://stan.feld.com. The summary blogs are at   http://stanleyfeldmdmace.typepad.com/repairing_the_healthcare_/2009/06/summary-blogs-to-repair-the-healthcare-system.html

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

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John McCain’s Plan for Healthcare System Reform Is Much Worse Than Barack Obama’s Healthcare Plan. Part 4

 

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

I feel it is necessary to evaluate John McCain’s healthcare plan point for point. His task force does not understand the basic problems in the healthcare system. This is the last part of my analysis of John McCain’s healthcare plan because he doesn’t have anything else to say. The healthcare system will remain unchanged. He is not a patient advocate. He will permit the control of the healthcare system to remain in the hands of the healthcare insurance industry. Patients should be in control of their healthcare dollar.    

A Specific Plan of Action: Lowering Health Care Costs Continued

John McCain Proposes A Number Of Initiatives That Can Lower Health Care Costs. If we act today, we can lower health care costs for families through common-sense initiatives.

How?

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:

Greater Use Of Information Technology To Reduce Costs. We should promote the rapid deployment of 21st century information systems and technology that allows doctors to practice across state lines.

Is this an information technology plan? No! Many have tried to stimulate the use of information technology. All of the attempts have failed so far for good reason. My ideal EMR describes the barriers to the use of information technology by physicians that John McCain seems to be unaware of.

He also seems fixated on destroying the state control of regulating the healthcare insurance industry. The states have done a poor job of protecting the consumer against the healthcare insurance industry. Allowing physicians to practice across state lines will weaken state control and state medical and insurance board even further at a time they are trying harder to protect the consumer.

MEDICARE:

Reforming The Payment System To Cut Costs. We must reform the payment systems in Medicaid and Medicare to compensate providers for diagnosis, prevention and care coordination. Medicaid and Medicare should not pay for preventable medical errors or mismanagement.

The payment system needs to be reformed. Cognitive medical care must be recognized and appropriately compensated, if we are going to make progress with chronic disease management. John McCain does not explain how that will cut costs. Reforming the payment system can start encouraging the use of systems of care for chronic disease management. Who is going to train physicians groups to practice chronic disease management and how much will that cost? John McCain wants to hand Medicare to the healthcare insurance industry. I believe this action will be a disaster.

SMOKING:

Promoting The Availability Of Smoking Cessation Programs. Most smokers would love to quit but find it hard to do so. Working with business and insurance companies to promote availability, we can improve lives and reduce chronic disease through smoking cessation programs.

This is an important point. Again, the proposal is open ended. There is no financial advantage for patients to stop smoking. 

STATE FLEXIBILITY:
Encouraging States To Lower Costs. States should have the flexibility to experiment with alternative forms of access, coordinated payments per episode covered under Medicaid, use of private insurance in Medicaid, alternative insurance policies and different licensing schemes for providers.

This policy sounds like it is going to redirect the costs of entitlements to the states. He also want the states to shift Medicaid to the private healthcare insurance companies.  The states can not afford to increase Medicaid spending without increase local taxes. John McCain would be happy with this because he would not raise federal taxes. 

TORT REFORM:

Passing Medical Liability Reform. We must pass medical liability reform that eliminates lawsuits directed at doctors who follow clinical guidelines and adhere to safety protocols. Every patient should have access to legal remedies in cases of bad medical practice but that should not be an invitation to endless, frivolous lawsuits.

This is the most specific part of John McCain specific plan for healthcare reform. It is absent from Barack Obama’s plan. If the proposal is effectively designed it would decrease the cost of the practice of defensive medicine. It would also decrease the cost of physician malpractice insurance. The result would be lower medical costs. 

TRANSPARENCY:

Bringing Transparency To Health Care Costs. We must make public more information on treatment options and doctor records, and require transparency regarding medical outcomes, quality of care, costs and prices. We must also facilitate the development of national standards for measuring and recording treatments and outcomes.

John McCain’s transparency must be real transparency. Real price transparency means cost of producing the service compared to the prices charged for that service by healthcare insurance companies, hospital systems, and physicians. It sound as if price transparency will be directed at physicians. It will be an unsuccessful initiative if it is only directed at physicians.  

Confronting the Long-Term Challenge
John McCain Will Develop A Strategy For Meeting The Challenge Of A Population Needing Greater Long-Term Care. There have been a variety of state-based experiments such as Cash and Counseling or The Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) that are pioneering approaches for delivering care to people in a home setting. Seniors are given a monthly stipend which they can use to hire workers and purchase care-related services and goods. They can get help managing their care by designating representatives, such as relatives or friends, to help make decisions. It also offers counseling and bookkeeping services to assist consumers in handling their programmatic responsibilities.

This is about the only innovative idea in the entire healthcare policy that is directed to the people. It is a concrete idea with some hint of operational strategy. This proposal is strange. It will create subsidized service for elderly. John McCain is against entitlement programs and yet offers a new entitlement. It is a contradiction in his philosophy in order to attract the senior vote.

I have described John McCain’s entire healthcare policy. He does not tell us how he is going to make his sound bites operational. He has little idea of what to do about the “broken” healthcare system except to protect business and the healthcare insurance industry at the expense of the people.

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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.

Copywrite 2006-2020  

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 Republican Establishment’s Failure

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP, MACE

I am coming to the conclusion that the Republican establishment does not want to Repair the Healthcare System.

The Republican establishment has the same goal as the Democratic establishment.

Recently the mainstream media is saying that a single party payer system is looking good.

Neither party has any interest is having consumers control their healthcare dollars. It looks as if both parties want the government to control the consumer’s healthcare dollars.

All the politicians ignore the fact that government control is unaffordable. It also ends up not working.

The best example is the bureaucratic VA Hospital System and its system wide corruption.

A reader wrote:

I have read your last blog post carefully and agree with many of the points put forward but there is a glaring omission.” 

 “How are patients supposed to be responsible for their healthcare dollars when there is absolutely no transparency and no consistency in pricing.”

The lack of transparency is a major defect in our present healthcare system.

Only 20% of consumers use the healthcare system at any one time. Eighty percent of the consumers have not run into the lack of transparency problem in the healthcare system.

Most consumers do not care about transparency because they have first dollar coverage provided by their employer. They think their medical care is free. They believe they have excellent healthcare insurance.

President Obama took care of that notion with Obamacare. The defective structure of Obamacare caused healthcare insurance premiums and deductibles to skyrocket. First dollar healthcare insurance became too expensive for most employers.

Employers stopped providing first dollar coverage. Middle class employees are now noticing that out of pocket expenses have made their healthcare insurance unaffordable. Consumers have tried to compare prices of competitive providers. They have discovered that it is impossible!

Consumers are becoming aware of the lack of transparency. They have been astonished by this lack of transparency.

There is nothing in the new Republican bill that addresses Republican politicians’ awareness that the lack of transparency is a major defect in the healthcare system.

The lack of transparency is only one of the major defects in our healthcare system.

There is nothing in the Republican bill that speaks to the consumers’ responsibility for their health and healthcare dollars. Consumer driven healthcare is completely ignored.

There is nothing in the bill that addresses effective tort reform. The Massachusetts Medical Society survey showed that defensive testing to avoid lawsuits costs the healthcare system between $250 billion to $700 billion dollars a year.

The lack of the development of systems of care for chronic diseases cost another $700 billion dollars a year that our healthcare system does not address. There is nothing in the bill that emphasizes this very important defect in the healthcare system.

The Republican establishment thinks consumers are too stupid to take care of themselves.

The mainstream media likes to tell us that people love entitlements. The public does not want to give up these entitlements.

My question is how come less than 9 million people signed up for Obamacare’s individual healthcare plans last year if they love entitlements?

It is because they cannot afford to buy the health exchange insurance even though 85% of the premiums of those 9 million consumers are subsided by the government. Their high deductibles are not subsidized.

The Republicans are going claim they are promoting health savings accounts. The public is not told the amount of money they can put into a health savings account or whether it will provide first dollar coverage over that amount if they get sick.

There is no financial incentive for consumers to be responsible for their healthcare or their healthcare dollars.

My Ideal Medical Saving Account is a much better idea.

These are only a few of the major defects in the Republican establishment’s concept to fix the healthcare system.

President Obama did some of the awful things to Obamacare through rules and regulations after certain vested interests complained about the law. Obamacare’s rules and regulations have to be eliminated

There were crony waivers that would make one’s blood boil. In fact, elected congressional members got the best exemptions.

It is becoming apparent that congress doesn’t want to fix the healthcare system for the majority of Americans. The congressional establishment wants to control consumers.

Socialism does not work!

Socialsim for blog

Our political establishment does not tell us about the economic result in other countrys’ single party payer universal healthcare systems.

We don’t have to go to other countries. We only have to go to the indigent areas in California were everyone is covered by Medicaid.

The Republican establishment needs to get off the stick before all of them are kicked out of congress.

Just imagine the healthcare systems savings if every consumer were empowered to shop for the best healthcare at the best price.

The result would be a free market healthcare system in which competition would cleanse the system and make it affordable to everyone.

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

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

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It Is All about How You Look At Things

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Senate Republicans Are Making Repeal and Replace Harder Than It Should Be

 Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

I think the Republican establishment in the senate is trying to undermine President Trump’s agenda.

It would be easy to repeal and replace Obamacare if the reasons for its failure where publicized. The main reason is that it does not align the initiatives of most of the stakeholders. The cost of administration is a close second.

Obamacare is about redistribution of wealth and control over the healthcare system. It ends up penalizing the middle class the most because of premium increases.

People like entitlements because they are free. Someone else is paying for them.

Politicians want to keep their jobs. They do not want to upset people who receive these entitlements.

“But the revisions may well alienate the Senate’s most conservative members, who are eager to rein in the growth of Medicaid and are unlikely to support a bill that does not roll back large components of the current law.

Even with more moderate Republicans on board, party leaders would have a very narrow margin for passage on the Senate floor.”

The healthcare insurance companies do not want to lose money selling healthcare insurance. They are getting out of the healthcare market because, by their calculations, they are losing money.

The Republicans establishment in the Senate want to continue to provide subsidies to the healthcare insurance industry.

Congress needs the healthcare insurance industry’s ability to provide administrative services whether it is for Medicare, Medicaid, health insurance exchange coverage (Obamacare) or private insurance.

The government’s goal is to provide enough financial incentives for the healthcare insurance industry to provide affordable healthcare insurance coverage while saving money.

President Obama subsidized the healthcare insurance industry for any perceived losses through the Obamacare reinsurance program. Then President Obama reneged on the agreement. He only paid 12% of what was owed according to the insurance industry’s calculations..

Democrats want a single party payer system. They want everyone on Medicare or Medicaid. It is simple. The result is the government provides healthcare insurance for everyone. Everyone receives first dollar coverage. This would be the mother of all entitlements.

The single party payer system would also provide the government with tremendous power over the people. It would control consumers’ freedom of choice.

Along with this simple single party system comes a complex bureaucracy with all the inefficiencies that I have described previously.

Consumers would be chained to the inefficient healthcare system. The inefficiencies in the system have been graphically demonstrated by the VA Healthcare System and its ever increasing costs.

It would be nice if a single party payer system were efficient and affordable. Canada has a universal healthcare system. Canadians who are not sick and do not need their healthcare system believe the Canadian system is great.

They ignore the fact that the Canadian provinces are paying 50% of their GNP to provide free healthcare to all Canadians.

Canada’s health-care wait times costing patients many millions in lost time, wages”

Ontarians wait longer for health care than citizens of other universal health-care countries”

The fact is single party payer systems do not work for all the stakeholders.Both Democrats and Republicans are missing the essential point about what would work to provide an affordable healthcare system that aligns the incentives of all stakeholders.An essential element is to develop a system that encourages consumers of healthcare to be responsible for their health and have control over their healthcare dollars.

The Senate’s present revision does not consider this. The Senate is considering the needs of the healthcare insurance industry and not the needs of consumers.

The Senate should be considering the following in order to repeal and replace Obamacare.

  1. My Ideal Medical Savings Account should be instituted immediately. It will provide financial incentives for consumers as well and incentives to maintain health.

Self-management of chronic disease is essential for a healthcare system to become affordable. My Ideal Medical Saving Account provides that financial incentive.

1. The Ideal Medical Saving Account will provide instant adjudication of medical care claims.

  1. The ideal Medical Savings Accounts will encourage patient responsibility for their health, the care of their disease and their healthcare dollars.
  2. The Republican Party should establish an organized system of disease management education for persons with chronic disease. The education system should be designed to be an extension of physicians’ care. It should not be a free-standing education system. Physicians should be provided with incentives to set up these educational systems.

http://stanfeld.com/chronic-disease-management-and-education-as-an-extension-of-physicians-care/

  1. A system of social networking with physicians and their patients should be developed. The government could provide the template for physicians and their team.

http://stanfeld.com/social-networks-patient-education-and-the-healthcare-system/

The networks could be physicians to patients networks, patients to patients networks, patients to their physicians’ healthcare team networks. These networks need to be an extension of the physician’s care. All encounters should be imported to the patient’s chart with certain restrictions.

  1. Social networking between physicians should also be developed.
  2. Integrated care systems with generalists to specialists must be developed for both treatment and cost transparency for the physicians and patients.
  1. There must be instant communication between physicians and patient via an effective electronic medical record. The EMR must be a teaching tool for physicians. It must not be a tool to judge physicians’ care and penalize them. The EMR should be cloud based. Maintenance and upgrades should be free and seamless. Physicians should be charged by the click.

http://stanfeld.com/?s=EMRs

  1. Tort Reform is an essential element in a healthcare system that would work and be affordable. It would decrease the cost of over testing. It would also decrease the cost of malpractice insurance and legal fees. These cost are built into the cost of care. The cost of care would be reduced significantly. http://stanfeld.com/?s=tort+reform

The goal of effective healthcare reform should be to align all the stakeholders’ incentives. Patient incentives should be at the center of this alignment.

Align patient 1

Align government

Obamacare did not bother to try to align any of the primary stakeholders’ (patients and physicians) incentives. In fact Obamacare destroyed the patient/physician relationship.

The house bill to repeal and replace Obamacare touches on some alignment.

The senate is fighting about issues that are not significant in aligning all stakeholders’ incentives.

The healthcare system will not be repaired until all the stakeholders’ incentives are aligned. Healthcare policies must be put in place to align those incentives.

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

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

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Who Is Tom Price M.D. ?

Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

Tom Price M.D. is an Atlanta orthopedic surgeon who had practice orthopedic surgery in a group at Emory University Medical School and who had been active in the Georgia medical Association.

“Thomas Edmunds “Tom” Price (born October 8, 1954). He is an American physician and Republican politician who is currently the 23rd United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. Price was the U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 6th congressional district, encompassing the northern suburbs of Atlanta from 2005 until his resignation in 2017. Price served as chairman of the House Budget Committee[1]and had previously served as chairman of the Republican Study Committee and the Republican Policy Committee

Dr. Price is a patient/physician advocate. All the secondary stakeholders such as insurers, the government establishment, hospital systems, and pharmaceutical companies are terrified of him.

The Democrats are terrified of him because they are afraid he is going to take the evolving government control of healthcare away from the government and try to put it back in the patients’ hands.

The American public had not heard much about Dr. Price from the mainstream media. The mainstream media’s message to the public is he had a hard time getting confirmed by the Senate.

He really should not have had a hard time getting confirmed by the Senate. The Senate Democrats made it look as if there was something wrong with his nomination.

His confirmation should have been a slam-dunk. He was eventually confirmed.

Dr. Price is a strong, gentle, quite man. I think he has mostly figured out how to repair the healthcare system.

There are several soft spots in his previously passed bill. It didn’t matter then because President Obama vetoed it.

Hopefully these have been fixed. I noticed malpractice reform is a big part of his present blue print. Plaintiff attorneys are terrified. Tort reform is finally is on the agenda.

I hope President Trump listens to him. The Republican establishment seems very timid for some reason. Perhaps it is afraid of failure.

The health insurance industry does not know what is in the replacement bill.

It is trying to generate doubt about the wisdom of his replacement bill for Obamacare with the following statements that the public doesn’t understand.

1.   The health insurance industry claims that Dr. Tom Price is going to assault narrow networks.

2.   He will force reimbursement tied to outcomes and related value-based models.

3.   He wants doctors in control of the healthcare system

4.    He wants tort reform.

5.    He wants doctors paid from insurers with fewer hurdles and less barriers.

The healthcare insurance companies are terrified of the abbreviated blueprint. The blueprint represents a threat to the healthcare insurance industry’s power over the healthcare system in both the government and the private insurance sectors.

The mainstream media is babbling about a lack of harmony in the Republican Party. In the next few weeks we are going to hear how disorganized the Republicans in congress are.

Democrats claim the Republicans do not have anything better than Obamacare. They are starting to make up stories about what the Republicans do or do not have. Everything is designed to make the public nervous about President Trump and his administration. These stories are parroted by the Democrat’s ally, the mainstream media.

Meanwhile, the Democrats, the mainstream media, and the public do not know what will be in the replacement act after Obamacare is repealed.

President Trump. Paul Ryan and Tom Price know if all the details are released now most of it would be attacked out of context by the mainstream media.

The Democrats’ goal would be to make the public uncertain about the Republican replacement bill. The Democratic ally, the mainstream media, is all ready spreading the misinformation about the replacement without knowing what is in it.

I even saw a poll published in the mainstream media that said more people like Obamacare than don’t like it.

This is a fake poll. It does not represent the sentiment of the majority of the people.

The political chicanery on the part of the Democrats and the biased mainstream media can be overwhelming.

I do not think the political chicanery is going to overwhelm the public, President Trump or Paul Ryan. I believe they have figured out the Democrats and the media.

Some Republicans have a slightly different opinion on how Obamacare should be replaced. Political action groups oppose some of the methodology being used to replace Obamacare.

The groups—including Heritage Action, the Club for Growth and Freedom Partners, a super PAC funded by billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch—are troubled by the notion of refundable tax credits to help consumers pay for health insurance, a central tenet of Mr. Ryan’s plan that President Donald Trump appeared to endorse in his address to Congress last week.”

“They also are deeply opposed to a commitment to temporarily maintain an expanded form of Medicaid, as numerous GOP governors are demanding.”

Paul Ryan is trying to transition out of Obamacare so that the 11 million new Medicaid patients and the 9 million Obamacare patients do not lose their insurance as the new Republican plan is put in place. Someone does not understand the word temporary.

Several in congress want immediate repeal and replacement. I believe this will give the Democrats more fuel for the fire to subvert anything Republicans are trying to accomplish.

Reps. Mark Walker (R., N.C.), chair of the Republican Study Committee, and Rep. Mark Meadows (R., N.C.), chair of the Freedom Caucus, both announced their opposition to the Republican leadership’s plans last week. Each of those groups includes dozens of conservative lawmakers, meaning if either bloc votes against Mr. Ryan’s plan, it almost certainly wouldn’t pass.

“To the extent that they’re doing something else with this plan other than full repeal, the concerns that conservatives in the House are expressing are completely valid,” said Michael Needham, chief executive of Heritage Action.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/conservative-groups-jeopardize-gop-plan-to-repeal-affordable-care-act-1488715237

It is important to remember that190 million Americans and their families receive healthcare insurance from their employers. Obamacare has negatively affected employers. The increases in costs, access, deductibles and coverage provided by employers have negatively impacted employees.

Both are demanding relief. These people, at town hall meetings, have made it clear to the Republican congressmen and Senators not to slow down Paul Ryan and President Trump. They want relief and they want it fast.

I believe President Trump will help Paul Ryan get a bill through congress that will provide relief for the entire population.

Hopefully, they have included some of my suggestions.

I am certain that Republicans will work out their differences before they present the bill to the people and the congress.

It the meantime I would suggest that Republics and Democrats keep the noise of the demagoguery down.

The United States of America desperately needs a financially sustainable healthcare system that will provide everyone with access to affordable healthcare.

We have seen that Obamacare is not that system.

The opinions expressed in the blog “Repairing The Healthcare System” is, mine and mine alone.
All Rights Reserved © 2006 – 2017 “Repairing The Healthcare System” Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE
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President-elect Trump Part 9

Stanley Feld M.D., FACP, MACE

I am extending my discussion on the importance of malpractice reform because politicians ignore the potential costs and decreased access of care resulting from the present system.

In 2003, Texas Governor Rick Perry and the Texas legislature unenthusiastically changed tort reform laws in Texas.

I thought it was inadequate tort reform. It turned out that the meager reform has had great results.

Rick Perry and the Texas legislature ended plaintiff attorneys’ practice of venue shopping for friendly judges.

They also put a cap of $250,000 on noneconomic damages like pain and suffering.

These reforms have changed the malpractice climate in Texas. The reforms limited plaintiff’s attorneys’ profitability on frivolous liability claims.

Texans believe that because of these reforms and the lack of a state income tax, Texas has become the country’s best state for economic growth and job creation.

A Perryman group report concluded,

“Perhaps the most visible economic impact of lawsuit reforms is the benefits experienced by Texans who have better access to high-quality healthcare.”

 

“Doctors and hospitals are using their liability insurance savings to expand services and initiate innovative programs; those savings have allowed Texas hospitals to expand charity care by 24%.”

The medical malpractice business for plaintiff’’s attorneys has dried up in Texas. plaintiff’s attorneys are moving to other states.

Physicians are applying for licenses to move to Texas from other states.

“In 2001, according to the American Medical Association, Texas’ ranking in physicians per capita was a dismal 48th out of 50.”

“Beginning in 2003, physicians started returning to Texas. The Texas Medical Board reports licensing 10,878 new physicians since 2003, up from 8,391 in the prior four years.”

 “Dr. Perryman, subsequent to the issuance of his Report, informed TLR Foundation that at least 1,887 of those physicians are specifically the result of lawsuit reform.”

 The Texas Hospital Association reported a 70% reduction in the number of lawsuits filed against the state’s hospitals.

Medical liability insurance rates declined. Many doctors saw average rates drop 20% to 50%.

The American Medical Association removed Texas from its list of states experiencing a liability crisis; marking the first time it has removed any state from the list.

A survey by the Texas Medical Association also found a dramatic increase in physicians’ willingness to resume certain procedures they had stopped performing, including obstetrics, neurosurgical, radiation and oncological procedures during the Texas malpractice crisis.

Two simple changes in the tort laws made malpractice suits unprofitable for plaintiff attorneys.

Rick Perry has been so impressed with the results of his tort reforms that he wanted to extend his state’s impressive tort reform record.

Mr. Perry is proposing a British-style “loser pays” rule, which would require plaintiffs to pick up the legal costs of their targets if they lose their suits.

The Wall Street Journal showed that Ezekiel Emanuel malpractice cost estimate was wrong. It is not $25 billion year.

According to the Pacific Research Institutes estimate it is at least $242 billion dollars a year. I think the cost is closer to $750 billion dollars.

 

President-elect Trump, there are other consequences of the present malpractice liability system in the U.S. that cannot be measured in dollars.

One is alawsuits emotional wear and tear on both patients and physicians,

In order to avoid potential lawsuits physicians are avoiding high-risk patients and high-risk patient procedures. The result is a decrease in patient access to necessary care.

The details of the Massachusetts Medical Society Defensive Medicine 2008 survey is profoundly important in explaining trends in the healthcare costs due to the lack of malpractice reform.

Unfortunately, the mainstream media has published only meaningless sound bites about malpractice reform significance.

The survey’s significance has not had the impact on policy it should.

The authors state that the dollar estimates do not include the diagnostic procedures, hospital admissions, specialty referrals and consultations, or unnecessary prescriptions by physicians in specialties not included in the study.

The eight specialties surveyed represent only 46% of the physicians in the Massachusetts. The real costs to the healthcare system from the practice defensive medicine in the state of Massachusetts are much higher.

I believe the costs of defensive medicine in many other states are also much higher because in many states malpractice awards are higher. This encourages litigation.

President-elect Trump, defensive medicine is a huge burden nationally to the healthcare system. Its costs will undermine any attempt at healthcare reform. You must take medical malpractice liability reform seriously. There has to be a fundamental change in the structure of adjudication.

The survey’s findings must be studied carefully. The physicians surveyed estimated their percentages for defensive medicine testing to avoid lawsuits.

The real percentages can be studied objectively using big data. . Nonetheless the current estimates reveal unsustainable waste in our dysfunctional healthcare system.

Radiological imaging is one tool overused by physicians defensively to avoid litigation. Physicians feel they must test everything even if the probability of a positive result is insignificant.

“Plain Film X-Rays: An average of 22% of X-rays were ordered for defensive reasons.”

“CT Scans: An average of 28% of CT scans were motivated by liability concerns, with major differences among specialties.”

About 33% of scans ordered by obstetricians/ gynecologists, emergency physicians, and family practitioners were done for defensive reasons.

The total number of unnecessary CT scans needs to be calculated along with its costs in order to understand the significance of the percentage presented.

The health policy solution should not be to lower the reimbursement for CT scans. The solution is to fix the medical malpractice liability system.

MRI Studies: An average of 27% of MRIs were ordered for defensive reasons, with significant differences by specialty.

Obstetricians/ gynecologists, general surgeons, and family practitioners reported the highest rates, with the lowest rates by neurosurgeons and emergency physicians.

Ultrasound Studies: An average of 24% of Ultrasounds were ordered for defensive reasons. Orthopedic surgeons (33%) and obstetricians/gynecologists (28%) reported the highest rates, with neurosurgeons (6%) and anesthesiologists (9%) the lowest.

I believe neurosurgeons are underestimating their use of radiologic procedures in order to look good. Neurosurgery is one of the specialties with the highest malpractice rates.

Please note that obstetricians/gynecologists take no chances and order the most procedures for defensive purposes.

Laboratory Testing:

An average of 18% of laboratory tests were ordered for defensive reasons, with emergency physicians (25%) reporting the highest rates and neurosurgeons (7%) the lowest.

Specialty referrals, consultations and hospitalizations are overused the most for defensive reasons. No one wants to take a chance and send the patient home even if the indication for hospitalization is small.

Specialty Referrals and Consultations:

“An average of 28% of specialty referrals and consultations were motivated by liability concerns, with significant differences by specialty.

 Obstetricians/gynecologists reported that 40% of their referrals and consultations were done for defensive reasons, and anesthesiologists and family practitioners said that 33% of their referrals and consultations were done for the same reasons.”

Hospital Admissions:

An average of 13% of hospital admissions were motivated by liability concerns, with surgical specialties reporting lower rates than the other specialties.

The cost of defensive medicine is very high and extremely wasteful.

The repair of the dysfunctional malpractice system is simple. The system must decrease financial incentives for plaintiff’s attorneys to file frivolous lawsuits.

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

All Rights Reserved © 2006 – 2015 “Repairing The Healthcare System” Stanley Feld M.D.,FACP,MACE

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