Cartoon – You’re too old to blame everything on your parents
Monthly Archives: September 2016
Cartoon – Home care isn’t an Option
Cartoon – European vs. American Style Healthcare
How a bite from a stray dog shows the sick state of U.S. healthcare
Jan Kern was bitten by a stray dog while traveling abroad and ended up with a jaw-dropping illustration of why the U.S. healthcare industry is completely sick.
That’s because she underwent a series of rabies shots in three countries at four medical facilities. What that revealed, and which will surprise no one, is that Americans pay way more for the exact same treatment than people in other nations.
Moreover, her experience highlights the lack of uniformity for drug prices, including commonly used medications. One facility might charge a few bucks for the same drug that costs thousands of dollars at a U.S. hospital.
“There’s no rhyme or reason to our medical system,” said Rick Kern, 61, who contacted me about his 62-year-old wife’s global healthcare adventure after reading my recent column on drug prices.
What’s great about his story as well is that, after I shared it with about a dozen healthcare experts, the consistent reaction was one of utter disbelief. We’re accustomed to shaking our heads at U.S. healthcare costs. Things become significantly more absurd when a couple of overseas medical facilities are stirred into the mix.
“It’s obvious that our system is unlike any other health system,” said Uwe Reinhardt, a healthcare economist at Princeton University. “Other systems were set up to care for patients. Ours was set up by the providers — the hospitals and drug companies — for their own benefit.”
Surge in hospital-owned physician practices poised to increase healthcare costs
- Independent physicians and physician-owned practices could soon become a rare breed, suggests a new analysis by Avalere Health and the Physicians Advocacy Institute (PAI) released Wednesday.
- The study found the percentage of physicians employed by hospitals or health systems rose 86% from 2012 to 2015, from 95,000 to more than 140,000.
- As of mid-2015, 38% of all U.S. physicians were employed by hospitals and health systems, findings show.
- Also from 2012 through 2015, hospitals acquired 31,000 physician practices, resulting in one in four medical practices being hospital-owned.
How some providers are stoking entrepreneurial fires to ensure healthy financials
In an era of falling inpatient rates and value-based reimbursement, hospitals and health systems are seeking new ways to grow their revenue streams. For some, that has meant wearing an entrepreneurial hat and marketing home-grown solutions.
One example is the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which two years ago created UPMC Enterprises to develop and commercialize novel technologies.
Cleveland Clinic details hits to operating margin
http://www.healthcaredive.com/news/cleveland-clinic-details-hits-to-operating-margin/425703/
- The Cleveland Clinic’s latest financials show the hospital system ended the first half of 2016 with a significantly lower operating margin than at the same time in 2015, landing at 1.2% after the six-month period that ended June 30, 2016 vs. 5.6% in June 2015.
- Although the system’s revenue went up 17% during this period compared to last year, reaching $3.93 billion, that revenue failed to keep pace with a 23% increase in expenses.
- The system had anticipated a smaller margin this year, Cleveland Clinic chief financial officer Steve Glasstold Modern Healthcare, partly as a result of increased investments in new care-delivery models and consultants to manage those projects, as well as providing raises to medical and other employees to retain in-demand clinicians.
The Next Trillion Dollar Industry Is Inside You
http://bigthink.com/videos/alec-ross-on-genomics-as-the-next-trillion-dollar-industry
Modern medicine is pretty fantastic, right? Wrong. Wow, you walked right into that honey trap. Pharmaceuticals are incredibly impressive and most of us wouldn’t be alive without them, but this industry is set to skyrocket in innovation over the next few decades, making our current practices seem as primitive as the 130-pound mobile phone that seemed really futuristic in ’90s.
Cartoon – Do You have Reservations?
Cartoon – Active Non-Listening
HENRY KOTULA 