Reducing Costs While Improving the U.S. Health Care System: The Health Care Reform Pyramid
Source: Deloitte LLP

In recent history, health care reform efforts have fallen short as a result of two forces: The economics of the status quo make change an uphill battle for reformers and end users – consumers – have not demanded major changes.

The system’s economics fuel its growth and sometimes retard reform efforts that might otherwise slow the cost spiral. Incentives encourage more physician visits, diagnostic tests and medical procedures. Coordination of care across sites and organizations is not promoted nor are incentives adequate in preventive and chronic care management. Intramural conflicts among stakeholders keep tensions and distrust high – plans versus providers, specialists versus primary care, for-profit versus not-for-profit, and so on. Often, the tensions are well-intended protectionism of a view or role; sometimes they’re rooted in grabs for power or monetary gain.

Whatever the reasons, momentum to maintain the status quo is generally stronger than the will to change. As a result, incremental changes are the norm.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 at 3:21 am and is filed under Business and economics, Consumer issues, Health and healthcare. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.