Here’s an Idea: Asking Doctors about Health Care Reform
The New York Times just published a very interesting article that ties the efforts of the medical community to bring about change in the American health care system with Congress’s attempts to reform health care through legislation. The article, which details the research of a team of health care providers in the Intermountain Healthcare system in Utah and Idaho, offers insight into what doctors are doing on their own to effect change while waiting for our nation’s leaders to implement the means to better health care for Americans.
As can be seen by American Medical Association’s recent endorsement of the Democratic House bill, and the long time call of the National Physician’s Alliance for reform, there is a consensus among health care providers for health care reform.
Of course, essential in that reform is delivery system reform. Part of delivery reform is likely to emphasize not only preventive care, a cornerstone of Obama’s plan, but also a careful monitoring and consideration of the outcomes of health care practices. Although there is debate about the best way to monitor and measure such practices, and some bridle at the prospect of being “confined” to protocols derived from large studies, the evidence-based medicine model is emerging as a favored tool with which to analyze how health care providers themselves can produce more cost-effective, life-preserving results. Evidence-based medicine puts protocols in place (which may be overridden at a doctor’s discretion) and relies heavily on the statistical analyses of a health care system’s performance (i.e., patient outcomes from particular practices). Such is the model executed by the Intermountain Healthcare system highlighted in the Times article.
The protocols ultimately implemented sometimes differ from the usual course of treatment offered by some doctors. The physicians at Intermountain Healthcare admit that it is often hard for doctors to hear that they are doing something wrong– or perhaps “not optimally” would be a better choice of words. The Executive Director of Intermountain Healthcare Institute for Healthcare Delivery and Research, Brent James, relates that some doctors do not believe the results of the statistical research because doctors are reluctant to change their ways, but that oftentimes when presented with clear statistical evidence doctors change their practices.  He gives the example of obstetricians who were performing elective inductions prior to 39 weeks for pregnant women for the sake of convenience, as the inductions save hours of labor for the mothers and therefore hours of hospital time. However, an analysis showed that babies born prior to the 39th week of gestation were far more likely to wind up in intensive care. After doctors saw the data, and protocols were put in place, James found that the rate of elective inductions fell dramatically. A similar protocol developed for the treatment of one form of pneumonia was said to have cut the rate of death for that condition by 40% over several years.
Some doctors contend, however, that the medical metrics of evidence-based models are not the best way to bring change in health care practice, both because doctors will feel pressured to follow set protocols without considering other possible treatments and because humans are not statistical data that can be remedied through calculations and formulas. The danger, of course, is in negating the healing art– in throwing the proverbial baby– independent critical thought– out with the bathwater. Doctors of this school of thought often espouse revamped medical education as a better way to reform health care practices; after all, the basis of how health care providers develop their practices is the way in which they were/are taught.
And one wonders if there isn’t room for both approaches. If the education of medical students can be changed to incorporate better and cost effective practices based on studied outcomes (perhaps in part culled from the Health IT initiatives), and changed to incorporate greater emphasis on preventive care (coupled of course with a pay system which rewards patient wellness), while still respecting doctor autonomy so as not to prepare a generation of medical robots. It doesn’t sound “un-doable.”
Interestingly enough, medical schools have seen an increase in students applying to their programs. In response, four new American medical schools have opened. With the older generation of health care practitioners on its way to retirement, the need for more doctors is imminent. But, we need doctors that are able to help carry the new ideals and practices of a reformed health care system; reaching into the med school curriculum would seem to make a lot of sense.
Two New Reports Look at Increases in Health Care Spending
Filed under: Medicaid, Medicare, Private Insurance
Photo by whatadqr via Flickr
The Wall Street Journal reports that CMS estimates overall U.S. health care spending will reach $4.35 trillion in 2018, accounting for one-fifth of GDP. The findings by CMS were published Tuesday in the journal Health Affairs. In 2009, U.S. health care spending is expected to reach $2.5 trillion, a 5.5% increase from 2008.
The CMS study expects government health care spending to increase by 7.4% to $1.19 trillion this year. However, the study forecasts that, by 2016, the government will pay for more than 50% of total health care spending. The increase in government health care spending is expected to come from baby boomers enrolling in Medicare and increased enrollment in Medicaid.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reports that Medicare spending continues to vary widely across the U.S., according to a report to be published today in The New England Journal of Medicine.
According to The Times, Dartmouth researchers found that:
The regional differences in the growth of Medicare spending suggest doctors are helping to drive up costs when they more frequently order tests or admit patients to the hospitals. In areas where there are plenty of hospital beds and sophisticated imaging equipment available, doctors generally spend more on their patients.
Dr. Elliott S. Fisher, the director of the Center of Health Policy Research at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and one of the work’s authors, told The Times that:
[A]ny attempt to rein in health care costs . . . needs to address how doctors and hospitals are paid, where they are rewarded on the basis of the volume of services they perform.
