Okay, I am still thinking about healthcare reform. I hope you are as well because we need the workers and thinkers who dwell in the healthcare arena to speak up and speak out. We need to be the problem solvers. Later this week, President Obama and members of Congress will gather to discuss solutions. It is important for us to stay tuned but we have much work in front of us, no matter what.
Periodically, I will gather thinkers or information and report on different perspectives to provide fodder for the rest of us to consider, mull and hopefully discuss. I just heard an interview with the CEO at Cleveland Clinic, Toby Cosgrove, M.D. Check out the link but I have also included some key bullet points below – in most cases, the bullet points below are direct quotes from the interview posted on Fortune, February 17, 2010, on CNN/Money:
- We do not have a system of health-care delivery in the U.S. It’s a series of mom-and-pop shops all over the country, and it has not been systematized.
- So regardless of what happens [with reform], we can really only try to contain the rate of inflation. The cost is going to go up over time.
Cost drivers? Areas to seek improvement?
- Let’s take obesity [as a health concern and cost driver.] It accounts for 10% of the cost of health care in the U.S. — we will never be able to control the cost of health care until we begin to control the epidemic of obesity. Two-thirds of the U.S. is overweight, and one-third is obese. We are the fattest nation in the world.
- [When considering preventive measures for employees,] it’s always been a question of “What’s the ROI on this?” Until very recently, people didn’t realize the ROI is probably 3 to 1: For every dollar invested, you get three back in terms of employees being better.
- Three things — smoking, diet, and lack of exercise — cause 40% of premature deaths in the U.S. They contribute to 70% of the chronic diseases, things like emphysema and heart disease. And that’s 75% of the cost of health care. It’s huge!
How Cleveland Clinic is different:
- Very few hospitals are organized the way we are. First, all of us have salaries. It doesn’t make any difference, if I’m a cardiac surgeon, whether I do two heart operations a day or four. I take home the same amount of money at the end of the week. So there’s no incentive to do extra tests or any of that.
- Second, we all have one-year contracts, and we have annual professional reviews. So the quality of the doctors is controlled, there’s no tenure, and if you don’t make it, you don’t get a pay raise or you may not stay. That is one of the most important things we do. It’s quite different from most places, where doctors can practice for as long as they want to practice.
- We are physician-led, which is quite different from most medical organizations…
How will hospitals change?
- There are a lot of very successful for-profit hospitals. I think what we’re going to see is a roll-up of hospitals. I don’t think it’s reasonable anymore to think that each hospital can be independent — have its own financial support, its own purchasing, its own back office. You need efficiency.
- We have an electronic thing called MyChart, where you can go on the Internet and read your record. Few other hospitals around the country have done it. But we think it’s the patients’ information. It’s about them. We’re working for them. Why shouldn’t they have the data?
Here is the link to CEO of Cleveland Clinic interview once more…it is worth reading Dr. Cosgrove’s thoughts and the interview is well done. Keep the conversation going!
Tags: healthcare cost driver, healthcare model of delivery, healthcare reform, preventive care
