Comments on: Study Supports Obama Health Savings Plan http://themoderatevoice.com/26753/study-supports-obama-health-savings-plan/ An Internet hub with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, indies, centrists, moderates, and right Mon, 28 May 2012 20:15:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: Holly_in_Cincinnati http://themoderatevoice.com/26753/study-supports-obama-health-savings-plan/comment-page-1/#comment-174410 Holly_in_Cincinnati Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:24:22 +0000 http://themoderatevoice.com/26753/study-supports-obama-health-savings-plan/#comment-174410 Wall-To-Wall Coverage Of The Budget And Health Care On The TREATMENT<br><a href="http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_treatment/default.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_treatment/de...</a> Wall-To-Wall Coverage Of The Budget And Health Care On The TREATMENT
http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_treatment/de…

]]> By: DaGoat http://themoderatevoice.com/26753/study-supports-obama-health-savings-plan/comment-page-1/#comment-174407 DaGoat Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:02:22 +0000 http://themoderatevoice.com/26753/study-supports-obama-health-savings-plan/#comment-174407 Hopefully the original article will be more complete, but while hospitals lose money by avoiding admissions they also lose money on lengthy wasteful admissions. There already is a incentive for hospitals to keep admissions as inexpensive as possible - DRGs (diagnosis-related groups). These are already used by Medicare. What happens is Medicare pays the hospital a flat fee per admission based on diagnosis (pneumonia, chest pain, whatever). If the hospital spends less than the DRG amount they keep the money, if not they take the loss.<br><br>What this article is implying is that the spending differences are based on doctors ordering less tests and consulting less specialists. The most common reasons to over-utilize testing and specialists are 1. fear of being sued and 2. meeting patients expectations. The most likely reason a patient would be referred to an ER for a scratched earlobe would be that the doc was afraid of being sued if there was something really bad going on.<br><br>So this article doesn't appear to go far enough. It's not a matter of just changing the physician behavior, it's also changing patient expectations and the legal environment, something politicians don't have much stomach for. Hopefully the original article will be more complete, but while hospitals lose money by avoiding admissions they also lose money on lengthy wasteful admissions. There already is a incentive for hospitals to keep admissions as inexpensive as possible – DRGs (diagnosis-related groups). These are already used by Medicare. What happens is Medicare pays the hospital a flat fee per admission based on diagnosis (pneumonia, chest pain, whatever). If the hospital spends less than the DRG amount they keep the money, if not they take the loss.

What this article is implying is that the spending differences are based on doctors ordering less tests and consulting less specialists. The most common reasons to over-utilize testing and specialists are 1. fear of being sued and 2. meeting patients expectations. The most likely reason a patient would be referred to an ER for a scratched earlobe would be that the doc was afraid of being sued if there was something really bad going on.

So this article doesn't appear to go far enough. It's not a matter of just changing the physician behavior, it's also changing patient expectations and the legal environment, something politicians don't have much stomach for.

]]>