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Researchers chart path to drastically lower administrative costs of health care

med.stanford.edu

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Re: Researchers chart path to drastically lower administrative costs of health care

#111

Post by throwawayboise »

DonnyV wrote: post #97
trentnix wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Worthless paper, administrative costs is only a piece of the many issues with US "Healthcare". Medicare For All is the better and cheaper way forward. As frustrating and arcane as the current system may be, the government fully in charge for the provisioning (rationing) and financing will only increase 'worthless paper, administrative costs'.

The government would act as an insurer, that is all. All hospital services stay private. And having all medical services have to go through one system to get paid would streamline it SIGNIFICATLY.

If they are the only payer, they control the prices. And when prices are controlled, shortages are the result.

Re: Researchers chart path to drastically lower administrative costs of health care

#112

Post by tryptophan »

heymijo wrote: post #69
jostmey wrote: post #2

I agree with the three issues they identify driving up costs. But I fear “Medicare for All” won't fix all the issues, which go much deeper. For example, the US has extremely high standards restricting who can practice medicine compared to the rest of world, limiting the supply of doctors and artificially driving up their demand. There is a need for standards, but perhaps the AMA has too much political influence. Like…

I just realized Physician Assistants (PAs) and Nurse Practitioners (NPs) have been forgotten in this equation. 126,000 practicing PAs [0] 325,000 licensed NPs [1] 985,000 practicing physicians (MDs and DOs) [2] I know that nurse practitioners are not under the same artificial residency constraints of MDs/DOs. I'm not sure about physician assistants. For someone not in the U.S., NPs and PAs often do the same role as g…

PA/NA education is a complete joke compared to what your average MD gets.

They are not qualified to practice as general doctors at all.

However, they are really cheap, which is why corporations are pushing them so hard. Substandard care in the name of profits.

Re: Researchers chart path to drastically lower administrative costs of health care

#113

Post by andrewlgood »

DonnyV wrote: post #101
andrewlgood wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free goods have infinite demand. Medicare for All will simply degrade outcomes a lower common denominator. Interestingly, will the government allow private medical practices to exist in a Medicare for All regime? If so, it seems we would simply end up where we are now.

With Medicare For All the government would act as an insurer, that is all. All hospital services stay private.

But it would be paid for by taxes spread across the tax-paying citizens. It would appear to all people in the US that their healthcare is free as they are not directly paying for it. Hence infinite demand.

Re: Researchers chart path to drastically lower administrative costs of health care

#114

Post by andrewlgood »

hpoe wrote: post #4

Recently I got laser eye surgery to help my vision. This was not covered by my insurance. It also happened to be the simplest medical procedure/payment I ever had to interact with. They told me "this procedure will cost $X.XX and we have a discount we can offer you that will save you X%" I said okay and paid them the money. Compare that to insurance being involved recently in my wife's diabetes supplies. My wife is a…

Simpler question is why you have to go through your health care insurer to buy the diabetes supplies. One of the distortions of having healthcare insurance paid for by companies is it makes it tax deductible. Thus $100 spent on healthcare by the company only costs them $60. If you paid the expense directly, it would cost you $100.

Imagine if auto insurance were eligible to be provided by your company as a tax deductible expense. We would all be buying our gasoline through our car insurance company.

Re: Researchers chart path to drastically lower administrative costs of health care

#115

Post by dantheman »

podgaj wrote: post #71
dantheman wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Emergency care is a tiny portion of all healthcare costs.

In 2017 ED healthcare costs were $76 billion. That is about 10%. Just go on amazon and try to buy something if you think finding the "cheapest price" would help people get healthcare. But also, am I supposed to suffer higher prices because of my specific illness that they can charge whatever they want?

Lots of ED health care costs aren't emergency, and the reason they can charge whatever ever the want is because of special government privileges.

It's much easier to address the cost of non ED care and since it's 90% of spending, that seems like a good place to start?

Re: Researchers chart path to drastically lower administrative costs of health care

#117

Post by andrewlgood »

JamesBarney wrote: post #72
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #43

What a joke. The only thing that would lower the costs would be to increase the competition, but the government has allowed merger after merger after merger (in health insurance, and in providers, just like everything else lately), taking away more and more pressure to compete. Why is every other ad on TV for one of the car insurance companies? Competition, which drives down price. The way to fix US health care is to…

Health insurance merges help drive down costs. Provider merges drive up costs. Health insurance is the buyer of medical care, so when they are monopsony (buyer side monopoly) they drive down costs.

They also reduce choice and supply. They get to decide who gets what treatments. The death panel analogies sound ominous, but at the end of the day they are accurate. Someone has to decide what will be covered. For most people, if it is not covered, it won't be done.

Re: Researchers chart path to drastically lower administrative costs of health care

#118

Post by NoGravitas »

andrewlgood wrote: post #91
DonnyV wrote: post #29

Worthless paper, administrative costs is only a piece of the many issues with US "Healthcare". Medicare For All is the better and cheaper way forward. No one ever talks about what is the value all these Health Insurance companies bring? The whole point of their existence when they were created was to control costs. Obviously they have failed miserably. Medicare For All handles lowering or eliminating student loans fo…

Free goods have infinite demand. Medicare for All will simply degrade outcomes a lower common denominator. Interestingly, will the government allow private medical practices to exist in a Medicare for All regime? If so, it seems we would simply end up where we are now.

> Free goods have infinite demand.

I, too make unnecessary doctor appointments and hospital trips because my insurance covers them. I've developed a paraphilia for having blood drawn, and I'm considering having some perfectly functional limbs amputated.

Re: Researchers chart path to drastically lower administrative costs of health care

#119

Post by nradov »

podgaj wrote: post #53
jostmey wrote: post #2

I agree with the three issues they identify driving up costs. But I fear “Medicare for All” won't fix all the issues, which go much deeper. For example, the US has extremely high standards restricting who can practice medicine compared to the rest of world, limiting the supply of doctors and artificially driving up their demand. There is a need for standards, but perhaps the AMA has too much political influence. Like…

The bottleneck is the cost of medical school. That cost is linked to the colleges raising prices because they can. Medicare for All will surely help this, but free college will help as well. The U.S. is like a dysfunctional family where the parents will not pay for the kids college even though they have the money.

The cost of medical school is not a bottleneck. Lower prices would be nice, but even with current high prices all accredited medical schools have essentially full enrollment.

The real bottleneck is in lack of federal funding for residency programs. Every year students graduate from medical school with an MD but are unable to practice medicine because they don't get matched to a residency slot.

Re: Researchers chart path to drastically lower administrative costs of health care

#120

Post by syops »

sjg007 wrote: post #34
tgb wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's some good reason to think that residencies are profitable: in 2019, 550 of them were auctioned off for $55 million in a controversial bankruptcy case. https://www.inquirer.com/business/hahnemann-university-hospi...

So residences are basically taxi medallions. Interesting.

They are taxi medallions to newly graduated MDs but not to the hospital. Without a residency slot MDs often times are relegated to a lifetime of med school debt servicing.
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