The only sure way to lower costs is to limit services. Now, we can all hope that the AMA and others who are pushing this agenda, will, in the end, have the good graces to make sure that the only things that are cut are the “wasteful” tests and procedures, as well as the “unnecessary utilization” of services. In almost all cases, best practices guidelines have significant areas of disagreement among competent providers. Reducing administrative burdens on providers should be a priority as these burdens do nothing to promote population health and in fact take away from time physicians may spend being physicians. Hospital readmission, as we have mentioned before, may well be due in no small measure to over zealous case review seeking to discharge patients too early. Recall, what may be a simple procedure in a 25-30 year old, may take on new risks when the patients age passes 50. Eliminating unnecessary costs is a good thing, just so long as in the process we do not also eliminate that which IS necessary . . . obi jo
AMA pledge focuses on lower rate of growth in total health spending
AMA President-elect J. James Rohack, MD, elaborated on the meeting between the AMA and several other health care stakeholders with President Barack Obama in multiple media formats, commenting twice on Fox Business Network and discussing the issue in a guest column on KevinMD.com. The pledge to reduce the rate of growth in health spending has been misconstrued by some observers; the focus is on eliminating unnecessary costs, such as administrative burdens from health insurers, and for physicians to apply best practices to avoid unnecessary utilization of services, such as hospital readmission.
AMA pledge focuses on lower rate of growth in total health spending – http://www.phlebology.org/20090518_AMA_HSR_Bulletin.pdf
Policing Medicare Fraud: Worth The Effort? – http://healthcare.nationaljournal.com/2009/05/policing-medicare-fraud-worth.php
Are health groups’ voluntary actions enough? Likely not – http://www.mcclatchydc.com/economy/story/67939.html
www.ama-assn.org
www.condron.us
www.blogburst.com
www.bloglines.com
www.blogcatalog.com