Psychiatric News September 17, 2004
Volume 39 Number 18
© 2004 American Psychiatric Association
p. 8
Other Options To Control Costs
If consumer-directed health care is used primarily as a tool to shift costs
from employers to employees, it will be quickly discredited, argues Karen
Davis, Ph.D., president of the Commonwealth Fund.
Instead, she proposes five steps to help achieve a high-performance health
care system:
- Public reporting of cost and quality data. The routine collection of
comprehensive quality measures across a broad range of providers is necessary
to improve performance.
- Investment in information technology. Other countries, with financial
support from their governments, are surpassing the United States in adopting
the use of electronic medical records and electronic prescribing.
- Development of guidelines and standards. Establishing a National Institute
on Clinical Excellence and Effectiveness could provide a scientific basis for
the effectiveness of drugs, consultations, procedures, and tests.
- Rewarding performance. Medicare and private insurance tend not to reward
better care, including better management of high-cost conditions. Medicare can
and should be a leader in promoting more effective care and should help to
encourage private payers to reward higher quality.
- Investment in research. The federal government annually pays $455 billion
for health care in the United States but devotes only $300 million to the
budget of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. More research
regarding ways to improve care, eliminate waste and ineffective care, and
promote greater efficiency is crucial to improving the performance of the U.S.
health system.
Related Article:
-
Consumer-Driven Health Plans Not Total Answer to System Fix
- Kate Mulligan
Psychiatr News 2004 39: 8-10.
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