• May 2008 FEATURE ARTICLES •
From the Editor
A Nation at Risk
By Michael McBride, Editor-in-Chief
With the recent opening of the "Hospital
Compare" Web site (www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov), the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS) may be leading the race to
transparency in healthcare and, consequently, to consumerism.
The site’s tiny font makes it a challenge to
read and it is somewhat non-intuitive to navigate (typical of
many government Web sites), nevertheless, it contains a plethora
of information and tools for comparing hospital quality of care
and results.
For example, I learned that my own hospital
compared favorably to the rest of the nation when it comes to
providing discharge instructions following a heart attack (69
percent versus 66 percent nationwide). However, when compared to
two other local hospitals it did not fair as well (69 percent
versus 98 percent for the other two). This is the type of
information savvy healthcare consumers want and need. We choose
homebuilders this way, why not caregivers?
I could also compare the average Medicare
payment for heart attacks (with and without complications) in my
area versus the national average. I’m not sure how a consumer
could use this information, but it’s information, nonetheless.
It seems likely that true change in
healthcare will be driven by health plans, and since Medicare
accounts for about 40 percent of all claims (a number that will
only increase), it makes sense that CMS/HHS would accomplish
this now. Because, "As goes Medicare, so goes the nation" and,
as we all should be aware by now, Medicare is in trouble.
According to the latest annual report from
the program’s trustees, Medicare will be broke by 2019 if
something drastic isn’t done to save it. However, the point of
no return may be reached as early as next year when, according
to the report, Medicare’s costs will exceed the tax revenues
that pay for it, just in time for 78 million boomers to start
receiving their benefits. It seems impossible that such dire
predictions would be ignored — but they are.
The trustees have made these predictions for
quite some time, but Congress is not sufficiently incentivized
to fix the problem. In a recent news conference, Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson warned that if no change is made,
"rising costs" will "consume nearly all projected federal
revenues and threaten America’s future prosperity." We’re
talking about our children and grandchildren’s futures, but the
mainstream media seems uninterested and these statements
received little coverage.
The elderly comprise the fastest growing
population in America; however, the number of practices
accepting new Medicare patients is decreasing because Medicare
reimbursements are diminishing, requiring doctors to work harder
and harder to earn less and less. If Congress doesn’t wake up
and focus its attention on keeping Medicare solvent, this
country is heading for a catastrophic financial event from which
no amount of transparency or consumerism in healthcare will save
us.
We teach our children not to leave important
tasks to the last minute, but Congress seems determined to play
political dodge ball with one of the most important tasks this
nation has ever faced.