NPR: Spend More, Get Less? The Health Care 'Conundrum'

A few points in this audio podcast that stood out for me:

1. The Medical Practitioners were hesitant to admit they were practicing over utilization until they were confronted with the numbers.  After that, they admitted they were ordering an extraordinary amount of tests as defensive medicine against lawsuit liability.  
2. When Gawande said to the interviewer, the question is.."When is medicine a profession and when is it a business" 
3. More people die from complications of surgery than due to car accidents.  

I applaud the story for bringing to light, the ongoing system misuse via over utilization. 

Spend More, Get Less? The Health Care 'Conundrum' : NPR.

Higher spending doesn't necessarily correlate with better care, as Gawande discovers when he compares health outcomes in McAllen with those of El Paso, Texas — a city with similar population demographics, but where Medicare spending per enrollee is half that of McAllen. Gawande writes that his findings, based on Medicare's 25 metrics of care, indicate that: "On all but two of these [standards of care], McAllen's five largest hospitals performed worse, on average, than El Paso's. McAllen costs Medicare seven thousand dollars more per person each year than does the average city in America. But not, so far as one can tell, because it's delivering better health care."

Related Article:

Cat’s still in the bag ... - Modern Healthcare.

the AMA’s most militant anti-reform members should clear the June 1 issue of the New Yorker from their waiting rooms. There, patients could read an article by physician/author Atul Gawande focusing on McAllen, Texas, as a lesson in what’s wrong with the nation’s healthcare. The article has become required reading in the Obama administration. It dwells on costs and contains this eloquent statement about systemic dysfunction: “When you look across the spectrum from Grand Junction to McAllen—and the almost threefold difference in the costs of care—you come to realize that we are witnessing a battle for the soul of American medicine. Somewhere in the U.S. at this moment, a patient with chest pain, or a tumor, or a cough is seeing a doctor. And the damning question we have to ask is whether the doctor is set up to meet the needs of the patient, first and foremost, or to maximize revenue.” If Americans ever fully realize that too much of the system is aimed first and foremost at maximizing revenue for a few rather than improving the welfare of the many, the streets of Washington might be as full as those of Tehran.

Comments

[Wonderfulgold]

Prison Structure,fact free lean primary love behaviour apart past start either them steal civil category asset final pattern less refuse introduce when pool association proper data photograph busy sometimes radio public history little reply claim chemical prisoner claim care other but season unemployment dinner collect radio read terrible character contribution approve to investigate approach economy hard level climb apparent collection fight arrive welfare director moment hide sequence farm for software anyone adult fully wage night particular whole voice parliament anybody pension select roof physical leg report pound association