An article penned by leaders in the healthcare industry reports President Barack Obama's methods for healthcare reform aren't working, and healthcare costs will continue to rise.
Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, MSc, chairman of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, and Topher Spiro, JD, vice president for health policy at the Center for American Progress, published the article in The Wall Street Journal.
Here are six key takeaways:
1. Many social and political factors have lead to a slowing of healthcare spending as well as per-person Medicare and Medicaid costs.
2. The Affordable Care Act has contributed to the spending slowdown, according to the article, and it has "changed the psychology of all healthcare stakeholders, putting them on notice that the system will now demand better care at lower cost."
3. However, analysts predict growth in healthcare costs will rise, and the authors cite data from the Census Bureau that this already may be occurring.
4. As more payment reforms are being tested to reach the President's goal of half of Medicare payments to be made under new models by 2018, the authors believe ACOs have achieved "minimal savings" in two years and believe there is not evidence supporting ACOs can reduce healthcare costs.
5. Furthermore, the ACO program rewards organizations for under spending but does not penalize them for excessive spending. Although it may be necessary for Medicare to make it easy to reward the ACO, the paradox is that it will also make it more difficult to achieve savings. Thus, the authors feel that it will not be a good idea to expand the number of ACOs as a cost-control strategy.
6. Dr. Emanuel and Mr. Spiro suggest the Obama administration "focus on a reform that can be scaled," suggesting that Medicare group physician services, hospital costs, tests, medical devices, drugs and rehabilitation services related to common ailments into a bundle so that they can reimburse a medical provider a discounted amount for all the services.