Hospitals have come under the spotlight as public concern about the health care cost crisis reaches unprecedented levels. The president of the American Hospital Association (AHA) wrote an article last week outlining how hospitals are taking steps to ensure that access and affordability issues are addressed so that Americans can continue to enjoy the high quality of care that they have come to expect from the health care system.
Rick Pollack explained that hospitals face numerous challenges, such as having to absorb a sizeable fraction of the increasing cost of providing medical services to Americans. This comes as reimbursements for programs like Medicare and Medicaid haven’t risen in tandem with the rate at which the cost of providing care is increasing.
He pointed out that hospitals are deliberately investing heavily in care coordination and prevention systems so that patients are better able to manage the chronic conditions they live with. Care coordination programs will also help to reduce the avoidable visits to hospitals, which will in turn contribute to lowering the costs patients incur.
The AHA CEO and president also indicated that hospitals are rolling out various new models, such as remote monitoring, hospital-at-home and telehealth in a bid to take medical care directly to where those who need it are. This will ease how quickly patients can receive the medical care that they need.
Pollack emphasized that advancements in technology and innovation were also helping to raise the bar on the efficiency of health care delivery. He cited the example of the adoption of advanced screening tools to help in catching diseases early so that a modest cost is incurred in addressing those detected pathologies instead of relying on older tools that can only detect illnesses once they have progressed and are costlier to manage.
Digital alerts are also helping to lower how often patients are admitted to hospitals, especially for cases that can be managed before hospital admission becomes unavoidable. In this way, the costs associated with managing the condition reduce for hospitals, patients and their caregivers.
He said the challenges of affordability and access are complex and diverse, so it isn’t possible for hospitals alone to come up with a complete remedy to the problem. He called on different stakeholders, such as insurance providers, policymakers, drug manufacturers, government, patients, employers and others to work collaboratively so that workable and lasting solutions can be agreed upon and implemented.
It would be interesting to hear what Medical Advantage policy providers like Astiva Health have to say about the urgent measures that need to be taken in order to lower the cost of health care in the U.S. within a meaningful timeframe.
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