I afforded myself the opportunity to attend the AHIP (America’s Health Insurance Plans) conference this week. I was interested in seeing what the industry was saying about healthcare, the President’s plan and gaining ideas that would help our small business clients.
I was surprised to find the audience consisted primarily of insurance carriers, healthcare providers (hospitals and medical practices) and technology companies. This gave me an entirely new prospective, these were stakeholders outside the small business clientele we serve, stakeholders with a different agenda than I am generally exposed to.
My quick take – the issue is not insurance, it is the cost of healthcare delivery.
The industry has been slow to adopt technology. There is significant cost savings in every facet of the industry if available technology were implemented.
The second major issue to reigning in costs is the wellness component. There is no question American’s have the worst diet of any civilized country. Add this to our lack of physical activity and you have the answer to increasing medical costs.
It is in these two areas alone, that the increasing costs of healthcare could be brought completely under control.
I have a few other observations:
- Small business is not being considered in the debate
- Health insurance and healthcare are two separate items
- The provider payment focus needs to change from quantity to quality
More later
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