2nd QUARTER 2014
49
By Bill Korn
Chief Financial Officer, MTBC
H
ow do you make health care affordable?
Obamacare’s promise was to give health
care coverage to all Americans, and
somehow reduce the cost by enough that
the extra coverage wouldn’t cost us anything. There
are aspects of the law that seem to reduce costs, but
there are also offsetting hidden costs.
Higher deductibles reduce premiums, but not
the true cost. By asking participants to pay the
first $2,000 of acceptable expenses, it’s easy to
reduce the premium by $160 per month.
Removing out-of-network coverage, or adding
another $2,500 out-of-network deductible on
top of the in-network deductible, is a way to shift
costs to the participants and keep the price down.
But they don’t reduce costs.
Then there are requirements that all insurance
plans must meet certain minimum requirements
and can’t charge more for people who are at risk.
Lots of people don’t realize that, in return for
adding mandated features, many insurance plans
dropped or limited coverage in other areas —
and guaranteeing same-price coverage for those
with pre-existing conditions is just another way
of saying you’ve increased the price for those
who are healthy.
The Solution
Here’s a better way: Let’s use technology to
increase the effectiveness of health care and the
productivity of health care providers. Electronic
health record systems should all be designed
with an open interface, allowing records to be
shared across all providers. Intelligent systems
should recommend treatment regimens
tailored to each patient, based on all their
medical conditions and their demographics,
and when a duplicate test is ordered, the system
should immediately produce a copy of a prior
test. Our laws should be changed so patients
MAKING HEALTH CARE
AFFORDABLE
SENSIBLE APPROACHES TOREDUCINGTHE
COSTOFMEDICAL CARE
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