For the most part business has taken a back seat in the health reform debate. Now they are making decisions that may have more impact on what really happens with healthcare reform than anything the federal government
can or will do.
I had the privilege of spending the day with a number of high profile people from around the country who are committed to changing the way we pay for healthcare to focus on rewarding value. On January 7th the Institute of Medicine sponsored a day long program entitled Value Incentives in Healthcare. The attendees included employers such as the Paul Grundy M.D. Global director of healthcare for IBM who has been implementing primary care medical home contracts around the U.S. in markets where IBM does business. We also heard from Ginny Proestakes R.N. who is director of health benefits at G.E. These companies are beginning to determine where they do business based on the healthcare costs in certain markets. Dr. Grundy indicated IBM had just chosen Dubuque Iowa to open a new IBM business unit because medical care there was more than 50% less than a similar market they had been considering on the east coast.
The message from these employers was loud and clear: We are taking charge of our healthcare costs and if the providers aren't willing to commit to lowering costs then we will take our business somewhere else. Ofcourse employers have been moving jobs to lower cost labor markets for years but that meant moving jobs from the U.S. to a different country. In this case, these executives from business are suggesting moving jobs to lower cost markets in the U.S. Imagine the pressure this starts to put on communities if business gets serious about moving to lower cost healthcare markets.
Elsewhere on this blog we have shown the radical difference in healthcare cost between the east coast and Florida markets vs. Appleton Wisconsin. Applying the Dartmouth Atlas Data there is as much as a two and half fold difference in cost between Miami and Appleton with Miami being more expensive. It is refreshing to see American business begin to acknowledge markets that are more efficient and delivering better value by sending their business there. If more businesses would consider these types of moves a sense of urgency could be created which would motivate providers to change.
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