This newspaper article has actually focused on the American healthcare problem. Healthcare is full of errors and mistakes, and no one is admitting it.
The article from the Hearst syndicate of papers describes why we aren't getting anywhere on this issue."It's too expensive" said Senator Patty Murray D-Wash., and the issue is a "hornet's nest that might create backlash from doctors" according to Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. I would agree it may be expensive and it's a hornet's nest but it is critical to the health of Americans. We've spent hundreds of billions of dollars on new bureaucracy of questionable value but we can't spend a few million dollars to support regional initiatives such as The Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality www.wchq.org and others which could change the face of healthcare by allowing patients to see how their doctors and hospitals match up on quality.
The simple policy platform we advocated for years is:
1. Transparency of healthcare performance on quality and cost
2. Redesigning patient care to remove waste using a quality improvement methodology called lean healthcare
3. Redesigning payment systems to reward value
When we examine the recently passed healthcare legislation there is very little about quality,almost nothing about public reporting of physician performance, and payment reform appears 5-10 years down the road as we exhaustively study changes in reimbursement through formation of ACOs and medical homes.We believe transparency now, in addition to removing Medicare penalties for innovative care redesign now, would lead to huge cost savings in healthcare, now. We can't wait for 10 years for these things to happen, if we do we will be broke as a nation and our patients still won't know where to go to get the best care.
To read the article, click here - http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Health-bills-bypass-a-lethal-issue-553843.php
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