After Scott Wilson’s victory for the Mass. seat in U.S. Senate, healthcare reform is in flux. However, the demographic/economic tsunami of aging boomers means healthcare economics must change.
DATAPOINT: My home state of Georgia may be about to lead the nation in a major healtcare change.
The Georgia Healthcare Leadership Council, an assocation of large corporate employers, will collect, aggregate, correlate and report back to their members on what services their member’s employees are using and how much they are paying.
WEINIGER’S OBSERVATION: Big employers are going to know how much other big employers are paying for services.
DATAPOINT: 2/24/09 President Obama- ” Already, we have done more to advance the cause of health care reform in the last 30 days than we have in the last decade”. (in reference to expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).
WEINIGER’S OBSERVATION: More children are being covered–at state fixed Medicaid rates.
DATAPOINT: CMS (the people who run Medicare) is projecting a rate reduction of 21.5 percent for 2010.
WEINIGER’S OBSERVATION: This will be averted by “heroic last minute efforts”. But reimbursements will be reduced to some degree.
WEINIGER’S CONJECTURE: As pricing becomes transparent, one employer will not want to pay more than another. As I learned when negotiating provider contracts with insurance companies ( and when the standard was “Medicare rates + x %”) over time there will be a continual push towards lower rates.
MY ADVICE FOR HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS: Balance and blend personal pay and insurance practices.
For musculo-skeletal practices including chiropractors, physical therapists, massage and other professionals, this means using third party pay to build relationships with patients who receive and perceive the value of your care enough so that they are willing to pay for services in the absence of insurance/third party reimbursement.
PROMOTING The Posture Practice Model: Helps restore mobility and relieve pain, and then teaches people to do daily StrongPosture exercise to keep them moving well and valuing what you do.
If you want to be active tomorrow, you want to move well today.
