SUPREME COURT RULES FOR CHINESE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM

While the professional politicians and pundits continue to pounce on nuances, assertions and other verbal games regarding the Affordable Care Act, (aka Obamacare)… seniors can be assured that Medicare, as well as the rest of the medical system, is working to move toward a preventative, outcomes based system that can help reduce overall utilization and cost of medical service… regardless of what our congress does.

In China’s old days, the local healer would accept chickens, produce, services and labor from his patients…as long as they were well!  The idea was that the healer would counsel and even scold his patients so they would adopt healthy lifestyles.  When the healer’s patients were healthy…he got paid.  When a patient got sick… that patient stopped paying until all was well again.

The result was a truly collaborative relationship, where the medical cost was directly related to wellness and prevention.  In the Chinese model, the healer’s income was directly proportional to the number of patients who were sick.  This model is approximately what Medicare and many of our medical associations are working to build on.  By 2014, under the new laws, if a Medicare patient goes into a doctor, and the doctor makes a diagnosis and writes a prescription…the outcome is measured and recorded… meaning, was the diagnosis right and did the prescription work?  If the patient doesn’t get well in a reasonable amount of time… Medicare may go back to the doctor and demand their money back!!

The same would hold true if a Medicare patient goes into the hospital.  If the patient gets well and is sent home…all is good.  If they have to be re-admitted to the hospital for the same reason,  or for a complication… Medicare can go back to
the hospital and demand some or all of their money back.

Bottom line: Our medical providers will be financially rewarded for providing preventative counseling AND penalized for poor care; so their incentive is to work WITH patients in order to prevent health problems and manage existing problems. This kind of a medical system has the potential to shift our focus from treatment to prevention… which can eventually reduce the number of sick people seeking treatment.

As with any Public Service Announcement campaign…(remember the first anti-smoking, anti-littering, buckle-up ads came about?) …we are not likely to see the benefits for about 10 years… but the results of today’s efforts will be worth it!

Keep moving!

Mike

www.FallPreventionClinics.com