We have had 3 of these meetings so far at our hospital, and so far the interest level has been high, and the ideas have been good. This next meeting, this coming Tuesday, catches me just after returning from Haiti, and may be losing some momentum, what with the recent passage of the health care reform package. I would propose at this meeting to do several things. First, I think that we should at least discuss gathering cost data for the hospital. I would like to know what the average patient or patient's insurance company is billed for various diagnoses, as an inpatient and in the emergency room. I would like to know how much the hospital actually gets paid. I would like to know how much uncompensated care is delivered, and would like to see what impact health care reform has over the next year. I know this kind of data is sensitive, but without it we are working in the dark. I would like to go over the provisions of the health care reform package in a little more deta...
The cost of health care in the US is higher than anywhere else in the world, and yet we are not healthier than our peer nations. In fact, in terms of such measures as infant mortality and life span, we don't measure up. Why is this? Many people involved in providing or receiving care have some pretty good ideas about what costs so much, and what we can do to reduce costs and improve quality. Sharing these stories is an important step in creating affordable universal health care.