Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309033772
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 186
Book Description
An introduction to the new health care for profit. Legal differences between investor-owned and nonprofit health care institutions. Wall Street and the for-profit hospital management companies. When investor-owned corporations buy hospitals: some issues and concerns. Physician involvement in hospital decision making. Economic incentives and clinical decisions. Ethical dilemmas of for-profit enterprise in health care. Secondary income from recommended treatment: should fiduciary principles constrain physician behavior?
The New Health Care for Profit
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309033772
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 186
Book Description
An introduction to the new health care for profit. Legal differences between investor-owned and nonprofit health care institutions. Wall Street and the for-profit hospital management companies. When investor-owned corporations buy hospitals: some issues and concerns. Physician involvement in hospital decision making. Economic incentives and clinical decisions. Ethical dilemmas of for-profit enterprise in health care. Secondary income from recommended treatment: should fiduciary principles constrain physician behavior?
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309033772
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 186
Book Description
An introduction to the new health care for profit. Legal differences between investor-owned and nonprofit health care institutions. Wall Street and the for-profit hospital management companies. When investor-owned corporations buy hospitals: some issues and concerns. Physician involvement in hospital decision making. Economic incentives and clinical decisions. Ethical dilemmas of for-profit enterprise in health care. Secondary income from recommended treatment: should fiduciary principles constrain physician behavior?
For-Profit Enterprise in Health Care
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309036437
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 580
Book Description
"[This book is] the most authoritative assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of recent trends toward the commercialization of health care," says Robert Pear of The New York Times. This major study by the Institute of Medicine examines virtually all aspects of for-profit health care in the United States, including the quality and availability of health care, the cost of medical care, access to financial capital, implications for education and research, and the fiduciary role of the physician. In addition to the report, the book contains 15 papers by experts in the field of for-profit health care covering a broad range of topicsâ€"from trends in the growth of major investor-owned hospital companies to the ethical issues in for-profit health care. "The report makes a lasting contribution to the health policy literature." â€"Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309036437
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 580
Book Description
"[This book is] the most authoritative assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of recent trends toward the commercialization of health care," says Robert Pear of The New York Times. This major study by the Institute of Medicine examines virtually all aspects of for-profit health care in the United States, including the quality and availability of health care, the cost of medical care, access to financial capital, implications for education and research, and the fiduciary role of the physician. In addition to the report, the book contains 15 papers by experts in the field of for-profit health care covering a broad range of topicsâ€"from trends in the growth of major investor-owned hospital companies to the ethical issues in for-profit health care. "The report makes a lasting contribution to the health policy literature." â€"Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.
An American Sickness
Author: Elisabeth Rosenthal
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698407180
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 434
Book Description
A New York Times bestseller/Washington Post Notable Book of 2017/NPR Best Books of 2017/Wall Street Journal Best Books of 2017 "This book will serve as the definitive guide to the past and future of health care in America.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene At a moment of drastic political upheaval, An American Sickness is a shocking investigation into our dysfunctional healthcare system - and offers practical solutions to its myriad problems. In these troubled times, perhaps no institution has unraveled more quickly and more completely than American medicine. In only a few decades, the medical system has been overrun by organizations seeking to exploit for profit the trust that vulnerable and sick Americans place in their healthcare. Our politicians have proven themselves either unwilling or incapable of reining in the increasingly outrageous costs faced by patients, and market-based solutions only seem to funnel larger and larger sums of our money into the hands of corporations. Impossibly high insurance premiums and inexplicably large bills have become facts of life; fatalism has set in. Very quickly Americans have been made to accept paying more for less. How did things get so bad so fast? Breaking down this monolithic business into the individual industries—the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and drug manufacturers—that together constitute our healthcare system, Rosenthal exposes the recent evolution of American medicine as never before. How did healthcare, the caring endeavor, become healthcare, the highly profitable industry? Hospital systems, which are managed by business executives, behave like predatory lenders, hounding patients and seizing their homes. Research charities are in bed with big pharmaceutical companies, which surreptitiously profit from the donations made by working people. Patients receive bills in code, from entrepreneurial doctors they never even saw. The system is in tatters, but we can fight back. Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal doesn't just explain the symptoms, she diagnoses and treats the disease itself. In clear and practical terms, she spells out exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. She takes you inside the doctor-patient relationship and to hospital C-suites, explaining step-by-step the workings of a system badly lacking transparency. This is about what we can do, as individual patients, both to navigate the maze that is American healthcare and also to demand far-reaching reform. An American Sickness is the frontline defense against a healthcare system that no longer has our well-being at heart.
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698407180
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 434
Book Description
A New York Times bestseller/Washington Post Notable Book of 2017/NPR Best Books of 2017/Wall Street Journal Best Books of 2017 "This book will serve as the definitive guide to the past and future of health care in America.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies and The Gene At a moment of drastic political upheaval, An American Sickness is a shocking investigation into our dysfunctional healthcare system - and offers practical solutions to its myriad problems. In these troubled times, perhaps no institution has unraveled more quickly and more completely than American medicine. In only a few decades, the medical system has been overrun by organizations seeking to exploit for profit the trust that vulnerable and sick Americans place in their healthcare. Our politicians have proven themselves either unwilling or incapable of reining in the increasingly outrageous costs faced by patients, and market-based solutions only seem to funnel larger and larger sums of our money into the hands of corporations. Impossibly high insurance premiums and inexplicably large bills have become facts of life; fatalism has set in. Very quickly Americans have been made to accept paying more for less. How did things get so bad so fast? Breaking down this monolithic business into the individual industries—the hospitals, doctors, insurance companies, and drug manufacturers—that together constitute our healthcare system, Rosenthal exposes the recent evolution of American medicine as never before. How did healthcare, the caring endeavor, become healthcare, the highly profitable industry? Hospital systems, which are managed by business executives, behave like predatory lenders, hounding patients and seizing their homes. Research charities are in bed with big pharmaceutical companies, which surreptitiously profit from the donations made by working people. Patients receive bills in code, from entrepreneurial doctors they never even saw. The system is in tatters, but we can fight back. Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal doesn't just explain the symptoms, she diagnoses and treats the disease itself. In clear and practical terms, she spells out exactly how to decode medical doublespeak, avoid the pitfalls of the pharmaceuticals racket, and get the care you and your family deserve. She takes you inside the doctor-patient relationship and to hospital C-suites, explaining step-by-step the workings of a system badly lacking transparency. This is about what we can do, as individual patients, both to navigate the maze that is American healthcare and also to demand far-reaching reform. An American Sickness is the frontline defense against a healthcare system that no longer has our well-being at heart.
The Price We Pay
Author: Marty Makary
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1635574129
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
New York Times bestseller Business Book of the Year--Association of Business Journalists From the New York Times bestselling author comes an eye-opening, urgent look at America's broken health care system--and the people who are saving it--now with a new Afterword by the author. "A must-read for every American." --Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief, FORBES One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising health care costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr. Makary, one of the nation's leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a bubble. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research, and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture of the business of medicine and its elusive money games in need of a serious shake-up. Dr. Makary shows how so much of health care spending goes to things that have nothing to do with health and what you can do about it. Dr. Makary challenges the medical establishment to remember medicine's noble heritage of caring for people when they are vulnerable. The Price We Pay offers a road map for everyday Americans and business leaders to get a better deal on their health care, and profiles the disruptors who are innovating medical care. The movement to restore medicine to its mission, Makary argues, is alive and well--a mission that can rebuild the public trust and save our country from the crushing cost of health care.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1635574129
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
New York Times bestseller Business Book of the Year--Association of Business Journalists From the New York Times bestselling author comes an eye-opening, urgent look at America's broken health care system--and the people who are saving it--now with a new Afterword by the author. "A must-read for every American." --Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief, FORBES One in five Americans now has medical debt in collections and rising health care costs today threaten every small business in America. Dr. Makary, one of the nation's leading health care experts, travels across America and details why health care has become a bubble. Drawing from on-the-ground stories, his research, and his own experience, The Price We Pay paints a vivid picture of the business of medicine and its elusive money games in need of a serious shake-up. Dr. Makary shows how so much of health care spending goes to things that have nothing to do with health and what you can do about it. Dr. Makary challenges the medical establishment to remember medicine's noble heritage of caring for people when they are vulnerable. The Price We Pay offers a road map for everyday Americans and business leaders to get a better deal on their health care, and profiles the disruptors who are innovating medical care. The movement to restore medicine to its mission, Makary argues, is alive and well--a mission that can rebuild the public trust and save our country from the crushing cost of health care.
Caring for Profit
Author: Colleen Fuller
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780921586593
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 340
Book Description
Caring For Profit traces how Canada's $77 billion a year health care industry is turning away from its original mandate of providing the best possible medical care to Canadians, and how multinational capital is forcing its way into our non'profit health care system. In Caring For Profit, Colleen Fuller traces alliances that were struck between private insurers and the medical profession during the 1950s and 1960s to defeat "socialized medicine". These alliances survived the establishment of medicare in Canada in 1968, and have been strengthened by new forces emerging in an era of globalization. Instead of a health care system focused on providing the highest quality of care to the greatest number of Canadians, the system is increasingly dominated by financial giants more concerned with consolidations, mergers, acquisitions, and higher profit margins. Caring for Profit is a "who's who" of key people and corporations making money in Canada's health care sector ? and a portrait of the strategies and alliances that threaten to replace the principles of medicare with the dictates of the stock market.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780921586593
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 340
Book Description
Caring For Profit traces how Canada's $77 billion a year health care industry is turning away from its original mandate of providing the best possible medical care to Canadians, and how multinational capital is forcing its way into our non'profit health care system. In Caring For Profit, Colleen Fuller traces alliances that were struck between private insurers and the medical profession during the 1950s and 1960s to defeat "socialized medicine". These alliances survived the establishment of medicare in Canada in 1968, and have been strengthened by new forces emerging in an era of globalization. Instead of a health care system focused on providing the highest quality of care to the greatest number of Canadians, the system is increasingly dominated by financial giants more concerned with consolidations, mergers, acquisitions, and higher profit margins. Caring for Profit is a "who's who" of key people and corporations making money in Canada's health care sector ? and a portrait of the strategies and alliances that threaten to replace the principles of medicare with the dictates of the stock market.
Corporatizing American Health Care
Author: Robert W. Derlet
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 1421439581
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 217
Book Description
Tracking the evolution of medical care from an individualized small cottage profession to a giant impersonal corporate industry costing Americans over $3 trillion each year. Over the past three decades, the once-efficient American health care system has evolved into a complex maze of monopolies and a racket of bureaucratic checks, approvals, denials, roadblocks, and detours. This shift has created a massive and at times redundant workforce that frustrates patients, as well as physicians, nurses, and administrative staff. Health care costs the United States over $3 trillion each year and consumes over 18% of the country's gross domestic product. That's more than $11,000 for each person in the country each year—more than double what it costs in most Western European countries to deliver equal or even better care. In Corporatizing American Health Care, Robert W. Derlet, MD, traces the progression of health care policy in the United States. How, he asks, has US health care transformed from bedside medicine—a model of small practices and patient-focused care—into corporate medicine, which prioritizes profit and deals with both patient care and outcomes as billing codes? Arguing that the US Congress is the root of the problem, he describes how Congress has failed to enact legislation to prevent corporate monopolies in the health care industry. Instead, corrupted by large campaign donations and corporate lobbyists, Congress has crafted loopholes benefiting corporations and harming people. Drawing on his decades as a practicing physician caring for thousands of patients, as well as his university and medical school teaching experience, Derlet follows changes to both policy and practice across many sectors of health care. Scrutinizing how hospitals work, he also takes a hard look at high prescription drug prices, unresponsive insurance companies, problems with the Affordable Care Act, the growing medical implant device industry, and even nursing homes. Finally, he explains why the dominance of corporations and their lobbyists over health policy means that we now pay more for our care and our medications but have less choice both in what doctors we see and in what drugs we take. Breaking down the complex ABCs of health care to reveal the unscrupulous practices of the health care industry, Corporatizing American Health Care is perfect for both students and general readers who want to understand the changes in our system from the perspective of an actual doctor.
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 1421439581
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 217
Book Description
Tracking the evolution of medical care from an individualized small cottage profession to a giant impersonal corporate industry costing Americans over $3 trillion each year. Over the past three decades, the once-efficient American health care system has evolved into a complex maze of monopolies and a racket of bureaucratic checks, approvals, denials, roadblocks, and detours. This shift has created a massive and at times redundant workforce that frustrates patients, as well as physicians, nurses, and administrative staff. Health care costs the United States over $3 trillion each year and consumes over 18% of the country's gross domestic product. That's more than $11,000 for each person in the country each year—more than double what it costs in most Western European countries to deliver equal or even better care. In Corporatizing American Health Care, Robert W. Derlet, MD, traces the progression of health care policy in the United States. How, he asks, has US health care transformed from bedside medicine—a model of small practices and patient-focused care—into corporate medicine, which prioritizes profit and deals with both patient care and outcomes as billing codes? Arguing that the US Congress is the root of the problem, he describes how Congress has failed to enact legislation to prevent corporate monopolies in the health care industry. Instead, corrupted by large campaign donations and corporate lobbyists, Congress has crafted loopholes benefiting corporations and harming people. Drawing on his decades as a practicing physician caring for thousands of patients, as well as his university and medical school teaching experience, Derlet follows changes to both policy and practice across many sectors of health care. Scrutinizing how hospitals work, he also takes a hard look at high prescription drug prices, unresponsive insurance companies, problems with the Affordable Care Act, the growing medical implant device industry, and even nursing homes. Finally, he explains why the dominance of corporations and their lobbyists over health policy means that we now pay more for our care and our medications but have less choice both in what doctors we see and in what drugs we take. Breaking down the complex ABCs of health care to reveal the unscrupulous practices of the health care industry, Corporatizing American Health Care is perfect for both students and general readers who want to understand the changes in our system from the perspective of an actual doctor.
The Changing Hospital Industry
Author: David M. Cutler
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226132226
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
In recent years, the hospital industry has been undergoing massive change and reorganization with technological innovations and the spread of managed care. As a result, the total number of hospitals countrywide has been declining, and a growing number of not-for-profit hospitals have converted to for-profit status. These changes raise two fundamental questions: What determines a hospital's choice of for-profit or not-for-profit organizational form? And how does that form affect patients and society? This timely volume provides a factual basis for discussing for-profit versus not-for-profit ownership of hospitals and gives a first look at the evidence about new and important issues in the hospital industry. The Changing Hospital Industry: Comparing Not-for-Profit and For-Profit Institutions will have significant implications for public-policy reforms in this vital industry and will be of great interest to scholars in the fields of health economics, public finance, hospital organization, and management; and to health services researchers.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226132226
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
In recent years, the hospital industry has been undergoing massive change and reorganization with technological innovations and the spread of managed care. As a result, the total number of hospitals countrywide has been declining, and a growing number of not-for-profit hospitals have converted to for-profit status. These changes raise two fundamental questions: What determines a hospital's choice of for-profit or not-for-profit organizational form? And how does that form affect patients and society? This timely volume provides a factual basis for discussing for-profit versus not-for-profit ownership of hospitals and gives a first look at the evidence about new and important issues in the hospital industry. The Changing Hospital Industry: Comparing Not-for-Profit and For-Profit Institutions will have significant implications for public-policy reforms in this vital industry and will be of great interest to scholars in the fields of health economics, public finance, hospital organization, and management; and to health services researchers.
Health Care Under the Knife
Author: Howard Waitzkin
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1583676759
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
Disobedience : doctor workers unite! / Howard Waitzkin -- Becoming employees : the deprofessionalization and emerging social class position of health professionals / Matt Anderson -- The degradation of medical labor and the meaning of quality in health care / Gordon Schiff and Sarah Winch -- The political economy of health reform / David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler -- The transformation of the medical industrial complex : financialization, the corporate sector, and monopoly capital / Matt Anderson and Robb Burlage -- The pharmaceutical industry in the context of contemporary capitalism / Joel Lexchin -- Obamacare : the neoliberal model comes home to roost in the United States, if we let it / Howard Waitzkin and Ida Hellander -- Austerity and health / Adam Gaffney and Carles Muntaner -- Imperialism's health component / Howard Waitzkin and Rebeca Jasso-Aguilar -- U.S. philanthrocapitalism and the global health agenda : the Rockefeller and Gates foundations, past and present / Anne-Emanuelle Birn and Judith Richter -- Resisting the imperial order and building an alternative future in medicine and public health / Rebeca Jasso-Aguilar and Howard Waitzkin -- The failure of Obamacare and a revision of the single payer proposal after a quarter century of struggle / Adam Gaffney, David Himmelstein, and Steffie Woolhandler -- Overcoming pathological normalcy : mental health challenges in the coming transformation / Carl Ratner -- Confronting the social and environmental determinants of health / Carles Muntaner and Rob Wallace -- Conclusion : moving beyond capitalism for our health / Adam Gaffney and Howard Waitzkin
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1583676759
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 336
Book Description
Disobedience : doctor workers unite! / Howard Waitzkin -- Becoming employees : the deprofessionalization and emerging social class position of health professionals / Matt Anderson -- The degradation of medical labor and the meaning of quality in health care / Gordon Schiff and Sarah Winch -- The political economy of health reform / David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler -- The transformation of the medical industrial complex : financialization, the corporate sector, and monopoly capital / Matt Anderson and Robb Burlage -- The pharmaceutical industry in the context of contemporary capitalism / Joel Lexchin -- Obamacare : the neoliberal model comes home to roost in the United States, if we let it / Howard Waitzkin and Ida Hellander -- Austerity and health / Adam Gaffney and Carles Muntaner -- Imperialism's health component / Howard Waitzkin and Rebeca Jasso-Aguilar -- U.S. philanthrocapitalism and the global health agenda : the Rockefeller and Gates foundations, past and present / Anne-Emanuelle Birn and Judith Richter -- Resisting the imperial order and building an alternative future in medicine and public health / Rebeca Jasso-Aguilar and Howard Waitzkin -- The failure of Obamacare and a revision of the single payer proposal after a quarter century of struggle / Adam Gaffney, David Himmelstein, and Steffie Woolhandler -- Overcoming pathological normalcy : mental health challenges in the coming transformation / Carl Ratner -- Confronting the social and environmental determinants of health / Carles Muntaner and Rob Wallace -- Conclusion : moving beyond capitalism for our health / Adam Gaffney and Howard Waitzkin
Healthcare Investing: Profiting from the New World of Pharma, Biotech, and Health Care Services
Author: Les Funtleyder
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
ISBN: 0071642951
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
Is your portfolio in peak health? Ranking among the world's largest markets, the $2.5 trillion health care industry is growing at an unprecedented rate. According to Miller Tabak + Co.'s health care strategist Les Funtleyder, major structural renovations to the system are imminent. “Health care is entering an era of reform,” Funtleyder writes, “and with reform comes change and the opportunity for investment gain.” Health-Care Investing provides a thorough explanation of how the industry's mammoth size and complexity can be worked to your advantage and why health care is more resistant to changes in economic cycles than other markets. Funtleyder gives you a comprehensive overview of the industry, from both macro and micro points of view, so you can make informed decisions regarding your investments. You'll find critical information concerning The natural inelasticity of health care and how to profit from it How to take advantage of the market's complexities and inefficiencies Issues and policy changes you need to know The social responsibility aspect of investing in health care Why this market is essential for diversified portfolios In Health-Care Investing, Funtleyder provides the tools you need to dig up the richest opportunities possible and build them into your investment strategy. You'll get a detailed look at traditional market patterns and the events that have shaped--and will continue to shape--the industry. Then you'll find specific strategies you can use to maximize your profits, whether you invest in pharma, biotech, managed services, or a combination of them. This informative and practical guide also includes a list of questions you can use as an investment “template,” which will help guide your decision-making process. With Health Care Investing, you'll be armed with the know-how to make the right decisions today in order to fully capitalize on events of the future.
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
ISBN: 0071642951
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
Is your portfolio in peak health? Ranking among the world's largest markets, the $2.5 trillion health care industry is growing at an unprecedented rate. According to Miller Tabak + Co.'s health care strategist Les Funtleyder, major structural renovations to the system are imminent. “Health care is entering an era of reform,” Funtleyder writes, “and with reform comes change and the opportunity for investment gain.” Health-Care Investing provides a thorough explanation of how the industry's mammoth size and complexity can be worked to your advantage and why health care is more resistant to changes in economic cycles than other markets. Funtleyder gives you a comprehensive overview of the industry, from both macro and micro points of view, so you can make informed decisions regarding your investments. You'll find critical information concerning The natural inelasticity of health care and how to profit from it How to take advantage of the market's complexities and inefficiencies Issues and policy changes you need to know The social responsibility aspect of investing in health care Why this market is essential for diversified portfolios In Health-Care Investing, Funtleyder provides the tools you need to dig up the richest opportunities possible and build them into your investment strategy. You'll get a detailed look at traditional market patterns and the events that have shaped--and will continue to shape--the industry. Then you'll find specific strategies you can use to maximize your profits, whether you invest in pharma, biotech, managed services, or a combination of them. This informative and practical guide also includes a list of questions you can use as an investment “template,” which will help guide your decision-making process. With Health Care Investing, you'll be armed with the know-how to make the right decisions today in order to fully capitalize on events of the future.
Money-Driven Medicine
Author: Maggie Mahar
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061873829
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 823
Book Description
Why is medical care in the United States so expensive? For decades, Americans have taken it as a matter of faith that we spend more because we have the best health care system in the world. But as costs levitate, that argument becomes more difficult to make. Today, we spend twice as much as Japan on health care—yet few would argue that our health care system is twice as good. Instead, startling new evidence suggests that one out of every three of our health care dollars is squandered on unnecessary or redundant tests; unproven, sometimes unwanted procedures; and overpriced drugs and devices that, too often, are no better than the less expensive products they have replaced. How did this happen? In Money-Driven Medicine, Maggie Mahar takes the reader behind the scenes of a $2 trillion industry to witness how billions of dollars are wasted in a Hobbesian marketplace that pits the industry's players against each other. In remarkably candid interviews, doctors, hospital administrators, patients, health care economists, corporate executives, and Wall Street analysts describe a war of "all against all" that can turn physicians, hospitals, insurers, drugmakers, and device makers into blood rivals. Rather than collaborating, doctors and hospitals compete. Rather than sharing knowledge, drugmakers and device makers divide value. Rather than thinking about long-term collective goals, the imperatives of an impatient marketplace force health care providers to focus on short-term fiscal imperatives. And so investments in untested bleeding-edge medical technologies crowd out investments in information technology that might, in the long run, not only reduce errors but contain costs. In theory, free market competition should tame health care inflation. In fact, Mahar demonstrates, when it comes to medicine, the traditional laws of supply and demand do not apply. Normally, when supply expands, prices fall. But in the health care industry, as the number and variety of drugs, devices, and treatments multiplies, demand rises to absorb the excess, and prices climb. Meanwhile, the perverse incentives of a fee-for-service system reward health care providers for doing more, not less. In this superbly written book, Mahar shows why doctors must take responsibility for the future of our health care industry. Today, she observes, "physicians have been stripped of their standing as professionals: Insurers address them as vendors ('Dear Health Care Provider'), drugmakers and device makers see them as customers (someone you might take to lunch or a strip club), while . . . consumers (aka patients) are encouraged to see their doctors as overpaid retailers. . . . Before patients can reclaim their rightful place as the center—and indeed as the raison d'être—of our health care system," Mahar suggests, "we must once again empower doctors . . . to practice patient-centered medicine—based not on corporate imperatives, doctors' druthers, or even patients' demands," but on the best scientific research available.
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061873829
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 823
Book Description
Why is medical care in the United States so expensive? For decades, Americans have taken it as a matter of faith that we spend more because we have the best health care system in the world. But as costs levitate, that argument becomes more difficult to make. Today, we spend twice as much as Japan on health care—yet few would argue that our health care system is twice as good. Instead, startling new evidence suggests that one out of every three of our health care dollars is squandered on unnecessary or redundant tests; unproven, sometimes unwanted procedures; and overpriced drugs and devices that, too often, are no better than the less expensive products they have replaced. How did this happen? In Money-Driven Medicine, Maggie Mahar takes the reader behind the scenes of a $2 trillion industry to witness how billions of dollars are wasted in a Hobbesian marketplace that pits the industry's players against each other. In remarkably candid interviews, doctors, hospital administrators, patients, health care economists, corporate executives, and Wall Street analysts describe a war of "all against all" that can turn physicians, hospitals, insurers, drugmakers, and device makers into blood rivals. Rather than collaborating, doctors and hospitals compete. Rather than sharing knowledge, drugmakers and device makers divide value. Rather than thinking about long-term collective goals, the imperatives of an impatient marketplace force health care providers to focus on short-term fiscal imperatives. And so investments in untested bleeding-edge medical technologies crowd out investments in information technology that might, in the long run, not only reduce errors but contain costs. In theory, free market competition should tame health care inflation. In fact, Mahar demonstrates, when it comes to medicine, the traditional laws of supply and demand do not apply. Normally, when supply expands, prices fall. But in the health care industry, as the number and variety of drugs, devices, and treatments multiplies, demand rises to absorb the excess, and prices climb. Meanwhile, the perverse incentives of a fee-for-service system reward health care providers for doing more, not less. In this superbly written book, Mahar shows why doctors must take responsibility for the future of our health care industry. Today, she observes, "physicians have been stripped of their standing as professionals: Insurers address them as vendors ('Dear Health Care Provider'), drugmakers and device makers see them as customers (someone you might take to lunch or a strip club), while . . . consumers (aka patients) are encouraged to see their doctors as overpaid retailers. . . . Before patients can reclaim their rightful place as the center—and indeed as the raison d'être—of our health care system," Mahar suggests, "we must once again empower doctors . . . to practice patient-centered medicine—based not on corporate imperatives, doctors' druthers, or even patients' demands," but on the best scientific research available.