In the last portion of Mark Lewandowski’s podcast that he shared with us (6:01 - end), he states that continuing out of control healthcare spending could bankrupt the US healthcare system.
New Approaches Needed
He states that new approaches are needed to address the high acuity, comorbidity and chronic care requirements of this specific segment of the population. He specifically refers to Dr. Timothy Ihrig and his TED Talks on Palliative Care. In this particular piece, Dr. Ihrig indicates that currently, this 15% of the population consumes 15% of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Extrapolating this out over the next two decades with the aging of the baby boomers, we could see this population consuming 60% of the GDP. This could spell not just a bankrupting of the healthcare system, but a serious negative impact on the entire national economy.
Conscientious Palliative Care
According to Dr. Ihrig, conscientious palliative care can enhance the patient experience, promote population health and reduce per capita costs by nearly 70%. With the focus on patient-centric palliative care, treating the whole person, not just the person’s disease, the patient tends to live longer with fewer trips back to the hospital and with reduced healthcare costs.
Curative Care
Curative care is extremely important for the intervention of acute disorders to keep them from progressing to more serious conditions. However, it may become a waste of resources when consistently applied to chronic conditions, especially to those that are end-stage. As Dr. Ihrig points out, palliative care tends to be patient-focused to provide relief of pain and discomfort, allowing the patient to engage in more activities with less depression.
At Concordance Healthcare Solutions, we are proud of our history of being a provider of cost-effective medical supplies and management programs for hospice and other palliative care programs. We are consistently doing what we can to help control healthcare costs and promote compassionate care across the entire healthcare spectrum. Contact us to see how we can help you control your medical supply costs.
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