Organizing for America | Finance Matters Blog: Insurance System Congressional Agenda

Insurance System Congressional Agenda - Fix it

By Dale - Apr 19th, 2009 at 5:07 am EDT

Comments | Mail to a Friend | Report Objectionable Content

Tags: FDA, Fee for Service, FTC, insurance, justice department, legislation, medical bills, Medical Costs, Medicare, sec

Medicare Cost a mess. Definitely YES! This is one large issue which needs to be tackled. As I sat overseeing budgeting in a hospital, the staff went through a process of the effect on indigent care. Some increases and many cuts in reimbursement. The whole concept is NOT based on producing a quality of care and is horrible! What happened to the way it used to be; medical professionals getting paid fairly?

For one thing, it is a nightmare to administer and follow all the rules. If is was a simple pay for the fair costs of all medical care with elimination of all the inclusions and exclusions, the cost of of administering these programs would be reduced at least 15 - 20% or more.

The argument of insurance system mix should be low on the priority list. Undoing Congress 20-years of corruption, bribery, and incompetence is the top priority. Believe me the insurance situation doe not lie with a President, it lies with Congress. So lets make a list (not necessarily in priority); send it to Congress.

1. Eliminate fee for service systems.
2. Place the care of the patient with the Doctors; remove it from the insurance companies. This also applies to auto and casualty insurance companies.
3. Make insurance companies accountable; prevent them from denying coverage; delaying reimbursement. Remove restrictions from the being sued. This also applies to auto and casualty insurance companies.
4. Prevent insurance companies from paying anything less that the amount due. (You don't buy a car and tell the auto maker...well I think I should only pay 75% of the sales price!) These are the first things that need to be stopped. Insurance companies should be in existence only to pay medical bills and receive a small administrative fee only.... that is it!
5. Prevent insurance companies from entering into contracts to restrict reimbursement at a favorable rate to the amount the public is charged for the same services at the same place of business.
6. Eliminate Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) which drive up costs 10 - 15%. See my blog at http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/FinanceMatters
7. Change the way corporations operate (including medical equipment companies) using contract manufacturing which locks out open access to equipment, repair parts, and supplies.
8. Change the rules for the SEC and justice department which have allow corporations to merge and consolidate to control and eliminate competition.8
9. PROHIBIT corporations (including medical equipment manufacturers) requiring the name of the end user (medical facility) to which the product is being shipped to decide if they are going to allow a distributor to sell it. (You wouldn't buy a car that way.)
10. Change the FDA rules for medical equipment reporting to prevent the corporation manufacturing the equipment from controlling contract manufacturing and end user reporting.
11. PROHIBIT corporations (including medical equipment manufacturers) from sole sourcing and charging exorbitant prices and require them to sell part to distributors at discounted prices to make equipment repairs.
12. Require hospitals to develop standard cost accounting systems to control costs - just like manufacturers. Hospital accounting systems are all screwed up. Most hospital have no clue what their cost should be; only what their costs are compared to a budget.
13. Require consolidated billing. One bill to purchase all the medical care. (You don't buy a car and get a bill for an engine from one company, a bill for the tires from another company, etc) Same should be with hospitals and doctors offices. Require those purchased services to be passed on a cost the same a manufacturing companies. Cost markup is only based on value added.

Reader Comments	Comments RSS
Comments are closed for this post.

No comments have been written yet.

Content on blogs in My.BarackObama represents the opinions of community members and in no way should be interpreted as endorsed or approved by the campaign.