‘Growth Clouds’ On The Horizon For Health Spending?

I was honored to work with the National Health Expenditures (NHE) Team in the CMS Office of the Actuary throughout 1995-2012, and I am honored again to have the opportunity to provide some thoughts on long-range spending trends in the U.S. Many health policy experts have referred to these accounts as the “gold standard” for comprehensive and authoritative information about the cost of health care in the United States, and the NHE Team’s articles on both the historical and projected NHE accounts routinely appear at the top of Health Affairs’ “most frequently read” list. The current focus on the long history of the NHE accounts creates a golden opportunity to reflect on health care costs, how we have come to this point, and where we are likely headed. (I’m tempted to paraphrase this subject as “Where are we going, and why are we in this handbasket?”) Today we’re in the midst of a monumental effort to develop and assess alternative means of providing and paying for health care. Accountable care organizations, value-based care (and insurance design), medical homes, competition, bundled payments, integration across service providers, prescription drug and treatment adherence, preventive and wellness services, electronic health records, narrow provider networks, consumer-driven health plans, telemedicine, and a host of other initiatives are all being tested; this experimentation has encouraged much optimism that the quality of care can be significantly improved ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - Category: Health Management Authors: Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Featured Health Professionals Hospitals Medicaid and CHIP Medicare Payment Policy Aging Cadillac tax Nurses PCORI physician assistants Physicians States Source Type: blogs