SUMMARY: A new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Purchaser Business Group on Health shows signs that corporate executives might be warming to the idea of government getting more involved to rein in the excesses of the healthcare system. It’s affecting their bottom lines, and they won’t stand for that. Big changes are coming.
QUICK READ: Here are some recent stories that you should all be aware of. Last month I hit 80,000 readers when accounting for email, social media, and direct traffic. I love the industry, and although I want to see some changes, I know there are many good people trying every day to make it happen.
QUICK READ: At times, the public health response to coronavirus (COVID-19) has been scary, characterized by antimask behavior, antivaccine beliefs, conspiracy theories around the development of the vaccine, and a general belief that even COVID numbers are false. These people are doing more harm to others than they know, and they are generally making themselves irrelevant.
QUICK READ: Some deaths will occur during the COVID-19 vaccination rollout, but these deaths would have happened for other reasons and are unrelated to the vaccine. Vaccine-hesitant groups are peddling misinformation online and conspiracy theories aimed at eroding trust in the COVID-19 vaccine are everywhere forcing people to conduct more research.
QUICK THOUGHT: People believe the COVID-19 vaccine was developed in less than a year but that’s not true. Coronaviruses were first encountered in April 1930, when a strange respiratory disease ravaged poultry farms across North Dakota and Minnesota, killing tens of thousands of baby birds. Further scientific research into the virus and recognition that it was not like influenza A, a flu virus known to cause bronchitis, would transpire over the next 30 years.
IN BRIEF: Doctors are not required to treat obese patients who won’t do anything to lose weight but the problem is more than reminding patients they need to get exercise and drop pounds. One study found that only 50 percent of patients follow the instructions associated with taking their medication, and even fewer implement necessary lifestyle changes suggested by their doctor. This is leading to excessive costs to out healthcare system and something needs to be done.
QUICK READ: If you start to lose key people, you won’t be able to keep the business you do have, and things will go from bad to worse. Companies who see their good employees as “replaceable” are wrong. Good employees are not replaceable. Pharma cannot afford to let good people leave without so much as an exit interview to try and retain them.
SUMMARY: Value-based healthcare is a healthcare delivery model in which providers, including hospitals and physicians, are paid based on patient health outcomes. Under value-based care agreements, providers are rewarded for helping patients improve their health, reduce the effects and incidence of chronic disease, and live healthier lives in an evidence-based way. In a country where people really don’t care of themselves value-based healthcare won’t work.
