What Healthcare Leaders Can Do About the Health Insurance Crisis

Dr. Ed Hackman and Delight Reed for Leaders in Healthcare – Feb. 20, 2008

The United States is the only major industrialized country without universal healthcare.As a result, an estimated 47 million Americans do not have health insurance, according to a DeNavas-Walt, Proctor and Hill study. Without a universal healthcare system, avoidable deaths and exorbitant administrative costs will steadily increase. Middle-income families - those making $35,000 to $50,000 annually - are facing problems paying for high healthcare and health insurance costs. Also, 20 percent of those who make over $75,000 annually report serious medical bill problems.

Here are four ways healthcare and hospital leaders can cope with the imminent insurance crisis:

• Recognize Need – Because of the deterioration of many Americans’ health insurance plans, hospitals will increasingly to provide more charitable care to uninsured and/or low-income insured patients. Bad debt will most likely increase after patients cannot pay out-of-pocket costs.
• Be Open – With healthcare costs rising, patients will demand more specific information. Be on the cutting edge of disclosing quality and cost of care standards to ensure patient satisfaction.
• Promote Efficiency – Implementing innovations such as electronic medical records and interoperable health information systems will aid in creating a stronger higher-performing health system. This will drive costs down significantly.
• Call for Universal Coverage – Hospital and healthcare leaders should be leading the way to promote universal coverage. With universal coverage, millions of hard-working Americans would be insured. A universal system would lower costs in the long term by implementing prevention programs and reducing the need for costly emergency room visits, which would save your institution money.