Cost Containment Healthcare

Cost containment in Healthcare has for long troubled governments across the globe. Though immediate neighbor, Canada, has done exceptionally well in bringing down the healthcare cost, the US has for long been haunted by increasing prices of healthcare.[br]

 

Cost containment in Healthcare has for long troubled governments across the globe. Though immediate neighbor, Canada, has done exceptionally well in bringing down the healthcare cost, the US has for long been haunted by increasing prices of healthcare.[br]

 

As per a report published by Reuters, out of the five countries that were studied in the survey (Germany, Britain, Australia, America and Canada) the American health care system was found to be the poorest and yet the most expensive. Absence of preventive medical assistance contributes even more to the expenses. Cost containment in healthcare is therefore gathering grounds for an immediate overhaul in a bid to make healthcare more accessible to the common man.

Antidotes of Cost Containment in Healthcare

Though the concept of cost containment in healthcare seems to be an easy task achievable through some infrastructural as well as operational changes, the truth differs entirely. The current medical system is fundamentally weak to counter the price inflation and in fact, contributes in its own ways to make the situation worse.

 

The reasons for increasing cost are:

• Oversupply of medical resources and their inefficiency: As there is no benefit for the patients, they keep coming back for the same treatment again.

• Unnecessary care: There are many cases where a patient is hospitalized for longer time than required, thus increasing expenses.

• Excessive administrative expenses: Complex billing and insurance requirements increase the administrative costs. The best example is the need for physicians to demonstrate their competence of being capable of providing high quality care to get approval; which is a tedious and time consuming process. Researchers have also assessed that billing activities consume more than $9 billion annually.

• Prescription drug marketing: Medicines, which are not too effective, are still marketed due to higher commissions. Repeated prescription increases the health care cost.

• Chronic care: Though nothing much can be done when it comes to chronic diseases, they are anyhow big contributors to the overall cost.[br]

The real solution for cost containment in healthcare is to work on effective medicines and regulate the pharmaceutical industry. Once the pricing gets under control, cost can be contained easily in the healthcare segment and Americans will be happier and a healthier lot.

 

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