Andrew Shadid’s Post

Fascinating article in today's Financial Times about the importance of the healthcare sector to the US economy. The 4 biggest industry sectors in the US by revenue are: 1) Commercial Banking, 2) Hospitals, 3) Health insurance, and 4) Pharmaceutical wholesaling. Healthcare spending is now the top 1 expenditure items for household's service expenditure at ~25%, and spend per capita is 2x higher than other developed countries. https://lnkd.in/egn2yHAN

The economic sentiments of small business CEOs are on the decline, and it’s affecting their health insurance strategies. Employers are actively looking for alternative health plans that cut costs while better serving their employees. Learn why they are finding that with an Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA): https://lnkd.in/e8JYcGDD #BenefitsPRO #ICHRA #SmallBusiness #Survey

This reporting by Yu Sun @ Financial Times of the 'consumer healthcare experience' in China could just as easily be describing the United States: “A lack of strong health insurance coverage has forced Chinese people to save a significant portion of their income to prepare for external shocks like serious diseases,” said Dan Wang, chief economist at Hang Seng Bank. “That has undermined government efforts to boost consumption, which holds the key to China’s recovery from the post-Covid economic downturn.” Scholars including Jonathan Gruber, an economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have called for Chinese authorities to invest to improve coverage. “It is a perfect opportunity for the government to come in and help reduce those costs, which would . . . improve the health of the rural population and also give China some much-needed macroeconomic stimulus,” he said. ********** When it comes to supersizing market innovation, it doesn't seem that we're mining the Main Vein to wealth, growth and prosperity exposed during the pandemic: public health is not separate from economic health. Every economy is a healthcare economy. Every business is a healthcare business. Where the logic of most "value frameworks" falls apart is in the Adam Smith framing. Economic strategy is approached with a fragmentary worldview, in terms of the division of labor, measuring "price" and "cost" of pieces in isolation from each other, organizing policy around the manufacture and consumption of inputs. A modern strategy works with novel combinations. It thinks in terms of outcomes, not inputs. And so if the goal is economic competition, the thing for industry + government to create collaboratively is a new narrative, a different conceptual frame, an economic system ("ecosystem") that positions the 'production of affordable health' as the true Wealth of Nations. Gross Ecosystem Product Instead of Gross Domestic Product. To dig deeper, see link in comments to 'Healthcare, the Next Tom Brady and the Real Wealth of Nations' published in September on #FreshPaint, the Blue Spoon Consulting platform dedicated to provoking a different conversation about strategy and competition in the largest and most lucrative market in the world. To #ReframeTheGame, DM me here.

A recent study reveals that financial strain related to healthcare is pervasive in the U.S., particularly affecting vulnerable groups such as those in poverty or dealing with restrictive medical conditions. Discover more about how this nationwide financial strain might impact you. #Trends #FinancialStrain #Healthcare #Finance

My doctor friends are enraged. My health tech friends want to know how to cash in on that spend. Another friend threw up his hands and cried, “I told you we should’ve built a health plan years ago!” This. Is. All. Insane. Back when I created “distracted doctoring” (RIP) almost 10 years ago, I called out the issue of physician compensation vs. the time and sacrifices needed to get to that compensation. Physician burnout is real: Over a decade in school and training Hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial debt  Hundreds of thousands of hours in sleep debt And yet, we keep showing up through some combination of “our patients need us” and “we can’t default on our student loans.” Meanwhile, some (not all) patients walk in after Googling their diagnosis and demand same-day surgery or else threaten to report us to administration/their health plan/their big scary pre-law cousin if we don’t give them what they want. Of course, when we don’t acquiesce, it’s because we are too busy living the lives of the “rich and famous.” Of course, we don’t deserve all the money we are paid. If there’s one universal theme among my physician friends it’s that they are tired of getting blamed, exhausted from the bureaucratic nightmare of dealing with insurance companies, and just want to live a normal balanced life. So how do we get there? After years of lecturing/speaking on health policy, I still have no clue how to fix it at a policy level. BUT, at Side Health we’ve built a new practice model – one that is truly physician-centered. One that allows doctors to practice at the top of their license and supports them with an entire team of professionals to help take care of patients. AND we’re doing it all virtually (which allows our doctors to grow their catchment area from their local bedroom community to potentially the entire country). Stay tuned for more. P.S.  What are some ways you think this problem can be tackled? Any smaller interventions we can make while waiting for the policy to catch up?

Almost from the day I landed in the US, I heard grumbling in the plenty, on the difficult healthcare system. That it was a bit complicated was known, but i also thought about the sheer size of the system. Probably, unparalleled in the world. On the insurance side, there is no shortage of short-changing tales. That the middlemen rule (fewer entities controlling all, prescription/insurance/care), and command a big chunk, that’s no surprise either. But what’s without a proper data-driven check! And the early learning so far, is surprisingly positive. The healthcare spending in America, as a share of gdp is falling. Therein is the caveat. The astounding gdp growth by itself, suppresses the real spending. In America. And so is also true to a varied extent, across the rich world. That with post-Covid, aging demographics etc. Should I dare say, that we currently have not seen the days when health administration was on type-writers. When forms ran into pages & pages. And the sheer conditions for which there was no treatment, failed to even register in the spending (on the flip side), thus suppressing the spend (quite sadly). The data is all out there. For 50 years, prior to 2010, the healthcare bills were rising in excess of inflation. Tripled in the US, in particular. It’s nearly stalled since 2010. Decreased in places like Japan, since 2015. On the supply side, the big factor is the shift from treatment to prevention. It’s an outlook change in the sector. The growth in available treatments through a steady supply of drugs, and technology in general has had an impact, like so many other sectors. Reforms on the demand side, have controlled insurers to an extent. They have forced fewer effective medicines over the try-it-all way of doing things. The rise of generics is another factor Add the sheer reduction of services, in general, as budgetary pressures took hold. Then in general, demand for health care rises with rising personal incomes. The general flattening of those, also reduces health spending. Where the trend goes, one can’t say. With the big macro pressures, like aging, lurking all the time. But like in many ways, life is excellent for healthcare. In comparison to the years gone by.

This is an important issue to address but we need to evaluate all sides and consider the most important issues first and present this as an introductory assessment. As Kanwar Kelley, MD, JD indicates that to start with patient care and patient health outcomes is the key to building a successful, strong and sustainable strategy and we must not simply come to the table with every problem but rather provide realistic solutions that can effectively create change. Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country because I believe we are forgetting the purpose and without that where is our integrity and once we lose the focus I’m not certain what we can realistically expect to happen next. #unitedseniorassociation #USA #eldercare #innovation #technology #seniorliving #community #hospitals #patientcare #compliance #OIG #HSS #CMS #medicare #healthcare #assistedliving #nursinghomes #seniorcare

>>This article in The Economist makes interesting, but not surprising reading. It turns out that big pharfma is after not the villain of the piece, explaining the inefficient healthcare system of the US that consumes 17% of GDP which is double the figure for other rich countries, yet has poorer health outcomes! >>It is apparently the intermediaries such as distributors, insurance companies, chains of physician practices run by huge companies, etc that account for 45% of the healthcare spend! Companies like United Healthcare, Kaiser Permanente, and others that are little known outside the US are the giants, with revenues and profits exceeded only by Walmart and Amazon. They are the biggest employers of doctors and nurses, and exercise an influence that is huge, not only on healthcare costs but also policy making in the US. >>This situation is analogous to the financial intermediaries, who constitute the major part of the financial services sector, and yet who add little value, but extract a huge cost in the form of returns that are a cost for businesses, households, and the state. In a study of the financial services sector, especially the mortage intermediaries, conducted after the GFC in 2008, it was found that by consolidating mortgage underwriting under banks and large internediaries, and by cutting out the local housing loan companies, little was gained in terms of value to the house buyer, but costs went up. This was because unlike in the past, now there were many more intermediaries like lawyers to check the titles, financial companies to check the valuations, and so on. All this was previosuly done by the home loan company, which was a local entity, and knew the mortgagee and the local real estate market. >>Pretty much the same thing has happened in the healthcare market in the US. This is a system problem, and needs an overhaul of the system if costs are to come down and become affordable, not only for individuals and households, but also for the state. #healthcare #intermediaries #hospitals #pharmaceutical #costs Souvik RoyRahul RajagopalShalini WarrierV LakshmananPradip PhanjoubamVikram NehruC. PadmakumarRohit PhilipRejeesh Girija RemesanRani RameshRavi Ranjit, FRM

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