Having just tried to find more cost effective health insurance and long
term care insurance, I can tell you how frustrating it is to get good
data.
The Dartmouth Atlas Project has documented glaring variations in how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States.
This interactive US Atlas of Health Care shows you various information by local areas... the best, the growth, by hospital referral region.
As you can see, the Los Angeles region has a bit of a difference in prices and cost increases than counties north and south of it. Hmmmm....
Nationally, Medicare spent an average of $8,304 per enrollee in 2006, and national spending grew at a rate of 3.5 percent annually from 1992 to 2006. Among states, New York was tops in spending per enrollee, at $9,564. Hawaii was lowest, at $5,311.
Where Medicare spending per enrollee grew at an annual rate of 5 percent in Miami, the rate was less than half, at 2.4 percent, in San Francisco. Medicare spent $16,351 per enrollee in Miami in 2006, almost twice the spending of $8,331 in San Francisco.
Small Differences Make a Huge Savings
Small differences, because of compounding, can make an enormous difference.
Systems of Quality Care
They write: "Payment systems could then shift from purely volume-based payments to systems ... that foster accountability for the overall costs and quality of care, allowing physicians to align their work more closely with the values that brought them to health care. "
Read more at: SolutionsForYourHealthCare.com
The Dartmouth Atlas Project has documented glaring variations in how medical resources are distributed and used in the United States.
This interactive US Atlas of Health Care shows you various information by local areas... the best, the growth, by hospital referral region.
As you can see, the Los Angeles region has a bit of a difference in prices and cost increases than counties north and south of it. Hmmmm....
The cost of providing health care to seniors is rising more than twice as fast in Dallas as in San Diego, and Medicare now spends nearly three times more to care for its enrollees in Miami than it does in Honolulu.
Nationally, Medicare spent an average of $8,304 per enrollee in 2006, and national spending grew at a rate of 3.5 percent annually from 1992 to 2006. Among states, New York was tops in spending per enrollee, at $9,564. Hawaii was lowest, at $5,311.
Where Medicare spending per enrollee grew at an annual rate of 5 percent in Miami, the rate was less than half, at 2.4 percent, in San Francisco. Medicare spent $16,351 per enrollee in Miami in 2006, almost twice the spending of $8,331 in San Francisco.
The researchers project that, at current spending rates, Medicare will be $660 billion in the red by 2023.
But by reducing the annual growth in per capita spending from 3.5 percent, the national average, to 2.4 percent, the rate in San Francisco, Medicare could save $1.42 trillion and turn the deficit into a healthy surplus.
Small Differences Make a Huge Savings
Small differences, because of compounding, can make an enormous difference.
The authors call on physicians to lead an effort to reform how the U.S. delivers and pays for health care to bring spending under control.
Systems of Quality Care
They write: "Payment systems could then shift from purely volume-based payments to systems ... that foster accountability for the overall costs and quality of care, allowing physicians to align their work more closely with the values that brought them to health care. "
Read more at: SolutionsForYourHealthCare.com