Peter F Hayes's blog

In my former role as Director of Benefits for a Fortune 500 company for 25 years, the traditional model of purchasing health care related services often frustrated me. In the past, most payment models were based on widgets of service. In the case of medical providers, the payment was based on the number of services performed; for consultants, it was on the number of hours consumed.

A recent study released by nine medical specialty groups as part of a project organized by the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM), and promoted by Consumer Reports, has identified 45 medical tests that are often over-utilized and unnecessary. The project, called "Choose Wisely," plans to help physicians and patients make better choices about the best care for their conditions.
 

A recent Consumer Reports article entitled "Heart Tests are Overprescribed" highlights that a significant number (6%-17%) of heart tests and procedures are routinely performed on patients that are unnecessary, placing the patient at increased risk of physical harm. This supports recent studies that show unnecessary procedures being performed over 30% of the time.

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times entitled "Going into a hospital far riskier than flying" positions medical risk in an interesting way.

In a recent article the headline screamed Hotwire.com for Surgery which is the next wave of disruptive market forces that has the potential to have a significant impact on improving quality and lowering cost of health care services by as much as 30%. This is exactly what we have attempted to do with the tools at OHM. Check us out.....

A recent article in the AARP Magazine screams "4 Surgeries to Avoid" (July/August 2011), identifying four surgeries frequently over-utilized which put patients at significant risk (both physically and financially) with little or no clinical improvement over alternative less risky therapies. The procedures identified are:  stents for stable angina, complex spinal fusion for stenosis, hysterectomy for uterine fibroids and knee arthroscopy for osteoarthritis.

That's what the variation of cost can be from one provider to another, according to a recent article in the USA Today entitled "Health Costs Vary Widely (6/30/11)".  The article profiled the wide price variations that exist in most every community for routine health services.  This is not new information, but as more and more Americans are responsible for the first dollars paid toward health care services this should be of huge interest.

I was shocked by a recent article in the Indianapolis Business Journal (6/20/11) entitled "Most Hospitals Physician Bonuses Still Based on Volume". As a consumer and a patient I found that information very concerning. We are all familiar with industries that have a part or a majority of the pay be based on sales incentives.

A recent article in Reuters dated 6/14 entitled "Half of medical Errors Occur Away from a Hospital" should be really concerning news for patients. With the recent headlines most patients are aware that some hospitals are safer than others. This article really highlights that the patient needs to be equally as concerned with all their caregivers outside the hospital.

To build off my blog from yesterday, a new headline from WebMd entitled "Infection Risk Lurks in Hospital ICUs" (dated 6/7) is really an eye opener. The article takes about the varying risk in our hospitals for central line infections. The numbers are very sobering, 25% of patients that get an infection will die.  For the most part these infections are PREVENTABLE by focusing on the care process.