Thursday, March 14, 2013

Scherz: Connecting The Dots

Dr. Hal Scherz of Docs4PatientCare has a new TownHall.com OpEd, "Connecting the Dots on Healthcare".

He makes a couple of important points, including that the current system will fail in a way that will lead to a push for government-run "single payer" care.

He also notes:
Another piece of the puzzle is hospitals. Their powerful lobby made sure that very favorable provisions were included in the ACA, giving them an unfair market advantage. They are consolidating, merging with other hospitals and  purchasing physician practices, leaving some areas of the country short of physicians in private practice. They are creating entities called Accountable Care Organizations -- similar to the capitated HMOs of the 1990s, only much worse. Anti-trust laws are being relaxed or ignored entirely to accelerate this process. The ACO is better suited to deliver government run healthcare because physician behavior is easier to regulate.
(Read the full text of "Connecting the Dots on Healthcare".)