Technology And Cost Containment Discussion Paper

A significant challenge to containing health care costs The United States has the most expensive healthcare of any industrialized nation.  According to Agha et al. (2019), healthcare spending accounted for 17.8 percent of the United States economy in 2015, almost half of which was funded by local, state, and federal governments.  Spending on key healthcare programs constituted 31 percent of federal government expenses in 2016. Reducing healthcare costs provides the opportunity of minimizing pressure on state and federal budgets, particularly if it can be done with negligible effect on quality. However, care fragmentation is a significant challenge to containing health care costs.

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Care fragmentation refers to the dispersion of a person’s health care across providers and systems and is ubiquitous in the United States health care system. How policymakers envision technology could be utilized to address this challenge Fragmentation is a major contributor to high costs, negative health outcomes, and low-quality care. Patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease and those with commercial insurance incur higher costs, receive care that is of low quality, and have higher rates of avoidable hospitalizations due to fragmentation of their care. a cost- containment strategy entails efforts to reorganize care delivery so that the care delivered by different providers is of similar quality at a lower cost( Kaltenborn et al., 2021). s  Agha et al. (2021) posit that fragmentation of care results in poor coordination of care and so to uneven quality and higher costs. This has inspired public policy initiatives intended at improving coordination of care, for example, subsidizing investments in EHRs and encouraging organizational forms that enhance care coordination such as patient-centered medical homes. Do you agree or disagree with the policymakers? Technology And Cost Containment Discussion Paper

I agree with the policymakers that technology can be used to contain costs by reducing care fragmentation. For example, electronic health records can enhance effective care coordination when a patient receives care at disparate centers. Technology, notably telehealth, can help contain costs while supporting health care reform initiatives. According to Shrank et al. (2021),   improvements in the internet, remote, and video monitoring technological capabilities increasingly permit health care services delivery in a patient-centered setting and more cost-effective way.  Telehealth now permits patients to receive behavioral health services, primary care, o and home-based acute care at a lower cost. The care delivered via telehealth visits is of better or equal quality compared with care delivered at a health care facility.

References

Agha, L., Frandsen, B., & Rebitzer, J. B. (2021). Fragmented division of labor and healthcare costs: Evidence from moves across regions. Journal of Public Economics, 169, 144-159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2018.11.001

Kaltenborn, K., Paul, K., Kirsch, J. D., Aylward, M., Rogers, E. A., Rhodes, M. T., & Usher, M. G. (2021). Super fragmented: a nationally representative cross-sectional study exploring the fragmentation of inpatient care among super-utilizers. BMC Health Services Research, 21, 338. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-06323-5

Shrank, W. H., DeParle, N., Gottlieb, S., Hain, S. H., Orszag, P., Powers, B. W., & Wilensky, G. R. (2021). Health Costs And Financing: Challenges And Strategies For A New Administration.  Health Affairs, 40, 2. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.01560 Technology And Cost Containment Discussion Paper

Discussion: Technology and Cost Containment
In response to continually rising health care costs, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) provision was created to promote the meaningful use of health care information technology through numerous incentive programs for health care providers. By enhancing data collection, streamlining electronic medical records, and increasing transparency, it is believed that significant cost savings can be realized as well as other positive outcomes. What are some of the tradeoffs involved in this type of policy?

To prepare:

Reflect on the challenges of containing health care costs in the U.S. presented in the Learning Resources and discussed by Dr. Kominski and Dr. Zelman in the media.
Consider how information technology may be used to address health care issues related to cost.
Examine the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) provision and its goals.

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By Day 3
Post a cohesive response that addresses the following:

Briefly summarize a significant challenge to containing health care costs.
How do policy makers envision technology could be utilized to address this challenge (above)? Provide at least one example to support your response.
Do you agree or disagree with the policy makers? Describe why you agree or disagree and include one or more insights from this analysis that relate to the question of how information technology could, or could not, help contain costs while supporting health care reform initiatives. Technology And Cost Containment Discussion Paper