Tjiang W, See KS Kris, Osel Diagnostics, Osel Group
Abstract: Healthcare today is increasingly driven by medical technology. Unlike in many other areas, the cost of medical technology is not declining and its increasing use contributes to the spiraling healthcare costs. Many medical professionals equate progress in medicine to increasing use of sophisticated technology that is often expensive and beyond the reach of the average citizen.
Technological innovation in health care is an important driver of cost growth. Doctors and patients often embrace new modes of treatment before their merits and weaknesses are fully understood. These technologies can lead to increases in costs, either because they are simply more expensive than previous treatments or because their introduction leads to an expansion in the types and numbers of patients treated.
Changing Ways of Practises
Changes in clinical thresholds for treatment have resulted in more patients’ being treated for asymptomatic conditions. Treatment thresholds have changed for these risk factors during the past twenty-five years. This reflects a desire for earlier clinical intervention to reduce the severity of each of these conditions.
Some other reasons for cost escalation are associated with a growing and aging population that all too often makes inappropriate personal choices, growth in the cost of drugs, hospital and nursing home care, and durable medical equipment.
Most medical equipments today run on digital platforms. Hospitals, clinics and many other healthcare facilities are increasingly dependent on hospital information software. Yet, healthcare is becoming increasingly expensive and out-of-reach for the common man. Digital technology does not seem to empower the average patient. Rather it sometimes does the reverse. It makes them more vulnerable and helpless. They experience these costs as unaffordable premiums and out-of-pocket spending that increases every year but often doesn’t translate into better care or better options.
Two examples are worth studying, especially because they represent applications in digital technology that have tremendous potential to meet the needs of the common man. However, they have not developed along the lines that would have improved their reach. The impact of high health care costs goes beyond the sticker shock of a medical bill—it affects everyone and seeps into every segment of our lives. The impact is felt by individuals, families, employers, and those crafting state and federal budgets:
• Rising health care costs undermine wage growth.
• Rising health care costs put the squeeze on household incomes, as families struggle to pay for
insurance as well as the care not covered by insurance
• Rising health care costs force trade-offs in our national and local government budget priorities,
reducing the money available for education and other important programs.
Future Perspectives
There is an urgent need to address this situation through development and use of appropriate technology in accordance with the needs and priorities of the society.
Economists thinking about rising health care spending note that there are only two approaches for slowing its growth: reduce spending on high-cost medical care that produces no benefits, and reduce spending on high-cost care that yields some health benefits but at even higher costs.
Providers and patients need a rational approach to what should be done, not what can be done.
Consumers rarely know what they are paying for when it comes to health care services and often do not understand how prices are determined. Cost transparency and price disclosure was seen as an entry point. Better price transparency can help educate the public, clarify the issue for policymakers and pave the way for advocates to push for more reasonable prices and better value.
A number of simple and inexpensive quality measures that have the potential of improving outcomes substantially without the need for expensive equipment should be instituted before embracing high-end technology. Innovations to reduce costs that are commonly used in limited resource environments should be tested systematically.
An efficient health care system must enhance the ability of medical professionals and their patients to make informed choices about the adoption and use of new technologies, even when insurers do not explicitly provide reimbursement for these new technologies.
References
Barbash GI, Glied SA. New Technology and Health Care Costs — The Case of Robot-Assisted Surgery. N Engl J Med.2010; 363:701-704. doi : 10.1056/NEJMp1006602
Consumers Union. Addressing Rising Health Care Costs Workshop Summary. November 2013
Kumar RK. Technology and healthcare costs. Ann Pediatr Cardiol. 2011 Jan-Jun; 4(1): 84–86
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Thorpe KE. The Rise In Health Care Spending And What To Do About It. Health Affairs. November 2005
Wallner PE, Konski A. The Impact of Technology on Health Care Cost and Policy Development. Semin Radiat Oncol.2008 Jul;18(3):194-200. doi: 10.1016/j.semradonc.2008.01.007
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