With healthcare reform being one of President Obama's stated priorities, there is no shortage of advice from industry experts.
Two things experts agree on are that access, quality and affordability of healthcare must be tied to cost, and healthcare information technology is part of the solution.
Employers, including federal and state governments, need to treat healthcare purchasing as a core business with an eye to cost containment, said Sreedhar Potarazu, MD, and author of Get Off the Dime: The Secret of Changing Who Pays for Your Health Care.
"Irrespective of who's paying, in order to drive efficiency in cost and quality of healthcare, the approach must be aligned to the economic flow of dollars," Potarazu said.
Healthcare IT is critical to reforming the system, he noted. "Purchasers need technology to get to transparency of cost, utilization and risk, and direct and indirect total cost of individual illnesses."
Potarazu believes interoperability and standards will help build the infrastructure to purchase and deliver healthcare.
Carl Doty, principal analyst for Forrester Research, says healthcare reform "must start with cost containment." The federal and state governments have been focused on expanding coverage, but Doty said the Obama administration and state governors need to focus equally on cost.
While Potarazu believes that the proposed $50 billion investment in healthcare IT over five years is insufficient to address the healthcare crisis, Doty said that the proposed funding "should add up to some significant incentives for hospitals and providers over that period of time."
"There isn't just an endless supply of federal funds to go around, and if Congress just starts giving it away, providers will have no incentive to tighten their belt straps and find organizational efficiencies on their own," Doty said.
Paul Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions believes evidence-based medicine and healthcare IT used for decision-making can help expand coverage for the 47 million uninsured and the 25 million underinsured, and contain costs at the same time.
If we exercise good business judgment and implement incentives focused on wellness and prevention, and create a system that pays for the right things, we'd have adequate funds and build a good business case, Keckley said.