As lawmakers try to understand the ultimate causes of the recent slowdown in healthcare spending growth, their determinations will eventually translate into policies that will impact healthcare businesses of all types.
During a Brookings Institution webcast last week, healthcare industry experts discussed what they believe to be the causes behind the spending slowdown and possible strategies to keep spending in check.
According to webcast speaker Louise Sheiner, a senior economist for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and author of the Brookings Institution report, “Perspectives on Health Care Spending Growth,” the healthcare spending slowdown that has occurred since 2002 is largely a result of the two recent recessions, not technology innovations, as some experts might say.
Sheiner and Charles Roehrig, from the Altarum Center for Sustainable Health Spending, expect healthcare
Taking these possible causes for the slowdown into account, the panelists discussed strategies that lawmakers and providers can put in place to hold down spending going forward.
Mark McClellan, director of the Health Care Innovation and Value Initiative at the Brooking Institution, and Alice Rivlin, director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution, shared insights from their report, “Improving Health While Reducing Cost Growth: What is Possible?” on what policies they believe could reduce the projected growth of health spending while enhancing population health and quality of care.
To avoid wasteful spending, inefficiencies in healthcare delivery and poor population health must be addressed, McClellan and Rivlin said.
They presented three complementary strategies to achieve better healthcare delivery and improve population health.
The first is reforming provider payment systems to reward value and move away from paying for volume of services.
The second strategy is enhancing competition to increase consumer incentives to choose cost-effective treatments and providers, as well as health plans that have more efficient payment and benefit design.
The third strategy is enhancing a culture of health by providing incentives for healthy behaviors and shifting the emphasis of providers and communities toward prevention and enabling healthy living.
“It’s important to include all of the strategies,” McClellan said. “All of these strategies have in common the ability to promote change in healthcare innovation, and they can all improve outcomes and lower costs overtime.”