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Bhutan’s Philosophy of “Gross National Happiness”

October 3rd, 2010

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.
—Albert Einstein

At a recent conference I had the opportunity to learn about the Himalayan nation of Bhutan. Most of us had not heard of this country, but we should have, because they have done something that is reminiscent of the Broadway Musical “Camelot,” or possibly “Brigadoon.” Their King introduced a philosophy of living that is intended to shape all of the government’s activities. According to Mr. Kuenga Tshering, Director of the National Statistics Bureau of Bhutan, Gross National Happiness (GNH) was promulgated as Bhutan’s philosophy of economic and social development by the Fourth King of Bhutan as soon as he came to the throne in 1972.

The reason I’m writing about this is because I believe it is an amazing idea, a wonderful goal, and a step toward embracing  idealism.  Many of you have heard my thoughts on change, and know that I do not believe that there is only one route to follow on this journey through life.

Takstan Monastery, Bhutan (image credit: johnehrenfeld.com)

Takstan Monastery, Bhutan (image credit: johnehrenfeld.com)

The Bhutanese philosophy of “living” refers to a set of social and economic interventions that evaluate societal change in terms of the collective happiness of people.  Further, these measures are also applied to the creation of policies that are aimed at that objective. Premised on the belief that all human beings aspire to happiness in one way or another, the concept promotes collective happiness of the society as the ultimate goal of development.  Now that would be a political platform!

The philosophy of Gross National Happiness considers economic growth as one of the means towards achieving happiness, but it also offers a holistic paradigm within which the mind receives equal attention. While GNH recognizes the importance of individual happiness, it emphasizes that happiness must be realized as a collective or societal goal and not be defined as an individualized or competitive good.

The philosophy should also not cause misery to future generations, other societies, or to other  beings, and it is important to the government of Bhutan that the efforts of this philosophy be distributed evenly across all sections of  the society.

They work at strengthening the institutions of family and community; the spirit of voluntarism, tolerance and cooperation; the virtues of compassion, altruism, honor and dignity, all of whose active promotion may be a contributing factor to Bhutan’s low crime rate.

Culture also provides a framework where an individual’s or society’s psychological and emotional needs are addressed. By preserving local, regional, and national festivals, the government attends to these needs and provides a forum for maintaining social networks and promoting the conviviality of public culture.

His Majesty, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan

His Majesty, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan

Bhutan treasures the extended family network as the most sustainable form of social safety net. Aware of the possibilities of family disintegration or nuclearization, the government makes conscious efforts to revive and nourish the traditions and practices that bond families and keep communities resilient and thriving.

Their environmental policy is predicated on the perspective that human beings and nature not only live symbiotically but are inseparable from each other. According to this perspective, nature is a partner in existence; a provider of sustenance, comfort and beauty.

Environmental preservation, therefore, is a way of life in Bhutan. Currently, 72% of the country’s area is under forest cover, 26% of the area is declared as protected areas, and the state has decreed to maintain 60% of its area under forest cover for all times to come. Environmental cost is an essential ingredient of evaluating new development projects in  Bhutan.

Finally, Bhutan launched parliamentary democracy 2008, becoming the youngest democratic country in the world. All this was initiated by the country’s leader – His Majesty, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, thus fostering people’s capacity to make choices.

Well, we have generally been making choices as a country for some time now that generally do not embrace nature, family, our fellow man, or the environment.  On a recent boat trip up the Caloosahatchee River, I expressed a dream, namely that mankind would embrace a philosophy of “National Happiness.”

Now wouldn’t that ROCK?

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. — Albert Einstein

Read more: http://blog.rypple.com/2010/06/chip-conleys-ted-talk-on-gross-national-happiness-gnh/#ixzz11MQ5ZTm6

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Posted in Future, Healthcare, Integrative Health, Public Policy

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The Obligation is Real

September 21st, 2010

On Saturday night a group of people will gather at a restaurant  for a celebration of life since graduation from high school. I won’t be there. Neither will Joe, Butch, Tommy and half a dozen others,  but their absence is for a very different reason: they have passed away. I, on the other hand, will just be passing. So, why not go this year?

Nick Jacobs, FACHE at the beach with his grandchildrenWell, it’s a kid thing. You see, part of my birthday present to each of my kids was an overnight stay at a resort with their spouses, and, low and behold, there is no one to watch three of the grandkids and the brand new chocolate lab; no one, that is, but me. Why would I sacrifice the opportunity to hang with my old buddies for the chance to change diapers, mop up housebreaking accidents, and argue over bathing and bedtime issues?  Why?  Because it was part of the commitment, that kid commitment.  They will be my kids until either I die or they do, and with that come certain obligations that are real.

Why bother you with all of this personal blog stuff?  It’s about obligations.

The other day, a bright young man met with me at lunch to ask me questions about the American Healthcare System. Interestingly enough, I don’t believe that  my answers were what he had expected. You see, we have certain beliefs about our rights to generate, earn, and receive money in this country. What is missing, however, is a realistic reward system that aligns the appropriate reimbursements with the actual needs of the country. When he asked me how many hospitals would invest in purchasing his product, one that might help to eliminate hospital infections, my response was “Not many.”

You see, with obligatory bottom line orientations, many of the hospital CEO’s and CFO’s are not anxious to spend money on a  product that might work.  More importantly, with a lack of transparency, the public exposure that most organizations have relative to this infection problem is still somewhat limited.  It was easy to explain that if “St. Elsewhere” was exposed for having a 24% infection rate, not unlike a five star hotel having bed bugs, you can darn well bet that something would be done and done quickly, but the issue is not so pressing when it is under the basket.

Over the last few years, I have lost some wonderful friends who have had fantastic surgeries at highly respected hospitals.  These surgeries would have been impossible to have in a “normal” hospital, but, having said that, two of them died and one lingered near death for two years due to the infections they acquired there.

If this was widely publicized public knowledge, might he be able to sell more product?  The question was rhetorical and the answer is absolutely, positively, yes. So, back to obligations. Why is it that we must be exposed in order to become aggressive about serious problems in our systems?  The answer is simple: It costs money, and resource allocation is the number one challenge of most hospitals.  Hence my point about our financial incentives.  If we were reimbursed, rewarded and paid, not in an unconnected, cottage industry manner, our treatment regimes and protocols would change.  If we knew that it would be our financial responsibility to amputate limbs for advanced diabetes, would we be more eager to spend money on wellness initiatives?

Truthfully, it’s our obligation, and, as our fellow human beings suffer, we are currently seeing a movement toward political groups intent upon repealing reform measures. That is a backward view of an already complex challenge. It is our obligation to help our fellow man. “Do unto others …or pray you don’t lose your health insurance.”

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Posted in Family, Healthcare, Hospitals

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What’s Wrong With This Picture?

September 9th, 2010

American Healthcare Magazine - September 6, 2010 - Nick Jacobs, FACHE - HealingHospitals.comThe Modern Healthcare edition of September 6, 2010 has a cover headline that reads: “Passing the Buck,” and the descriptor goes on to explain that “Yet a new report says workers’ share of benefit costs is skyrocketing.”  The actual opening line of the article starts with “Workers are shouldering more of the costs of health coverage than ever before amid stagnant wages and a weak economy”…

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Patient Advocacy, a subject about which I am passionate. So, this blog is about patient and employee advocacy that also provides additional resources for hospitals to help them address the current economic challenges.

Every year when we looked at our medical insurance costs at my hospital, a politically incorrect friend would jokingly suggest that we begin an annual, required participation August Tennis Tournament for our high-utilization employees, but only after the temperatures reached at least 95 degrees.  “It would be a thinning of the herd,” he would jokingly say with an elf-like smile on his face.  We would then get serious and dig into a long list of creative ideas aimed at helping contain these costs so that we would not have to lower benefits or pass the charges on to the employees.

Included in these lists were some rather simple ideas such as offering, in a structured manner, the wellness options covered under our health insurance umbrella and generally rewarding our employees for taking better care of themselves.  We significantly reduced fees for the workout facility (1/3 of the regular cost ), provided personalized counseling from our dietitians, had a weight loss contest and gave rewards for taking classes on stress management, smoking cessation, diabetes control and exercise.

We offered psychological counseling for our employees who were suffering from stress related issues.  Our food service vendor, CURA, made sure that “no transfats” were a part of the hospital’s meals, that there were always low-fat vegetarian choices on every menu, that snacks were reasonable and that our vending machines had healthy choices. We also celebrated life and work on a regular basis.   We had cook-outs, off-stage break rooms, massage, aroma, Reiki, pet and music therapy.  We provided drum circles, non-denominational spiritual services and meditation classes; kick boxing, Pilates, pool therapy, and employee parties.

So, short of forced tennis matches, how else can we control these costs?  The following is a summary of a program that SunStone Consulting is currently offering with two other business partners, CBIZ and InforMed.

Over the past 6 years, the average annual health insurance cost increase for InforMed-supported patient advocacy programs has run at 4.5%, compared to the 10-12% trend for all employers.  In the case where a hospital with 1,500 employees is paying out about $10,000,000 a year for employee health insurance, a 5% savings over a three year period would generate $3.3 million in savings.  Let me repeat that:  By lowering those  premium increases by 5%, there would be over three million extra dollars available for hospital financial needs and co-pays and deductibles for the employees would not have to continue to escalate by 13 to 15% annually.

The Patient Advocate logo (California) - Nick Jacobs, FACHEThe care management “engagement” rate of all the major insurance companies is about 30%. That means that the insurance company-based “help programs” are about 1/3 effective in even reaching the employees.  This non-insurance company based program, however, has a 70% engagement rate of identified large claimants, more than double the insurance company’s rate, and with over 1 million employees in this program, they produce a 98% patient satisfaction rate.

By employing local, trained, patient advocacy nurses, paying physicians a monthly stipend out of the savings to help manage these patient/employees, and then helping those high utilization patients legitimately navigate through the nine to fifteen physicians with whom they interact on an annual basis, health systems are seeing tremendous savings.  (Kind of the Best of Managed Care scenario.)

These are clear, actionable items that will positively change a bottom line quickly and permanently without having to increase the financial burden on the employees.

Why not try it?  It works.

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Posted in Hospitals, Leadership, patient-centered care

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The Problem with Experience, Intellect and Self-Assurance

September 3rd, 2010

I received this quote from a friend today:

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little.
His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side,
if he does not so much as know what they are,
he has no ground for preferring either opinion.”

–John Stuart Mill, British philosopher from his classic On Liberty, 1859

Man Looking in Mirror - Recursive - Nick Jacobs, FACHEMy new friend, Dan, has been helping me by holding up a rather small mirror, and suggesting that I explore me in that looking glass.  For the past two years, my patterns have not changed appreciably.  My work day starts very early and typically ends very late.  During those working hours, it has been my custom to continue to pursue those imaginative, creative inventions, ideas, and interventions that can help to change lives, businesses, and futures in a very positive way.  My enthusiasm for these discoveries, however, seems to get me into trouble, because I’m always trying to provide answers before anyone asks me questions.

Everywhere we go people are selling us something.  We are being inundated with opportunities to try something new, something different, something wonderful that will change our lives. We not only become callous to these approaches, we become cynical and sometimes very negative toward them.  Hence, when I try to explain that there really is plenty of money available to us to add those services and to create the type of environment that we know the Baby Boomers and their kids would love, the push back begins.

In fact, Dan held up his hand and said, “Put your hand against mine.”  Within seconds we were pushing on each other’s hands.  It’s a natural thing.  We see the hand and begin to push back on it.  Our experiences, our intellectual capacity, and our self-assurance all work against us as we assume that “we have the answers,” and that no matter what is on the table, you have experience and knowledge that allows you to counter its winning characteristics.

Dan suggested that I begin to approach things differently. He suggested that I stop telling people all of the details of my incredible discoveries and allow them to tell me where their pain resides. Allow them to tell me what hurts. Then, suggest some of the marvelous potential cures that have been so much a part of my research over the past few years.  Maybe we should all listen to Dan?

As CEO’s (and former CEO’s), we all know a lot. We’ve experienced a lot, and if we weren’t fairly self-assured, we wouldn’t have gotten the job in the first place. So, maybe, just maybe, instead of always trying to fix everything before we really understand the details, maybe it would be good –really good to just listen for awhile.

Early aircraft listening device, Bolling AFB 1921

Early aircraft listening device, Bolling AFB, 1921

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Posted in Boomers, Healthcare, Leadership

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Could We Do It Better?

August 8th, 2010

Several months ago, I met a white-haired gentleman of average stature at a meeting.  When I asked him what he did, he replied, “I’m a patient advocate.”  “So am I,” I said. “I even wrote a book, ‘Taking the Hell out of Healthcare’ about it.  “Yes,” he continues, “but I found a way to make a living from doing this.”  His name is Harry and he is an actuary.  In those yin and yang posters, that would put us at opposite ends of the proverbial left brain/right brain spheres.  He had analyzed health care records for about thirty years and could prove what we all know, that between 5 and 7% of our employees use up about 80% of our healthcare dollars. That, my friends, is not rocket science.   All you need to do is hang around some sick people for a while, and you’ll realize that “our system” is set up to keep doing things to them over and over again.  Usually, it’s not to help them eliminate the problem, but to maintain their life in a chronically challenged situation.

Ryan Is An Actuary. Look It Up. Flickr photo credit: evaxebra - © all rights reserved

Flickr photo credit: evaxebra © all rights reserved

So, I asked Harry what he does, and he indicated that he hires nurses, pays doctors and employs “MANAGED CARE’S GREATEST HITS.”   Now every health insurance company in the world will claim the same thing, but everyone who has ever been turned down for anything by any health insurance company knows that: 1.) the bottom line reason was usually their bottom line, or: 2.) it’s a nurse against your doc, and your doc has not employed all of the verbal and intellectual tricks to convince him or her to allow you to have the test or take the drug that he thinks you need.

Harry went on to explain that these “5  percenters”  usually have anywhere from nine to fifteen docs with whom they interact on a yearly basis, and, not coincidentally, these physicians usually don’t do a great deal of interacting with each other, hence the need for patient advocates.  This is where Harry’s nurses come into the picture.  He assigns a nurse to each high-risk patient, allows the patient to pick their “favorite quarterback doc,” and then pays that physician to help hold down the duplication of unnecessary tests.  Makes sense, huh?  I can just hear my Internal Medicine physician saying, “Nick, you don’t need those 13 other chest x-rays this month, the first one will do fine for all of us.”

Interestingly enough, this system WORKS, and it works pretty darn well because it’s not about saving money for the insurance company;  it’s not about depriving the patient of needed tests;  it’s not about controlling the patient, or preventing him or her from having what they need, but it is about eliminating wholly unnecessary tests, meds, and procedures.  Harry had letter after letter from grateful patients, families, and employers thanking his people for helping them navigate their way through the maze of this very complex, sometimes-disconnected, procedure-oriented system.

The other interesting thing is that Harry likes to go to a town and start first with the hospitals, because their employees are the most comfortable with using everything, and have the easiest access to the most doctors.  It’s a great way to prove  the system works.  From that point on, he then works to bring all of the major employers into the fold, and ties them into the primary hospitals.  It’s something that only an actuary could have accomplished, because, as Harry readily states, “It’s taken me about 30 years to perfect this system.”  The patient is protected from being over-tested in an indiscriminate manner; the hospitals or businesses save a considerable amount of money, thus limiting reases in their annual healthcare costs, and the savings are cumulative over the years.  So, why not try something that will improve the employee morale, patient satisfaction, and quality?

If you are interested in learning more about this program, give me a call.

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Posted in Healthcare, Hospitals, patient-centered care

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Moving Through Healthcare’s Version of the BP Oil Spill

May 27th, 2010

Who could have ever guessed that the United States of America would fall so far behind in education, childhood death statistics,  scientific research, manufacturing jobs, and even overall, general healthcare?  Yes, of course, we are still a wonderful, strong country with incredible resources, but somewhere along the line, the train seems to have jumped off the track just a little, or is that like being a little pregnant?  No one would ever have conceived that a spark plug would be worth more than GM stock, but that’s exactly what happened last year.  Or how about the fact that large investment banks responding to the mandate to increase home sales by spreading the risk internationally could have helped put this entire world on the verge of a national depression?

For years now I’ve written about the need to provide some type of safety valve for the uninsured, underinsured, and those struggling to make it from layoff at age 58 to Medicare at age 65.  Not unlike the Kennedy-Katzenbaum bill, (you know, that HIPAA bill that was just meant to provide health insurance portability), we have healthcare reform legislation.  The really challenging thing about this new bill is that it was primarily written by policy wonks fifty percent of whom will not be working in Washington D.C. in a few years, and worse than that, it will be interpreted by policy wonk lifers who will be there long after we are all dead.

So, the “Healthcare Oil Spill” has been addressed.  What will it mean?  What does it mean?  How will it impact all of us?  That remains to be seen.  The good news is that 30 million more people will finally have a safety net. The bad news is that there are still two wars going on that are draining our treasury.  There is still financial chaos among the countries lovingly referred to by the EU as the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain), and, along with this group,  spending in the United States  has been out of control for at least nine years.

What will happen is anyone’s guess.  How things will be interpreted is anyone’s guess.  How the law will be enforced is every one’s guess, but in  a recent round table discussion at the Mid-State HFMA meeting, we heard four CFOs discuss the challenges that they currently face and will continue to face as life becomes even more complex.  After that session, I’m thinking that lots of mud pushed in the head of the well might just be the cure!  Goodness knows there was enough mud thrown around during this last election cycle.  Maybe we could redirect it back to the source?  I do know for sure that one thing is clear: CHANGE is INEVITABLE, the train is back on the track, and it’s coming straight toward our physicians, hospitals, and nursing homes.

How do we cope with that change?  Make sure that every ounce of fat is cut from the system.  Take a look at the list below and contact SunStone Consulting for the next steps:

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Posted in Current Affairs, Future, Healthcare

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What’s Still Missing?

April 3rd, 2010
We are on a not-so-merry-go-round which, even after health care reform, continues to promote a system of illness incentives  that are improperly reimbursed, improperly addressed, and inappropriately segmented. We continue to consider body parts as if they are not connected to or a component of the whole.
Wellness Wheel - Image credit: Marquette University

Tort reform still has virtually no teeth.  This causes physicians to practice sometimes over-the-top medicine in self-defense. When will it be time to begin to throw the switch and teach patients what we already know so well; that wellness, wholeness, and health can change the quality of our lives completely? Our medical schools need to embrace wellness and prevention as a path to health. Not unlike indigenous man, it is time that we begin to realize that our brains do have something to do with our bodies.  We live in a commodity driven society which does not always promote the best, most healthful food, even miminal exercise, stress management, or self-nurturing. Instead, because of those quarterly reports to the stockholders, these companies promote what is the most lucrative and often the easiest to sell.

Oprah.com - Health and Wellness - Nick Jacobs - HealingHospitals.comWe know that drinking a soft drink with 10 teaspoons of sugar is not healthful. We clearly understand that quadruple cheese anything might eventually catch up with us, or that Uncle Buck’s 72 oz. steak can’t really be good for our arteries. Fried and buttered everything, a total lack of exercise, and more stress than anyone can ever dream of will not extend our lives

One night a few weeks ago I couldn’t sleep, and at 3:00 AM, I looked up and saw an apparition… Oprah. There she was, talking about food. The person she was interviewing said, “Oprah, in the 1960’s, our food cost us 18% of our annual income. ” Maybe that’s why there weren’t more restaurants at that time. Families were stretched just eating at home. He went on to say that, “In the 60’s, healthcare costs us 9% of our income.”  Finally he said, “Now healthcare costs us 18% of our income, and food costs us 9%.”

So, that’s the trade off. We can buy good, farmer’s market-type healthy, organic food and have low healthcare costs, or we can buy manufactured, additive filled food, and pay more for our healthcare.  How much further down this cul de sac must we go as a country before we begin to realize the path to health and wellness or longevity?

Health and Wellness - Nick Jacobs - HealingHospitals.com

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Posted in Diet, Healthcare, Integrative Health

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Healthcare Reform. . . It’s only just begun

March 10th, 2010

This week’s Bloomberg Business Week magazine featured a phenomenal and very personal story of healthcare that actually captures many of the challenges around healthcare reform.  The author, Amanda Bennett, takes us on a journey that she has titled, “Lessons of a $618,616 Death.”  The true title, however, should have been, “How Do You Put A Price on 17 Months?”  In this article, Ms. Bennett takes us on the step-by-step, blow-by-blow journey that ended with her husband’s death.  She and a friend painfully reconstructed every page of his medical records, every dollar paid by her insurance companies, and every charge made by the various doctors and hospitals that treated him during the last years of his life.

Business Week end-of-life issue - Nick Jacobs - healinghospitals.com
Amanda Bennett and Terence Foley

She showed 1.) the grand total of charges, $618,616, 2.) the actual monies paid by the insurance companies to the hospitals after contractual negotiations, $254,176, and 3.) the total paid by her family, $9,468. In the article, she described the 30% overhead/administration costs, the costs of experimental drugs inside and outside of trials, and the 4,750 pages of medical records that were amassed during this time. For those of us who have “spent our time” trying to live within, cope with, and better understand America’s healthcare system, there were no surprises.  For those of us who have watched a loved one take this cancer journey with all of its mysterious unknowns, there were also no surprises. Ms. Bennett’s quote, “The system has a strong bias toward action,” was, I believe, the most poignant in the entire piece.

A few weeks ago, I had lunch with a very healthcare-savvy individual who, when I jokingly referred to death panels, almost came across the table at me.  She did not believe it was funny.  To say that she was passionate would miss the point.  Only the day before, I had spoken with another very intelligent healthcare reform advocate who indicated that the entire concept of death panels emanated from a payment code that reimbursed physicians for simply (or in some cases finally) talking to patients about their alternatives.  I had heard other explanations, but neither mattered.  What matters is that, in many instances, we are not discussing appropriate alternatives or revealing the quality-of-life issues often overlooked before beginning long courses of experimental drugs, or oncology drugs that may not have any positive impact on the health outcome of the individual.

Interestingly, Ms. Bennett did indicate that for all of the time, money, and pain invested in this journey, no one could confirm that her husband’s life was actually extended by these medical experiences.

Someone once described America’s healthcare system to me like this:  You walk into Nordstrom, order several three-thousand-dollar suits, a dozen shirts and some handmade, silk Italian ties, then turn to the person beside you and say to the clerk, ‘”He is paying for this.”  Our heroine Ms. Bennett did mention the fact that her husband would probably have questioned the use of all of these funds in this manner and the relationship that these expenditures might have had on all of the other people in the world who might have been helped by these dollars.

Taking the Hell Out of Healthcare by Nick JacobsWhen healthcare reform is discussed, it is personal.  It is also deep, and it is costly, but the bottom line always comes back to this: “How do you put a price on 17 months?”  In my book Taking the Hell out of Healthcare, I discuss the journey that my father and our neighbor took together over about a 17 month period.  Both diagnosed with lung cancer, my father decided to go for it all.  He had surgery, chemo, radiation, more radiation, and more chemo.  My neighbor, a man without significant health insurance coverage, decided to spend his time with his family.  They both died on the same day.  My father died in a cold, tertiary care hospital where no clergy was present, his family members were not all able to be there with him, and it was over.  In contrast, our neighbor died peacefully in his home, surrounded by his entire family.

Ms. Bennett did say that she was glad that she was not a bureaucrat having to deal with these issues.  Frankly, I wish that she was!

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Posted in Healthcare, Hospitals, Public Policy

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Gotta Love This Guy (Oh, yeah, and this is an editorial comment)

March 1st, 2010

As we begin to emerge from the bottom of a V-shaped recession, we all pray that it does not evolve into a W-shaped recession. Having been a witness for the majority of this economic challenge rather than an officer in charge, I’ve observed several significant issues that have impacted the hospital industry.  They have included the downgrading of bonds, a serious lack of access to capital financing, cutbacks in elective surgeries and elective donations to our health care foundations,  All of which has resulted in a deep degree of uncertainty as to when  all of this will be over.

V, L, W, U or L-shaped recovery vs. recession

The fact that many of the economic practices that got us into this mess have still not been discontinued or are being reshaped into the newest version of the scam du jour does not bring peace of mind to the vast majority of us, a deeply concerned citizenry.  Add to that the billions and now trillions that we are committed to repay over the next several generations, and one has to wonder about the ability of our current political system to respond appropriately to these challenges.

Warren E. Buffett

Warren Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders criticized Wall Street executives and board members in a way that most of us would liked to have expressed, but which only Buffet could articulate. This is because his comments are clearly supported by his business acumen and investment skills.  He broadsided the leadership of Wall Street for failing to control risk and for avoiding  what very clearly should have been the “severe” consequences of these failures.  He chastised the bankers in particular for designing and implementing their own industry’s doom and then piling the losses onto investors, while they themselves have managed to maintain lavish lifestyles.

“It has not been shareholders who have botched the operations of some of our country’s largest financial institutions,” Buffett wrote. “Yet they have borne the burden, with 90% or more of the value of their holdings wiped out in most cases of failure. Collectively, they have lost more than $500 billion in just the four largest financial fiascos of the last two years. To say these owners have been ‘bailed-out’ is to make a mockery of the term.”

“The CEOs and directors of the failed companies, however, have largely gone unscathed…Their fortunes may have been diminished by the disasters they oversaw, but they still live in grand style. It is the behavior of these CEOs and directors that needs to be changed: If their institutions and the country are harmed by their recklessness, they should pay a heavy price – one not reimbursable by the companies they’ve damaged nor by insurance.”

With his sentiments firmly ensconced in my mind, I have to wonder about the current rounds of outrageous health insurance increases perpetrated upon the customers of many of our largest and most profitable insurance companies.  As a hospital CEO, I learned very early on that no matter how low we held our charges, those savings would not be passed on to the patients because the middle man controlled this aspect of the “business.”  Incentives are completely upside down in the system at many levels, and the political commitment to truly work toward meaningful change seems not only misguided but also seriously uninformed.

Blair House health summit, February, 2010

Bottom line?  We need to be heard.  We need to work toward systems that make sense: protection from catastrophic financial situations brought on by major illnesses or accidents, primary care that truly helps the patient manage their health challenges at a reasonable cost, and a complete change from a sickness-based to a wellness-based reimbursement system that is not dependent upon the insurance companies for the decision making proposition.

Sometimes right is truly black and white, and until we embrace palliative care, incentivize individuals for taking care of themselves, and deal with tort reform, progress will be only a delusion.

U.S. Health Care Reform Timeline: 1910-2010

U.S. Health Care Reform Interactive Timeline: 1910-2010

Click image above to view full-size, interactive timeline. (Will open in a new web browser window.)

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Posted in Current Affairs, Healthcare, Hospitals

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Inflationary Indices

February 19th, 2010

As the pulse is still an indicator of health in human beings and other animals, health care-related inflationary indices can be a measure of economic health, growth, and change in our business.  After perusing nearly six pages of single-spaced inflationary projections in an Amerinet–produced report, two jumped out at me, the two highest.  One was more significant than the other, but both tell their own story.

Photo credit: Eric Zamora - University of Florida IFAS

Ice-covered Orange Tree Photo credit: Eric Zamora - University of Florida IFAS

The first was coffee/juice, and the projected costs for these two items are up 10 percent. At first my curiosity was piqued by this, but then I saw the explanation further over on the page.  It said that these increases were based on the recent freezes in Florida, which will have a significant impact on juice pricing.  I guess that makes sense.  The trees and oranges froze and were ruined, but it was interesting to me that every other orange-growing country in the world hadn’t jumped into the market and taken advantage of this shortage situation.

The even more difficult quandary created by this coffee/juice category, however, was that the coffee wasn’t explained.  Surely, everyone knows by looking at a world map in Starbucks that coffee comes from places that are not Florida. Maybe it’s just a “calf path” item. You know, some ancient, primeval calf made a trail in the woods named “coffee/juice” and we still follow that path today.

I’m sure that many of you are now wondering what the second category is, the second highest predicted commodity increase for health care, and, honestly, I can’t wait to tell you.  Why am I excited about this one?  It’s because, you see, it is a NIGYSOG (Now I’ve Got You, You Son of a Gun) moment.  For nearly five years, I’ve been predicting some very obvious changes that are about to sweep through the healthcare delivery system.  Our blogs, newspaper columns, and speeches have all directed you toward these changes, and over and over, the vast majority of healthcare management professionals have either ignored or rejected these pronouncements; sometimes out of fear and sometimes out of a “wake me when it gets here” mindset.  Honestly, when it comes to prognosticating, it made me feel like Punxsutawney Phil.  (Oh, and what was that advertisement I read today?  “You have just survived the worst snow storm in this area in the past 100 years.”)

The second most highly inflationary bell ringer from the Amerinet report is one that spot-on supports our predictions completely.  (Drum roll, please.)  It is biotech products.  The prediction is that the cost of biotech products will increase an average of about nine percent.  Upon examining the comment section beside this category, the following sentence appears:  “Increased demand will drive these price increases.”

Windber Research Institute - Image by PlanetRussell.net

Many of you may still be scratching your collective heads in wonderment.  “What are ‘biotech products,’ and why should I care about them?,” you may be asking.  Let’s take a quick historic look at life in the biotech lane.  In 2001, when we co-founded a research institute that had specialty areas in biomedical informatics, tissue banking, proteomics, and genomics, it cost approximately $100,000,000 (that’s 100 million) to map ONE human genome. This year, that number will fall to below $500. If you take that ratio of product-to-cost and project it forward, it doesn’t take too much imagination to conclude that not so many years or months from now, your physician will potentially have (or want to have) access to your molecular profile.  It will provide insights into your personal health that were heretofore unavailable, even unimaginable.

Once issues involving insurance coverage, confidentiality, and ethics are resolved satisfactorily, these tests will become a routine part of your annual physical.  Complete Blood Counts, lipid profiles, prostate or breast testing, and genomic and proteomic analysis will provide your caregiver with answers that make the practice of medicine until now seem hit-or-miss by comparison.

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