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Scott Becker - 10 Healthcare Themes & Thoughts 9-28-26 · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:02
  - A special thank you to ECG
• 0:04
  - Management Consultants.
• 0:06
  - ECG has been working exclusively
• 0:08
  - with health care organizations for more than fifty
• 0:11
  - years.
• 0:12
  - ECG
• 0:13
  - offers a comprehensive range of services
• 0:15
  - spanning the entire health care ecosystem.
• 0:18
  - ECG's roots in contracting and reimbursement
• 0:22
  - run especially deep.
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  - Their payer strategy experts have worked in all
• 0:26
  - 50 states and have built relationships with every
• 0:29
  - national and regional health care plan.
• 0:31
  - They recognize the issues that matter the most
• 0:33
  - to both providers and insurers
• 0:35
  - and understand the unique market dynamics impacting provider
• 0:39
  - reimbursement.
• 0:41
  - ECG
• 0:41
  - asks the tough questions and tells clients what
• 0:44
  - they need to hear, not just what they
• 0:46
  - want to hear. To learn more about ECG,
• 0:49
  - visit ecgmc.com,
• 0:51
  - and thank you to ECG management consultants.
• 0:55
  - This is Scott Becker with the Beckers health
• 0:58
  - care podcast.
• 1:00
  - Today's discussion is 10 health care themes and
• 1:03
  - thoughts. So here are 10 quick thoughts where
• 1:06
  - health care is at and where it's going,
• 1:08
  - and we hope you find this interesting and
• 1:10
  - hopefully useful.
• 1:12
  - First,
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  - we're spending as a country around
• 1:15
  - 5,500,000,000,000
• 1:16
  - on health care a year in The United
• 1:18
  - States.
• 1:19
  - Second,
• 1:20
  - supply and demand is generally out of whack
• 1:23
  - in health care, and in many spots, such
• 1:26
  - as physician specialty access, it's moving sharply in
• 1:29
  - the wrong direction.
• 1:31
  - Third, in terms of the Triple Aim, we're
• 1:33
  - currently moving in the wrong direction on all
• 1:36
  - three aspects of the Triple Aim, both on
• 1:38
  - on all three, cost, quality, and access.
• 1:42
  - Fourth,
• 1:43
  - to address quality and access,
• 1:45
  - we're going to need to double down both
• 1:48
  - on technology
• 1:49
  - and artificial intelligence
• 1:51
  - as well as on the training of physicians
• 1:53
  - and all types of allied health professionals.
• 1:56
  - Technology and labor both,
• 1:58
  - not one or the other. It's going to
• 2:00
  - be an end or conjunctive solution.
• 2:03
  - Fifth,
• 2:04
  - hospital costs are about 31%
• 2:06
  - of the total health care spend.
• 2:09
  - Administrative cost in total are nearly 20%.
• 2:13
  - Arguably, the administrative cost are way underestimated,
• 2:16
  - but we know they're running at about 1,000,000,000,000
• 2:18
  - a year or so.
• 2:21
  - Sixth,
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  - ultimately,
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  - we need to reduce, most likely, the increase
• 2:25
  - in hospital cost
• 2:27
  - and simplify the payer structure and payment system.
• 2:31
  - We gotta also move back insurance
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  - more and more towards largely for large cost
• 2:36
  - and catastrophic
• 2:38
  - situations,
• 2:39
  - not day to day health care.
• 2:41
  - This injection of consumerism into day to day
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  - health care will probably help a lot and
• 2:46
  - always shows helps a lot in a lot
• 2:48
  - of different situations to reduce spend.
• 2:51
  - Seventh,
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  - pharmacy costs are nearly 600,000,000,000
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  - a year plus growing.
• 2:57
  - We need to address the PBM structure and
• 2:59
  - also the amount that we pay for drugs
• 3:01
  - versus what they pay in Europe.
• 3:03
  - We often pay two to 10 times more
• 3:06
  - for the same drugs that they pay in
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  - the other developed nations.
• 3:10
  - Eighth,
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  - great health care systems have great leadership and
• 3:14
  - great clarity about their mission and what they
• 3:16
  - are trying to be great at.
• 3:18
  - They stand out in areas, and they're ultimately
• 3:20
  - known for certain things. They're known for being
• 3:22
  - great at something or at certain things.
• 3:25
  - Ninth,
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  - we ultimately need to address medical education, both
• 3:29
  - its cost and its length.
• 3:31
  - Medical education in our country was largely developed
• 3:34
  - prior to the Internet
• 3:35
  - and remains woefully out of date and too
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  - expensive.
• 3:38
  - We create
• 3:40
  - and educate great doctors. We just do so
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  - very expensively,
• 3:44
  - and very inefficiently.
• 3:46
  - Tenth,
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  - there are a number of great positive innovations
• 3:49
  - happening in health care that can make a
• 3:51
  - big difference in cost, quality, and access.
• 3:55
  - Many of these innovations are coming from the
• 3:56
  - private sector,
• 3:59
  - and we need to be very careful
• 4:02
  - not to have federal and state government
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  - take over everything
• 4:06
  - or regulate out of existence
• 4:08
  - or stifle a lot of these innovations.
• 4:12
  - We hope you find this brief summary of
• 4:13
  - 10 key themes and thoughts in health care
• 4:16
  - helpful. Thank you so much for listening.