Health Care Leadership Summit Highlights Hospital Mergers, Patient Value, and Health Reform
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On November 6th, the Crain’s 6th annual Health Care Leadership Summit explored topics covering the benefits of hospital and physician collaboration, what providers and insurers are doing to reduce rising prices, and how to limit waste and overutilization.
Director of the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation, Marianne Udow-Phillips, said the Affordable Care Act is a catalyst for change, as there is a lot of pressure on hospitals and doctors to adapt to the new reality of consumerism and data transparency.
Futurist, Joe Flower, claims, “Our most massive problem is costs. Lack of access and quality all stem from this.”
Carl Camden, CEO of Kelly Services Inc., believes the Affordable Care Act is helping millions of people gain access to health insurance, but the law needs to be adjusted to manage part-time hospital workers and data reporting requirements, particularly for smaller businesses.
CEO of Beaumont Health, Gene Michalski, said that the recent merger to form Beaumont Health has helped them cut costs by 4% through improvement of efficiencies. Meanwhile, CEO of Detroit Medical Center, Joe Mullany, says that they have acquired thousands of patients because of Michigan’s Medicaid expansion, and they have spent a significant amount of money to educate the newly enrolled patients on Medicaid.
Rob Casalou, CEO of St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor and Livingston hospitals, said physician-hospital integration and use of electronic health records will be the foundation to the delivery systems of the future. He continued to say that healthcare consumes almost 20% of the US economy, so our challenge becomes shedding fixed costs and transforming them into variable costs.
Summary by MedicalGroups.com
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