"Drain the Healthcare Swamp," Say the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) and the Association of Independent Doctors (AID)
TUCSON, Ariz., Feb. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a letter to President Trump and Vice President Pence, the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) and the Association of Independent Doctors (AID) ask the Administration to examine where all the $3 trillion in "healthcare" expenditures goes—not just the fraction that goes to actual medical goods and services.
The letter is a counterpoint to one from numerous self-defined leaders in the healthcare system, which touts "alternative payment models" and "value-based payments" to replace the "fee for service system developed more than 50 years ago."
"In fact, fee for service (payment for work) is as old as economic activity, and is natural, not designed," write Jane Orient, M.D., executive director of AAPS, and Marni Jameson Carey, executive director of AID. "What happened more than 50 years ago is the replacement of direct payment by patients with third-party payment. About 90% of payments now flow through a third party."
It appears that at least 50% of expenditures may be diverted into a swamp of administration and compliance that provide nothing of value to actual patient care, the letter suggests.
"We need a return to value-based payment—with value determined by patients controlling their own money, not a bureaucratically dictated value set by entities that collect huge premiums in advance from patients who may or may not receive any care."
This would mean the time-tested successful payment methods—cash, catastrophic insurance, and charity—rather than still more of the failed managed-care methodology that denies care while costs continue to soar. We need "to escape the trap of the comprehensive-coverage paradigm that underlies the unsustainable disasters" of the current system, conclude AAPS and AID.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in virtually all specialties and every state. Founded in 1943, AAPS has the motto "omnia pro aegroto," which means "all for the patient." The Association of Independent Doctors was founded to "give doctors a voice and patients a choice."
SOURCE Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS)
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