Transforming Health in Georgia: Giving Georgians More Choices of Higher Quality at Lower Cost
March 27, 2008
CHT Founder Newt Gingrich and CEO Nancy Desmond, responding to a recent AJC column, encourage Georgia Legislature to provide more choices in healthBy Newt Gingrich and Nancy Desmond
CHT Founder Newt Gingrich and CEO Nancy Desmond, responding to a recent AJC column, encourage Georgia Legislature to provide more choices in health
Jim Wooten’s recent column, "The Real Need? Healthy Competition", addresses the need to replace our current government-run, bureaucratic healthcare system with a market-based system built on greater competition and more choices.
Today more of our tax dollars are spent on health than on national security – and the gap is predicted to widen dramatically. Yet consider the results. The number of uninsured continues to escalate. The Institute Of Medicine reports that nearly 100,000 Americans die needlessly each year due to hospital medical errors. The Government Accountability Office estimates that 10% of healthcare spending is lost to fraud and abuse. And, if a cure for cancer were discovered tomorrow, it most likely would not reach your doctor’s office for seventeen years.
Einstein once said that insanity is doing more of the same thing and expecting different results. Putting more money into the current government-run healthcare system falls into the category of insanity.
Clearly, we need a transformation to a new, 21st Century Intelligent Health System that saves lives and saves money. And one of the hallmarks of that system must be that no Georgian is left behind.
Central to that transformation is the act of returning power and responsibility to the individual, including giving the individual and their doctor easy access to real-time information about the cost and quality of various options, as well as incentives for making wise choices.
It is no longer a theory that this might work. We now have real-life examples that prove we can create better health at lower cost by moving to an individual-centered system, where prevention and wellness are central and where health information technology maximizes the ability to share information about cost, quality and best practices.
But for healthcare markets to flourish and for healthcare consumerism to grow, we need as many choices as possible. We need to strongly consider the removal of any barriers which hinder the development of a new system of healthcare, do not allow for new treatment options or smother innovation in healthcare. Options in healthcare stimulate competition on price, quality, scope of services and convenience. Offering consumers a broad array of choices in healthcare is essential as we create the 21st century intelligent health system.
At the Center for Health Transformation we have had the opportunity to visit some outstanding hospitals and see first-hand the various options that exist within our own membership. Take hospital choice, for example:
Cancer Treatment Centers of America (mentioned in Wooten’s op ed) as a destination hospital for cancer offers a hospital experience focused on providing a setting dedicated to meeting all the medical needs of cancer patients in one place, while insuring that the patient’s mental and spiritual needs are also addressed.
WellStar Kennestone Hospital has acquired the "CyberKnife" -- a device that uses high doses of radiation to precisely target tumors, which allows for greater accuracy in terms of radiating tumors and a dramatically shortened hospital stay.
Piedmont Hospital, with its incredible advances in adopting electronic medical records offers an environment capable of remarkable patient safety, convenience and quality.
Sutter Health System in California has patient beds that automatically shift the weight of patients in order to prevent pressure sores that historically have too frequently led to serious complications and even death.
St. Joseph’s Hospital offers remote physician monitoring and access that can make intensive care units safer, more effective and ultimately less expensive.
It is hard to know what factor might be considered most important to the individual patient, but it should be the patient’s choice – and they should have the information they need to make that decision, in partnership with their doctor.
Yet, while an individual-centered versus government-run system is needed, government also has a role to play, in terms of policy-maker, employer and provider of coverage for the poor, the frail elderly and people with disabilities.
This year could prove to be an important one for Georgia in terms of health transformation. This fall, the State of Georgia plans to launch a statewide web site which will provide individuals with information allowing them to compare cost and quality data on many healthcare providers. Meanwhile, new legislation that promises to provide market-based coverage to an additional 500,000 Georgians and expand choices awaits passage.
As the current legislative session draws to a close, there is still time to make significant strides toward creating a system that is focused on the individual and offers better health and more choices at lower cost for every Georgian.
We hope, in these final days, our elected leaders will boldly and courageously act upon those legislative opportunities that help move us toward a 21st Century, Intelligent Health System that saves lives and saves money for the people of Georgia.
Newt Gingrich is a former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Founder of the Center for Health Transformation. Nancy Desmond is the CEO of the Center. The two are co-authors of the book The Art of Transformation.
