National health care expenditure update: a new threat or an opportunity?

摘要

It is that time of the year when the government releases the annual national health expenditures (NHE) report. Shortly before thisrelease, we received a last-minute reprieve from Congress and the President, giving us a 6-month nominal increase (0.5%) in our reimbursement for Medicare services, in lieu of a 10% cut. This is a temporary reprieve. Not only does the cut still go into effect on July 1, 2008 (unless there is further congressional action) but it would be followed by further similar cuts in January 2009, 2010, and beyond. In this brief, I will discuss current trends in health care spending, what it means for future policy, and some thoughts on "balance billing," an issue of potentially great importance to our practices and Medicare beneficiaries.It is always worth remembering that the NHE data are released with a 13 month lag, meaning that the sound bites that you hear on the radio/TV and read in newspapers/online are referring to 2006, even though most pundits make it seem as though the data are current.National health expenditures reached dollar 2.1 trillion in 2006, after further revisions and a 6.7% increase from the previous year. This translated into dollar 7,026 per person and 16% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Both figures are obviously record highs and the highest, on record, for any nation in the world. The full report is available at www. cms.gov, but highlights are examined here, with a personal interpretation of what this means for our specialty.