Obama: Cleveland Clinic a good model
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Steve Chiotakis: President Obama continues his aim to get health care reform sooner rather than later. Today he holds a town hall meeting in Ohio at the Cleveland Clinic, a place he — just last night — called a role model for the type of health care change Americans want.
President Barack Obama: They’ve set up a system where patient care is the number one concern — not bureaucracy, what forms have to be filled out, what do we get reimbursed for. Those are changes that I think the American people want to see.
The president at his White House news conference last night. This morning, reporter Tamara Keith gives us the lowdown on why the president’s so impressed with that facility.
Tamara Keith: President Obama has said repeatedly the goal of overhauling health care is to cover the uninsured and to improve quality while cutting costs. At a time when health care legislation is getting hit from all sides, the president is highlighting a hospital system that’s widely viewed as a success story.
Maggie Mahar: The total cost is lower, outcomes are better, patient satisfaction is higher and doctor satisfaction is higher.
Maggie Mahar is a health care fellow at the Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank. She says unlike most physicians, Cleveland Clinic doctors are paid a salary with no extra financial incentives for production. Mahar says that means their only aim is quality care, not billable procedures.
Mahar: This means that there’s no financial incentive for them to run another test, to try another treatment.
Because health care is one of the few areas where more, isn’t necessarily better.
In Washington, I’m Tamara Keith for Marketplace.
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