Solution to rising healthcare costs could be simple
One reason why healthcare spending continues climbing is our fascination with all that’s shiny and new – the blockbuster drug and the latest in laser surgery.
But what if the key to improving health and lowering cost is hidden in plain sight?
The Peterson Center on Healthcare — which is launching Thursday — thinks that is the case.
To that end, the center will act like some crusty, old baseball scout freezing his tuchus off on the bleachers.
They’ll be hunting for high-quality/low-cost best practices, says Executive Director Jeffrey Selberg.
“The question is finding them, validating them and then figuring out how to facilitate the rapid adoption across the country,” he says.
Selberg says the Institute of Medicine has found it takes 17 years to spread a good idea across healthcare.
With $200 million from its parent, the Peterson Foundation, the center promises to speed that up, and help make adoption easy.
Avalere Health’s Dan Mendelson says the center comes at an opportune time.
“There is really no consensus right now on what to do about the cost issue and how the system needs to be changed to improve quality and reduce costs simultaneously,” he says.
To avoid being just the latest in a long line of shiny new things, the center must do what many have struggled to do before, get good ideas to stick.
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