by Patrick ➕follow (55) 💰tip ignore
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In just a single year, the researchers reported, twenty-five to forty-two per cent of Medicare patients received at least one of the twenty-six useless tests and treatments.
This does seem to show the inherent advantage of Kaiser and similar HMO's.
They have no incentive to run unnecessary tests since they are both insurer and provider. The provider part just isn't going to get extra cash out of the insurer part because they are the same company. Also, they probably are not going to be getting more money out of the patient beyond the monthly premiums.
Patrick saysThis does seem to show the inherent advantage of Kaiser and similar HMO's.
They have no incentive to run unnecessary tests since they are both insurer and provider. The provider part just isn't going to get extra cash out of the insurer part because they are the same company. Also, they probably are not going to be getting more money out of the patient beyond the monthly premiums.
With Kaiser the problem is the opposite: they have the incentive to minimize care even if it doesn't lead to the best outcome for the patient. One anecdote to this end I'm aware of is the story of one of my co-worker's father who was pretty much told by Kaiser to go home and die as there is nothing they could do for him and he's only got a month or two to live. His kids intervened and managed to move his care to Stanford clinic and the guy lived another 5 or 6 years with what seemed to be a decent qu...
Also the primary care physician requires an office visit for a simple renewal of presriptiond. No reason except to get paid by the state again and again..
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