Healthcare Industry in 2009 had seen some great challenges. Some expected and others not quite so. In the US, healthcare reform, has been topical, because of its rising costs and still about 18-20% of the population excluded from the healthcare net. The rest of the world Healthcare has been concentrating on cutting costs and improving results.
In the Middle East the Healthcare Industry has seen a tremendous growth. Both in the number of beds which have been added by new hospitals and total consumption of OTC and Prescribed drugs.(see our country reports for details). However the biggest challenge facing the healthcare sector continues to be – how to :-
1) improve good primary healthcare structure within easy reach and affordable for all
2) have a greater participation by the private sector in all healthcare sectors
3) increase education and training for the local staff
4) develop a more comprehensive preventative healthcare model
5) make provisions for new life style diseases, developing in the region such diabetes, cardiovascular and cancer
While there was been a great deal of confusion about the H1N1. The figures so far would indicate that it is neither a pandemic nor as lethal as we all thought at the begining of the year. There is significant evidence that it is not a new flu virus. The lesson for all of us is that responsible bodies like the World Health Organisation, the pharmaceutical industry, the media and the government bodies responsible for Public Health as well as Centres like the CDC need to work closer together so that the public trust is NOT undermined. As it clearly has been seen from the debates taking place in world as well as in H1N1 vaccine take up rate, This needs to be addresseed as matter of priorty so that next time there is a ‘real’ pandemic which is genuinely more lethal and virluent so that we can all respond to it, with shared trust, urgency and confidence.
Top Issues Facing Healthcare in 2010
Courtesy of https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/page-1/LED-243763/Top-10-Issues-Facing-Healthcare-in-2010
By Cheryl Clark, for HealthLeaders Media, December 18, 2009
The report, entitled appropriately enough “Squeezing the Juice Out of Healthcare,” lists 10 issues of concern for health providers, including insurers, hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical and life-sciences companies, and even community groups and municipalities.
They are:
1. Reducing Costs. Hospitals, physicians, and other providers will have to squeeze every penny out of their operations, including renegotiating contracts with suppliers on everything from food to medical devices and pharmaceuticals. “All reform will be in the context of future spending, particularly in light of Medicare and Medicaid absorbing an increasingly large part of the GDP,” according to the report.
This will mean increasing reimbursement pressure, with physician practice models beginning to adapt. Payers will grapple with Medicare Advantage reimbursement leveling, and perhaps fees or taxes on insurers. Pharma will be more intensely restricted in its marketing activities and data usage, rebate changes and at the same time, maintaining its $80 billion contribution agreement with the Obama administration.
2. Regulatory Change. Dozens of new agencies and grant programs, reimbursement, and pricing pressures, with increased governmental oversight, will impose new requirements on healthcare providers.
The proposed Physician Payments Sunshine Act would require pharma and device companies to disclose consulting fees paid to physicians, health insurers, pharmacists, and others. Non-labor costs can make up half of most hospital expenses, and executives say they’re scrutinizing purchases in areas of biomedical engineering, energy, security, and even parking as places to cut. Even food and nutrition services are on the chopping block, as are laundry and linen services.
3. Incentives and Value-based Purchasing. Fewer than half of providers have implemented all but the most basic electronic health record functions.
“2010 will be a double-bonus year for physicians who act quickly to take advantage of government incentives to adopt electronic medical records and e-prescribing. Those who do not will face potential penalties later. This new carrot and stick model indicates the government’s changing role from a ‘passive payer’ to an ‘active buyer,’ according to the report.
4. Focus on fraud. With an estimated $1.6 billion in savings said to healthcare fraud detection, prevention, and recovery, healthcare organizations will need to tighten their internal controls. Pharmaceutical executives now face jail time for off-label marketing violations and hospitals are looking nervously at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Recovery Audit Contractor program.
5. Technology. Stimulus funds from 2009 are boosting broadband funding, with an eye to converge technology and telecommunications companies. For example, Verizon’s Telehealth Collaboration Services Initiative provides remote consultation and technology for continuing medical education and virtual encounters for hospitals, physician practices, labs, and government agencies. GE Healthcare and Sprint are partnering with San Antonio’s Methodist Healthcare to create a wireless infrastructure for anytime communication.
6. Prevention. Pharmaceutical and life sciences companies will be more involved in promoting prevention and seeing results in patient outcomes. “In 2010, expect to see greater alignment of incentives between pharmaceutical companies, payers, and providers,” as well as retailers to address education, clinical effectiveness, product safety, wellness, and compliance, according to the report.
7. Physician involvement. Doctors will seek greater stability and electronic connectivity. Accountable care organizations will require all providers to reevaluate their relationships, operational infrastructure, payer contracting, and overall funding models.
8. Alternate care models. Expect an increase in the number and scope of services offered outside physicians’ offices and hospitals, perhaps even in workplaces and retail health clinics. Home health services, enabled by technology, will be given a boost through e-mail, telehealth, and remote patient monitoring.
9. Disaster planning. Another wave of H1N1 will put more pressure on public health outbreak response, vaccine supply and distribution, better communication, consideration of bed capacity, sick leave policies, and the role of funding mechanisms and contingency plans.
10. Social responsibility. Community-oriented health services and consumer access will involve neighborhoods and municipalities in an effort to promote personal responsibility. Many of these efforts will continue to be boosted by grants, such as the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation group and the AARP Blue Zones Vitality Project in Albert Lea, MN, which seeks to prolong life expectancy by at least two years.