Docs/Hospitals Can Lift Quality & Reduce Costs | Arthritis Information

From Healthbeatblog.com

by Maggie Mahar

August 13, 2009

Proof that American Physicians and Hospitals Can Lift Quality and Reduce Costs

" . . . The job of the media is not to repeat rumors, but to present facts—so that the public can draw rational conclusions from empirical evidence.

Today, the New York T.imes ran an Op-ed signed by Drs. Atul Gawande, Donald Berwick Elliott Fisher and Mark McClellan that does just that. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/opinion/13gawande.html The four tell the story of ten U.S. communities that have managed to do what progressives claim health care reform can do: “change how care is delivered so that it is both less expensive and more effective.” We don’t have to ration care. We don’t have to raise taxes for the middle-class or the upper-middle class. We may need modest tax hikes for the very wealthy to seed healthcare reform. But structural changes in our health care system can ultimately provide the savings needed to offer high quality, affordable care to everyone.

Last night, the Lehrer Report made the same point: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/health/healthreform/ We already know how to lift the quality of care while reducing costs. This is not a theory dreamed up by ivory-tower academic physicians. It is a fact.

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