Medical Innovation and Healthcare Costs

I am sure all of us have noticed several trends in Health care lately:

1.  We are paying more for insurance...
2.  We are paying more in co-pays...
3.  We are spending less time in the hospital during or after surgery or a serious illness...
4.  The doctors have many new and "wonderful" medications to prescribe, but the prices are outrageous...
5.  There are many tests that are becoming more routine and therefore more definitive diagnosis are being made...
6.  We are living longer, but for many, their quality of life is debatable...
7.  The baby boomers are getting older.  Many of them did not take good care of themselves, and are now paying the price...
8.  More and more disabled children remain at home rather than being institutionalized...
9.  Medicine is constantly advancing and as a result, there are many incredible things being done that were not even dreamed of 30 years ago.  Examples of these are heart and lung transplants, quadriplegics who can drive their own cars and lead much more active lives, stem cells can be injected and recreate specialized tissue that once was considered irreplaceable, bone marrow transplants, and many cancers can now be effectively treated and/or cured.
10.  Malpractice insurance is forcing many doctors out of the business.
11.  Lawsuits are increasing our medical costs daily. 

There are many more examples of innovation that we can list, but the end result is medical costs are going through the roof, and there does not appear to be a end in sight to those costs.  In an effort to stem some of these costs, insurance companies are looking for viable ways to provide their clients with the necessary medical care, but at more affordable rates.  As a result there is new interest in the business of Home Health.  So, let's talk about what home health can do for you.

Over the next several months we are going to focus on a single issue each month.  We will select an issue and discuss it in detail.  We will provide links to research that is being done, provide an outline of some of the generally accepted practices, and let you know how home health can help support you or your family as you deal with these issues.  Our goal is several fold:

1.  To start a dialogue...
2.  To educate...
3.  To provide options...
4.  To alleviate some of the fear...

Our approach is not to educate the doctor, hopefully he is the expert.  Instead, we will provide information in layman's terms, designed to help you better understand what the disease or surgical process is, and inform you about how we as a home health company can help support you through the process. We will select some issues and we will accept your suggestions of issues to cover.  So, if there is something you would like to see some information on, please feel free to send us your query by adding a comment.  Our staff will do their best to provide solid, unbiased information.  We look forward to this project and hope that it will be helpful to you and your family and friends.