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An Emerging Trend Vital to Hospitals

[By Staff Reporters]

 According to Associate Professor Gregory O. Ginn; PhD, MBA, CPA, MEd., of the University of Las Vegas, an important emerging trend today is consumer-driven healthcare [CDHC] as patients become more knowledgeable and demanding about the quality of care they receive.

Definition

According to the Dictionary of Health Insurance and Managed Care, CDHC refers to health insurance plans that allow members to use personal Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), or similar medical payment products to pay routine health care expenses directly, while a high-deductible health insurance policy protects them from catastrophic medical expenses. High-deductible policies cost less, but the user pays routine medical claims using a pre-funded spending account, often with a special debit card provided by a bank or insurance plan. If the balance on this account runs out, the user then pays claims just like under a regular deductible. Users keep any unused balance or “rollover” at the end of the year to increase future balances, or to invest for future expenses.

Benefits Managers and Corporate America

Benefits managers in particular are proponents of consumer-driven healthcare. They argue that employers should focus on which plans create the most value, go with quality, get employees to pay more, and move to a defined contribution approach. The concept of consumer-driven healthcare is being implemented in employer strategies to change participant and provider strategies. This trend stimulates competition among providers based on both price and quality and forces providers to offer more information about cost and quality. Providers who successfully differentiate their strategies to respond to this trend may benefit financially.

Hospital Operations

Consumer-driven healthcare will have major ramifications for the operations management function in hospitals. In order for hospitals to compete on both price and quality, they will need to develop greater flexibility in order to differentiate their service offerings. Such flexibility is not likely to occur without sophisticated information systems that allow for data integration.

Assessment

Of course, considerable staffing and training changes may be in order to provide this type of service. 

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OUR OTHER PRINT BOOKS AND RELATED INFORMATION SOURCES:

• PRACTICES: www.BusinessofMedicalPractice.com
• HOSPITALS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781466558731
• CLINICS: http://www.crcpress.com/product/isbn/9781439879900
• ADVISORS: www.CertifiedMedicalPlanner.org
• FINANCE: Financial Planning for Physicians and Advisors
• INSURANCE: Risk Management and Insurance Strategies for Physicians and Advisors
• Dictionary of Health Economics and Finance
• Dictionary of Health Information Technology and Security
• Dictionary of Health Insurance and Managed Care

Filed under: Health Economics, Health Insurance, Health Law & Policy, Healthcare Finance | Tagged: CDHC, consumer driven health care | 6 Comments »