On Wednesday, Tom Tobin joined me to discuss the major policy themes that emerged out of 3Q earnings. We focused on inflation, whose subcomponents include labor cost, rising acuity, morality, and sclerotic Medicare Reimbursement. That all sounds bad until you remember, health care has not, since 1965 anyway, been resource constrained. As manufacturing learned throughout the 1990s when faced with global competition, get serious about efficiency and productivity or get out, health care is going to have to get a good shave and a haircut to be not just competitive, but functional.
Innovation is already creeping in on cat feet - and no, we are not talking about TDOC - so the future is bright but the road is a bit bumpy.
Link to replay is here. Time stamps below.
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Timestamps: 0:00 - 3:11 Introduction, Illustration of Health Care Ecosystem and Policy Position Monitor 3:11 - 3:41 Inflation and its Subcomponents: Labor Cost and Supply, Acuity, Medicare Reimbursement 3:41 - 5:44 JOLTS and restocking nurses 5:44 - 6:30 Paying up with little benefit by three subsectors of health care; ambulatory care, hospitals and nursing and residential care facilities 6:30 - 9:30 Labor cost and supply in hospital subsectors; general medical & surgical, psychiatric and mental health, other, UHS, HCA, THC 9:30 - 10:44 Home health and skilled nursing care; low skill, low pay AMED, LHCG 10:44 - 11:59 Physicians' Offices: safe and well-paying jobs 11:59 - 13:29 Acuity 13:29 - 15: 18 What CPI tells us about acuity 15:18 -16:49 PPI for Neoplasms - up and to the right HCA, THC, UHS 16:49 - 18: 24 PPI for musculoskeletal conditions SYK, JNJ, ZBH 18:24 - 19:28 PPI for pregnancy MD 19:28 - 21:17 Inflation isn't transitory down at the Office of the Actuary 21:17 - 22:14 Morality 22:14 - 24:55 Pull forward effect; implications for hospice and end of life care AMED, CHE 24:55 - 30:37 Role of comorbidities; implications for DVA 30:37 - 37:59 Medicare reimbursement's Prospective Payment System; underpaying for labor; company impacts, HCA, EHC, AMN, DVA, AMED 37:59 - 43:51 Innovation; Telehealth, robotics, AI and sites of service; TDOC not ready for change, SRGY and THC ready with alternative sites of service. 43:51 - 50:00 Q & A with Tom Tobin |
Let me know if you care to discuss further.
Emily Evans
Managing Director – Health Policy
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