Factors Influencing Rise in Health Care Costs
I've always been a follower of the health care industry, particularly as it relates to an employer managing health care costs and trying to stay ahead of the seemingly exponential rise in costs year after year. This interesting blog - Managed Care Matters - seems to have some fairly interesting stuff on what carriers and insurers are up to and what's going on in the industry. A recent post, noted that:
"technology and the increasing income of the US population are the top drivers of health care costs. The two are interrelated, as health care is a "luxury good" as defined by economists, so the more income one has, the more "luxury" one can afford.
The post goes on to explain the link between technology and health care costs and uses the MRI as an example:
"Originally approved by HHS for very limited use in a handful of settings, MRIs were quickly found to have much broader application than assumed in the original license (American creativity at its best). Physicians, manufacturers, and MRI owners were able to fill the available time slots with patients so quickly that a new, and quite large, market for advanced diagnostic imaging was created within a very short time. This is but one example of the ability of technology and technologists to find lots of new billing opportunities for their new creations."
I recall working for an MRI manufacture 20 or so years ago. We'd routinely sell these multi-million dollar pieces of equipment to physician practice groups who would then refer their patients to their very own MRI. Nice gig.