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Re: "Perinatal Guidelines"From: Marilyn Ringstaf (marilyncnm@hotmail.com)Thu Jul 24 10:19:42 2003
<< Because pregnant patients are, almost by definition, high-risk I mandate a perinatal consultation on all antepartum admissions.>> wow, it all makes sense now. :-) Why's healthcare so costly? You'll be surprised MIMI WHITEFIELD 7/21/03 Several months ago, when John Dorschner was interviewing a Georgetown University researcher on ideas for healthcare reform, she interjected, ''As you know, with your high healthcare costs in Miami. . . .'' Dorschner, The Herald's healthcare-industry reporter, knew healthcare in South Florida was costly; what he didn't know was how costly compared to other communities across the country. As Karen Pollitz, the researcher, later told him, with just a touch of hyperbole: ''You have the most expensive health insurance on the planet.'' ''The experts who deal with these issues,'' Dorschner says, ''have known this for quite some time.'' What was new to him was how our medical costs and health-insurance premiums stacked up against those of other areas of the country. Intrigued, he set out to find out exactly why we pay so much more than the national average. That is the subject of today's cover story. He talked with patients, doctors, consumers, insurance consultants and executives, hospital administrators, the dean of the University of Miami's medical school and researchers, including a Dartmouth College team that has been studying geographical disparities in healthcare for a decade. Locally, one factor that seems to play into our high healthcare costs is an oversupply of physicians, specialists and hospital beds. Now, at first glance, that may not make sense. In economics, an oversupply of a good or service tends to drive down prices. But apparently the more doctors there are, the more patients will visit them -- driving up costs. Plus, physicians in Miami are likelier to refer their patients to specialists. And the more doctors a patient sees, the higher the costs. Turn to page 22 to learn what other factors lie behind our out-of-control healthcare costs. This is a story you can't afford not to read. ''I've gotten into, and will continue to do, comparative-healthcare stories,'' Dorschner says. Look for a future report on possible solutions to try to keep our soaring healthcare costs down. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/6336446.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
-- Marilyn Ringstaff, CNM Rome, Georgia
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