Here’s a bold prediction for the new year. By 2020, the American health insurance industry will be extinct. Insurance companies will be replaced by accountable care organizations — groups of doctors, hospitals and other health care providers who come together to provide the full range of medical care for patients.

... thanks to the accountable care organizations provided for by the health care reform act, a new system is on its way, one that will make insurance companies unnecessary. Accountable care organizations will increase coordination of patient’s care and shift the focus of medicine away from treating sickness and toward keeping people healthy.

... accountable care organizations will typically be paid a fixed amount per patient, along with bonuses for achieving quality targets. The organizations will make money by keeping their patients healthy and out of the hospital and by avoiding unnecessary tests, drugs and procedures. Thus, they will actually have a financial incentive to hire that nurse for follow-ups.

In addition to providing better and more efficient care, A.C.O.’s will also make health insurers superfluous. Because they will each be responsible for a large group of patients (typically more than 15,000), they will pool the risk of patients who have higher-than-average costs with those with lower costs. And with the end of fee-for-service payments, insurance companies will no longer be needed to handle complicated billing and claims processing, nor will they need to be paid a fee for doing so. Payments can flow directly from an employer, Medicare or Medicaid to the accountable care organizations. A.C.O.’s will require enhanced information systems to track patients and figure out how to deliver more effective care, but this analytic capacity will be directed at improving health outcomes, not at imposing barriers to those seeking treatment.

A.C.O.’s are not simply a return to the health maintenance organizations of the 1990s. Although in both models patients are members of a provider network with a specific group of doctors and hospitals, and both are paid primarily per member rather than per procedure or test, there are big differences between them. H.M.O.’s were often large national corporations far removed from their members. In contrast, A.C.O.’s will consist of local health care providers working as a team to take care of patients who are likely to be members for years at a time.

reesescups posted:

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Insurance is one of the biggest racket scams in history - good riddance.

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Scarne posted:

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Insurance is good for big material goods like houses and cars that you can easily assign monetary values and do cost:benefit analysis with. It doesn't work well with regards to health.

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reesescups posted:

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Insurance is one of the biggest racket scams in history - good riddance.

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Kjarhall posted:

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Scarne posted:

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Insurance is good for big material goods like houses and cars that you can easily assign monetary values and do cost:benefit analysis with. It doesn't work well with regards to health.

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I'll disagree with you, in part.

Insurance has it's place for catastrophic events. But that's where they all should end.

Health insurance today is like insuring your car so gas and oil changes are covered.

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Kjarhall posted:

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Scarne posted:

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Insurance is good for big material goods like houses and cars that you can easily assign monetary values and do cost:benefit analysis with. It doesn't work well with regards to health.

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I'll disagree with you, in part.

Insurance has it's place for catastrophic events. But that's where they all should end.

Health insurance today is like insuring your car so gas and oil changes are covered.

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reesescups posted:

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Insurance is one of the biggest racket scams in history - good riddance.

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Tych2 posted:

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reesescups posted:

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Insurance is one of the biggest racket scams in history - good riddance.

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Libtards posted:

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Insurance sucks!

Thank gawd Obama is making everyone buy a ton of it! He's a real hero!

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Sin_of_Onin posted:

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I don't see how these bypass the financial realities that lead to insurance companies. The industry is still driven by managing risk and as long as that is the case there will be an insurance component to any plan.

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