Is Management Missing in Health Care?

In the past few years alone, we’re seen politicians argue the nuts and bolts of a national health care plan, and we’ve seen insurers — public and private alike — struggle with balancing premiums and plans with exchanges and actual service.

All this at a time when the growth of the health-care industry in the U.S. is exploding. On its own, health-care spending makes up one-sixth of our economy, topping out in 2017 at around $3.5 trillion. With an aging population, among other factors, there’s no sign this sector will wane any time soon — in fact, in 2018, it is expected to rise by 5.3 percent.

This is good news for job-seekers — but what does it mean for corporations and organizations currently navigating this sector and all the changes to come? Are professionals traditionally trained in providing health-care services really ready for managing big business issues?

Most discussions at political and policy levels deal with utilization — how to get more people into preventative care and fewer using ERs. However, a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests the main reason our health-care spending is roughly twice any other industrialized nation is not utilization — our rates are roughly comparable to other high-income countries — but rather the cost of labor (doctors and nurses), goods (including pharmaceuticals and devices) and administration.

Read the full article at The Phoenix Business Journal. 

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