首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Shock treatment A)The objective of America’s Affordable Care Act of 2010—commonly known as Obamacare—was to ensure that the 40m-
Shock treatment A)The objective of America’s Affordable Care Act of 2010—commonly known as Obamacare—was to ensure that the 40m-
admin
2016-10-18
26
问题
Shock treatment
A)The objective of America’s Affordable Care Act of 2010—commonly known as Obamacare—was to ensure that the 40m-plus Americans who lacked health insurance could get it. Less widely appreciated, but at least as important, are the incentives and penalties the law introduced to make the country’s hideously(可怕的)expensive and poorly performing health services safer and more efficient. Economists are debating how much credit Obamacare should get for a recent moderation in the growth of health costs, and for a fall in the number of patients having to be readmitted to hospital. Whatever the answer, many companies see the disruption unleashed by the reforms as the business opportunity of a lifetime.
B)One of the biggest shifts under way is to phase out the "fee for service" model, in which hospitals and doctors’ surgeries are reimbursed for each test or treatment with no regard for the outcome, encouraging them to put patients through unnecessary and expensive procedures. Since Obamacare they are increasingly being paid by results—a flat fee for each successful hip replacement(髋关节置换), say. There are also incentives for providers which meet cost or performance targets, and new requirements for hospitals to disclose their prices.
C)Millions of people are now looking for health insurance on the new public exchanges set up under the reforms. And Obamacare has come into effect at a time when American employers, who often provide health cover for their workers, are seeking to cut its cost by encouraging them to shop around on private exchanges, and by offering less generous plans.
D)The upshot(结果)is that there are growing numbers of consumers seeking better treatment for less money. Existing health-care providers will have to adapt, or lose business. All sorts of other businesses, old and new, are seeking either to take market share from the conventional providers, or to provide the software and other tools that help hospitals, doctors, insurers and patients make the most of this new world.
E)Patients are increasingly having to pay higher " deductibles(免赔额)" out of their own pockets, before the insurance kicks in, to keep the cost of the cover down. So for minor ailments and simple tests, it makes sense for such patients to go to one of the increasing numbers of walk-in clinics, staffed by well-qualified muses, on the premises of retail pharmacies such as Walgreens(沃尔格林). The prices are clear, the care is cheap and the service is quick. Walgreens has a partnership with Theranos, a diagnostics firm, which offers customers a range of tests from a tiny drop of blood. Walmart, a giant supermarket chain with many in-store pharmacies, also intends to become one of the leading sellers of affordable health services, says Alex Hurd, its product-development chief.
F)For injuries and illnesses that are more serious but not immediately life-threatening, lots of "urgent-care centres" are being opened as an alternative to going to a hospital emergency unit. Private-equity firms are pouring money into independent chains of centres. Merchant Medicine, a consulting firm, reckons that between them, these chains now have just over 1 ,500 urgent-care centres, up from about 1 ,300 at the start of 2013. The market is still fragmented but a national brand could emerge from one of the largest chains, such as Concentra or MedExpress.
G)Some hospital operators, seeking to cut their costs of care, and choosing to be among the disrupters rather than the disrupted, are also opening urgent-care centres. Aurora Health Care, a Wisconsin-based chain of hospitals and clinics, now has more than 30 of them.
H)Hospital operators are now facing a classic "innovator’s dilemma" , as described by Clay Christensen, a Harvard business professor. If they persist with their high-cost business model even as their customers discover that cheaper alternatives are good enough, they will be in trouble. According to Strata Decision Technology, an analytics firm, many hospital groups saw what was coming and started to cut their costs well before the provisions of Obamacare started to bite. One of the fastest movers is Advocate Health Care, a hospital operator from Illinois, which says it now earns two-thirds of its revenues from value-based payments.
I)The largest chains of for-profit hospitals, such as Tenet Healthcare, HCA and Community Health Systems, are rather profitable. They have trimmed their costs, been conservative with capital and, thanks to Obamacare raising the number of Americans with health insurance, now have more patients and fewer bad debts. However, credit-rating agencies are worried about the prospects for the not-for-profit hospitals, which are 60% of the total. With lower margins, and less capital to make investments, they have become targets for takeover, says Jim Bonnette of The Advisory Board Company, another consulting outfit.
J)As a result further consolidation in the hospital business is likely. This could mean greater efficiency and lower costs. But if antitrust authorities are not vigilant, it may lead to a concentration of market power. If so, the benefits from the efficiencies being wrung out of the hospital system may end up in the pockets of shareholders rather than saving patients and insurers money.
K)Obamacare is also encouraging the creation of all sorts of health-related advisory and intermediary companies that help care providers, insurers and patients save money. A company called Vitals approaches employees on behalf of their company’s health plan, and offers them cash rewards, and a taxi, if they agree to be treated at a cheaper provider. The sums to be saved can be astonishing: a new cost-comparison tool created by Blue Cross Blue Shield, a big alliance of private health insurers, has found that a colonoscopy(结肠镜检查)with a biopsy costs $ 8,489 at one clinic in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, but just $ 928 at another provider in Greensboro, only 50 miles(80km)or so awav.
L)Cohealo offers a "sharing economy" solution for hospitals and clinics wanting io make the best use of expensive equipment, in much the same way as Airbnb helps people with spare rooms fill them with paying guests. Doximity is trying to be a Facebook for doctors, letting them refer patients and discuss treatments securely without the blizzard of faxes they rely on today. Grand Rounds is a sort of medical Match, com: an online matchmaker that pairs patients with specialists. As in other industries, administrators are being tempted to switch to renting software and data storage in the online "cloud": Athe-nahealth, a seller of medical back-office software, is trying to get doctors and hospitals to move patients’ health records onto its cloud-based service.
M)Preliminary diagnosis for supporters of Obamacare, it is clear that the reforms are empowering patients, driving public and private health insurers to achieve better value, forcing existing providers to shape up and providing opportunities for disruptive newcomers. Digital technology is also helping to increase transparency about prices, making it easier to share information and increase efficiency. For some analysts it all adds up to a "new health economy"—as PwC, a consulting firm, puts it—the most significant re-engineering of the American health system, by far the world’s costliest, since employers began providing cover for their workers in the 1930s.
N)And the revolution has only just begun. The Obama administration recently set a target of making 50% of Medicare payments value-based, rather than fee for service, by the end of 2018. America’s largest private payers have a target of 75% by 2020. So hospitals do not have long to shape up. Some will have their profits squeezed, and customers stolen by new rivals. Some may close, or be taken over. But for other businesses, from supermarket and pharmacy chains to digital-health startups, there will be billions to be made.
Fee for service, one of the main reasons of increasing medical expenditure, is now under tremendous reform.
选项
答案
B
解析
定位句指出,此项改革中一个最大的变化就是逐步淘汰“服务收费”的模式,即无论医疗结果如何,医院和医生手术费在每项检查或治疗中都可以报销,该模式会滋长医生对病人进行一些不必要和昂贵检查的做法 题干是对该定位句的概括,所以答案为B)
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/8aY7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Schoolshootingsareinthenewsagain.AnOhioteenageropenedfireonfiveclassmates,killingthreestudentsandinjuringtwo
Thethousandsofpeopleforcedtoabandontheirhomesinrecentweekstofloodwatersarevictimsnotjustofnaturebutofhuman
SocialAging:ABillionShadesofGreyA)WarrenBuffettisasymbolofAmericancapitalism.At83,healsostandsforanoticeab
Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteashortessayonthefollowingquestion.Youshouldwriteatleast120words
CollegeGraduatesWorkingasCommunityWorkers1.一些大学生选择毕业后去社区工作2.这样做的好处3.我的看法
A、Hewillpostponethetrip.B、Hewillmarrythewoman.C、Hewillcookdinnerforthewoman.D、Hewilltaketennislessons.D细节题
A、Tothebank.B、Toarestaurant.C、Tothegrocer’s.D、Toabookstore.C推理题。女士要男士买“一盒巧克力,一管牙膏”,可以推断出男士要去杂货店,故选C。
Eatingfruitsandvegetableshasprovedhelpfulinpreventingvariouschronic(慢性的)illnesses.Doesthatmeanthemorethebetter?
A、Nohormoneisreleasedanymore.B、Thebodycannotfeelthestress.C、Anewhormoneisreleased.D、Ahormonecausingstressis
GratefulPeopleAreHappierandHealthierA)Itturnsoutthatgivingthanksisgoodforyourhealth.Agrowingbodyofresearch
随机试题
在“打印”对话框中“页面范围”选项卡下的“当前页”是专指______。
A.脾阳虚证B.寒湿困脾证C.湿热蕴脾证D.肝胆湿热证E.肾气不固证
γ运动神经元的传出冲动增加时,可使
抗炎作用弱,水钠潴留作用强的激素潴钠潴水,几无抗炎作用的激素
案情:甲公司、乙公司、丙合伙企业和自然人张鸿远准备成立北京鸿远电子有限责任公司,张鸿远为业界著名的领军人物,在公司设立协议中,张鸿远同意新成立的公司使用自己的名字作为公司名称,其他股东同意支付张鸿远姓名使用费100万元(此按照2014年当地资产评
一项规划的环境影响评价应当把与该规划相关的政策、规划、计划以及相应的项目联系起来,做()考虑。
甲公司于2012年1月1日从证券市场上购入乙公司于2011年1月1日发行的债券,作为可供出售金融资产核算,该债券5年期、票面年利率为5%、每年1月5日支付上年度的利息,到期日为2016年1月1日,到期时一次归还本金和最后一次利息。购入债券时的实际年利率为6
在考虑所得税影响的情况下,下列可用于计算营业现金净流量的算式中,正确的有()。
Inthe1920s~1930stheairlineswerejustbeginning.Itwasunusualforpeopletotravelbyairbecauseitwasexpensiveandd
以下选项中可以成为单位犯罪主体的是()。
最新回复
(
0
)