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
2016-03-08
24
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 terribly expensive and poorly performing health services safer and more efficient. Economists are debating on 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 is, 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(补偿)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, 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 result 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 nurses, on the premises of retail pharmacies such as Walgreens. 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 centers" are being opened as an alternative to going to a hospital emergency unit. Private-equity firms are pouring money into independent chains of centers. Merchant Medicine, a Consulting firm, reckons that between them, these chains now have just over 1,500 urgent-care centers, 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 centers. 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 away.
[L]Cohealo offers a "sharing economy" solution for hospitals and clinics wanting to 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" : Athenahealth, a seller of medical back-office software, is trying to get doctors and hospitals to move patients’ health records onto its cloud-based service.
Preliminary diagnosis
[M]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.
Digital technology helps make the cost of health care more transparent, contributes to the sharing of information and improves efficiency.
选项
答案
M
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/IsL7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
Forthispart,you’reallowed30minutestowriteanessaycommentingonthesaying"Nothingventure,nothinghave."Youcanci
AsanimmigranttoNorthAmerican,youwillneedtoensurethatemployersandorganizationssuchascollegesanduniversitiespr
汉语热的产生是有其深刻的历史和现实原因的。中华民族有5000年的文明史,主要靠汉语来传承。汉语博大精深,它荟萃了无数华夏儿女的智慧,是人类文明的精华和瑰宝。新中国成立之后,特别是改革开放以来,我国发生了翻天覆地的变化,民族团结,社会进步,经济发展,综合国
Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteaboutthefollowingtopic.Thenumberofcarsiscausingseriousproblemsin
A、Atahotel.B、Atauniversity.C、Atamuseum.D、Atanewsconference.B推断题。对话讨论关于论文的要求,关键词“termpaper”,所以场景应在学校。因此,正确答案为B。
A、Undergroundsources.B、Bigcompanies.C、Thegovernment.D、Privateinstitutions.A细节题。根据短文中India’sfilmindustryhasinthepas
Thirty-onemillionAmericansareover60yearsofage,andtwenty-ninemillionofthemarehealthy,busy,productivecitizens.B
ManybelievethatthestoryfirstbeganinAmericain1877,whentwofriendswerearguing【B1】______whetherahorseeverhadall
EatingOurYoung[A]AtFeltonvilleSchoolofArtsandSciences,amiddleschoolinapoorneighborhoodofPhiladelphia,thescho
AhugelywealthywifeissuingTheRitzinLondonaftershelost£2millioninasingleeveningatitscasino,sayingitknews
随机试题
下列各句中画线词使用恰当的一项是:
下列关于衣原体网状体的叙述正确的是
在进行口腔健康调查前,技术组专家告诫调查人员,出现信息偏倚性的重要原因是()
案情:楚某系原浙江省顺民县人大常委会委员。2006年4月25日,楚某到温州市龙湾区参加龙湾区人大常委会召开的“横向联系会议”。26日晚9时许,楚某独自一人来到温州市金江路,在大榕树下石凳处遇到了暗娼李某。楚某主动与李某搭讪,问明其身份和嫖宿价格后,将李某带
混凝土小型空心砌块、蒸压加气混凝土砌块等轻质墙体,当墙长大于5m时,应增设间距不大于3m的构造柱;每层墙高的中部应增设高度为120mm,与墙体同宽的混凝土腰梁,砌体无约束的端部必须增设(),预留的门窗洞口应采取()加强。
根据证券法律制度的规定,下列选项中有权发行优先股的有()。
A、 B、 C、 D、 D
2014年12月31日,上海外滩发生踩踏事件引起全国各地广泛关注。假如你市定于正月十五在市郊公园举办一场大型群众性活动——“猜灯谜,迎新春”主题灯会,由你负责警力配备。你认为在下列选项中,不用布置过多警力的地点为()。
A、Youngdogs.B、Dogsthatcatchbirds.C、Dogs.A1月12日的日记里面出现了“puppies”这个词,后面有破折号,想必破折号后面的JigsandReels是它们的名字了。而且从这天的日记里我们知道它们吃的
OnFoodSafety,aLongListbutLittleMoneyA)Thissummertherehasbeenadrumbeatoffood-relatedillnesses.Strawberries
最新回复
(
0
)