Page 9 - Delaware Medical Journal - November 2017
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Trying to Achieve Better Health with Less Spending
PRESIDENT’S PAGE
PRAYUS TAILOR, MD
MSD President Prayus Tailor, MD is a Nephrologist who practices with Nephrology Associates in Newark and Wilmington.
After facing a nearly $400 million shortfall and missing the June 30, 2017, deadline to approve the state budget, the Delaware General Assembly
in the wee hours of the morning on July
3, 2017. Health care costs consume at
least 30 percent of Delaware’s budget.1 Delaware ranks number three in the country when it comes to per capita spending on health care, but ranks
31st among states in America’s Health Rankings, exceeding the national average in cancer deaths per capita, cardiovascular deaths per capita, diabetes per capita, infant mortality, and premature death.2
Delaware, the federal analysis found this breakdown of spending:
• $4,078 for hospital care;
• $2,259 for physician and clinical services;
• $1,525 for drugs and other medical nondurables;
• $1,438 for nursing home, home health, and other personal care;
• $757 for dental and other professional services;
• $197 for medical durables.
In all six categories, spending in Delaware was higher than the national average, ranging from a high of 37 percent higher for drugs and other medical nondurables, to a
low of 18 percent higher for nursing home, 1
Dr. Kara Odom-Walker, the new Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS), a Delaware native, Jefferson Medical College/Delaware Institute for Medical Education and Research (DIMER) program graduate,
and family physician has taken a lead role
in trying to lay the groundwork to reel in these costs. Over the last two months, she has held a series of Health Care Benchmark Summits. With health care costs expected to double over the next 10 years, these summits are meant to position Delaware towards value-based payment models.
on September 7, 2017, was entitled, “Establishing the Benchmark.” This summit hosted nationally-renowned speakers who provided broad overviews of US health care spending, approaches to curtailing health care spending growth, and examples of
how a physician-led ACO and data-driven policy models are trying to bend the cost curve. Zeke Emanuel, MD, Chair of the University of Pennsylvania Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, spoke on “The Impact of Rising Health Care Costs and Options for Delaware.” He spoke about to high health care costs, citing the examples of three weeks of radiation treatments producing the same results compared to seven weeks, and Medicare paying $2,062 for cardiac imaging done in-hospital particularly relate to a quote he showed
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