Medical experts trying to level the cost of care
By Ketaki Gokhale, Bloomberg
Devi Shetty is obsessed with making heart surgery affordable for millions of Indians. On his office desk are photographs of two of his heroes: Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi.
Shetty is not a public health official motivated by charity. He’s a heart surgeon turned businessman who has started a chain of 21 medical centers around India. By trimming costs with such measures as buying cheaper scrubs and spurning air-conditioning, he has cut the price of artery-clearing coronary bypass surgery to 95,000 rupees ($1,583), half of what it was 20 years ago, and wants to get the price down to $800 within a decade. The same procedure costs $106,385 at Ohio’s Cleveland Clinic, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
“It shows that costs can be substantially contained,” said Srinath Reddy, president of the Geneva-based World Heart Federation, of Shetty’s approach. “It’s possible to deliver very high quality cardiac care at a relatively low cost.”
Medical experts like Reddy are watching closely, eager to see if Shetty’s driven cost-cutting can point the way for hospitals to boost revenue on a wider scale by making life-saving heart operations more accessible to potentially millions of people in India and other developing countries.
That sort of thing won’t be allowed under obamacare. Independent clinic openings will be severely curtailed. Only existing clinics can stay open, large hospitals, and governmental health centers. It’s too hard for the bureaucracy to control smaller, independent clinics. They prefer a centralized system that they can monitor easily. They want it done their way, under their supervision, enhancing the budgets of their chosen contractors.
On the contrary, There will always be people who can afford the best care money can buy.l And will always look with an eye towards Value.
I think The Affordable care act will create an even greater demand for private doctors, hospitals and specialty Surgery Centers. They just wont get involved with anything that have a government check involved.
As an add-on, I have been reading about these overseas Surgery Centers.
No me. but you have to wonder is it really that bad in the US or are they really cutting corners in India.
Tort Reform?