In the Tampa Bay Times, Sue Brody the CEO of Bayfront Health System, has written an excellent editorial on health care reform. She states, “health care is experiencing a paradigm shift unrivaled in the last 25 years.” According to Ms Brody providers have a tough mandate from the community and the government. While noting that “providers are re-engineering processes to make way for increased access and improved quality at lower costs”, she warns of risks to the community’s quality of care due to drastic cuts from the state budget. Large amounts of government money provide the funding for the poor who need specialized medical care. This enables private insurance and their insureds to access medical specialist at their local hospital who were made available due to Medicaid funding. click here
Michael Porter a Harvard professor on strategy looked at Health Care financial waste and suggested that only a few centers of excellence exist and redundant facilities of care be closed. There are more choices in the public debate, but we need to keep our eyes on this one.