Open Left

Consolidation is a Problem.... (0.00 / 0)

Good point. However, on the other side of things, there seems to be pretty good evidence out there that there needs to be some sort of scale in order to have the organizational slack needed to devote resources to things like quality improvement and care coordination. Lack of competition is a problem though in some markets, especially where the main player aren't innovative, forward thinking centers of care like Geisinger, Mayo, etc.

Another issue is that competition doesn't necessarily lower costs, as health care costs are still largely non-transparent. Costs seems to be more tied with things such as the provider culture in a particular region, as Eliot Fisher and others have demonstrated in the Dartmouth Atlas.

Diversity of providers is important. Although it doesn't deal with religious issues such as abortion per say, I was encouraged to see the Senate finance white paper included recommendations mandating the collection of robust data on race/ethnicity and the use of this data to identify and eliminating disparities.  

Demockracy.com

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by: kvandyke @ Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 00:30:22 AM CDT

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