Comments on: 3M’s Medicare Boondoggle http://donklephant.com/2006/07/17/3ms-medicare-boondoggle/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:41:00 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: 9rules Featured » Blog Archive » 3M’s Medicare Boondoggle http://donklephant.com/2006/07/17/3ms-medicare-boondoggle/comment-page-1/#comment-51443 9rules Featured » Blog Archive » 3M’s Medicare Boondoggle Mon, 17 Jul 2006 21:53:17 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2006/07/17/3ms-medicare-boondoggle/#comment-51443 [...] Would you pay a company to evaluate their own software to see if it would be useful to you? Justin points out 3M was paid to look at our Medicare system and see if their billing technology would make the billing process smoother but could potentially raise healthcare costs. Possibly raise them for the people who have a hard time paying it as it is. [...] [...] Would you pay a company to evaluate their own software to see if it would be useful to you? Justin points out 3M was paid to look at our Medicare system and see if their billing technology would make the billing process smoother but could potentially raise healthcare costs. Possibly raise them for the people who have a hard time paying it as it is. [...]

]]> By: TM Lutas http://donklephant.com/2006/07/17/3ms-medicare-boondoggle/comment-page-1/#comment-51341 TM Lutas Mon, 17 Jul 2006 17:36:09 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2006/07/17/3ms-medicare-boondoggle/#comment-51341 I can't speak to the details but a sweeping revamp was a foregone conclusion once Medicare Part D was passed and rightly so. Medicare paid a lot for certain things and very little for others. Readjusting things to better align pricing so we no longer have perverse incentives to go to surgery when medical management is available and a better solution to boot is a *very* good thing both for the health of US medicare recipients and the health of the fisc. As for 3M, from what I understand, they were asked whether the current system that the government already owns as of 1983 could handle the new payment realities being rolled out. 3M says yes, that the government doesn't have to spend more money on new software. If the payments system breaks down, I will be personally affected as my wife gets paid via this system so it's my family's skin on the line here. In short, I deeply care if 3M is lying. I'm underwhelmed at the idea of the cost of replacing the 1983 system with a more modern one if we don't have to but if 3M was self-dealing they should be excluded from bidding on the replacement system. That's incentive enough to ensure an honest evaluation. It's arrant nonsense that this move is going to drive up healthcare costs beyond some paperwork to input new numbers and recalculate each institution's business plan based on the results but healthcare institutions are doing that every year anyway. What may happen, what should happen, is that poor healthcare treatment choices will be less likely to be taken care of invisibly by the feds and more likely to show up as $$$ consequences that will incentivize the industry to rationalize how they do medicine. There's an appalling amount of fat out there combined with some areas that are truly underfunded and needing more compensation to attract supply. The adjustment process will be accompanied by a *lot* of protest and squealing, much of it completely dishonest and self-interested. One should resist the temptation to believe it all uncritically. I can’t speak to the details but a sweeping revamp was a foregone conclusion once Medicare Part D was passed and rightly so. Medicare paid a lot for certain things and very little for others. Readjusting things to better align pricing so we no longer have perverse incentives to go to surgery when medical management is available and a better solution to boot is a *very* good thing both for the health of US medicare recipients and the health of the fisc.

As for 3M, from what I understand, they were asked whether the current system that the government already owns as of 1983 could handle the new payment realities being rolled out. 3M says yes, that the government doesn’t have to spend more money on new software.

If the payments system breaks down, I will be personally affected as my wife gets paid via this system so it’s my family’s skin on the line here. In short, I deeply care if 3M is lying. I’m underwhelmed at the idea of the cost of replacing the 1983 system with a more modern one if we don’t have to but if 3M was self-dealing they should be excluded from bidding on the replacement system. That’s incentive enough to ensure an honest evaluation.

It’s arrant nonsense that this move is going to drive up healthcare costs beyond some paperwork to input new numbers and recalculate each institution’s business plan based on the results but healthcare institutions are doing that every year anyway. What may happen, what should happen, is that poor healthcare treatment choices will be less likely to be taken care of invisibly by the feds and more likely to show up as $$$ consequences that will incentivize the industry to rationalize how they do medicine.

There’s an appalling amount of fat out there combined with some areas that are truly underfunded and needing more compensation to attract supply. The adjustment process will be accompanied by a *lot* of protest and squealing, much of it completely dishonest and self-interested. One should resist the temptation to believe it all uncritically.

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