CiBA Healthcare Blog

45,000 Excess Deaths Annually Linked to Lack of Health Coverage

By John Mangan, Cincom Systems

Hard To Believe

Here’s another frightening fact about the results of our current health system. Lack of healthcare insurance is responsible for more deaths in the US than either auto accidents or guns. Shocked? I was.
A Harvard study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, suggests that almost 45,000 Americans die prematurely each year as a consequence of not having insurance. Let’s put that in perspective by comparing it to some other US tragedies:

    • 37, 000  deaths annually  related to motor vehicle crashes 
    • 30,000  deaths annually related  to guns

The Harvard-based researchers found that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 % higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts. Lead author Dr. Andrew Wilper, Washington Medical School, said, “The uninsured have a higher risk of death when compared to the privately insured, even after taking into account socioeconomics, health behaviors and baseline health. We doctors have many new ways to prevent deaths from hypertension, diabetes and heart disease — but only if patients can get into our offices and afford their medications.”

Interesting enough recently auto crash and gun related deaths have been coming down while deaths related to lack of healthcare insurance have been rising. Deaths resulting from lack of insurance are two and a half times higher than an estimate from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2002.

A Cost of Not Reforming Healthcare

For me, Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, study co-author, put it in perspective when she noted in, “Historically, every other developed nation has achieved universal health care through some form of nonprofit national health insurance. Our failure to do so means that all Americans pay higher health care costs, and 45,000 pay with their lives.”

About the Author
John Mangan, Strategic Product Development, Cincom Systems. John Mangan is the Director of Strategic Product Direction for Cincom Systems. He has solved business problems through automation for manufacturing, financial services, and healthcare organizations for 20 years. Also, he is an active member of NAHAM and HFMA. For more information about how others are using intelligent guidance to “lean” the revenue cycle, please visit our case studies at http://intelligent-guidance.com
jmangan@cincom.com

 

 

What can hospitals do today to improve their Revenue Cycle?

Healthcare Providers in the United States lose $60bn per year because of administrative errors. To put this into perspective this equates to almost half of the total cost of providing universal healthcare through the National Health Service in the UK.

So the question is: What can hospitals do today to improve their revenue cycle?

Innovative technology has the potential to vastly improve the hospital's revenue cycle. The result? Better processes which are error-free, increased efficiency, a drastic reduction of losses and ultimately more funds available to be spent where it really matters: providing a better service to patients.

Oscar Gonzalez is the Marketing Manager for the Cincom Intelligent Business Applications group. For over 10 years he has helped develop solutions for customers in the financial services and healthcare markets both in Europe and the USA . Oscar is a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, NAHAM and HFMA. He can be reached on on his cell (UK) 07976722197 or via email at ogonzalez@cincom.com