GG Posted July 29, 2011 Posted July 29, 2011 Heh. You dare question the CMS Grand Inquisition's #s? They have legions of Ph.D nurses and physicians who do nothing but research.... ...and not one of them knows the first thing about cost accounting. Its entirely possible that they don't even know how to calculate cost, other than financial allocation, meaning they don't know how to calculate cost. So, is it possible the numbers are dubious? You betcha. Look, I have already posted numerous "deliverables" from CMS on this board. They are laughable, and would get you fired immediately from any corporate consulting or research firm. What I can tell you is that this concept has long been accepted as common knowledge in the industry, by pretty much every provider I have every spoken with, so there's a fairly good chance that its close, if not exactly accurate. However, the providers don't know cost either, so...that's why I am working in this industry now. Nobody can prove what they say when it comes to care/$. We can make it so they can. Reason I asked is I spoke with my old finance professor about these statistics, and he called them crap because if these oft-quoted statistics were true, then hospitals & care facilities would take in 90% of all healthcare revenues which they don't. He said that a truer comparison is that in a handful of chronic diseases, 90% of the costs are in last six months, but nowhere near 90% of all healthcare costs. Wish I had asked him for his data sources. His point also was that medication remains the most effective cost/benefit tool in medical treatment. I believe that and why I think that the much derided Bush Medicare drug program actually saves money on a NPV basis compared to not having the drug plan.
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