Page 39 - 2020 Peel & Holland Benchmarking Survey Results

WESTERN KENTUCKY EMPL OY EE BENEFIT S
BENCHMARKING SURVEY
CONTRIBUTION & COST SHARING 2017

Rapid Changes that the breakthroughs may not all make Even more concerning is that hospitals’
the health system work better, or make it ability to weather the current financial
to Health System less expensive. shock varies widely. Those most in
Spurred by COVID HOSPITALS ON THE DECLINE? danger of closing are in rural and
Might be Here to Stay The pandemic also might lead to less underserved areas, where patients could
wind up with even less access to care
emphasis on hospital-based care. While that is scarce already.
The U.S. healthcare system is famously hospitals in many parts of the country
resistant to government-imposed have obviously been full of very sick All of which underscores the point that
change. It took decades to create COVID patients, they have closed down not all these changes will necessarily be
Medicare and Medicaid, mostly due to other nonemergency services to preserve good for the health system or society.
opposition from the medical-industrial supplies and resources to fight the Financial pressures could end up driving
complex. Then it was nearly another pandemic. People with other ailments more consolidation, which could push up
half-century before the passage of the have stayed away in droves even when prices as large groups of hospitals and
Affordable Care Act. services were available, for fear of doctors gain more bargaining clout.
But the COVID-19 pandemic has done catching something worse than what But the changes are definitely happening
what no president or social movement they already have. at a pace few have ever seen. Said
or venture capitalist could have dreamed Many experts predict that care won’t just Wilensky, “When you’re forced to find
of: It forced sudden major changes to snap back when the current emergency different ways of doing things and
the nation’s healthcare system that are wanes. Dr. Mark Smith, former president you find out they are easier and more
unlikely to be reversed. of the California Healthcare Foundation, efficient, it’s going to be hard to go back
to the old way.”
“Healthcare is never going back to the said among consumers, a switch has
way it was before,” said Gail Wilensky, a been flipped. “Overnight it seems we’ve Source: Kaiser Family Foundation | Rapid Changes
health economist who ran the Medicare gone from high-touch to no-touch,” To Health System Spurred By COVID Might Be Here To
Stay | June 8, 2020
and Medicaid programs for President which is not great for hospitals that
George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s. have spent millions trying to attract
patients to their labor-and-delivery
Wilensky is far from the only longtime units, orthopedic centers and other parts
observer of the American healthcare of the facility that once generated lots of
system to marvel at the speed of some income.
long-sought changes. But experts warn

PEEL & HOLLAND | 2020 Western Kentucky Employee Benefits Benchmarking Survey Results 37