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A
Prescription for trouble for America’s Baby
Boomers?
Newswise — According to geriatrician and
internist David Chess M.D., a new study from
the Institute of Medicine, an arm of the
National Academy of Sciences, suggests an
unsettling prognosis for the future medical
care of aging American baby boomers.
The generation born after World War II will
face potential jeopardy if healthcare
changes are not made swiftly enough.
The problem: an aging population faced with
an imperfect healthcare system that does not
place enough emphasis on geriatric care.
Medicare is already in serious financial
trouble, and new rules to financially shore
up the program are likely to drive more and
more doctors from participation, especially
those in primary care.
According to Dr. Chess, that will only
exacerbate problems identified in the study,
which include too few specialists in
geriatric medicine, insufficient training,
underpaid primary care and geriatric
physicians, and a failure of Medicare to
support new strategies.
“We face an impending ‘perfect storm’ as the
growing number of older patients
increasingly out paces the number of health
care providers with the knowledge and skills
to care for them capably,” said Dr. Chess,
who also is CEO of HC Innovations a provider
of complex care management services for
medically unstable, complex patients.
“The report found there are only 7,100
doctors certified in geriatrics, that’s one
per every 2,500 older Americans. This is
hardly a prescription for personal quality
care. Increasingly, it looks more like a
prescription for trouble.”
Talking points for Dr. Chess include:
Back to the Primaries: Can primary care
physicians be one of the necessary factors
in averting a weakened Medicare system?
It is important to note that a broken health
care system for our aging population means
that people will have increased difficulty
finding qualified physicians and as a result
the impact of poor care will result in
avoidable suffering and further acceleration
of costs.
Instilling care for medically complex
patients at the clinic: According to Dr.
Chess, at present most medical practices are
not ill-equipped to treat the medically
complex.
Can the installation of specialized “care
managers” at your next doctor’s visit be an
answer to alleviating the pain?
It takes a village: Creating an
infrastructure that allows for community
involvement may improve the outcomes for
those medically unstable.
At the moment, this doesn’t exist. This can
not be achieved through a phone call or
mailing but requires an integrated approach
which involves the patients physicians and
caregivers.
There are solutions but they require a deep
understanding of care needs and resources to
stem the tide. Is it possible that one
solution could be to teach family members
and patients to learn and practice self
care?
Biography of Expert
DAVID CHESS, M.D.
Dr. David Chess is a geriatrician,
internist, and entrepreneur with twenty
years of experience working to improve the
quality and cost of our healthcare delivery
system. As the founder and CEO of ECI, Dr.
Chess has focused on creating the most
robust engines to drive health outcomes for
our most costly and impaired populations.
Dr. Chess also serves as President of
Project Patient Care (PPC), a non-profit
(501(c) patient advocacy organization he
founded in January 2000. PPCs goal is to
create a set of measures that help guide
improvements to our healthcare system.
Unbiased measures will be the engine and
catalyst for better healthcare
decision-making.
Dr. Chess has recently several publications
which address the needs of the aging
population and has co-authored a paper with
David Nash and his team at Department of
Health Policy, Jefferson Medical College
entitled Pharmacy Utilization and the
Medicare Modernization Act A Review of the
Literature, published in the Millbank
Quarterly in spring 2005. Papers are
available by request.
Dr. Chess received his medical degree from
Creighton University School of Medicine,
performed his internal medicine internship
and residency at Albert Einstein School of
Medicine, and was chief resident in internal
medicine at Bridgeport Hospital.
He is an Alpha Omega Alpha recipient, among
numerous other academic achievements. Dr.
Chess is an Associate Clinical Professor of
Medicine at Yale University School of
Medicine. And is a member of the Center for
Health Transformation (Newt Gingrich’s
health care think tank)
About HC Innovations, Inc.
HC Innovations is the holding company for
Enhanced Care Initiatives (ECI), which
provides specialty care management services
for medically unstable, complex patients.
These services are performed through a
program of 24/7 clinical support and
intensive interventions based on care plans
guided by a proprietary electronic health
record (EHR) system. HCI’s corporate
strategy is to care for the most costly and
needy patients in order to reduce clinical
morbidity, prevent unnecessary
hospitalizations, increase quality of life
and create cost savings.
The company targets its offering to HMOs,
other risk-bearing managed care
organizations, state Medicaid departments,
Medicare and as an on-site subcontractor for
disease management companies.
The company’s services are offered through
three programs: Easy Care™, NP Care™, and
Quality of Life Care™. All of its hands-on
operations have the ability to drive down
medical costs while improving the quality of
life, health and experience for
participating members.
This holistic approach focuses on the entire
patient, not just health conditions. ECI
programs provide complex interventions,
utilizing specialized training of nurses and
nurse practitioners along with proprietary
software and integration capabilities. For
more information, visit
http://www.hcinnovationsinc.com.
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