The majority of patients on Medicare have several medical issues to contend with.
For instance, according to this piece in the NY Times, “Two-thirds of people over age 65, and almost three-quarters of people over 80, have multiple chronic health conditions, and 68 percent of Medicare spending goes to people who have five or more chronic diseases.”
And, often times, these patients are seeing anywhere from five to ten different doctors and taking medicines numbering in the double digits.
Caring for these patients is a challenge, and the current medical system is not geared for the influx of baby boomers who are now entering Medicare age.
The pay for performance movement does not encourage doctors to see the whole patient, and in many cases, aiming to meet a single quality measure may interact with other conditions and worsen a patient’s overall health.
Many of the studies that form the basis of future comparative effectiveness research exclude patients with co-morbid conditions, making the findings of such studies non-applicable to this demographic.
Finally, the lack of geriatric and primary care doctors will force these patients to seek more care at the hands of multiple specialists, who only view patients within the narrow spectrum of their field.
To improve the situation, “a major investment in research, guidelines and quality measures that include the kinds of complicated cases doctors see every day,” is needed.
But, as we move forward with health reform, I don’t hear anyone clamoring for a move in this direction.
Related posts:
- Should patients be advised that better care is available elsewhere?
- Are more patients leaving the hospital against medical advice?
- Why controlling health care costs is so difficult
- Poll: Can house calls provide better medical care at lower costs?
- Health Care Reform: Putting Patients First, medical bloggers at Washington, DC
- Doctors dealing with difficult patients, is it the fault of young physicians?
- Should primary care doctors embrace retail clinics?
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“Two-thirds of people over age 65, and almost three-quarters of people over 80, have multiple chronic health conditions, and 68 percent of Medicare spending goes to people who have five or more chronic diseases.”
When the majority of baby boomers retires, how will Medicare survive? The generation after the boomers is too small to support the existing boomers. And the longer we are in a recession, the less money collected for Medicare.
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