Considering the incredible profits being earned by many of the middlemen in the health care industry, wouldn't you think there would be a more efficient way to deliver health care that didn't require the services of the paper-pushers, leaving more money on the table for goods and services that actually benefit real patients? That was one of the lessons, I thought, from the story involving United Healthcare and its CEO, Dr. Bill McGuire, whose compensation was in the billions (when you include ill-gotten gains on back-dated stock options). (Saul Friedman at Newsday.com, for one, sees it my way.)The case for a system that doesn't depend on middlemen -- or that at least doesn't create billions in profits for the paper-pushers in the system -- is even more compelling when the middleman is working overtime on schemes to keep our costs and its profits high, despite actions by payors that are designed to cut costs without cutting quality or access to care. For example, in today's Wall Street Journal, there's a report [link good for a week] on Omnicare, a large operator of pharmacies and provider of pharmacy-related services for seniors. Seems they were switching patients to Zantac capsules just as Medicaid was slashing its reimbursement for Zantac tablets:
Last month, Omnicare reached a $49.5 million settlement with 42 states and the federal government over allegations about dosage switches for generic Zantac and two other drugs. Omnicare agreed in October to pay $52.5 million to the state of Michigan over separate accusations of Medicaid overbilling. Omnicare didn't admit wrongdoing as part of the settlements.
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